Illinois Appellate Court Upholds Validity of Goals Included in Superintendent's Contract 

The Illinois appellate court has, for the first time, interpreted the requirement in Section 10-23.8 of the School Code that multi-year superintendent's contracts include performance goals.   

The Appellate Court has ruled that "in the absence of clear abuse of the Board's statutorily granted discretion in setting goals and measuring progress toward those goals, it would be improper for the courts to interfere with the Board's exercise of that discretion…there is no doubt that the Code permits each school board to create goals, identify specific criteria with which to determine whether those goals are being met and make findings as to whether those goals have in fact been satisfied by a particular superintendent."

In Board of Education of Provisio Township High School District No. 209 v. Jackson, 2010 WL 1254992 (1st Dist. 2010), the school district argued that an amendment extending a superintendent's contract and adding performance goals was void because it failed to enumerate goals to measure the superintendent's performance and because the superintendent failed to meet the performance goals during the previous contract term. The appellate court found the provision was enforceable and the superintendent was entitled to compensation as provided in his contract.

Section 23.8 of the Code requires multi-year superintendent contracts to be performance-based and linked to student performance and academic achievement. 105 ILCS 5/10-23.8.  Such agreements must include the goals and indicators of student performance and academic achievement determined and used by the board to measure the superintendent's performance. Id. Contracts may not be renewed unless all of the performance and improvement goals have been met. Id.

The court rejected the district's argument, and found that the amendment extending the contract clearly comported with section 10-23.8 of the School Code. It also noted that the six goals listed in the exhibit to the amendment were all measureable goals.

Issues involving administrator contracts and performance goals continue to grow in complexity.  Contact Stan Eisenhammer with inquiries regarding the impact of this decision on your administrator contracts.