For 69 years, Oakton Elementary School has been the meeting site for Evanston Boy Scouts Troop 16.

But if some District 65 school board members get their way, the Boy Scouts could be looking for a new home.

In the coming weeks, the school board’s public policy committee will decide if the Evanston Boy Scouts should still be allowed to meet in district schools following a June Supreme Court ruling that said the scouts had the constitutional right to exclude gay men as members.

The date of the committee meeting has not been set.

At the Sept. 5 district meeting, board member Lisa Kupferberg expressed concern about whether the Boy Scouts sets an example of intolerance and whether the Scouts conflicts with the district’s policy that says no one should face discrimination.

“Our policy is clearly not in agreement with the Supreme Court ruling,” she said. “We have diversity in all areas.”

But school board member Rosie Rees said the Boy Scouts does a great service to the Evanston community.

“They should not be banned,” Rees said. “They have not discriminated against anyone in our community.”

Rees pointed out that relocating the Boy Scouts could mean their parents would have to pay rental costs for a different meeting facility.

“We have a mixed community who cannot afford to pay for costs if they had to go elsewhere,” Rees said.

At the same meeting, board member John Chatz said the board should approach the issue with “circumspection” because it might bring about the need to examine all groups that use school facilities.

Steven Appelbaum, scoutmaster for Troop 16, was on vacation and unavailable. But Boy Scouts of America has stated it believes in diversity.

Its Web site reads: “We hope that our supporters will continue to value the Boy Scouts of America’s respect for diversity and the positive impact Scouting has on young people’s lives.”

And in a June 28 press release, the Boy Scouts expressed its right to exclude members as a private organization.

“We believe an avowed homosexual is not a role model for the values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law,” the statement reads.

Troop 16 of Evanston, sponsored by Kiwanis, Ridgeville Park District and the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, is one of 353 troops in northern Cook and Lake counties. It is part of the Northeast Illinois Council of Boy Scouts, which serves 18,000 scouts.

Matt Ackerman, council executive of the Northeast Illinois Council of Boy Scouts, said the council believes Troop 16 should “have access the way any other group would have access” to public school meeting facilities.

Some Northwestern students said they aren’t surprised the Boy Scouts policy of excluding gay men has led to conflicts with institutions that value non-discrimination policies.

“I think they brought this on themselves,” said Alexi Smith, community outreach coordinator for the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

Meanwhile, the Girl Scouts reaffirmed its policy that anyone is welcome.

“The Girl Scout organization does not discriminate but does not endorse any lifestyle,” said Ellen Christie Ach, manager of media relations for Girl Scouts of the USA.

“We don’t permit advocacy or promotion of a personal lifestyle or sexual orientation,” Ach said. “These are private matters for girls and their families to address.”