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2018 Georgia Code 20-2-943 | Car Wreck Lawyer

Link to State of Georgia Official Statute 2018 Georgia Code Annotated (sourced from legal.resource.org)
O.C.G.A. 20-2-943 Case Law from Google Scholar Amendments to OCGA 20-2-943

TITLE 20 EDUCATION

Section 2. Elementary and Secondary Education, 20-2-1 through 20-2-2180.

ARTICLE 17 TEACHERS AND OTHER SCHOOL PERSONNEL

20-2-943. Powers of local boards of education under this part.

  1. In exercising its powers in the enforcement of due process under this part, a local board of education shall be authorized:
    1. Under Code Section 20-2-940 to:
      1. Terminate the contract of the teacher or other school employee;
      2. Suspend a teacher or other school employee without pay for a period of time not to exceed 60 days. In such event, the teacher or employee shall provide no services for the school system and shall receive no compensation but shall be considered an employee on suspended status; or
      3. Reinstate a teacher or other school employee in the event the teacher or school employee has been temporarily relieved from duty in accordance with this part;
    2. Under Code Section 20-2-942 to:
      1. Nonrenew a teacher's or other school employee's contract;
      2. Renew a teacher's or other school employee's contract; or
      3. Demote a teacher or other school employee from one position in the school system to another position in the school system having less responsibility, prestige, and salary.
  2. Nothing in this part shall be construed as depriving local boards of education and other school officials from assigning and reassigning teachers and other certificated professional employees from one school to another or from assigning and reassigning teachers to teach different classes or subjects.

(Ga. L. 1975, p. 360, § 4.)

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Responsibility, prestige, and salary must all be affected for transfer to be considered demotion. Rockdale County Sch. Dist. v. Weil, 245 Ga. 730, 266 S.E.2d 919 (1980).

Reassignment constituting demotion, not transfer.

- Teacher was demoted, rather than transferred, as a result of the teacher's reassignment from the position of language arts coordinator to that of classroom teacher; thus, the teacher suffered both a downward adjustment in pay and a decrease in working hours. Ellis-Adams v. Whitfield County Bd. of Educ., 182 Ga. App. 463, 356 S.E.2d 219 (1987).

Reassignment occasioned by closing of a school.

- Nothing in the Georgia statutes or court decisions indicates that the plain language of paragraph (a)(2) of O.C.G.A. § 20-2-943 does not apply when the reassignment to a position of less responsibility, prestige, and salary within the school system is occasioned by closing a school and eliminating a position. Hatcher v. Board of Pub. Educ. & Orphanage, 809 F.2d 1546 (11th Cir. 1987).

Failure to reassign teacher to certain position not demotion.

- Board's decision not to reassign a teacher as the school's "band director" after having assigned the teacher those duties for the previous four years was not a demotion within the meaning of the Fair Dismissal Law, O.C.G.A. § 20-2-940 et seq., since such position was not a cognizable tenured position recognized by the Professional Standards Commission. King v. Board of Educ., 214 Ga. App. 325, 447 S.E.2d 657 (1994).

Reassignment without a reduction in pay not demotion. Hamilton v. Telfair County Sch. Dist., 265 Ga. 304, 455 S.E.2d 23 (1995).

Public school employee's federal procedural due process claims failed because the employee, when transferred from a principal position to a lead teacher position at an alternative school, was not demoted as defined in O.C.G.A. § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C) since the employee did not receive a lesser salary or less prestige or less responsibility and actually received an increase in pay, and as such, the employee was not entitled to the procedural protections outlined in O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-940(b) through (f) and20-2-942(b)(2), which the employee had been denied, because the employee lacked a property interest under Georgia law. Siler v. Hancock County Bd. of Educ., 510 F. Supp. 2d 1362 (M.D. Ga. 2007).

In a case in which a former school principal argued that the former principal's due process rights were violated under the Fourteenth Amendment when a school district transferred the former principal without a hearing, that argument was without merit. While O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-940(b)-(f) and20-2-942(b)(2) provided that an educational employee had a right to a hearing when facing a demotion, to qualify as a demotion, O.C.G.A. § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C) provided that the subsequent position must be accompanied by a decrease in salary, and the former principal was unable to demonstrate that there was a decrease in salary. Siler v. Hancock County Bd. of Educ., F.3d (11th Cir. Apr. 9, 2008)(Unpublished).

Cited in Emerson v. Bible, 247 Ga. 633, 278 S.E.2d 382 (1981); Hinson v. Clinch County Bd. of Educ., 231 F.3d 821 (11th Cir. 2000).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 68 Am. Jur. 2d, Schools, §§ 219 et seq., 249.

C.J.S.

- 78 C.J.S., Schools and School Districts, §§ 362 et seq., 374, 378, 390 et seq.

ALR.

- Compensation of tenure teacher, 154 A.L.R. 148.

Termination of teacher's tenure status by resignation, 9 A.L.R.4th 729.

Validity, construction, and effect of municipal residency requirements for teachers, principals, and other school employees, 75 A.L.R.4th 272.

Cases Citing O.C.G.A. § 20-2-943

Total Results: 2  |  Sort by: Relevance  |  Newest First

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Hall v. Nelson, 651 S.E.2d 72 (Ga. 2007).

Cited 45 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Sep 24, 2007 | 282 Ga. 441, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 2912, 26 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1248

...to an administrative position). However, OCGA § 20-2-942(c)(1) does not preclude reassignment of Nelson to an administrative position other than principal, so long as that reassignment does not constitute an unauthorized demotion as defined by OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C)....
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Hamilton v. Telfair Cnty. Sch. Dist., 455 S.E.2d 23 (Ga. 1995).

Cited 6 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Mar 17, 1995 | 265 Ga. 304, 95 Fulton County D. Rep. 1111

...The trial court denied the petition, finding that Hamilton had failed to prove that she had been demoted. Hamilton appeals, and we affirm. In order to establish that a transfer constitutes a demotion, one must show that there has been an adverse effect on one's salary, responsibility, and prestige, OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C); Rockdale County School District v....
...ng reassigned from her position as assistant principal/vocational director at Telfair County High School to the position of principal of Telfair Alternative Center, the county's alternative school. Viewing the personnel move as a demotion under OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C) [2] and being a teacher certificated by the Professional Standards Commission who had accepted at least four consecutive school-year contracts from the same local board of education, appellant sought the due process rights afforded her under the Georgia Fair Dismissal Law, OCGA §§ 20-2-940 and 942(b)....
...In order for appellant to be entitled to a hearing concerning the job action, she had to establish that the job action constituted a demotion, i.e., that she had suffered a decrease in salary, a decrease in prestige, and a decrease in responsibility. OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C); Rockdale County School Dist....
...oved from that position without a hearing, since her termination as vocational director constituted a demotion as she was deprived of the supplemental pay and the prestige and responsibilities that went along with being vocational director. See OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C)....
...Because the trial court erred in determining that appellant had not been demoted and was therefore not entitled to the due process statutorily guaranteed her, the judgment should be reversed with direction that the trial court enter judgment requiring the school district to conduct the hearing mandated by OCGA § 20-2-943(a)(2)(C)....