Nepotism

A school board member cannot vote to hire a person who is related to any school board member within the third degree by consanguinity or within the second degree by marriage. The first degree is a parent or child. The second degree is a grandparent, grandchild, sister or brother. The third degree is a great-grandparent, great-grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew.

There are exceptions. One applies to school bus drivers in counties where the population is less than 35,000 people. Another is the continuous employment exception. If a person is an employee of a school district for at least 30 days prior to the appointment of the public official, the employee may continue in employment and other members of the governing board may vote to rehire, promote, increase the compensation of, or dismiss that employee, but the relative of the employee must abstain from voting.

If a district has delegated final hiring authority to the superintendent for a class of employees, then the above provisions apply both to school board members and to the superintendent for decisions relating to that class of employees. For example, if a district has delegated the final hiring authority to the superintendent for all classified employees, the superintendent could not hire a son, daughter, spouse or any other person within the prohibited degree of relationship as a classified employee.