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Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 320,000 students in 500+ schools and employing over 44,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.  In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity.  Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Administrative Hearing's (OAH) mission is to ensure effective administration of employee grievances, collective-bargaining provisions, Board policies and rules, and employee discipline to facilitate compliance with statutory and contractual requirements. The OAH’s main duties include presiding over discipline/discharge hearings, processing disciplinary decisions, and investigating and adjusting grievances filed by labor unions. The OAH also houses the Criminal Background Committee, which is responsible for reviewing the criminal background histories of applicants. 

Job Summary: 

The Senior Legal Secretary for the OAH will be responsible for overseeing and performing a wide range of administrative and coordination duties that ensure the smooth functioning of the OAH. The individual in this role will be accountable for managing high-volume tasks, maintaining effective communication, supporting disciplinary processes, and ensuring the timely execution of assignments. The Sr. Legal Secretary will report to the Executive Director of Administrative Hearings. This is a full-time non-exempt position, that will be paid for time worked on an hourly basis.

The Senior Legal Secretarywill be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Organize and maintain data management functions, ensuring accurate and timely database updates. This includes ensuring timely updates to the district's HR and Law data management systems.
• Generate and analyze system data reports for OAH, Law senior leadership, and Central Office departments, summarizing relevant metrics on open and closed cases.
• Design and produce reports tracking disciplinary decisions for legal and central office departments.
• Provide general administrative support, including updating and maintaining OAH files and documents on the unit's electronic record-keeping platform, routing documents for execution, and preparing and issuing documents and correspondence.
• Answer phone calls, route inquiries to the appropriate department, or escalate to OAH leadership as needed.
• Respond to emails and inquiries from current and former employees, supervisors, and other district departments.
• Open, read, route, and distribute incoming hard copy communications.
• Facilitate compliance with deadlines by tracking matters and providing reminders of upcoming deadlines.
• Process disciplinary decisions, including terminations of probationary unionized employees and the results of pre-suspension hearings.
• Ensure accurate processing of payroll for employees on paid suspension. This includes tracking when employees enter or exit paid suspension status and sending any necessary notifications or updates related to their pay.
• Process suspension appeal requests from the Union, reviewing for timeliness and completeness, and ensure that all necessary information is gathered and reviewed.
• Assist the Executive Director in preparing termination recommendations for Chicago Board of Education meetings.
• Refer termination recommendations from Central Office departments or schools to the appropriate unit in Law.
• Issue appropriate notices to the Illinois State Board of Education, parents or guardians, and employees related to discipline and residency noncompliance.
• Act as a supervisory authority over other administrative assistants and hearings scheduler, providing guidance and support.
• Serve as the main point of contact for discipline processing inquiries.
• Perform other tasks and special projects as assigned by the Executive Director, Director, or Administrative Hearings Officers.  
• Other duties as assigned 

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Senior Legal Secretary must possess the following qualifications: 

Education Required: 

• High school diploma or GED equivalent 
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university is preferred  
• Legal Secretary Certification or Paralegal Certification from an American Bar Association approved program preferred

Experience Required: 

• A minimum of five (5) years legal secretarial, administrative or legal assistant experience handling employee relations matters in a high volume, fast-paced environment.  
• Labor relations experience preferred
• Experience supervising and managing administrative staff, providing guidance, support, and training  

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Exceptional attention to detail with the ability to maintain accuracy while balancing multiple time sensitive priorities 
• Excellent organizational skills; demonstrated ability to organize and prioritize work in a dynamic, complex, fast paced environment to meet and manage competing deadlines 
• Ability to operate with a sense of urgency to accomplish goals and objectives while maintaining professionalism and customer service focus.
• Execution and solution-oriented, creative problem solver with ability to define problems, analyze and outline valid conclusions and action steps to meet defined goals and deadlines
• Clear, effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills (speaking, writing, listening) and English usage (spelling, grammar, and punctuation) 
• Strong systems skills and desire for continued growth and learning; Ability to use an array of office machines, equipment,  technology and tools, including data tools, functional spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets), presentations, Google Suite, Docusign, and others, including, but not limited to Kronos, PeopleSoft, and Lawtrac
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to interact positively and professionally at all times with OAH team members, other law department staff, executive offices, internal colleagues and external partners. 
• Able to take ownership of, and independently manage tasks, timelines and systems, following tasks through to completion with little or no follow up; knows when to ask questions
• Highly professional with a clear understanding of maintaining confidentiality
• Able to establish and maintain collaborative working relationships with all levels within the organization 
• Superior typing and data entry skills 

Physical Requirements

Sedentary Work: exerting up to ten pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time, but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time.

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency -Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions; however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.