I will soon be reintroducing legislation to require a school board member to abstain from voting on a collective bargaining agreement if a spouse, romantic partner or household resident is in the collective bargaining unit under consideration.  A school board member should not be allowed to vote for a large pay raise or benefit enhancement for their own spouse, romantic partner or household resident, but under current law they can legally do that.  In theory a school board member could vote for a large pay raise in the union contract and benefit from that higher paycheck coming into the relationship and/or household. 
 
About 2/3 of a school district budget is for salaries, health insurance and retirement.  Voting on the union contract essentially determines how 2/3 of a school district budget will be spent.  School property taxes are frequently increased to pay for salary increases and health insurance benefit enhancements for the employees, some of whom are spouses, romantic partners or household residents of school board members.
 
It is not good public policy for a school board member to be able to vote to increase their own household income. 
 
My legislation would amend the Public School Code of 1949.  Article XI-A Collective Bargaining would have a new section added which would be Section 1113-A titled Abstentions Required.  The language of Section 1113-A would be, “A school board member shall abstain from all votes pertaining to a collective bargaining agreement if a spouse, romantic partner or household resident is in the bargaining unit covered by the collective bargaining unit being voted on.”
 
I would greatly appreciate your co-sponsorship of this legislation.

Prior bill is HB1794 from 2023-2024 and prior cosponsors are below:

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 0892: P.L.30, No.14