CALEDONIA - Citizens will have to lead the initial charge for the village to secede from the Racine Unified School District.

Officials of the Village Board and the Community Development Authority met Monday at the East Side Community Center, 6156 Douglas Ave., to discuss what role they could play in the secession process. Other than the board and CDA members, five people attended the meeting.

"I want to make sure that what we're doing, we do it right," said Village President Ron Coutts. "I don't want to step over the legal boundaries."

Chris Geary, an attorney with the law firm Hostak, Henzl and Bichler, responded to questions about how legal it would be for the board to get involved in the secession process. Geary said it was an open question whether the village could legally spend money in support of either side of the issue, particularly because a referendum would need to be held before the village could secede.

"Where the issue is somewhat gray here is the issue of spending money advocating either for or against Caledonia splitting off," Geary said. "It's not clear-cut either way."

Geary said board members could express support for the actions of the steering committee of citizens working to create a new Caledonia school district, which is being put together by former RUSD board member Brian Dey.

Trustee Wendy McCalvy said she didn't think the Village Board should be involved with the school board.

"It isn't proper for a political body to try to influence the schools," McCalvy said. "I do think it's supposed to be decided by citizens."

The board and CDA members decided they would let the steering committee take control of the process, and have the committee report back to them about their progress.

In particular, the steering committee would need to get the ball rolling with the Racine Unified School Board, Trustee Lee Wishau said.

"We don't want to go to the Unified School Board with some in-your-face attitude," Wishau said. "We need to show how it's positive for them and how it's positive for us."