Teachers win dispute over layoffs at Illinois college

CARTERVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Teachers who sued after part-time instructors were hired to lead their classes at a southern Illinois community college have won an appeal at the state Supreme Court.

The court said John A. Logan College in Carterville violated state law, which protects tenured faculty from losing classes to non-tenured instructors or staff with less seniority.

Logan College laid off many tenured faculty members in a cost-cutting move in 2016. Seven sued the school, seeking back pay and benefits. They were recalled to work in 2017.

The Supreme Court, 4-1, last week affirmed a decision by the Illinois Appellate Court and sent the case back to a judge in Williamson County.

'œOur ruling today is both compelled by the language of the statute and consistent with the legislature's goal in creating tenure, which, as we noted above, was to ensure a degree of job security for teachers with experience and ability,'ť the Supreme Court said.

An attorney for the college declined to comment.

'œWe are all very relieved. We waited a long time, but we were always confident we had the law on our side,'ť history professor David Cochran said.