CALUMET CITY | Between June 25 and July 15 of last year, former Hoover-Schrum Elementary District 157 administrator Rosemary Hendricks was paid as superintendent for the Calumet City school system and another suburban Cook County school district.

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And while an attorney for Hendricks said he is not aware of any legal issues that prevent it, School Board officials from both districts said they were unaware of it and question the situation.

Hendricks' voluntary resignation from District 157 took effect July 15. She was on administrative leave from the district and still receiving a $5,519.24 paycheck twice a month when Bellwood Elementary District 88 hired her as superintendent June 21 and approved a one-year contract worth $140,000.

"I don't know of any law that speaks to that. It's a matter of contract law," said Matthew J. Piers, an attorney representing Hendricks in a breach of contract lawsuit she filed in January against the District 157 School Board.

Hendricks' lawsuit maintains she is due compensation from a severance agreement that was part of her resignation. She had voluntarily stepped down after a new School Board was elected in April 2007. The lame duck board then approved a buyout package, which the new board later rescinded.

"I'm speaking purely logically," Piers said. "Politically, would districts allow it to happen?"

Brent Clark, the executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, and Harry Reynolds, the Suburban Cook County Regional deputy superintendent, said overlapping contracts occur sometimes, especially when a superintendent is getting ready to leave one district and begin in another.

In Hendricks' case, contracts with both districts included a provision for prior board approval before taking on other employment, responsibilities or professional activities.

Reynolds said he knows of some superintendents who have worked in more than one district at the same time, but such situations usually occur with the full knowledge of the affected boards.

District 157 School Board Secretary Terri Morrison said Hendricks never asked permission, nor did the board give approval, for her to work for another district before her scheduled departure. Morrison, District 157 School Board President Natalie Barnes and board member John Kresich said the situation should be looked at.

"Legally, she was still on our payroll until July 15. She could have gotten a job with another district, I have no problem with that," Morrison said. "(But) she should have resigned immediately so our taxpayers didn't have to pay out more money.

"Even though she's on leave, she's still under our employ because she was getting a full paycheck, and that's wrong."

Repeated attempts to reach Hendricks were unsuccessful, as were attempts to reach Chris Welch, a former attorney for District 157, a partner in the law firm representing District 88 and the School Board president of neighboring Proviso Township High Schools District 209.

Attorneys for District 157 did not return numerous phone calls from The Times.

Two District 88 School Board members -- Board President Tommy Miller and Marilyn Thurman, the board's senior member -- said they knew Hendricks had resigned from the Calumet City district. But they didn't know Hendricks' resignation had yet to take effect, or that she was under contract and being paid by District 157 when she was hired.

President Tommy Miller said he thought "she had served her time in that district" when she came to District 88.

"That is something we are going to look into," he said. "You really can't be under contract with two districts at the same time."