Jackson v. Board of Ed. of Oktibbeha County, 49988

• Decision Date: 07 September 1977
• Docket Number: No. 49988,49988
• Citation: 349 So.2d 550
• Parties: Ralph R. JACKSON v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 550

349 So.2d 550

Ralph R. JACKSON v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Mississippi.

No. 49988.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Sept. 7, 1977.

Threadgill & Smith, Gary L. Geeslin, Columbus, for appellant.

William Ward, Starkville, for appellee.

Before PATTERSON, ROBERTSON and WALKER, JJ.

WALKER, Justice, for the Court:

This is an appeal from a decree of the Chancery Court of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, which was made pursuant to a finding that the defendant Board of Education violated the provisions of the Public School Fair Dismissal Act by failing to give the plaintiff timely notice of its decision not to renew his contract for the school year 1975-1976 as provided by Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-105 (1972). The decree ordered that the plaintiff, Ralph R. Jackson, be "reinstated as an employee of the Board of Education of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, to the first available position for which he is qualified and licensed." Jackson has appealed this order, contending that it does not go far enough in that it does not also provide for an award of back pay and attorney's fees. The Board of Education has filed a cross-appeal contending that the chancellor's finding that its action violated the notice provision of the Public School Fair Dismissal Act is erroneous.

Ralph R. Jackson was employed as a drug education specialist by the Oktibbeha County Board of Education under one-year contracts for the years 1973-1974 and 1974-1975. These contracts ran from July to July each year. It was Jackson's job to go to the various elementary schools and high schools in Oktibbeha County and conduct drug education classes. As a result, his immediate supervisor was not a school principal but was John R. Ware, the superintendent of education of Oktibbeha County. The Board of Education decided that it would not renew the drug education program on July 7, 1975, and therefore no application was initiated by the Board to the State Department of Education for the funding of said program. The chancellor found that on August 5, 1975, the plaintiff's job was eliminated. On August 19, 1975, by regular mail, the plaintiff received a letter dated August 18, 1975, giving him notice of the board's action. A hearing was requested before the school board and was conducted on September 22, 1975. The board declined to reemploy Jackson and he appealed under the provisions of the Mississippi Public School Fair Dismissal Act to the Chancery Court of Oktibbeha County which found that the board had violated the notice provision of the Public School Fair Dismissal Act and which ordered the board to reinstate the plaintiff to the first available position for which he is qualified and licensed.

The chancellor's final decree was dated September 27, 1976, and did not provide for an award of back pay for the year of employment which the plaintiff was denied, nor did it provide for any award of attorney's fees to the plaintiff.

This appeal presents two questions: (1) Whether the plaintiff was entitled to notice pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated sections 37-9-103 through 37-9-107 (1972); and (2) If the plaintiff was entitled to notice pursuant to those sections, whether he was entitled to be awarded back pay for the year which he lost?

Appellant, Ralph R. Jackson, was the holder of a Class "A" teaching certificate issued by the Board of Education of the State of Mississippi. Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-103 (1972) reads as follows:

As used in sections 37-9-101 through 37-9-113 the word "employee" shall include any teacher, principal, superintendent elected by a board of trustees, and other professional personnel employed by any public school district of this state and required to have a valid certificate issued by the state department of education as a prerequisite of employment.

Jackson fell within this definition and was an employee within the meaning of the Act.

Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-105 (1972) reads, in part, as follows:

Any employee of a school district who has been employed by such district during the entirety of the preceding school year, shall be given notice within seven (7) days of the decision that he not be offered a contract for reemployment for the succeeding school term when:

(c) by April 1 the principal does not recommend to the superintendent the reemployment of a teacher, or by May 1 the principal does recommend the reemployment of a teacher and the superintendent does not approve the recommendation for the teacher's reemployment, or by May 1 the principal and superintendent both recommend the reemployment of a teacher and the board of trustees of the district declines the recommendation.

Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-107 (1972) reads, in part, as follows:

Except in the case of nonreemployment of the superintendent, notice shall be tendered by the superintendent to any employee within seven (7) days of the date when the recommendation to reemploy would have been made under the terms of sections 37-9-15 and 37-9-17 and amendments thereto.

The notice shall be mailed by certified mail, return receipt requested.

The central thrust of the argument of the board of education is that while Ralph R. Jackson may have been a teacher within the definition supplied by Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-103 (1972), Mississippi Code Annotated section 37-9-105 (1972), only requires that notice be given when the principal of the school at which the teacher is employed does not recommend to the superintendent the reemployment of a teacher by April 1 or by May 1 the principal does...