Spring v. Sheboygan Area School Dist.

Decision Date20 January 1989
Docket NumberNo. 88-1607,88-1607
Citation865 F.2d 883
Parties48 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1606, 48 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,617, 51 Ed. Law Rep. 379 Winifred SPRING, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SHEBOYGAN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Daphne Webb, Stafford Rosenbaum Rieser & Hansen, Madison, Wis., for plaintiff-appellant.

William Sosnay, Mulcahy & Wherry S.C., Milwaukee, Wis., for defendant-appellee.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, WOOD, JR. and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

BAUER, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Winifred Spring appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendant-appellee Sheboygan Area School District ("the District") on her claims brought pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"). She contends that the district court erred in concluding that no genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether the District discriminated against her on the basis of her age or whether the District constructively discharged her. We affirm.

Spring began working for the District as a teacher in 1957 and, in 1972, became the principal of Grant Elementary School. The District's Director of Administration, Jerald Schoenike, who evaluated Spring's work performance, regarded her as a fine, caring, and very hardworking principal, if a little too sensitive. During the 1981-82 school year, Schoenike asked Spring, who was then over 65, about her retirement plans. Spring replied that she had no plans to retire. Schoenike also discussed retirement with three other principals who were nearing retirement age. Although Schoenike did not ask employees under forty about retirement, he did discuss with them their career plans. In 1982, Dr. George Longo became the District's new Superintendent of Schools. In November 1982, Longo asked Spring whether she planned to retire and if she would like to know what her benefits would be if she took early retirement.

Soon after taking command of the District, Longo developed a district-wide reorganization plan. Spring learned of the plan during her regular quarterly performance evaluation meeting with Longo and Schoenike on March 14, 1983, when she was told that she could be transferred or reassigned pursuant to the reorganization. On March 23, 1983, Longo presented his reorganization plan to the School Board. Under Longo's plan, Spring would, beginning in the 1983-84 school year, assume a dual principalship of the Lincoln-Erdman and Jackson elementary schools within the district. Spring also would receive a new two-year employment contract and a merit pay increase.

Before presenting his reorganization plan to the School Board, Longo asked Schoenike if he knew whether Spring had made plans to retire. According to Schoenike, if he had known that Spring would retire in one year, he would have recommended against transferring her to the Lincoln-Erdman/Jackson position. According to Longo, when he made the decision to transfer Spring, he took into account the perception of some persons that there were communication and discipline problems at the Grant school, that the prior superintendent did not give Spring a merit raise, and that Spring always seemed very busy and under stress.

On July 23, 1983, Spring resigned as principal after visiting the Lincoln-Erdman and Jackson schools. According to Spring, Longo and the District wished her gone, and her new assignment was a public humiliation. Spring filed this action on March 10, 1986, nearly three years later, alleging that the District discriminated against her on the basis of age and constructively discharged her when it reassigned her to the new dual principalship. The District filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Spring presented no genuine issue of material fact that she was discriminated against on the basis of age or constructively discharged, and that Spring's action was time barred under 29 U.S.C. Secs. 626(d) and (e), and 255(a). On February 24 1988, the district court granted the District's motion, holding that Spring had not been the victim of an adverse employment action and that she failed to raise an issue of fact that her working conditions were so intolerable that she was constructively discharged. Because the court found that Spring could not make out a claim of age discrimination in the first instance, it did not address the question whether the complaint was timely filed under a willful violation theory. This is Spring's appeal from the district court's grant of summary judgment to the District on her age discrimination claims.

The district court, however, committed no error. The ADEA outlaws discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age, Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 105 S.Ct. 613, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985), not changes in duties or working conditions that cause no materially significant disadvantage to an older employee. As one district court aptly put it, "the [ADEA] is not intended to prevent employers from changing the job responsibilities of their 40 to year old employees. Neither is the Act intended to give 40 to...

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