Caution! Hiring Board Members' Relatives

Legal Brief

WHAT IS ONE of the most dreaded issues for superintendents when implementing strong, fair and nonbiased employment practices? You probably guessed it — nepotism.

Everyone recognizes the age-old pattern of circumstances — a school board president asks for a minute of your time. Thirty minutes later, your job is in jeopardy unless you hire his daughter for the new 3rd-grade teacher position.

Has this happened during your tenure as a superintendent? Highly probable it has or will. Does your school district have a policy on it? Legally, is it prohibited? Most likely not. Politically, could the handling of a nepotistic employment issue cost you your job? Perhaps.

Nepotism Laws

Dealing with nepotism and the hiring of a relative will be one of the most scrutinized employment decisions you will make. It may rattle you to your very core. It will demand both ethical and legal considerations as well as an acknowledgment of the political realities.

Take the situation above, which occurred not long ago in Illinois. This isn’t a hypothetical fact pattern. It’s reality. Lawsuits, backroom resignation agreements and horrific nightmares played out in the news media typify what Illinois superintendents have faced in recent years.

So what advice do we give as legal counsel?

First, know the applicable laws and policies. Most likely, state laws and/or local policies will address nepotism. Some states have strong ethic laws on the prohibition of using a professional/elected position to benefit family members. Others have equally strong board policies that dictate how the situation should be handled.

Education is your friend. Educate your board members on state laws and the district’s policies and protocols. Proactive training gives you the capacity to redirect those who make inappropriate hiring requests back to the law and policies. For instance, if the superintendent in the above scenario had the law and policies readily available when the hiring request was made, a reminder and redirection could have circumvented the conflict that followed.

Next, be honest — these situations aren’t handled as easily as simply referring to the law. You need to examine the practicability and application of law, policy and practice to your past, current and future hiring decisions. Consider the following: Does your practice match your policy? What is the political landscape and expectation of the board of education and community? Do your local demographics make it necessary to hire family members?

In Illinois, nepotism can be both a fortunate and unfortunate reality. In some urban areas, nepotistic hiring practices have resulted in contentious litigation, while in our state’s rural communities, hiring family members is not only an acceptable practice but a necessity, given the lack of generational migration and the teacher shortage.

Political Reality

Lastly, always be mindful of your political reality: This could be a situation where neither the law nor policies nor past practice may help you navigate. Sometimes the best you will be able to do with your board is to acknowledge the issue, engage in a risk vs. necessity analysis, communicate concern and/or opposition, determine what is best for the students affected and provide the board with a recommendation.

If after a thorough analysis and recommendation the board decides to engage in nepotism, then it is what it is. The only thing you can do in response is to implement a hiring process rooted in fidelity and integrity. This could include the redacting of names of candidates in order to focus on qualifications and experiences; removing the conflicted individual (in the scenario above, the board president) from the hiring process; providing full transparency of the issue; and/or requiring abstention by the affected individual(s) from the vote to hire.

In the end, the process may not protect you or the school district against legal and political risk, but without it, the probability grows exponentially. Follow the law, know your policies, educate proactively, proceed with caution and, if all else fails, let your guiding principle be who is the right fit for the children and the school district — even if that hap-pens to be the daughter of the school board president.
 
SARA BOUCEK is associate director and legal counsel with the Illinois Association of School Administrators in Springfield, Ill
sboucek@iasaedu.org
@sboucek