(110 ILCS 805/3-7) (from Ch. 122, par. 103-7)

Sec. 3-7. (a) The election of the members of the board of trustees shall be nonpartisan and shall be held at the time and in the manner provided in the general election law.

(b) Unless otherwise provided in this Act, members shall be elected to serve 6 year terms. The term of members elected in 1985 and thereafter shall be from the date the member is officially determined to be elected to the board by a canvass conducted pursuant to the Election Code, to the date that the winner of the seat is officially determined by the canvass conducted pursuant to the Election Code the next time the seat on the board is to be filled by election.

(c) Each member must on the date of his election be a citizen of the United States, of the age of 18 years or over, and a resident of the State and the territory which on the date of the election is included in the community college district for at least one year immediately preceding his election. In Community College District No. 526, each member elected at the consolidated election in 2005 or thereafter must also be a resident of the trustee district he or she represents for at least one year immediately preceding his or her election, except that in the first consolidated election for each trustee district following reapportionment, a candidate for the board may be elected from any trustee district that contains a part of the trustee district in which he or she resided at the time of the reapportionment and may be reelected if a resident of the new trustee district he or she represents for one year prior to reelection. In the event a person who is a member of a common school board is elected or appointed to a board of trustees of a community college district, that person shall be permitted to serve the remainder of his or her term of office as a member of the common school board. Upon the expiration of the common school board term, that person shall not be eligible for election or appointment to a common school board during the term of office with the community college district board of trustees.

(d) Whenever a vacancy occurs, the remaining members shall fill the vacancy, and the person so appointed shall serve until a successor is elected to serve the remainder of the unexpired term at the next regular election for board members and is certified in accordance with Sections 22-17 and 22-18 of the Election Code. If the remaining members fail so to act within 60 days after the vacancy occurs, the chairman of the State Board shall fill that vacancy, and the person so appointed shall serve until a successor is elected to serve the remainder of the unexpired term at the next regular election for board members and is certified in accordance with Sections 22-17 and 22-18 of the Election Code. The person appointed to fill the vacancy shall have the same residential qualifications as his predecessor in office was required to have. In either instance, if the vacancy occurs with less than 4 months remaining before the next scheduled consolidated election, and the term of office of the board member vacating the position is not scheduled to expire at that election, then the term of the person so appointed shall extend through that election and until the succeeding consolidated election. If the term of office of the board member vacating the position is scheduled to expire at the upcoming consolidated election, the appointed member shall serve only until a successor is elected and qualified at that election.

(e) Members of the board shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for their reasonable expenses incurred in connection with their service as members. Compensation, for purposes of this Section, means any salary or other benefits not expressly authorized by this Act to be provided or paid to, for or on behalf of members of the board. The board of each community college district may adopt a policy providing for the issuance of bank credit cards, for use by any board member who requests the same in writing and agrees to use the card only for the reasonable expenses which he or she incurs in connection with his or her service as a board member. Expenses charged to such credit cards shall be accounted for separately and shall be submitted to the chief financial officer of the district for review prior to being reported to the board at its next regular meeting.

(f) The ballot for the election of members of the board for a community college district shall indicate the length of term for each office to be filled. In the election of a board for any community college district, the ballot shall not contain any political party designation.

(Source: P.A. 100-273, eff. 8-22-17; 100-884, eff. 1-1-19.)