Opinion ID: 2007108
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Gere advances several arguments.

Text: A. Gere maintains that even if the district had contractual and statutory authority to assign attendance officer duties, such an assignment was an abuse of discretion here. Where matters such as the employment of personnel are by law left to the discretion of school boards, a good faith exercise of that discretion will not ordinarily be disturbed. Board of Directors of Independent School District of Waterloo v. Green, 259 Iowa 1260, 1266, 147 N.W.2d 854, 857 (1967); Goodwin v. Bennett County High School Independent School District, 88 S.D. 639, 226 N.W.2d 166, 168 (S.D.1975); 68 Am.Jur.2d Schools § 52 (1973). As stated regarding an analogous situation in Board of Education v. The Great Neck Teachers Ass'n, 92 LRRM 3486, 3487 (BNA) (N.Y. Sup.Ct.1976): The responsibility of furnishing an efficient system of public education has been imposed upon boards of education ... and they must have sufficient latitude to manage the district's educational affairs and particularly in these times of fiscal concern, broad discretion to determine the nature and form of the district's instructional programs. Gere did not dispute at trial that the 65-student school to which he was assigned did not require a full-time principal. By assigning other duties to him, the district was able to continue providing him full-time employment and simultaneously to fill a needed staff position. The previous full-time attendance officer had resigned, and the district used the opportunity to restructure the job into a part-time position. School districts are required to have attendance officers by section 299.10 of the Iowa Code; the position could not be left vacant on the basis of attrition. B. Gere asserts that the positions of outdoor education coordinator and principal are educationally related and fit within the concept of elementary principal. He asserts that attendance officer duties, on the other hand, are wholly unrelated to a principal's functionsalthough he does not claim unreasonableness based on the number or timing of hours of work. Several educational experts testified the job of attendance officer would not be within the parameters of the position of elementary school principal. Further along this line, Gere claims the position of attendance officer has negative, law-enforcement connotations in contrast to the positive, educational image of a principal. He admits, however, that as principal he has both attendance and discipline responsibilities. In addition, the district points out that principals, albeit they are educational leaders, are authority figures. Certainly recollections of the long walk to the principal's office do not conjure up images that are positive. Moreover, in this case Gere has no law enforcement duties as attendance officer; he does not scour Council Bluffs streets for unwary truants. His main duties consist instead of compiling statistics, preparing written reports, visiting truants and their parents, and communicating attendance records to building principals. C. Gere also argues he is not qualified for the attendance officer position. The record shows, however, that as principal he is responsible for attendance record-keeping at his assigned school. The record contains no indication Gere found the duties beyond his capabilities, or that the district was dissatisfied with his work as attendance officer. A public employer, such as a school district, has discretion regarding the job qualifications of its employees, based on its duty and right to hire, promote, demote, transfer, assign, and retain employees. Charles City Education Ass'n v. Public Employment Relations Board, 291 N.W.2d 663, 667 (Iowa 1980). While Gere's assignment as attendance officer would be of the whole district, he already functioned as outdoor education officer for four grades in the whole district, and he does not claim he would not have sufficient time to perform the duties of attendance officer or object to being district coordinator of the outdoor education programs. The district did not abuse its discretion in viewing the problem from the standpoint of the district as a whole, in endeavoring to achieve economy and efficiency. A similar case is McGrath v. Burkhard, 131 Cal.App.2d 367, 280 P.2d 864 (1955). Teachers challenged their assignments to supervisory duties at extracurricular events. They alleged the duties were unreasonable because in the nature of police work, unprofessional, and foreign to the field of instruction. They argued they had no training for the duties and the assignment was degrading, humiliating and unprofessional. Id. at 374-75, 280 P.2d at 869-70. The court found, however, the assignment of the duties within the discretion of the district. Much the same complaint was involved in District 300 Education Ass'n v. Board of Education, 31 Ill.App.3d 550, 334 N.E.2d 165 (1975). The court found the assignment to be within the school board's discretion. The assignments objected to do not appear to have been onerous in nature or unreasonably time consuming [and] are not demeaning to the professional stature of the teacher. Id. at 554, 334 N.E.2d at 168. School personnel from similarly-sized school districts in Iowa testified to forced dual assignments as a result of declining enrollments, budget cutbacks, and building closings. Personnel from school districts in Iowa City, Waterloo, Clinton, Ottumwa, Sioux City, and Burlington noted that their building principals perform discipline and attendance functions, and also serve as instructional leaders. Testimony was given that attendance officer duties similar to Gere's are currently performed by principals with dual assignments in Sioux City, Burlington, and Clinton. Construing other duties in the contract and statute, we hold that the district did not exceed its discretion in assigning attendance officer duties to Gere. We do not deal with the question of what duties may be combined in an initial contract, or in a new contract after a continuing contract has been lawfully terminated. REVERSED.