New Salary Posting Requirement Takes Effect January 1, 2012

By Scott Metcalf and Andrew Malahowski

Illinois School Code provisions requiring the reporting and posting of administrator and teacher salaries have gone through multiple revisions recently.  For the past several years school districts have been required to report administrator and teacher salaries and benefits to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). The information on administrators and teachers includes:

• Name
• Position
• Title
• Base Salary
• Full-Time Equivalency
• Vacation Days
• Sick Days
• Bonuses
• Annuities
• Retirement Enhancements
• Other Benefits

Pursuant to Public Act 97-256, effective January 1, 2012, this information must be reported to the ISBE by October 1, rather than July 1, every year.  The October 1 deadline complements other financial deadlines and allows for reporting of current year information.

More importantly, before being submitted to the ISBE, this information must be presented at a regular school board meeting and then posted on the school district’s website.  While a strict reading of the statutory language could indicate to some that this information should be posted on a school district’s website as early as January 1, 2012, the more reasonable interpretation of the statute is that the next report submitted to the ISBE by October 1, 2012 is the first report that must be posted on a school district’s website.  It should also be noted that these reports are already available online at the ISBE’s website.