Public Act 0148 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB1847 Enrolled LRB095 08702 NHT 31613 b

Public Act 095-0148

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Sections 10-22.22b, 10-23.5, and 11E-110 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/10-22.22b) (from Ch. 122, par. 10-22.22b)

Sec. 10-22.22b. (a) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to the deactivation of a high school facility under subsection (c). Where in its judgment the interests of the district and of the students therein will be best served, to deactivate any high school facility or elementary school facility in the district and send the students of such high school in grades 9 through 12 or such elementary school in grades kindergarten through 8, as applicable, to schools in other districts. Such action may be taken only with the approval of the voters in the district and the approval, by proper resolution, of the school board of the receiving district. The board of the district contemplating deactivation shall, by proper resolution, cause the proposition to deactivate the school facility to be submitted to the voters of the district at a regularly scheduled election. Notice shall be published at least 10 days prior to the date of the election at least once in one or more newspapers published in the district or, if no newspaper is published in the district, in one or more newspapers with a general circulation within the district. The notice shall be substantially in the following form:

NOTICE OF REFERENDUM TO

DEACTIVATE THE ... SCHOOL FACILITY

IN SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. ........

Notice is hereby given that on (insert date), a referendum will be held in ........ County (Counties) for the purpose of voting for or against the proposition to deactivate the ...... School facility in School District No. ...... and to send pupils in ...... School to School District(s) No. .......

The polls will be open at .... o'clock ... m., and close at .... o'clock ... m. of the same day.

A............ B...............

Dated (insert date).

Regional Superintendent of Schools

The proposition shall be in substantially the following form:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Shall the Board of Education of School District No. ...., YES ..... County, Illinois, be authorized to deactivate -------------------------

the .... School facility and to send pupils in ....... NO School to School District(s) No. .....?

-------------------------------------------------------------

If the majority of those voting upon the proposition in the district contemplating deactivation vote in favor of the proposition, the board of that district, upon approval of the board of the receiving district, shall execute a contract with the receiving district providing for the reassignment of students to the receiving district. If the deactivating district seeks to send its students to more than one district, it shall execute a contract with each receiving district. The length of the contract shall be for 2 school years, but the districts may renew the contract for additional one year or 2 year periods. Contract renewals shall be executed by January 1 of the year in which the existing contract expires. If the majority of those voting upon the proposition do not vote in favor of the proposition, the school facility may not be deactivated.

The sending district shall pay to the receiving district an amount agreed upon by the 2 districts.

When the deactivation of school facilities becomes effective pursuant to this Section, the provisions of Section 24-12 relative to the contractual continued service status of teachers having contractual continued service whose positions are transferred from one board to the control of a different board shall apply, and the positions at the school facilities being deactivated held by teachers, as that term is defined in Section 24-11, having contractual continued service with the school district at the time of the deactivation shall be transferred to the control of the board or boards who shall be receiving the district's students on the following basis:

(1) positions of such teachers in contractual continued service that were full time positions shall be transferred to the control of whichever of such boards such teachers shall request with the teachers making such requests proceeding in the order of those with the greatest length of continuing service with the board to those with the shortest length of continuing service with the board, provided that the number selecting one board over another board or other boards shall not exceed that proportion of the school students going to such board or boards; and

(2) positions of such teachers in contractual continued service that were full time positions and as to which there is no selection left under subparagraph 1 hereof shall be transferred to the appropriate board.

The contractual continued service status of any teacher thereby transferred to another district is not lost and the receiving board is subject to the School Code with respect to such transferred teacher in the same manner as if such teacher was the district's employee during the time such teacher was actually employed by the board of the deactivating district from which the position was transferred.

When the deactivation of school facilities becomes effective pursuant to this Section, the provisions of subsection (b) of Section 10-23.5 of this Code relative to the transfer of educational support personnel employees shall apply, and the positions at the school facilities being deactivated that are held by educational support personnel employees at the time of the deactivation shall be transferred to the control of the board or boards that will be receiving the district's students on the following basis:

(A) positions of such educational support personnel employees that were full-time positions shall be transferred to the control of whichever of the boards the employees request, with the educational support personnel employees making these requests proceeding in the order of those with the greatest length of continuing service with the board to those with the shortest length of continuing service with the board, provided that the number selecting one board over another board or other boards must not exceed that proportion of students going to such board or boards; and

(B) positions of such educational support personnel employees that were full-time positions and as to which there is no selection left under subdivision (A) shall be transferred to the appropriate board. The length of continuing service of any educational support personnel employee thereby transferred to another district is not lost and the receiving board is subject to this Code with respect to that transferred educational support personnel employee in the same manner as if the educational support personnel employee was the district's employee during the time the educational support personnel employee was actually employed by the board of the deactivating district from which the position was transferred.

(b) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to the reactivation of a high school facility which is deactivated under subsection (c). The sending district may, with the approval of the voters in the district, reactivate the school facility which was deactivated. The board of the district seeking to reactivate the school facility shall, by proper resolution, cause the proposition to reactivate to be submitted to the voters of the district at a regularly scheduled election. Notice shall be published at least 10 days prior to the date of the election at least once in one or more newspapers published in the district or, if no newspaper is published in the district, in one or more newspapers with a general circulation within the district. The notice shall be substantially in the following form:

NOTICE OF REFERENDUM TO

REACTIVATE THE ...... SCHOOL FACILITY

IN SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. ......

Notice is hereby given that on (insert date), a referendum will be held in ...... County (Counties) for the purpose of voting for or against the proposition to reactivate the ..... School facility in School District No. ..... and to discontinue sending pupils of School District No. ...... to School District(s) No. .....

The polls will be opened at ... o'clock .. m., and closed at ... o'clock .. m. of the same day.

A............. B............

Dated (insert date).

Regional Superintendent of Schools

The proposition shall be in substantially the following form:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Shall the Board of Education of School YES District No. ......, ...... County, Illinois, be authorized to -------------------

reactivate the .... School facility and to discontinue sending pupils of School District No. .... NO to School District(s) No. ......?

-------------------------------------------------------------

(c) The school board of any unit school district which experienced a strike by a majority of its certified employees that endured for over 6 months during the regular school term of the 1986-1987 school year, and which during the ensuing 1987-1988 school year had an enrollment in grades 9 through 12 of less than 125 students may, when in its judgment the interests of the district and of the students therein will be best served thereby, deactivate the high school facilities within the district for the regular term of the 1988-1989 school year and, for that school year only, send the students of such high school in grades 9 through 12 to schools in adjoining or adjacent districts. Such action may only be taken: (a) by proper resolution of the school board deactivating its high school facilities and the approval, by proper resolution, of the school board of the receiving district or districts, and (b) pursuant to a contract between the sending and each receiving district, which contract or contracts: (i) shall provide for the reassignment of all students of the deactivated high school in grades 9 through 12 to the receiving district or districts; (ii) shall apply only to the regular school term of the 1988-1989 school year; (iii) shall not be subject to renewal or extension; and (iv) shall require the sending district to pay to the receiving district the cost of educating each student who is reassigned to the receiving district, such costs to be an amount agreed upon by the sending and receiving district but not less than the per capita cost of maintaining the high school in the receiving district during the 1987-1988 school year. Any high school facility deactivated pursuant to this subsection for the regular school term of the 1988-1989 school year shall be reactivated by operation of law as of the end of the regular term of the 1988-1989 school year. The status as a unit school district of a district which deactivates its high school facilities pursuant to this subsection shall not be affected by reason of such deactivation of its high school facilities and such district shall continue to be deemed in law a school district maintaining grades kindergarten through 12 for all purposes relating to the levy, extension, collection and payment of the taxes of the district under Article 17 for the 1988-1989 school year.

(d) Whenever a school facility is reactivated pursuant to the provisions of this Section, then all teachers in contractual continued service who were honorably dismissed or transferred as part of the deactivation process, in addition to other rights they may have under the School Code, shall be recalled or transferred back to the original district.

(Source: P.A. 94-213, eff. 7-14-05.)

(105 ILCS 5/10-23.5) (from Ch. 122, par. 10-23.5)

Sec. 10-23.5. Educational support personnel employees.

(a) To employ such educational support personnel employees as it deems advisable and to define their employment duties; provided that residency within any school district shall not be considered in determining the employment or the compensation of any such employee, or whether to retain, promote, assign or transfer such employee. If an educational support personnel employee is removed or dismissed as a result of a decision of the school board (i) to decrease the number of educational support personnel employees employed by the board or (ii) to discontinue some particular type of educational support service, written notice shall be mailed to the employee and also given the employee either by certified mail, return receipt requested or personal delivery with receipt at least 30 days before the employee is removed or dismissed, together with a statement of honorable dismissal and the reason therefor. The employee with the shorter length of continuing service with the district, within the respective category of position, shall be dismissed first unless an alternative method of determining the sequence of dismissal is established in a collective bargaining agreement or contract between the board and any exclusive bargaining agent and except that this provision shall not impair the operation of any affirmative action program in the district, regardless of whether it exists by operation of law or is conducted on a voluntary basis by the board. If the board has any vacancies for the following school term or within one calendar year from the beginning of the following school term, the positions thereby becoming available within a specific category of position shall be tendered to the employees so removed or dismissed from that category of position, so far as they are qualified to hold such positions. Each board shall, in consultation with any exclusive employee representative or bargaining agent, each year establish a list, categorized by positions, showing the length of continuing service of each full time educational support personnel employee who is qualified to hold any such positions, unless an alternative method of determining a sequence of dismissal is established as provided for in this Section, in which case a list shall be made in accordance with the alternative method. Copies of the list shall be distributed to the exclusive employee representative or bargaining agent on or before February 1 of each year. Where an educational support personnel employee is dismissed by the board as a result of a decrease in the number of employees or the discontinuance of the employee's job, the employee shall be paid all earned compensation on or before the third business day following his or her last day of employment.

The provisions of this amendatory Act of 1986 relating to residency within any school district shall not apply to cities having a population exceeding 500,000 inhabitants.

(b) In the case of a new school district or districts formed in accordance with Article 11E of this Code, a school district or districts that annex all of the territory of one or more entire other school districts in accordance with Article 7 of this Code, or a school district receiving students from a deactivated school facility in accordance with Section 10-22.22b of this Code, the employment of educational support personnel in the new, annexing, or receiving school district immediately following the reorganization shall be governed by this subsection (b). Lists of the educational support personnel employed in the individual districts for the school year immediately prior to the effective date of the new district or districts, annexation, or deactivation shall be combined for the districts forming the new district or districts, for the annexed and annexing districts, or for the deactivating and receiving districts, as the case may be. The combined list shall be categorized by positions, showing the length of continuing service of each full-time educational support personnel employee who is qualified to hold any such position. If there are more full-time educational support personnel employees on the combined list than there are available positions in the new, annexing, or receiving school district, then the employing school board shall first remove or dismiss those educational support personnel employees with the shorter length of continuing service within the respective category of position, following the procedures outlined in subsection (a) of this Section. The employment and position of each educational support personnel employee on the combined list not so removed or dismissed shall be transferred to the new, annexing, or receiving school board, and the new, annexing, or receiving school board is subject to this Code with respect to any educational support personnel employee so transferred as if the educational support personnel employee had been the new, annexing, or receiving board's employee during the time the educational support personnel employee was actually employed by the school board of the district from which the employment and position were transferred.

The changes made by this amendatory Act of the 95th General Assembly shall not apply to the formation of a new district or districts in accordance with Article 11E of this Code, the annexation of one or more entire districts in accordance with Article 7 of this Code, or the deactivation of a school facility in accordance with Section 10-22.22b of this Code effective on or before July 1, 2007.

(Source: P.A. 89-618, eff. 8-9-96; 90-548, eff. 1-1-98.)

(105 ILCS 5/11E-110)

Sec. 11E-110. Teachers in contractual continued service; educational support personnel employees.

(a) When a school district conversion or multi-unit conversion becomes effective for purposes of administration and attendance, as determined pursuant to Section 11E-70 of this Code, the provisions of Section 24-12 of this Code relative to the contractual continued service status of teachers having contractual continued service whose positions are transferred from one school board to the control of a new or different school board shall apply, and the positions held by teachers, as that term is defined in Section 24-11 of this Code, having contractual continued service with the unit district at the time of its dissolution shall be transferred on the following basis:

(1) positions of teachers in contractual continued service that, during the 5 school years immediately preceding the effective date of the change, as determined under Section 11E-70 of this Code, were full-time positions in which all of the time required of the position was spent in one or more of grades 9 through 12 shall be transferred to the control of the school board of the new high school district or combined high school - unit district, as the case may be;

(2) positions of teachers in contractual continued service that, during the 5 school years immediately preceding the effective date of the change, as determined under Section 11E-70 of this Code, were full-time positions in which all of the time required of the position was spent in one or more of grades kindergarten through 8 shall be transferred to the control of the school board of the newly created successor elementary district; and

(3) positions of teachers in contractual continued service that were full-time positions not required to be transferred to the control of the school board of the new high school district or combined high school - unit district, as the case may be, or the school board of the newly created successor elementary district under the provisions of subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection (a) shall be transferred to the control of whichever of the boards the teacher shall request.

(4) With respect to each position to be transferred under the provisions of this subsection (a), the amount of time required of each position to be spent in one or more of grades kindergarten through 8 and 9 through 12 shall be determined with reference to the applicable records of the unit district being dissolved pursuant to stipulation of the school board of the unit district prior to the effective date of its dissolution or thereafter of the school board of the newly created districts and with the approval in either case of the regional superintendent of schools of the educational service region in which the territory described in the petition filed under this Article or the greater percentage of equalized assessed evaluation of the territory is situated; however, if no such stipulation can be agreed upon, the regional superintendent of schools, after hearing any additional relevant and material evidence that any school board desires to submit, shall make the determination.

(a-5) When a school district conversion or multi-unit conversion becomes effective for purposes of administration and attendance, as determined pursuant to Section 11E-70 of this Code, the provisions of subsection (b) of Section 10-23.5 of this Code relative to the transfer of educational support personnel employees shall apply, and the positions held by educational support personnel employees shall be transferred on the following basis:

(1) positions of educational support personnel employees that, during the 5 school years immediately preceding the effective date of the change, as determined under Section 11E-70 of this Code, were full-time positions in which all of the time required of the position was spent in one or more of grades 9 through 12 shall be transferred to the control of the school board of the new high school district or combined high school - unit district, as the case may be;

(2) positions of educational support personnel employees that, during the 5 school years immediately preceding the effective date of the change, as determined under Section 11E-70 of this Code, were full-time positions in which all of the time required of the position was spent in one or more of grades kindergarten through 8 shall be transferred to the control of the school board of the newly created successor elementary district; and

(3) positions of educational support personnel employees that were full-time positions not required to be transferred to the control of the school board of the new high school district or combined high school - unit district, as the case may be, or the school board of the newly created successor elementary district under subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection (a-5) shall be transferred to the control of whichever of the boards the educational support personnel employee requests.

With respect to each position to be transferred under this subsection (a-5), the amount of time required of each position to be spent in one or more of grades kindergarten through 8 and 9 through 12 shall be determined with reference to the applicable records of the unit district being dissolved pursuant to stipulation of the school board of the unit district prior to the effective date of its dissolution or thereafter of the school board of the newly created districts and with the approval in either case of the regional superintendent of schools of the educational service region in which the territory described in the petition filed under this Article or the greater percentage of equalized assessed evaluation of the territory is situated; however, if no such stipulation can be agreed upon, the regional superintendent of schools, after hearing any additional relevant and material evidence that any school board desires to submit, shall make the determination.

(b) When the creation of a unit district or a combined school district becomes effective for purposes of administration and attendance, as determined pursuant to Section 11E-70 of this Code, the positions of teachers in contractual continued service in the districts involved in the creation of the new district are transferred to the newly created district pursuant to the provisions of Section 24-12 of this Code relative to teachers having contractual continued service status whose positions are transferred from one board to the control of a different board, and those provisions of Section 24-12 shall apply to these transferred teachers. The contractual continued service status of any teacher thereby transferred to the newly created district is not lost and the new school board is subject to this Code with respect to the transferred teacher in the same manner as if the teacher was that district's employee and had been its employee during the time the teacher was actually employed by the school board of the district from which the position was transferred.

(c) When the creation of a unit district or a combined school district becomes effective for purposes of administration and attendance, as determined pursuant to Section 11E-70 of this Code, the positions of educational support personnel employees in the districts involved in the creation of the new district shall be transferred to the newly created district pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 10-23.5 of this Code. The length of continuing service of any educational support personnel employee thereby transferred to the newly created district is not lost and the new school board is subject to this Code with respect to the transferred educational support personnel employee in the same manner as if the educational support personnel employee had been that district's employee during the time the educational support personnel employee was actually employed by the school board of the district from which the position was transferred.

(Source: P.A. 94-1019, eff. 7-10-06; revised 8-23-06.)

Section 90. The State Mandates Act is amended by adding Section 8.31 as follows:

(30 ILCS 805/8.31 new)

Sec. 8.31. Exempt mandate. Notwithstanding Sections 6 and 8 of this Act, no reimbursement by the State is required for the implementation of any mandate created by this amendatory Act of the 95th General Assembly.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.

Effective Date: 8/14/2007