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Reports: Geneva Spent $34K for Charter School Legal Fees

Tri-Cities spend more than $66,000—and that does not include in-house legal services.

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Rick Nagel, Community Contributor
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Geneva School District 304 spent $34,560 in legal fees dealing with the application proposal for the Illinois Virtual Charter School at Fox River Valley, the Daily Herald reports.

According to an article by Tara Garcia Mathewson, 18 school districts spent a total of more than $320,000 in legal fees. That spending doesn't included the cost of staff time, copying or other ancillary costs associated with the proposal, nor did it include the costs of in-house legal counsel.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, the Daily Herald collected invoices for outside services, which included researching the charter school issue, taking part in phone conferences with administrators, writing and editing resolutions denying the application and "drafting resposes to the applicant's appeal," the Daily Herald said.

Illinois Virtual Charter School @ Fox River Valley had approached the 18 public school districts in late February and early March with a plan to open an online charter school in the area. Aurora state Rep. Linda Chapa-Lavia later proposed a one-year moratorium on the charter, and Virtual Charter Schools dropped an appeal to the moratorium legislation last week.

Geneva spent more than any other school district for its legal fees, and the Tri-Cities spent a total of $66,474, the DH reports.

That includes $21,770 spent by Batavia School District 101 and $10,144 spent by St. Charles School District 303.

Other districts included in the proposal were School District U-46, Indian Prairie School District 204, Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202, Community Unit School District 300, Valley View Community Unit School District 365U, Naperville Community Unit School District 203, Oswego Community Unit School District 308, East Aurora School District 131, Community Unit School District 200, West Aurora School District 129, DeKalb Community Unit School District 428, Yorkville Community Unit School District 115, Kaneland Community Unit School District 302, Sycamore Community Unit School District 427 and Central Community Unit School District 301.

Plainfield District 202 spent the second-highest amount on legal fees: $29,488. East Aurora District 131 spent $4,469, and Elgin District U-46 did not submit a total. 

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