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Suburban school leaders tell Cook County board paid-leave ordinance would burden districts; ask for exemption
Summary
A coalition of suburban superintendents and district representatives told the Cook County Board that the county's paid-leave ordinance should exempt school districts and educational cooperatives, citing staffing, safety and financial concerns and citing estimates of additional absences and multi-million-dollar costs for some districts.
Dr. Sean Schleizer, superintendent of East Maine School District 63 and a member of a coalition of suburban superintendents representing roughly 234,000 students in 94 districts, told the Cook County Board on Sept. 18 that the county's proposed paid-leave ordinance should exempt school districts and educational cooperatives.
"We respectfully request that the ordinance be amended to align with state law by exempting school districts and educational cooperatives," Dr. Schleizer said in public testimony. He said the ordinance "compromises school safety and fails to address the unique challenges we face, imposing unnecessary financial, staffing, and operational burdens." Schleizer estimated the ordinance would create about 2,000 additional absences in his district alone and cited District 214's estimate that implementing the ordinance would cost about $3,100,000.
Schleizer argued that collective-bargaining processes already in place provide enforceable leave arrangements and that adding county-level paid leave would disrupt negotiated balances and make it harder to secure qualified substitutes for specialized roles such as nurses and social workers.
Other participants, including a representative from the Glenview Park District, raised technical questions about how the ordinance would compute pay for employees with multiple job codes and different rates of pay; the speaker said they would submit formal questions through the available comment form.
The transcript records the public request and commissioners’ acknowledgment; the transcript does not show a board-level debate or formal amendment to the ordinance during this meeting. The paid-leave ordinance was referenced in public testimony but committee action or sponsor response on the board floor during this session is not recorded in the transcript.
Next steps: The testimony provides record-level input that sponsors and committee chairs can use when considering technical amendments or exemptions; any statutory change or county ordinance amendment would require separate committee consideration and a formal vote.
