Court Opinion

ID: 9695005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:03:55.943115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.554315
License: Public Domain

DAVIES, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
Approaching this case from the principal’s point of view, as the majority does, leads inevitably to the conclusion that it was improper to place Klein on unrequested leave. But if the problem is approached from the point of view of the “superintendency,” the opposite result seems necessary.
Stated otherwise, if the issue is whether the school board may shape the job of the superintendent to fit the financial constraints facing the district, what the board did here is permissible. And a board must be free to fill the superintendent’s job with such other responsibilities as the board feels appropriate. Further, a small district board must usually round out a part-time superintendent’s job with responsibilities as a principal. Otherwise, the superintendent does not fill two-thirds of his time with administrative responsibilities, as required by Minn.R. 3500.0600, subp. 2. The Hills/Beaver Creek District, therefore, reasonably chose to assign Superintendent Robert Dell to a half-time principalship. That part-time principalship could not be at the high school because that job, combined with the superintendency, would have been more than one person could handle.
So, the school board turned to the elementary principalship, making it necessary to displace relator Merlin Klein. Klein, once displaced from the elementary princi-palship, had bumping rights for the secondary principalship. But he was not certified for that position because of his career-long work in the elementary grades. Thus, although he had bumping rights to the high school principalship, he did not qualify for that position and was forced, instead, to bump a classroom teacher.
I think a school board must be left free, so long as it has no ulterior motive, to shape the superintendency as it chooses. Klein’s job was legitimately abolished and his tenure rights are fully vindicated by his right to bump an elementary teacher of less seniority.
I would affirm the school board.