Title: Mercer Co. Board of Ed. v. Townsend  (dissenting)
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 26600
State: west-virginia
Issuer: west-virginia Supreme Court
Date: July 20, 2000

FILED July 20, 2000 RORY L. PERRY II, CLERK SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF WEST VIRGINIA RELEASED July 21, 2000 RORY L. PERRY II, CLERK SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF WEST VIRGINIA No. 26600 - The Board of Education of the County of Mercer v. Kitty Townsend Starcher, J., dissenting: This per curiam opinion is most decidedly not authority for anyone to conclude that the previous practice (pre-1990) of awarding up to a year’s seniority for “substitutes” who worked 133 days or more in a year’s teaching employment is in conflict with the then-applicable law. A settled line of cases before the State Employee Grievance Board, a state superintendent’s interpretation, and this Court’s decision in Harkins v. Ohio County Board of Education, 179 W.Va. 373, 369 S.E.2d 224 (1988) (per curiam) dictates this conclusion, as does a review of the applicable statutory language. On remand, the Administrative Law Judge should follow the law, not dicta in a per curiam footnote. Then the Administrative Law Judge’s analysis may be tested in an appeal of the issue, if a party challenges it. Meanwhile, no one should presume to interfere with the hard-earned seniority of our state’s full-time teachers -- whether they are called “substitutes” or otherwise.