Now that school has started, districts sometimes find themselves in a struggle to fill empty positions. Empathetic board members may wish to help by offering to fill in those roles, especially when they are sudden needs like a missing bus driver, lunch server or custodial staff. Unfortunately, a board member is precluded from stepping into these necessary positions under the Incompatible Public Offices Act, MCL 15.181 et seq. (IPO).

 The IPO prohibits for the most part a public officer or public employee from holding 2 or more incompatible offices at the same time. The act defines “incompatible office” as public offices held by a public official which, when the official is performing the duties of any of the public offices held by the official, results in any of the following:

(i)                  The subordination of 1 public office to another.

(ii)                The supervision of 1 public office by another.

(iii)               A breach of duty of public office.

Interpretations of this law from the Attorney General have made it clear that every public employee is considered to be holding a public office within the public entity they serve. There is an exemption to this law for a member of a school board to serve as a volunteer coach or supervisor of an extracurricular activity (like chess club!). In these instances, a board member may fill the position if the board member receives no compensation for the service, does not vote on issues before the board concerning the program they are volunteering for, and there were no qualified applicants available to fill the position in question. Additionally, board members would be required to submit to a criminal history and records check.

If you have further questions on this or other legal or labor matters, please do not hesitate to contact MASB's Labor Relations and Legal Services Department.