Last week the Illinois House voted unanimously to override Gov. Quinn’s amendatory veto of the school facilities bill.

An override is not yet scheduled in the Senate — though supporters point out that the unanimous override vote in the House followed unanimous votes for the bill in the House and Senate, and in House and Senate committees earlier this year.  “In the entire legislative process, there’s been only one vote against HB 363 — Gov. Quinn’s veto,” said Don Moore of Designs for Change.

While a school closing moratorium was stripped before it was passed, the bill retains its central goal, a legislative mandate to establish a school facilities policy for CPS.

Such a policy is a long-standing demand of supporters of neighborhood schools who have fought closings, consolidations and turnarounds school by school and year by year, while capital resources are concentrated on Renaissance 2010 schools.  (Indeed, this disparity can be seen in single school buildings which are shared by a neighborhood and “new” schools.)

Many legislators were swayed by the fact that CPS is one of only two school districts in the state that is currently exempt from state standards on school buildings, Moore said.

He said supporters had obtained legal opinions regarding the bill’s October 31 deadline for a commission report; in similar cases, where no penalty for missing a deadline is involved, commissions typically will simply continue until their work is completed.

And while CPS will likely enter next year without new legal constaints on its school closing practices, it’s quite possible there will be  an independent body providing extra oversight during the next school closing season.