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Schools

D135 Goes to Court for Back Tuition from Residency Cheat

A father from Blue Island was found guilty last year of doctoring a lease to send his daughter to Orland Junior High. The school wants $25,000 from him.

Orland School District 135 is taking a Blue Island father to civil court this month to recover nearly $25,000 the school is claiming in back tuition.

A Cook County judge ruled on Dec. 21, 2010, that Paul D. Gutierrez presented a false lease on an Orland Park home to send his daughter to Orland Junior High for the 2009-10 school year. Gutierrez was charged with violation of school code, a misdemeanor, sentenced to six months probation and was fined $585.

To recoup the cost between an out-of-district student and Orland resident, the district is seeking $24,208.03 in damages in civil court, according to court documents.

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Last year the district was able to prove that Gutierrez improperly sent his daughter to OJH for the 2009-10 school year, but school records show she also attended OJH for the 2008-9 school year, District 135 Asst. Superintendent for Business Services John Reiniche said earlier this year.

Both parties are scheduled at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago on Aug. 22.

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If Gutierrez fails to appear in court, the district is planning to ask a judge for default judgment in their favor. Otherwise he and his attorney will be given time to answer the district’s complaint and exchange evidence.

Jeff Aprati, who represented Gutierrez in the criminal court case, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. In March, however, he questioned the need to take more money from Gutierrez if his daughter’s presence didn’t cause a funding shortfall for the OJH.

“Did the school have to make any cuts because of this?” Aprati said. “How’s the addition of one person damaging the school or costing them more money? They have to prove that money was lost. And since he paid taxes in Blue Island, where should that money go? It’s not like he didn’t pay taxes at all.”

Reiniche, who also could not be reached for comment on Thursday, has noted that the district gave Gutierrez several opportunities to come clean before they took him to criminal court.

At a school district board meeting last September, then-board of education member John Brudnak suggested using Gutierrez as an example for other would-be residency cheats.

"When we go after people, we go after them hard," Brudnak said. "If we don't, it's got no teeth—and then it's going to be useless."

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