Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 12, March 22, 2024
a) Before a school
district's first remediation relating to a dismissal under Section 24-16.5 of
the School Code and this Part, the school district shall establish a list of at
least two evaluators who meet the qualifications set forth in subsection (b) of
this Section to serve as second evaluators.
1)
The school district shall provide written notification to the teacher
representatives identified pursuant to subsection (e) of this Section of the
names and qualifications of the individuals it has chosen to include as second
evaluators.
2) The teacher
representatives may submit in writing to the school district the names and
qualifications of additional individuals to be included on the list of second
evaluators, provided that they shall not submit more teacher evaluators for
inclusion on the list than the number of evaluators submitted by the school
district (Section 24-16.5(c)(1) of the School Code). Each individual whose name
is submitted by the teacher representatives to serve as a second evaluator
shall meet one of the qualifications specified in Section 24-16.5(c) of the
School Code; that is, either:
A) holds
certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, with
no "unsatisfactory" or "needs improvement" performance evaluation ratings in
his or her two most recent performance evaluations; or
B) has obtained a performance evaluation
rating of "excellent" in two of the three most recent performance evaluations,
with no "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" performance evaluation ratings
in his or her last three ratings.
3) If the teacher representatives fail to
submit in writing any names of additional second evaluators within 21 days
after receiving the written notification specified in subsection (a)(1) of this
Section, then the school district may proceed with a remediation using a list
of second evaluators that includes only those names identified by the school
district.
b) Each second
evaluator shall be qualified to serve as an evaluator under Section 24A-3 of
the School Code [105 ILCS
5/24A-3 ].
c) The list of second evaluators may be
revised either by the school district or teacher representatives at any time,
with the party initiating the revision providing at least three days notice to
the other party of its intent to revise the list. The process to revise the
list shall be made in accordance with this Section and Section 24-16.5(c)(2) of
the School Code.
d) Establishment
of the Process for Selecting a Second Evaluator
1) Before a school district's first
remediation relating to a dismissal under Section 24-16.5 of the School Code
and this Subpart, the school district also shall, in good faith cooperation
with its teacher representatives, develop a process to be used to select a
second evaluator from the list established pursuant to subsection (a) (see
Section 24-16.5(c)(2) of the School Code).
2) The process may be amended at any time in
good faith cooperation with the teacher representatives.
3) If the teacher representatives are given
an opportunity to cooperate with the school district with respect to the
establishment or amendment of the process and elect not to do so, then the
school district may, at its discretion, establish or amend the process for
selection.
4) Before the hearing
officer and as part of any judicial review of a dismissal under Section 24-16.5
of the School Code, a tenured teacher may not challenge a remediation or
dismissal on the grounds that the process used by the school district to select
a second evaluator was not established in good faith cooperation with its
teacher representatives.
e) For the purposes of this Section, "teacher
representatives" shall mean:
1) the exclusive
collective bargaining agent, or its designees, if the teachers are represented
by a collective bargaining unit; or
2) a group of teachers, whose number shall
not exceed the number of school district representatives participating in the
selection process, who have been chosen by their peers to serve in this
capacity.