Policy 5:30
Hiring Process and Criteria
The District hires the most qualified personnel consistent with budget and staffing requirements, and in compliance with Board of Education policy on equal employment opportunity and minority recruitment. The Superintendent is responsible for recruiting personnel and making hiring recommendations to the Board of Education. The Superintendent may select personnel on a short-term basis for a specific project or emergency condition before the Board of Education approval. No individual will be employed who has been convicted of a criminal offense listed in Section 5/21B-80 of the School Code, except that convictions for certain drug offenses become reviewable by the Board of Education after 7 years following the end of the sentence for the offense.
All applicants must complete a District application in order to be considered for employment.
Job Descriptions
The Board of Education maintains the Superintendent’s job description and directs, through policy, the Superintendent, in his or her charge of the District’s administration. The Superintendent shall develop and maintain a current comprehensive job description for each position or job category; however, a provision in a collective bargaining agreement or individual contract will control in the event of a conflict.
Investigations
The Superintendent or designee shall ensure that a fingerprint-based criminal history records check and a check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database, the Statewide Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Database is performed on each applicant as required by state law. When the applicant is a successful superintendent candidate who has been offered employment by the Board of Education, the Board President shall ensure that these checks are completed. The Superintendent or designee shall notify an applicant if the applicant is identified in either database. The School Code requires the Board President to keep a conviction record confidential and share it only with the Superintendent or designee, Regional Superintendent, State Superintendent, State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board, or any other person necessary to the hiring decision, or for purposes of clarifying the information, the Department of State Police and/or Statewide Sex Offender Database. The Board of Education reserves its right to authorize additional background inquiries beyond a fingerprint-based criminal history records check when it deems it appropriate to do so, in accordance with applicable laws.
Each newly hired employee must complete an Immigration and Naturalization Service Form as required by federal law.
The District retains the right to discharge any employee whose criminal background investigation reveals a conviction for committing or attempting to commit any of the offenses outlined in Section 5/21B-80 of the School Code or who falsifies or omits facts from his or her employment application or other employment documents.
The Superintendent shall ensure that the District does not engage in any investigation or inquiry prohibited by law and complies with each of the following:
- The District uses an applicant’s credit history or report from a consumer reporting agency only when a satisfactory credit history is an established bona fide occupational requirement of a particular position.
- The District does not ask an applicant or applicant’s previous employers about claim(s) made or benefit(s) received under the Workers’ Compensation Act.
- The District does not request of an applicant or employee access in any manner to his or her social networking website, including a request for passwords to such sites.
- The District provides equal employment opportunities to all persons.
See Policy 5:10, Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority Recruitment.
- The District does not ask or require an applicant to disclose his/her wage or salary history or use an applicant’s wage or salary history as an employment screening tool.
Physical Examinations
New employees must furnish evidence of physical fitness to perform assigned duties and freedom from communicable disease. All physical fitness examinations must be performed by a physician licensed in Illinois, or any other state, to practice medicine and surgery in any of its branches, or an advanced practice nurse who has a written collaborative agreement with a collaborating physician that authorizes the advanced practice nurse to perform health examinations, or a physician assistant who has been delegated the authority by his or her supervising physician to perform health examinations. The employee must have the physical examination performed no more than 90 days before submitting evidence of it to the District.
Any employee may be required to have an additional examination by a
physician who is licensed in Illinois to practice medicine and surgery
in all its branches, or an advanced practice nurse who has a written
collaborative agreement with a collaborating physician that authorizes
the advanced practice nurse to perform health examinations, or a
physician assistant who has been delegated the authority by his or her
supervising physician to perform health examinations, if the examination
is job-related and consistent with business necessity. The District
will pay the expenses of any such examination.
Orientation Program
The District’s staff will provide an orientation program for new employees to acquaint them with the District’s policies and procedures, the school’s rules and regulations, and the responsibilities of their position. Before beginning employment, each employee must sign the Acknowledgement of Mandated Reporter Status form as provided in Policy 5:90, Abused and Neglected Child Reporting
Adopted: November 10, 1997
Revised: February 20, 2007, February 23, 2015, September 23, 2019