Kankakee School District 111 Voted To Pay Fine For Board Member –

By John Kraft & Kirk Allen

On August 19, 2026

Kankakee, Ill. (ECWd) –

On August 10, 2026, the Board of Trustees of Kankakee School District 111 voted to pay the fine incurred by a school board member for her failure to timely file her Statement of Economic Interest (SEI). The amount of the fine is estimated to be around $2,100.00. This was item number G(3) on the meeting agenda. Watch the video below.

The fines are the obligation of the individual, not of the school board. The taxpayers should never be on the hook for a private debt owed by a board member. There is no circumstance, or set of circumstances, where any school board could pay the fines of a board member for failing to file their SEI on time. Either the failure to file is the board member’s own fault and that member is personally liable for payment, or, if not through the fault of the board member there cannot be a fine imposed.

A Thank You goes out to “Outrage NFP” for bringing this to our attention.

The Illinois Governmental Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 420 Section 4A-101.5, governs the filing of an annual Statement of Economic Interest by certain public official and public employees. School District elected officers and others are required to file their SEIs with the County Clerk no later than May 1st of each year.

Sections 4A-102 and 4A-103 prescribe the information that must be included on the SEI and how it is to be signed and filed.

Section 4A-105 shows the timeline for filing and the process for fining the person who fails to file:

"Time for filing.

  Except as provided in Section 4A-106.1, by May 1 of each year a statement must be filed by each person

whose position at that time subjects him to the filing requirements of Section 4A-101 or 4A-101.5 unless he has already filed a statement in relation to the same unit of government in that calendar year."

Failing to file an SEI results in a $15 fine, if filed by May 15th, and an additional $100 per day for each day the SEI is not filed starting on May 16th and continuing to the date an SEI is filed. Failure to file an SEI by May 31st results in forfeiture (of office/employment) according to Section 4A-107.

If the failure to file was due to no fault of their own, then no fine or forfeiture shall occur. Examples: not being included on, in this case, the county clerk’s notification of a filing requirement, and, that SEI was filed within 30 days of an actual notice of the failure to file. There are other situations where the late fees and forfeiture by be waived, i.e. for military service, serious or catastrophic illness preventing to filing.

Section 4A-107, in this case, mandates that the State’s Attorney file a quo warranto action against any person who has failed to file by May 31 or June 30 of any given year, and whose fees and forfeiture have not been waived.

This school board should rescind this payment, undergo mandatory training on Statements of Economic Interest, and apologize to the public.

The State’s Attorney should consider charging the board member who owed the fines, and all of the board members who voted to make this payment, with misappropriation of public funds and remove them from office.