MOUNT VERNON – Madison County regional board of school trustees improperly shifted a student from Roxana to Edwardsville, Fifth District appellate judges ruled on Sept. 20.
Justices John Barberis, Thomas Welch, and Milton Wharton found the trustees considered evidence they should have excluded.
The Justices remanded the dispute to Madison County Circuit Judge Christopher Threlkeld, who affirmed the board’s decision last year.
They assigned the error to the trustees, not the judge.
Parents Sharon and Jay Hesse live in Edwardsville, on Hesse Lane, but the home sits in Roxana school district.
For years they sent son Holden, now age 11, to St. Boniface school in Edwardsville.
They petitioned the trustees for annexation to Edwardsville in April 2019, so they could send Holden to Woodland elementary school.
Both districts objected, and the trustees brought it to a hearing in June 2019.
Before they took testimony, they asked if anyone objected to admitting report cards on both districts.
Edwardsville’s card showed a 92 percent graduation rate, 51 percent proficiency in English, and 43 percent proficiency in math.
Roxana’s card showed an 87 percent graduation rate, 24 percent proficiency in English, and 17 percent proficiency in math.
The cards also showed student characteristics, test scores, college readiness, district finance, attendance, and mobility.
The cards showed minorities constituted 21 percent of Edwardsville’s student population and 11 percent in Roxana.
Roxana counsel Robert Jackstadt of Edwardsville objected.
He said they couldn’t use report cards if the difference in minorities and low income was more than three percent.
The trustees admitted the cards for the limited purpose of showing the difference in low income was more than three percent.
Testimony began and Jay Hesse testified that Holden developed a social circle in Edwardsville through sports and martial arts.
He said he and Sharon supervised Holden’s cub scout den.
He said they didn’t have many friends in Roxana because they didn’t spend much time there.
Sharon testified that Edwardsville was good at pretty much everything.
Former Edwardsville superintendent Lynda Andre testified that growing at the expense of another district was something she wouldn’t do.
Roxana assistant superintendent Steve Oertle testified that his children attended Edwardsville schools and he was familiar with both districts.
He expressed disappointment with classroom technology in Edwardsville and said Roxana offered digital curriculum with laptops to accompany textbooks.
Counsel for the trustees, William Schooley of Collinsville, brought up the report cards again and quoted statute.
He said they could use them, “only if there is no more than a three percent difference in minority, low income, and English learner student population.”
He asked if that meant all three had to be present, or only one.
“There is a rule of statutory construction that says that if they use the word ‘and,’ it’s conjunctive,” said Schooley, according to the Fifth District ruling.
“It’s got to be all three.”
He said if it was one, they would have used “or.’”
“When we go into executive session, I’ll leave it up to you folks whether you want to consider the report cards,” he said.
“If the majority says we want to consider them, we’ll interpret it then.”
The trustees granted the petition five days later, with four in favor, two against, and one abstaining.
The majority found the overall benefits to the Edwardsville district and the Hesse property clearly outweighed the detriment to the Roxana district.
They found a significant direct benefit for Holden.
Roxana sued the trustees in August 2019, and Threlkeld held a hearing last year.
He stated that in executive session the trustees decided to take up the report cards, “and not just for the limited purpose in which it was initially admitted.”
He entered an order finding they took up the cards properly because the “and” required all three elements to be met.
Fifth District judges focused on “only if,” instead of “and.”
Barberis wrote that he couldn’t abandon the legislature’s use of “only if,” simply because legislators used a conjunctive later in the sentence.
“To do so would render the words ‘only if’ inoperative, superfluous, or insignificant, which a court must refrain from doing when reading a statute,” Barberis wrote.
“Consequently, the statute excludes the board from considering the school report cards.”
Attorney Katherine Smith of Alton represented Sharon and Jay Hesse.