SD 227 gives up fight against charter school

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:22AM

After 18 months and at least $140,000 in attorney fees, Rich Township High School District 227 has thrown in the towel. The district decided Tuesday to accept the decision of the Illinois Appellate Court, allowing Southland College Prep Charter High School to remain open.

“The board has met in closed session,” board president Betty Owens said. “We have received information from our attorney, and it is the consensus of the board that we will not appeal the appellate court’s decision.”

The Illinois State Board of Education approved the charter for the school in Richton Park in May 2010, after hearing arguments from District 227 that the new school would drain too much money from the district and eventually bankrupt it.

The district — which includes Rich Central in Olympia Fields, Rich East in Park Forest and Rich South in Richton Park — will lose about $8 million a year when the charter school runs at full capacity — 500 students — in 2013-14, according to District 227 Assistant Supt. Ilandus Hampton.

The district filed a lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Education and the charter school in June 2010. A Cook County judge ruled against the district in December 2010. The district then took the case to the appellate court, which ruled against the district last month.

“We are left with no doubt that the establishment of the charter high school is in the best interest of the students it was designed to serve and, eventually, its establishment may well serve the best interests of all District 227 students to the extent that the academic success of the charter school raises the educational bar for the other three schools,” Judge Rudolfo Garcia wrote in that decision.