U.S. v. Gadsden County School Dist., 75-4294

• Citation: 539 F.2d 1369
• Decision Date: 06 October 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-4294,75-4294
• Parties: 22 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1216, 12 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 11,213 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, Robert Love et al., Plaintiffs-Intervenors, v. GADSDEN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1369

539 F.2d 1369

22 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1216,

12 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 11,213

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, Robert Love et al., Plaintiffs-Intervenors, v. GADSDEN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 75-4294.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 6, 1976.

J. Worth Owen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Pensacola, Fla., Walter W. Barnett, Atty., John Hammock, Anita Marshall, Brian K. Landsberg, Dept. of Justice (Civil Rights Division) Appellate Section, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard J. Gardner, Quincy, Fla., C. Graham Carothers, Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants-appellees.

Kent Spriggs, Tallahassee, Fla., Jack Greenberg, James C. Gray, Jr., New York City, for plaintiffs-intervenors.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, and MORGAN and GEE, Circuit Judges.

LEWIS R. MORGAN, Circuit Judge:

In 1975 the Gadsden County School District, with the authorization of the district court, closed Midway Elementary School. Clarence Bryant, Midway's black principal for five years, ¹ was transferred to the position of "assistant principal" of Havana Middle School. The United States, a party to the original desegregation suit in Gadsden County, charges that this transfer was a "demotion" within the meaning of Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 419 F.2d 1211 (5th Cir. 1969), rev'd in part sub nom. Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477 (1970) (reversal limited to timing of desegregation), and that it was accomplished without reference to the "nonracial objective criteria" required by Singleton for the selection of professional staff to be dismissed or demoted when staff reductions occur during conversion of a dual school system into a unitary one.

The district court, after an evidentiary hearing, held that Bryant's transfer was not a demotion. For the reasons stated herein, we reverse this finding as clearly erroneous. We also reject the School Board's alternative arguments in support of the district court judgment. Finally, we remand with instructions that the School Board promulgate written nonracial objective criteria for selecting professional staff to be dismissed or demoted as a result of staff reductions during unification and that it reconsider Bryant's demotion in light of such criteria.

I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW.

In Singleton this court, following Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19 (1969), held that school districts "may no longer operate dual systems and must begin immediately to operate as unitary systems." 419 F.2d at 1217. In a unanimous en banc opinion we directed that certain steps must be taken, and procedures followed, to accomplish the immediate desegregation of student bodies, faculties, and administrations. In the portion of this directive which is relevant to the instant case, we stated:

2. Staff members who work directly with children, and professional staff who work on the administrative level will be hired, assigned, promoted, paid, demoted, dismissed, and otherwise treated without regard to race, color, or national origin.

3. If there is to be a reduction in the number of principals, teachers, teacher-aides, or other professional staff employed by the school district which will result in a dismissal or demotion of any such staff members, the staff member to be dismissed or demoted must be selected on the basis of objective and reasonable non-discriminatory standards from among all the staff of the school district. . . .

Prior to such a reduction, the school board will develop or require the development of nonracial objective criteria to be used in selecting the staff member who is to be dismissed or demoted. These criteria shall be available for public inspection and shall be retained by the school district. The school district also shall record and preserve the evaluation of staff members under the criteria. Such evaluation shall be made available upon request to the dismissed or demoted employee.

'Demotion' as used above includes any re-assignment (1) under which the staff member receives less pay or has less responsibility than under the assignment he held previously, (2) which requires a lesser degree of skill than did the assignment he held previously, or (3) under which the staff member is asked to teach a subject or grade other than one for which he is certified or for which he has had substantial experience within a reasonably current period.

419 F.2d at 1218.

On August 7, 1970 the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida ordered the School Board of Gadsden County, Florida immediately to effectuate a plan for conversion to a unitary school system. Midway Elementary School (grades K-6) was covered by this order. The order also incorporated, verbatim, that portion of Singleton's directions with respect to dismissal and demotion of professional staff quoted above, including the requirement that the School Board develop and make publicly available nonracial objective criteria before any such dismissal or demotion took place. Record Vol. I at 8-11.

It is undisputed that the School Board, to this date, never has promulgated and made publicly available such criteria. Record Vol. III at 67 (stipulation of the School Board); see Campbell v. Gadsden County District School Board, 534 F.2d 650, 657 (5th Cir. 1976).

On May 6, 1975 the School Board petitioned the district court for modification of the 1970 desegregation order, requesting permission to close Midway Elementary School at the end of the 1974-75 school term and to transfer its students and staff to other schools. ² On May 27 the district court entered an order granting the School Board's request. The United States then moved to modify the May 27 order, alleging that the transfer of Midway's black principal Clarence Bryant to the position of "assistant principal" of Havana Middle School (grades 6-8) was a demotion within the meaning of Singleton and the 1970 desegregation order and that it was accomplished without reference to the nonracial objective criteria required by those authorities. The United States prayed that the School Board be ordered to apply such criteria in selecting which principal within the school system would be demoted as a result of closing Midway. ³

The district court held an evidentiary hearing on the government's motion November 7, 1975. Bryant, who by now had undertaken his new post at Havana Middle School, testified at the hearing, as did Assistant Superintendent Grinelle Bishop and Superintendent M. D. Walker. At the conclusion of the hearing the district court ruled from the bench that the United States was not entitled to the relief sought because Bryant's transfer was not a demotion. The court therefore found it unnecessary to decide whether the requirement of reference to nonracial objective criteria had been violated. ⁴ The United States appeals.

II. WAS BRYANT "DEMOTED" WITHIN THE MEANING OF SINGLETON ?

Under Singleton, a demotion occurs whenever a member of a school's professional staff is reassigned to a position where he or she receives less pay, or has less responsibility, or is required to use a lesser degree of skill than in his or her previous assignment. ⁵ 419 F.2d at 1218. As this court has emphasized, an increase in salary cannot, under Singleton, compensate for a decrease in responsibility, because,

a truly dedicated educator, presumably the sort of educator that school boards would seek, will often minimize his monetary returns in exchange for factors that are more treasured by him as an administrator or teacher. The real gist of demotion is a reduction in responsibility, not in salary. . . . (A) school board . . . cannot prostitute the responsibility principle simply by offering higher salaries for substantially less responsible work to demoted employees.

Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 453 F.2d 1104, 1109-10 (5th Cir. 1971); see Campbell v. Gadsden County District School Board, 534 F.2d 650, 656-57 (5th Cir. 1976); Bassett v. Atlanta Independent School District, 485 F.2d 1268, 1271 (5th Cir. 1973); Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 456 F.2d 1371, 1373-74 (5th Cir. 1972). In this case, as in those cited above, the key question is whether the reassignment complained of resulted in a reduction of responsibility. ⁶ It was incumbent upon the School Board to show that it did not. Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 456 F.2d 1371, 1373 (5th Cir. 1972).

At the hearing below, Bryant described in some detail the range of responsibility he had carried as principal of Midway Elementary School. He testified that he supervised all the school's instructional staff, consisting of nine to eleven teachers and six teachers' aides, and scheduled all the school's classes. He was also responsible for the discipline and safety of the school's 160 to 180 students.

In addition, Bryant performed a number of administrative duties. He compiled regular reports to the superintendent's office on the school's finances, attendance, and Title I program. He ordered textbooks for the school and was responsible for money collected from the school lunchroom and other sources. Bryant named the members of Midway's Title I advisory committee, and he met both with that group and with members of the school's PTA.

Bryant also described his current duties as assistant principal of Havana Middle School. According to his uncontradicted testimony, these duties consisted almost exclusively of checking school buses as they arrived in the morning and departed in the evening, and watching the children during their lunch periods and class breaks. He testified that as assistant principal of Midway he supervised no teachers, prepared no class schedules, and wrote no administrative reports.

Finally, Bryant testified that h...