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).

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.