Section 5.11 Principals, Assistant Principals, and Other Certificated Employees

• Library: School Law (2003 Ed. + 2016 Supp)

D. (§5.11) Principals, Assistant Principals, and Other Certificated Employees

Principals and assistant principals have no tenure in their positions, de jure or de facto; such positions are expressly denied permanent status by §§ 168.101 and 168.104(4), RSMo 2000. Thus, principals and assistant principals can claim no right to the procedures of due process to secure the terms of employment because no property interest in the benefit of reemployment has accrued. Elrod v. Harrisonville Cass R-IX Sch. Dist., 706 S.W.2d 465, 476 (Mo. App. W.D. 1986). But § 168.101 gives certain procedural rights to principals, assistant principals, and other certificated administrators. The section applies to “legally certificated teachers . . . not eligible under section 168.104 to gain permanent status or tenure in the position held within the school system.” The superintendent of schools is expressly excluded from coverage. Subsections 1 and 2 of § 168.101 authorize school boards to employ and contract with certificated administrators on a year-to-year basis. Arguably, as stated in §5.1 above, such administrators may also be hired for up to three years under §§ 168.201 and 168.101, RSMo 2000. If a school board wants to demote a certificated administrator or to change the terms of his or her employment, it must give timely written notice to that effect by April 15^th. Delivering a copy of board minutes to the principal is sufficient notice. Smith v. Dora R-III Sch. Dist., 682 S.W.2d 182, 184 (Mo. App. S.D. 1984). Failure on the part of the board to give the notice constitutes reemployment on the same terms and in the same staff position as those provided in the contract of the current fiscal year. Section 168.101.3.

The statute states that any motion regarding reemployment shall include only one person and shall be made in the positive sense, i.e., a motion to reemploy rather than a motion to not reemploy. But it has been held that failure to comply with this provision is not fatal to the board’s action because substantial rather than technical compliance is sufficient. Meloy v. Reorganized Sch. Dist. R-1 of Reynolds County, 631 S.W.2d 933, 936 (Mo. App. S.D. 1982).

Special procedural rights are accorded by § 168.101.6 to certificated employees who have been “reemployed five times within the district.” It has been held that this phrase means reemployed five times as a certificated administrator. Beal v. Bd. of Educ., Laclede County Sch. Dist. R-1, 637 S.W.2d 309, 311 (Mo...