HB0738ham003 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Michael K. Smith

Filed: 3/27/2009

09600HB0738ham003 LRB096 07618 NHT 24722 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 738

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 738, AS AMENDED, by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Sections 10-23.5 and 24-12 as follows:

(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 or the hours he or she works are reduced 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 to 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 or the hours he or she works are reduced, together with a statement of honorable dismissal or reduction in hours and the reason therefor if applicable. However, if a reduction in hours is due to an unforeseen reduction in the student population, then the written notice must be mailed and given to the employee at least 5 days before the hours are reduced. The employee with the shorter length of continuing service with the district, within the respective category of position, shall be dismissed or have his or her hours of work reduced first unless an alternative method of determining the sequence of dismissal or reduction in hours 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 that arise after the date of written notice of honorable dismissal or reduction in hours for the following school term or within one calendar year from the beginning of the following school term following the written notice, the first position positions thereby becoming available within a specific category of position shall be tendered to the employees so removed or dismissed or whose hours have been reduced from that category or any other 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 or reduction in hours 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. The changes to this subsection (a) made by this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly are declaratory of existing law.

(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 Public Act 95-148 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. 95-148, eff. 8-14-07; 95-396, eff. 8-23-07; 95-876, eff. 8-21-08.)

(105 ILCS 5/24-12) (from Ch. 122, par. 24-12)

Sec. 24-12. Removal or dismissal of teachers in contractual continued service. If a teacher in contractual continued service is removed or dismissed as a result of a decision of the board to decrease the number of teachers employed by the board or to discontinue some particular type of teaching service, written notice shall be mailed to the teacher and also given the teacher either by certified mail, return receipt requested or personal delivery with receipt at least 60 days before the end of the school term, together with a statement of honorable dismissal and the reason therefor, and in all such cases the board shall first remove or dismiss all teachers who have not entered upon contractual continued service before removing or dismissing any teacher who has entered upon contractual continued service and who is legally qualified to hold a position currently held by a teacher who has not entered upon contractual continued service. As between teachers who have entered upon contractual continued service, the teacher or teachers with the shorter length of continuing service with the district 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 a professional faculty members' organization 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. Any teacher dismissed as a result of such decrease or discontinuance shall be paid all earned compensation on or before the third business day following the last day of pupil attendance in the regular school term. If the board has any vacancies that arise after the date of written notice of honorable dismissal for the following school term or within one calendar year from the beginning of the following school term following the written notice, the first position positions thereby becoming available shall be tendered to the teachers so removed or dismissed so far as they are legally qualified to hold such positions; provided, however, that if the number of honorable dismissal notices based on economic necessity exceeds 15% of the number of full time equivalent positions filled by certified employees (excluding principals and administrative personnel) during the preceding school year, then if the board has any vacancies for the following school term or within 2 calendar years from the beginning of the following school term, the positions so becoming available shall be tendered to the teachers who were so notified and removed or dismissed whenever they are legally qualified to hold such positions. Each board shall, in consultation with any exclusive employee representatives, each year establish a list, categorized by positions, showing the length of continuing service of each teacher 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 on or before February 1 of each year. Whenever the number of honorable dismissal notices based upon economic necessity exceeds 5, or 150% of the average number of teachers honorably dismissed in the preceding 3 years, whichever is more, then the board also shall hold a public hearing on the question of the dismissals. Following the hearing and board review the action to approve any such reduction shall require a majority vote of the board members.

If a dismissal or removal is sought for any other reason or cause, including those under Section 10-22.4, the board must first approve a motion containing specific charges by a majority vote of all its members. Written notice of such charges shall be served upon the teacher within 5 days of the adoption of the motion. Such notice shall contain a bill of particulars. No hearing upon the charges is required unless the teacher within 10 days after receiving notice requests in writing of the board that a hearing be scheduled, in which case the board shall schedule a hearing on those charges before a disinterested hearing officer on a date no less than 15 nor more than 30 days after the enactment of the motion. The secretary of the school board shall forward a copy of the notice to the State Board of Education. Within 5 days after receiving this notice of hearing, the State Board of Education shall provide a list of 5 prospective, impartial hearing officers. Each person on the list must be accredited by a national arbitration organization and have had a minimum of 5 years of experience directly related to labor and employment relations matters between educational employers and educational employees or their exclusive bargaining representatives. No one on the list may be a resident of the school district. The Board and the teacher or their legal representatives within 3 days shall alternately strike one name from the list until only one name remains. Unless waived by the teacher, the teacher shall have the right to proceed first with the striking. Within 3 days of receipt of the first list provided by the State Board of Education, the board and the teacher or their legal representatives shall each have the right to reject all prospective hearing officers named on the first list and to require the State Board of Education to provide a second list of 5 prospective, impartial hearing officers, none of whom were named on the first list. Within 5 days after receiving this request for a second list, the State Board of Education shall provide the second list of 5 prospective, impartial hearing officers. The procedure for selecting a hearing officer from the second list shall be the same as the procedure for the first list. In the alternative to selecting a hearing officer from the first or second list received from the State Board of Education, the board and the teacher or their legal representatives may mutually agree to select an impartial hearing officer who is not on a list received from the State Board of Education either by direct appointment by the parties or by using procedures for the appointment of an arbitrator established by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service or the American Arbitration Association. The parties shall notify the State Board of Education of their intent to select a hearing officer using an alternative procedure within 3 days of receipt of a list of prospective hearing officers provided by the State Board of Education. Any person selected by the parties under this alternative procedure for the selection of a hearing officer shall not be a resident of the school district and shall have the same qualifications and authority as a hearing officer selected from a list provided by the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education shall promulgate uniform standards and rules of procedure for such hearings. As to prehearing discovery, such rules and regulations shall, at a minimum, allow for: (1) discovery of names and addresses of persons who may be called as expert witnesses at the hearing, the omission of any such name to result in a preclusion of the testimony of such witness in the absence of a showing of good cause and the express permission of the hearing officer; (2) bills of particulars; (3) written interrogatories; and (4) production of relevant documents. The per diem allowance for the hearing officer shall be determined and paid by the State Board of Education. The hearing officer shall hold a hearing and render a final decision. The teacher has the privilege of being present at the hearing with counsel and of cross-examining witnesses and may offer evidence and witnesses and present defenses to the charges. The hearing officer may issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum requiring the attendance of witnesses and, at the request of the teacher against whom a charge is made or the board, shall issue such subpoenas, but the hearing officer may limit the number of witnesses to be subpoenaed in behalf of the teacher or the board to not more than 10. All testimony at the hearing shall be taken under oath administered by the hearing officer. The hearing officer shall cause a record of the proceedings to be kept and shall employ a competent reporter to take stenographic or stenotype notes of all the testimony. The costs of the reporter's attendance and services at the hearing shall be paid by the State Board of Education. Either party desiring a transcript of the hearing shall pay for the cost thereof. If in the opinion of the board the interests of the school require it, the board may suspend the teacher pending the hearing, but if acquitted the teacher shall not suffer the loss of any salary by reason of the suspension.

Before setting a hearing on charges stemming from causes that are considered remediable, a board must give the teacher reasonable warning in writing, stating specifically the causes which, if not removed, may result in charges; however, no such written warning shall be required if the causes have been the subject of a remediation plan pursuant to Article 24A. The hearing officer shall consider and give weight to all of the teacher's evaluations written pursuant to Article 24A. The hearing officer shall, within 30 days from the conclusion of the hearing or closure of the record, whichever is later, make a decision as to whether or not the teacher shall be dismissed and shall give a copy of the decision to both the teacher and the school board. If the hearing officer fails to render a decision within 30 days, the State Board of Education shall communicate with the hearing officer to determine the date that the parties can reasonably expect to receive the decision. The State Board of Education shall provide copies of all such communications to the parties. In the event the hearing officer fails without good cause to make a decision within the 30 day period, the name of such hearing officer shall be struck for a period of not more than 24 months from the master list of hearing officers maintained by the State Board of Education. If a hearing officer fails without good cause to render a decision within 3 months after the hearing is concluded or the record is closed, whichever is later, the State Board of Education shall provide the parties with a new list of prospective, impartial hearing officers, with the same qualifications provided herein, one of whom shall be selected, as provided in this Section, to review the record and render a decision. The parties may mutually agree to select a hearing officer pursuant to the alternative procedure, as provided in this Section, to rehear the charges heard by the hearing officer who failed to render a decision. If the hearing officer fails without good cause to render a decision within 3 months after the hearing is concluded or the record is closed, whichever is later, the hearing officer shall be removed from the master list of hearing officers maintained by the State Board of Education. The board shall not lose jurisdiction to discharge a teacher if the hearing officer fails to render a decision within the time specified in this Section. The decision of the hearing officer is final unless reviewed as provided in Section 24-16 of this Act. In the event such review is instituted, any costs of preparing and filing the record of proceedings shall be paid by the board.

If a decision of the hearing officer is adjudicated upon review or appeal in favor of the teacher, then the trial court shall order reinstatement and shall determine the amount for which the board is liable including but not limited to loss of income and costs incurred therein.

Any teacher who is reinstated by any hearing or adjudication brought under this Section shall be assigned by the board to a position substantially similar to the one which that teacher held prior to that teacher's suspension or dismissal.

If, by reason of any change in the boundaries of school districts, or by reason of the creation of a new school district, the position held by any teacher having a contractual continued service status is transferred from one board to the control of a new or different board, the contractual continued service status of such teacher is not thereby lost, and such new or different board is subject to this Act with respect to such teacher in the same manner as if such teacher were its employee and had been its employee during the time such teacher was actually employed by the board from whose control the position was transferred.

The changes to this Section made by this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly are declaratory of existing law.

(Source: P.A. 89-618, eff. 8-9-96; 90-224, eff. 7-25-97.)

Section 10. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act is amended by adding Section 65.23 as follows:

(110 ILCS 947/65.23 new)

Sec. 65.23. STEM Teachers Loan Repayment Program.

(a) In order to encourage academically talented Illinois students to enter and continue teaching in Illinois schools in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the Commission shall, each year, receive and consider applications for loan repayment assistance under this Section. This program shall be known as the STEM Teachers Loan Repayment Program. The Commission shall administer the program and shall make all necessary and proper rules not inconsistent with this Section for the program's effective implementation. The Commission may use up to 5% of the appropriation for this program for administration and promotion of the program.

(b) Subject to a separate appropriation made for such purposes, each year the Commission shall award a grant to each qualified applicant in an amount equal to $5,000 or the amount of higher education loans he or she must repay that year, whichever is less, for up to 4 years per grant recipient. The Commission shall encourage the recipient of a grant under this Section to use the grant amount awarded to pay off his or her higher education loans.

(c) A person is a qualified applicant under this Section if he or she meets all of the following qualifications:

(1) The person is a United States citizen or eligible noncitizen.

(2) The person is a resident of this State.

(3) The person has higher education loans to repay.

(4) The person agrees to teach in a public secondary school in this State in the field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics for a period of at least 5 years beginning with the first year of acceptance of a grant. If the person is unable to fulfill this teaching requirement, he or she may receive a deferment from the obligation of repayment under subsection (e) of this Section under guidelines established by the Commission.

(d) All applications for grant assistance under this Section shall be made to the Commission. The form of application and the information required to be set forth in the application shall be determined by the Commission, and the Commission shall require applicants to submit with their applications such supporting documents as the Commission deems necessary.

(e) A grant recipient who fails to fulfill the teaching requirement under item (4) of subsection (c) of this Section shall repay to the Commission the total amount in grants received under this Section, together with interest at 5% per year on that amount. However, this obligation to repay the grant amount plus interest does not apply if the failure to fulfill the teaching requirement results from the death or adjudication as a person under legal disability of the person holding the grant, and no claim for repayment may be filed against the estate of such a decedent or person under legal disability. Payments received by the Commission under this subsection (e) shall be remitted to the State Treasurer for deposit into the General Revenue Fund. Each person receiving a grant under this Section must be provided with a description of the provisions of this subsection (e) at the time he or she is awarded the grant.

(f) The Commission, in consultation with the State Board of Education, shall give preference to those grant applicants under this Section who teach or shall agree to teach in areas of this State in which a significant shortage of teachers in the applicable disciplines of instruction exists.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1, 2009.".