Title: Pickens County Board of Education v. Keasler
Citation: 82 So. 2d 197
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: August 18, 1955

82 So. 2d 197 (1955)
PICKENS COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
v.
Iva Conner KEASLER.
6 Div. 630.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
August 18, 1955.
W. A. Davis, Aliceville, and John H. Curry, Carrollton, for appellant.
LeMaistre, Clement &amp; Gewin and Perry Hubbard, Tuscaloosa, for appellee.
GOODWYN, Justice.
This proceeding relates to the Teachers' Tenure of Employment Law, Code 1940, Tit. 52, Chap. 13, § 351 et seq., as amended.
Appellee, Iva Conner Keasler, a teacher on continuing service status in the public school system of Pickens County, Alabama, made written request to the County Board *198 of Education for a hearing on the Board's proposed cancellation of her employment contract; this pursuant to § 357, Tit. 52, supra. On conclusion of the hearing the Board cancelled her contract. Thereupon, appellee filed in the Circuit Court of Pickens County a petition for mandamus to review the Board's action. Sec. 358, Tit. 52, as amended by Act No. 410, appvd. July 7, 1945, Gen.Acts 1945, p. 646 [now § 360]. The alternative writ was issued and the Board made answer thereto. A hearing was then had on the petition, the evidence being taken orally before the trial court. After the hearing the trial court granted a peremptory writ of mandamus to be directed to the Board of Education ordering and directing it to return appellee to an active full-time teaching status. This appeal is prosecuted by the Board from that judgment. Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 761.
The grounds for cancellation of an employment contract with a teacher on continuing service status "may be made for incompetency, insubordination, neglect of duty, immorality, justifiable decrease in the number of teaching positions, or other good and just cause; but cancellation may not be made for political or personal reasons." Code 1940, Tit. 52, § 356 (§ 356 is carried as § 358 in the 1953 Act amending Chapter 13, Title 52, Code 1940, Act No. 773, appvd. Sept. 16, 1953, Gen.Acts 1953, pp. 1040, 1042. The 1953 amendments, however, have no application to this case). The grounds relied on by the Board of Education are that there was a "justifiable decrease in the number of teaching positions" and also "other good and just cause" said to consist of refusal of the trustees of the several schools in the county to accept the assignment of appellee to their schools. See § 140, Tit. 52, Code 1940.
It appears from the evidence that appellee holds a class 5 certificate and that at the time of the cancellation of her contract the Board of Education retained the services of four teachers qualified to teach in the same grades as appellee who had not obtained continuing service status.
As we view the case the determinative question for decision is whether the contract of a teacher who has obtained continuing service status may be cancelled because of a justifiable decrease in the number of teaching positions when there is retained by the Board of Education a teacher who is qualified to teach in the same position, but who has not obtained continuing service status.
The position taken by the appellant Board is that the teachers retained, though not having continuing service status, hold certificates of a higher grade than appellee; that the cancellation of appellee's contract was in line with the Board's established policy of increasing the level of qualifications of the teachers in the school system; and that, unless the Board has such authority, it cannot meet its responsibility of training the youth of the county. On the other hand appellee's position is that the Tenure of Employment Law was adopted for the purpose of giving to the teacher stability of employment; that so long as appellee was qualified to perform the teaching service, the Tenure Law gives to her priority over those who have not obtained continuing service status. Cited in support of her position is the Indiana case of Watson v. Burnett, 216 Ind. 216, 23 N.E.2d 420, 423. That court, in discussing a provision (Ind.Acts 1927, pp. 259, 260) identical to that contained in § 356, Tit. 52, supra, had this to say:
From Seidel v. Board of Education of Ventnor City, 110 N.J.L. 31, 164 A. 901, 902, affirmed 111 N.J.L. 240, 168 A. 297, is the following:
See, also, 47 Am.Jur., Schools, § 139, pp. 397-398, where it is said:
The second ground for cancellation relied on by appellant is without merit. We see no necessity of deciding whether refusal by school trustees as provided for in § 140, Tit. 52, supra, would constitute "other good and just cause" under § 356, Tit. 52, supra, inasmuch as the requirements of § 140 are not shown to have been complied with.
From what we have said it follows that the judgment of the trial court awarding the peremptory writ of mandamus is due to be affirmed. It is so ordered.
Affirmed.
LAWSON, STAKELY, MERRILL and MAYFIELD, JJ., concur.