Board Member as Boss and Employee?

Legal Brief

At least once a year, the dreaded question comes into our law office: A school board member wants to know whether they can be employed in the posted position with the school district.

In dreaded, convoluted legal speak, the short answer: probably not. The long annoying legal answer: most likely not, except in specific situations where factual and legal thresholds and requirements have been reviewed, analyzed, applied and implemented.

Most states have laws that prohibit public/elected officials from having any direct financial interest that would conflict with their role as public/elected officials. In Illinois, two laws apply.

The first is in the Illinois School Code that states school board members shall not be financially interested, either directly or indirectly, in their name or in the name of another person in any contract, work or business for the school district or in any sales of purchases of the school district.

The second is in the Illinois Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act that states no public official shall be “financially interested directly in his own name or indirectly in the name of any other person, association, trust or corporation, in any contract or the performance of any work in the making or letting of which such officer may be called upon to act or vote.”

Violations of either law in Illinois are a Class 4 felony. On a strict reading given the criminal consequences, it seems simple enough, the short answer should be a resounding “no.”