Opinion ID: 2361116
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Evaluate as Coach

Text: The failure of the Board of Education to provide Code a formal written evaluation for an extra service coaching assignment as head basketball coach does not void the decision of the Board to remove him from his coaching position. The pertinent statutes and regulations do not require any formal written evaluation of coaching or any other extra service duties before a decision is made not to renew the extra service duty contract of the certified teacher. To require that a school district's provision of athletic programs be evaluated in the same way as educational programs by means of formal written evaluation of coaches is to adopt a program that goes beyond the legislative purposes set out in the evaluation requirements of KRS 156.101, which is now KRS 156.557. The clear and unambiguous language of KRS 156.101(6)(c)(6) indicates that it was the intention of the General Assembly to require evaluations of teaching or administrative positions of certified teachers only. It states: (6) The evaluation system shall include a plan whereby the person evaluated is given assistance for becoming more proficient as a teacher or administrator. . . . The evaluation mandate is limited to those educational activities of teaching and administration. The evaluation procedures relate to proper techniques for effectively evaluating certified school employees. Certified employees are teachers, administrators and other support staff. 704 KAR 3:345 Section 1(1) and (2) define the positions and job categories to be evaluated. The position of coach is not included in any of these definitions either expressly or by examples or commentary. The General Assembly was interested in providing the public with information in regard to how certified school personnel were performing in the education of children, as distinguished from providing information about how a high school sports team was performing. The definition of evaluation noted in KRS 156.101 does not require that a certified teacher be formally evaluated as a coach when he is being evaluated as a teacher. Teachers are to be evaluated in their teaching and learning situations and administrators and other support staff are to be evaluated in their leadership and management situations. The relevant statutes and regulations demonstrate that no formal evaluation of a coach or any other extra service duty is required before a decision not to renew the extra service duty of a teacher for the coming school year may be made. The instructional and educational requirements on a school district are not the same as those relating to a program of athletics. KRS 161.760 provides the formula for school administrators to review the staffing of any particular school. The same statute provides protection for teachers from any arbitrary action by the administrators by requiring that a superintendent provide both timely notice and a reason for any personnel change. The trial judge correctly determined that Code had received proper notice of the decision by administrators not to reappoint him as head basketball coach in 1993. Code did not seek review of this decision of the circuit court. The regulations define position as a professional role in the school district, citing examples as teacher, secondary principal and supervisor of instruction. 704 KAR 3:345 § 1(12). The term job category is defined as a group or class of positions with closely related functions and cites as examples, principal, coordinator and director. 704 KAR 3:345 § 1(13). The designation coach is not included in any of these definitions either expressly or by examples. This omission provides evidence to support the conclusion that the General Assembly intended to require evaluations of professional staff performing the functions of teaching and administration. The same message is found in the definition section of the regulation providing for standards of performance in that it refers to effective teachers or administrators. Cf. 704 KAR 3:345 § 1(11). We find no merit in the argument by Code that the definition of evaluation requires that the process mandated by KRS 156.101 relates to any formal evaluation as coach when he is being evaluated as a teacher. The definition of an evaluation in 704 KAR 3:345 states in pertinent part: The process of assessing or determining the effectiveness of the performance of the certified employee in a given teaching and learning or leadership and management situation. The evaluation system provided by KRS 156.101 and 704 KAR 3:345 should be read in conjunction with the description of those certified employees who are to be evaluated: teachers, administrators, and other support staff. The regulation provides that the purpose of the evaluation is to provide a list of performance criteria characteristic of effective teaching or administrative practices. The fact that at the time of this dispute, head coaches of major high school athletic activities were required to be certified teachers does not mandate that a certified teacher who is also a coach must be evaluated as a coach pursuant to KRS 156.101. The regulation requiring the appointment of certified teachers to certain coaching positions does not contain any reference to KRS 156.101, and its requirements of a formal evaluation. 702 KAR 7:090 does not contain any independent requirement for an evaluation of coaches who are also certified teachers. It is the certification as a classroom teacher, and not the position as coach, which establishes a person as a certified school employee under both the regulation and the statute. It is such status which gives rise to evaluation. As noted in the dissenting opinion by Judge Knox, the evaluation is required solely for the purpose of assessing his qualifications as a teacher. Thompson v. Board of Education of Henderson County, Ky., 838 S.W.2d 390 (1992), stated that the purpose of the Kentucky Effective Instructional Leadership Act, of which KRS 156.101 is a part, is to encourage and require the maintenance and development of effective instructional leadership in the public schools. The goal of the law is to improve the quality of educational services and does not address in any way extracurricular school activities including high school athletics. We cannot accept the arguments put forward by Code which would impose on the school districts an evaluation requirement that is not mandated by either statute or regulation. The law provides direction for developing the evaluation of teachers, but it does not provide standards for evaluating coaches. The creation of such a system by judicial fiat could produce an absurd result in which a competent teacher could be fired for being an incompetent coach. Such a result is not the intention of the statutes and regulations.