Illinois Supreme Court Declines to Hear Plaintiffs’ Appeal in Appellate Court Decision Upholding RIFs Under SB7

By February 2, 2015April 29th, 2015News

The Illinois Supreme Court recently declined to hear the only published reduction-in-force case under the new SB 7 RIF statute, leaving intact the appellate court victory for the Peoria School District and all Illinois school districts.

The case, Frakes v. Peoria School District 150, 2014 IL App (3d) 130306, was successfully defended by Stan Eisenhammer and Jeff Goelitz. As reported in more detail in the July 2014Extra Mile, the case involved two tenured teachers who fell into Group 2 of the district’s Sequence of Honorable Dismissal List. They were honorably dismissed as part of a RIF and were subsequently not recalled when vacancies arose. The court upheld the district’s actions because it was a legitimate RIF, and Group 2 teachers had no recall rights at the time. As a reminder, P.A. 98-0648 has since granted limited recall rights to certain Group 2 teachers.

Please contact Ellen Rothenberg or Jeff Goelitz with your RIF inquiries.