Request By:
Nap C. DuFault, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Elizabethtown City Schools
P.O. Box 605
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the Office of the Attorney General to consider several questions regarding school administrators and the law on demotion of an administrator. You ask whether an administrator in one of the schools in your school system may be moved to a central office position if the salary remains at the same level, and also whether an individual in such a position has a right to the position or to the salary. You also have asked whether the procedures for demotion and dismissal are identical to that of teacher dismissal.
You do not say how long the certified employee who is now an administrator has held an administrative position in your school system. For purposes of this opinion we will assume that an administrative position has been held at least three years, such that the provisions of KRS 161.765, the fair demotion law, are applicable.
In response to your first question we want to point out at the beginning, with all due respect to our Kentucky Court of Appeals, that there is no such thing as "administrative tenure." See
Harlan County Bd. of Ed. v. Stagnolia, 555 S.W.2d 828, 829 (1977). KRS 161.765 provides administrative procedural due process which must be complied with before a certified employe who has been an administrator in a school system for three years may be demoted. The terms "demote" or "demotion" as used in KRS 161.765 are defined in KRS 161.720(9) as follows:
"The terms 'demote' or 'demotion' for the purpose of KRS 161.765 shall mean a reduction in rank from one position on the school district salary schedule to a different position on that schedule for which a lower salary is paid. The terms shall not include lateral transfers to positions of similar rank and pay or minor alterations in pay increments required by the salary schedule. "
All in all, these two statutory provisions serve as a measure of protection for the school administrator in two ways. The first way is to foster continuation in a functionally administrative position in the school system after three years absence from classroom responsibilities. Secondly, these statutory provisions, while not guaranteeing employment in a school system in any particular administrative position, serve to relatively maintain the salary level achieved by an administrative certified employe as an administrator. Thus, while upon timely recommendation by the superintendent and approval by the board of education (before May 15), an administrator serving a school system protected under the provisions of KRS 161.765 may still be assigned to a different administrative position in the school system, the new administrative position may not subject the individual to a substantial alteration in pay received for performing administrative services in the school system. See generally OAG 77-332 and 77-328, copies attached.
Your second question, the procedures for an administrative demotion, as that term is defined as noted above, are specifically and in detail spelled out in KRS 161.765. If the individual certified employe has not been an administrator for three years, the provisions of 161.760 must timely be complied with. The termination of a teaching contract under the provisions of KRS 161.790, while somewhat similar to those stated in KRS 161.765, are in no way applicable in an administrative demotion consideration. However, if termination of a certified employe, whether serving as a classroom teacher or as an administrator, is desired, the provisions of KRS 161.790 are to be followed in either case.