093_HB3058

 
                                     LRB093 05229 NHT 05291 b

 1        AN ACT relating to schools.

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

 4        Section 5.   The  School  Code  is  amended  by  changing
 5    Section 7-2a as follows:

 6        (105 ILCS 5/7-2a) (from Ch. 122, par. 7-2a)
 7        Sec.  7-2a.  (a)  Except as provided in subsection (b) of
 8    this Section, (i) any petition for  dissolution  filed  under
 9    this Article must specify the school district or districts to
10    which  all  of  the  territory of the district proposed to be
11    dissolved  will  be  annexed  and  (ii).  any  petition   for
12    dissolution  may  be  made  by  the board of education of the
13    district or at least two-thirds a majority of the  registered
14    legal   voters  residing  in  the  district  proposed  to  be
15    dissolved.  No petition from any other district  affected  by
16    the  proposed  dissolution  shall  be  required.   A petition
17    approved by the regional board of school  trustees  that  was
18    initiated  by  the registered voters residing in the district
19    proposed to be dissolved is not effective until the  question
20    of  dissolution  and  annexation  has  been  submitted to the
21    electors in  each  affected  school  district  at  a  regular
22    election  and has been approved by a majority of the electors
23    in each affected school district voting on the question.  The
24    regional  board  of school trustees must certify the question
25    to the proper  election  authority,  which  must  submit  the
26    question at an election in accordance with the Election Code.
27        (b)  Any  school  district with a population of less than
28    5,000 residents shall be dissolved and its territory  annexed
29    as  provided  in Section 7-11 by the regional board of school
30    trustees upon the filing with the regional  board  of  school
31    trustees  a  request  to  dissolve  of  a petition adopted by
 
                            -2-      LRB093 05229 NHT 05291 b
 1    resolution of the board of education or a petition signed  by
 2    a  majority  of the registered voters of the district seeking
 3    such dissolution. If a petition is initiated by two-thirds of
 4    the registered voters in a school district with a  population
 5    of  less than 5,000 residents and the petition seeks to annex
 6    the district in its entirety to another school district, then
 7    the petition, if approved by the  regional  board  of  school
 8    trustees,  is not effective until the question of dissolution
 9    and annexation has been submitted to  the  electors  in  each
10    affected  school  district at a regular election and has been
11    approved by a majority  of  the  electors  in  each  affected
12    school district voting on the question. The regional board of
13    school  trustees  must  certify  the  question  to the proper
14    election authority, which must  submit  the  question  at  an
15    election in accordance with the Election Code.  No resolution
16    shall  be adopted by the board of education or petition shall
17    be adopted or signed under  this  subsection  (b)  until  the
18    board  of  education  or the petitioners, as the case may be,
19    shall have given at least 10 days'  notice  to  be  published
20    once  in  a  newspaper  having  general  circulation  in  the
21    district  and  shall  have  conducted  a public informational
22    meeting to inform  the  residents  of  the  district  of  the
23    proposed  dissolution  and to answer questions concerning the
24    proposed dissolution.  The resolution or  petition  shall  be
25    filed with and decided solely by the regional board of school
26    trustees  of  the region in which the regional superintendent
27    of schools has  supervision  of  the  school  district  being
28    dissolved.   The  regional board of school trustees shall not
29    act on a resolution petition filed by a board of education if
30    within 45 days after giving notice of  the  hearing  required
31    under Section 7-11 a petition in opposition to the resolution
32    petition  of  the  board to dissolve, signed by a majority of
33    the registered voters of the  district,  is  filed  with  the
34    regional  board  of  school  trustees.  The regional board of
 
                            -3-      LRB093 05229 NHT 05291 b
 1    school trustees shall have no authority to  deny  dissolution
 2    requested  in  a  proper  resolution petition for dissolution
 3    filed by a board of education under this subsection (b),  but
 4    shall exercise its discretion in accordance with Section 7-11
 5    on  the  issue  of annexing the territory of a district being
 6    dissolved, giving consideration to but not being bound by the
 7    wishes expressed by  the  residents  of  the  various  school
 8    districts that may be affected by such annexation.
 9        When  dissolution  and  annexation  become  effective for
10    purposes  of  administration  and  attendance  as  determined
11    pursuant to  Section  7-11,  the  positions  of  teachers  in
12    contractual continued service in the district being dissolved
13    are  transferred  to  an  annexing  district  or  to annexing
14    districts  pursuant  to  the  provisions  of  Section   24-12
15    relative  to  teachers  having  contractual continued service
16    status whose positions are transferred from one board to  the
17    control  of  a  different board, and those said provisions of
18    Section 24-12 shall apply to said transferred  teachers.   In
19    the event that the territory is added to 2 or more districts,
20    the decision on which positions shall be transferred to which
21    annexing  districts shall be made giving consideration to the
22    proportionate percent of pupils transferred and the  annexing
23    districts'  staffing  needs,  and  the  transfer  of specific
24    individuals into such  positions  shall  be  based  upon  the
25    request  of  those  teachers  in  order  of  seniority in the
26    dissolving  district.   The  contractual  continued   service
27    status   of  any  teacher  thereby transferred to an annexing
28    district is not lost and the different board  is  subject  to
29    this Act with respect to such transferred teacher in the same
30    manner  as  if  such teacher was that district's employee and
31    had been its  employee  during  the  time  such  teacher  was
32    actually  employed  by  the  board of the dissolving district
33    from which the position was transferred.
34    (Source: P.A. 86-13; 87-1215.)
 
                            -4-      LRB093 05229 NHT 05291 b
 1        Section 99.  Effective date.  This Act takes effect  upon
 2    becoming law.