By Jerry Nowicki –
A State lawmaker is looking to give voters the authority to force their locally-elected school boards into resource-sharing agreements with other districts for certain administration offices and functions.
Although the bill allows for districts to share superintendents, other administrators and services, it exempts principals and assistant principals.
School districts have the power to enter into resource-sharing agreements with other districts through the passage of a resolution. State senator Sue Rezin’s Senate Bill 1287, which passed by a 9-1 vote out of the Senate Education Committee Tuesday, would allow another avenue to force resource-sharing: approval by the voters via a binding referendum.
Rezin said shared services might not be appropriate for every district, but the bill would be particularly relevant to communities with a K-8 school district feeding into a separate high school district with its own administration.
“This is just one way to look at sharing services while you get to keep your school district, your levy, negotiate your own teachers’ contracts within your school district, but have one curriculum which allows for a continuum of education,” Rezin, a Morris Republican, said.
The ballot-driven sharing process would require five percent of voters within a school district to sign a petition to put a question on the ballot for any district that is to be part of the shared services, unless the district’s school board has already voted to share resources.
If the majority of voters or the school board in each affected district cast their ballot in favor of sharing services, the districts in question would be required to come up with a plan to consolidate certain offices or services. Failing that, the regional superintendent of schools, which is a locally-elected position, would be tapped to help broker a resource-sharing plan.
Rezin said if a referendum passes, it would not immediately void contracts of the officials to be consolidated. Instead, it would “start the conversation” about how resource-sharing would be accomplished in the future.
She promised further discussion and potential amendments to the bill as it moves through the legislative process.
— Capitol News Illinois