Stead v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 259, Sedgwick Cnty.

• Decision Date: 13 March 2015
• Docket Number: Case No. 13–cv–1378–DDC–JPO.
• Citation: 92 F.Supp.3d 1088
• Parties: Pamela L. STEAD, Plaintiff, v. UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 259, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS ; and John Allison, individually and in his official capacity, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

92 F.Supp.3d 1088

Pamela L. STEAD, Plaintiff

v.UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 259, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS ; and John Allison, individually and in his official capacity, Defendants.

Case No. 13–cv–1378–DDC–JPO.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

Signed March 13, 2015.

M. Kathryn Webb, Law Office of M. Kathryn Webb, Wichita, KS, for Plaintiff.

Andrew T. Geren, Richard W. James, Devaughn James, LLC, Wichita, KS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DANIEL D. CRABTREE, District Judge.

Plaintiff Pamela Stead brings this lawsuit asserting various causes of action arising from defendants' conduct investigating, publicizing, and responding to allegations of improprieties during the administration of Kansas state assessment tests. These events ultimately led to plaintiff's resignation as principal of Enterprise Elementary School, part of Unified School District 259 in Wichita, Kansas. This matter comes before the Court on defendants USD 259 and Superintendent John Allison's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 99). Plaintiff has filed a response (Doc. 115), and defendants have filed a reply (Doc. 116). After reviewing the arguments and evidence submitted by the parties, the Court grants defendants' motion for summary judgment for the reasons explained below.

I. Procedural Background

Plaintiff filed this action on September 11, 2013, in the District Court of Sedgwick County, Kansas (Doc. 1–1). Plaintiff's Complaint asserts 11 causes of action: (1) defamation (libel and slander); (2) false light invasion of privacy; (3) negligence; (4) breach of contract; (5) breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; (6) intentional interference with contract and prospective business advantage; (7) intentional infliction of emotional distress; (8) negligent infliction of emotional distress; (9) fraudulent inducement; (10) negligent misrepresentation; and (11) deprivation of civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (specifically, deprivation of procedural and substantive due process). On October 8, 2013, defendants filed a Notice of Removal (Doc. 1), invoking this Court's jurisdiction over federal questions under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and its supplemental jurisdiction over pendant state law claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c). Plaintiff did not seek remand. Nevertheless, the Court has considered whether it should exercise jurisdiction over all of plaintiff's claims, see 1mage Software, Inc. v. Reynolds & Reynolds Co., 459 F.3d 1044, 1048 (10th Cir.2006) (“[f]ederal courts have an independent obligation to determine whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists”), and concludes that this case is properly within its federal question and supplemental jurisdiction.

II. Uncontroverted Facts

The following paragraphs set forth the facts material to defendants' summary judgment motion. These facts are either uncontroverted by the parties or are viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the non-moving party.¹

A. Parties

Plaintiff was employed by Unified School District 259 for 27 years as a teacher, an assistant principal, and a principal. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents regarded her well throughout her tenure with the District. She was employed as principal of Enterprise Elementary (“Enterprise”) in Wichita, Kansas from 2007 until March 28, 2012, when she was placed on administrative leave and resigned soon after the events that now form the basis of this lawsuit.

Defendant Unified School District 259 (the “District”) is a Kansas public school district serving much of the Wichita area. It is the largest school district in Kansas, educating approximately 11% of all students attending public school in the state. Defendant John Allison serves as the superintendent of the District.

B. Testing Policies and Procedures

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and related mandates imposed by the Kansas legislature, public schools must administer certain state assessment tests to their students. Schools must administer these assessments in compliance with rules, policies, and procedures promulgated by the Kansas Department of Education (“KDE”) and local school districts, which aim to ensure the fairness and integrity of the test results.

The Kansas Assessment is a testing program administered by the KDE. The reading, mathematics, and science components of the Kansas Assessment are part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The Kansas Assessment's purpose, among others, aims to establish a school's total score for purposes of measuring Adequate Yearly Progress (“AYP”). The United States Department of Education uses AYP to measure the performance of public schools and compare districts to state standards and other indicators. A public school that fails to meet standards for AYP is subject to sanctions ranging from warnings to staff reassignments.

Each year, the KDE publishes the Kansas Assessment Examiner's Manual. It promulgates rules and procedures schools must follow when administering the state assessments. Plaintiff knew about the 2010–11 and the 2011–12 versions of the Examiner's Manual and kept hard copies in her office. The District trains principals and other administrators how to comply with the testing practices and protocols set forth in the Examiner's Manual. Plaintiff attended these training sessions each year she served as Enterprise's principal.

C. Initial Suspicion of Misconduct by Plaintiff

Enterprise administered the fourth grade reading assessment over a four-day period beginning on March 6 and ending on March 9, 2012. Plaintiff oversaw administration of the math, science, and reading components for all third, fourth, and fifth grade students at Enterprise. Plaintiff shared this responsibility with Christy Winn, Enterprise's Testing Coordinator.

The testing period occurred during a construction project that included two additions to Enterprise's building. Plaintiff made numerous efforts to stop the construction because it caused noise during testing. She did not succeed. On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, plaintiff received notice from third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers that several students had complained that the loud construction noise prevented them from focusing and performing to the best of their abilities on the test. Plaintiff convened a meeting of third, fourth and fifth grade teachers and Ms. Winn to discuss the problem. Plaintiff and Ms. Winn believed that the students did not have an appropriate testing environment. In response, plaintiff and Ms. Winn decided to reactivate some of these students' tests. According to plaintiff, she reactivated tests only for students who had complained about the noise and reactivated only the sections they had complained about most.

On March 6 and 8, Jamie Junker, an “instructional coach”—a teacher who helps other teachers with teaching strategies, models lessons, and facilitates staff development—helped administer the test in Ms. Aaryn Ludens' fourth grade classroom. In the spring of 2012, Enterprise administered a majority of its standardized testing on computers. Teachers instructed students to raise their hands when they had completed their tests. A teacher would then look to confirm that the student had answered every question on the test and, if so, would log the student out of the testing system. Ms. Junker observed one student had completed the third section for that day's reading assessment, the last section the students completed before they broke for lunch.² Ms. Junker helped the student log out of the testing system. She then accessed the computerized system (“CETE”)³ and observed that the student received a score that the guidelines designate as “approaching standards” but not as a passing score.⁴

After the lunch break, Ms. Junker was working in the same fourth grade classroom. She was conducting a model teaching lesson for Ms. Ludens. Ms. Junker noticed that the student she had seen complete but not pass the test was not in the classroom for the lesson, and he remained absent for an extended period. She learned that the plaintiff had called the student into her office to discuss his performance on the reading assessment.

The next Monday, Ms. Junker logged into the CETE system and discovered that it showed a new score for that particular student. His score no longer “approached standards.” Instead, the system showed that he had “passed” the assessment. It also revealed that he had been permitted to retake all three of the sections of the March 8 exam because his test had been “reactivated.”

A student whose test is reactivated takes exactly the same test posing exactly the same questions as the student took the first time. The Examiner's Manual provides that “[i]n some rare circumstances, it is necessary to reactivate a student's session due to a student not completing an entire test part due to a power failure, loss of internet connection, or not finishing in one sitting.” None of these circumstances had occurred during this student's testing period. Having learned that this student's test had been reactivated after personally observing him complete sections one and three of his exam, Ms. Junker contacted district administrators. She reported that she believed plaintiff was “cheating” and not following the guidelines in the Examiner's Manual. Specifically, Ms. Junker believed plaintiff was allowing students who did not pass the test to retake sections of the test until they achieved a passing score. Within 24 hours of learning this information, Superintendent Allison contacted KDE Deputy Commissioner Brad Neuenswander.

D. Enterprise's “Suspect” Reactivations

This incident was not the only time Enterprise reactivated students' exams during the spring 2012 state assessments. Enterprise reactivated many other tests during this round of assessments. The reactivations cited, among others, the following reasons: “construction noise,” “[f]lew through test,” “did not do his best,” “anger problems,” “[e]motionally disturbed student out of control,” and “students not being...