Request By:
Mr. Woodrow Gosser
KEA Unified Service
P.O. Box 318
North Main Street
Jamestown, Kentucky 42629
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
On behalf of the Pulaski County Education Association you have asked the Office of the Attorney General for advice on several matters concerning teachers' responsibilities. You first ask if principals may require teachers to have hall duty from 8:30 to 8:50 a.m.; hall duty during the break (10 min. ) and bus duty from 3:25 until the last bus runs. You indicated that sometimes the buses run as much as 30 to 45 minutes late. You further stated that the local board of education requires teachers to be at school from 8:45 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Your second question is what are the teachers' responsibilities and liabilities when loading and unloading buses. Lastly, you have asked who is legally responsible in getting a substitute teacher.
This office has on several occasions written that a teacher is not an hourly wage earner but has a contract with the school district which does not specify any particular number of hours to be worked. See OAG 75-297 and 74-835, copies of each enclosed. As noted in these opinions, two statutes should be considered. KRS 161.140 provides that: "Each board of education shall prescribe the duties to be performed by all persons in public school service in the district." KRS 158.060 provides that "six (6) hours of actual school work shall constitute a school day" and that the "daily session, including recesses and intermissions, shall not exceed nine (9) hours." In OAG 37,675 (1955) we stated that duties in addition to the instructional time in the classroom and after-teaching hours are a part of the duty of the teacher. Activities revolving around the operation of the usual school day, such as loading and unloading school buses, may be required of a teacher. See OAG 74-835, supra, at page three. Under KRS 161.180, it is clear that teachers may be assigned supervisory duties over pupils "on the playgrounds, in the lunchrooms and cafeterias, and during intermissions or recess. "
Thus, in view of the above, we fail to see any reason why principals, having general supervisory responsibilities at a particular school, may not, within the parameters of the guidelines and policies of the local board of education, require teachers to have hall duty at the times indicated as well as bus duty even though the buses do sometime run late. See 702 KAR 5:050, copy enclosed, which will be discussed below in response to your second question. We note that the school board only requires the teachers to be at the school for 6-3/4 hours a day. Six of those hours are to be actual school work. KRS 158.060. Even with the possible delay of buses at times, it would not appear that the day would exceed the statutory maximum of nine hours.
One additional comment on your first question and our response to it. You mentioned "hall duty during the break (10 min. )." We are unsure as to exactly what you are referring, but do wish to point out that a teacher may not be assigned any duties or responsibilities during the statutorily required ten (10) minute break called for in KRS 337.365. This statute provides as follows:
"No employer shall require any employe to work for more than four (4) hours without rest periods for at least ten (10) minutes. This shall be in addition to the regularly scheduled lunch period. No reduction in compensation shall be made for hourly or salaried employes."
As we concluded in OAG 76-187, copy enclosed, this statute does apply to certified school personnel.
As to the teachers' responsibilities and liabilities when loading and unloading buses, we want to first look more closely at the pupil transportation administrative regulations of the State Board for Elementary and Secondary Education. 702 KAR 5:030 provides, inter alia, that the local superintendent of schools is to be responsible for the general supervision of the school district's pupil transportation program. The school board is to be responsible for the safe operation of the district's pupil transportation system. 702 KAR 5:040. Then in 702 KAR 5:050 guidelines are provided to assist boards of education in providing supervision and discipline essential to the safe operation of the school buses. Section 1 of this last referred to regulation reads as follows:
"The principal or the person or persons designated by the board of education shall be responsible for the organization and operation of a system of adequate supervision of the pupils as they unload from the school buses and load onto the school buses at the school."
In light of this regulation, it can reasonably be expected that the principal will solicit assistance from the teachers at a school as part of the "operation of a system of adequate supervision" as children load onto and unload from school buses at the school. The principal has a duty to select competent teachers for this task and to advise them of their duties. The principal is not required to supervise personally the teacher's every act of carrying out this task.
Once a teacher has been assigned the responsibility of supervising the loading and unloading of children on school buses, the teacher must carry out this assignment in a nonnegligent manner. That is, the teacher must exercise the degree of care for the safety and well-being of the children that a reasonable and prudent person would exercise under similar circumstances. The standard of care required will depend upon the age and maturity of the children, the number of children, and the other circumstances involved. The law requires one owing a duty of care to another to attempt to foresee harm and the foreseeability of harm gives rise to a duty to take reasonable care to avoid the harm. If a teacher's behavior falls short of that which a person of ordinary prudence, charged with like duties, would engage in under similar circumstances, then the teacher could be liable under the concept of negligence if the child is harmed.
As to your last question regarding substitute teachers, it is the school board's responsibility to employ substitute teachers as with all other school employes. By regulation, 702 KAR 3:075, a local board is to establish a pay schedule for substitute teaching.
We believe your question does not so much concern the fact that a list of possible substitute teachers may be recommended by the superintendent to the board for approval (KRS 160.380), as it concerns the practical problem of who notifies a substitute teacher that his or her teaching services are needed for a particular day. For sure, the answer to what we perceive to be your question is not the teacher the substitute would replace. A teacher who will be unable to perform teaching duties on a particular day or days should give notice of this fact to the superintendent or designate as soon as reasonably possible. This notification procedure may very well be covered by a policy or regulation of the board of education. Once the notification has been given, the superintendent or designate should then take such steps as are necessary to secure a substitute teacher.