Metea group seeks speedy court date

A last-minute filing by attorneys for Neighborhood Schools for Our Children is seeking to expedite the trial date for the group opposed to the construction of Metea Valley High School on any site other than the Brach-Brodie property.

Construction of the 3,000-seat high school would already be three weeks underway at the time of the requested May 30 trial.

The motion was filed late Friday afternoon in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton.

"I would think if the district was behaving responsibly it should want the expedited date, too," Shawn Collins, attorney for the NSFOC group, said Friday.

"What the district should not want is an order from the court nine, or 12 or 15 months from now that tells the district its been behaving illegally and wasting millions of dollars building a school it had no right to build," Collins said.

Indian Prairie School District 204 this week closed a deal to purchase 84 acres off Eola Road near Interstate 88 from St. John AME Church for $19 million. The district intends to break ground on May 7 and open the school in August 2009.

Michael Scotti, attorney for District 204 in the injunction suit, said the NSFOC motion is premature.

"It’s premature to set a trial date when it’s undetermined if there will be anything left for the court to try," he said.

Collins is requesting to go to trail the same day that a hearing has been set on the district’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The motion will be presented Wednesday to Judge Kenneth Popejoy.