Hughes v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 02 May 1979
• Citation: 370 So.2d 1034
• Parties: Gene Albert HUGHES v. JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al. Civ. 1683.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

Page 1034

370 So.2d 1034

Gene Albert HUGHES v. JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Civ. 1683.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

May 2, 1979.

James H. Davis and William M. Dawson, Jr., Birmingham, for appellant.

Donald B. Sweeney, Jr., Birmingham, for appellees.

BRADLEY, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals from a final judgment rendered by the Circuit Court of Jefferson County denying declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiff's principal contention on appeal is that certain policies and criteria used by defendants in determining whether to grant additional compensation to teachers for previous teaching experience violates the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection. We affirm.

The testimony at trial revealed the following facts. Plaintiff is an employee of the defendant Jefferson County Board of Education, having taught at Leeds Junior High School for approximately three years at the time of trial. The other defendants are the members of the Board, individually and in their respective capacities. Plaintiff was initially employed prior to the 1975-76 school year. The Board's policy at that time was, and continues to be, to give "credit," I. e. additional compensation, to those new employees who have had previous "quality" teaching experience, as evidenced by (1) possession of an Alabama Teacher's Certificate and/or (2) teaching experience at a school accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (hereinafter the "Southern Association"). At the time of his employment in 1975, plaintiff had no previous teaching experience at a school accredited by the Southern Association, nor had he taught in any school while possessing an Alabama Teacher's Certificate.

The record indicates that plaintiff, after his graduation from Southern Missionary College in Tennessee, received a Tennessee Teaching Certificate in August 1970, and that he had been employed as a teacher in the following schools operated by the Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists: 1970-1971, Idaho Falls SDA Schools, Idaho Falls, Idaho; 1971-1972, Waycross SDA School, Waycross, Georgia; 1972-1974, Montezuma Oglethorpe SDA School, Montezuma, Georgia. These schools are properly accredited within their particular denominational system. In 1974 plaintiff received both an Alabama and a Georgia Teaching Certificate; but did not teach during the 1974-1975 school year. Plaintiff testified that his previous teaching experience (duties, subjects taught, discipline of students, etc.) at the Seventh Day Adventist schools was comparable to that at Leeds Junior High School; and that he had possessed sufficient qualifications in 1970 to have obtained an Alabama Teacher's Certificate had he chosen to do so.

Plaintiff testified that upon being hired he inquired about receiving credit for his previous teaching experience; he was told that the matter would be checked into and he would be given credit if he qualified. Plaintiff stated that he received no written guidelines or statement of policy regarding the Board's procedure for determining eligibility for credit for previous teaching experience. His request for credit was denied.

The only written statement of policy regarding the giving of credit existing at the time plaintiff was hired appears in the 1973 Jefferson County Board of Education policy manual. That policy is stated as follows:

In setting the salary of an appointee to a teaching position, full credit is allowed to outside teaching . . . experience, which must be verified.

Dr. J. Revis Hall, Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools, testified that he personally ruled on plaintiff's request for credit. He stated that he concluded plaintiff was ineligible for credit because the information and experience indicated on plaintiff's application "did not measure up" to the standards used by the Board in making such determination.

In implementing the above-quoted Board policy over the last ten years, the Board has looked for those factors which indicate that an employee has had such experience by applying the two criteria teaching experience at a school accredited by the Southern Association (or an accreditation association with similar standards), and/or teaching experience received while in possession of an Alabama Teacher's Certificate. Dr. Hall stated that the applicant has the responsibility to present the necessary information supporting the request for credit.

After an ore tenus hearing, the trial court rendered a final judgment dated August 31, 1978 denying the relief sought by plaintiff. The trial court found that plaintiff had failed to show by the evidence that the defendants' policy regarding additional compensation for prior teaching experience was discriminatory or exercised in an unlawful or unconstitutional manner; and that plaintiff had failed to show by the evidence that the standards utilized and exercised by the superintendent of the Jefferson County Board of Education were unlawful, arbitrary or not consistent with valid educational standards or criteria for the purpose of evaluating prior teaching experience.

We note that the trial court's judgment states that the deposition of Dr. D. K. Griffith was considered by the lower in reaching its decision, but that deposition apparently was not included in the record on appeal.

Plaintiff contends on appeal that the defendants' policy violates the constitutional guarantees of due process by creating a set of irrebuttable presumptions which are inconsistent with defendants' stated objective of rewarding teachers for prior experience. He argues that defendants, upon determining that plaintiff had not met the two above-mentioned criteria, conclusively presumed that plaintiff did not have the requisite experience entitling him to receive credit for his previous teaching experience; and that the Board failed to allow him an opportunity to offer other evidence as to the quality of his prior experience, preferring to use the two simple criteria for reasons of administrative convenience. Plaintiff argues that the use of such irrebuttable presumptions "which are not necessarily or universally true in fact" is impermissible, since the two criteria used to show that his four years of previous experience were not meritorious are not reasonably, or even rationally, related to an objective inquiry into the quality of that experience, citing, Inter alia, Cleveland Board of Education v. La Fleur, 414 U.S. 632, 94 S.Ct. 791, 39 L.Ed.2d 52 (1974).

Plaintiff further contends that the application of the Board's policy results in disparate treatment of individuals with equal experience, thereby violating the constitutional guarantees of equal protection. Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 40 S.Ct....