Request By:
Mr. Roy James
School Business Administrator
Edmonson County Board of Education
Star Route 42188
Brownsville, Kentucky 42210
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the Office of the Attorney General to advise you as to your status in the Edmonson County School System under the so-called "Fair Demotion Law," KRS 161.765. You stated that the 1977-78 school year will be your second year in the position of school business administrator, the position you assumed after completing a four-year contract as superintendent of schools. Before your term as superintendent you were a teacher for thirteen years and then the high school principal for three years in the Edmonson County School System.
You further informed us the board of education has indicated they have intentions of abolishing the position of school business administrator, the position you now hold, at the end of your contract on June 30, 1978. Assuming the board carries out its intentions, you want to know whether you could be demoted to a nonadministrative position or classroom teacher in the system.
The position of school business administrator is a named administrative position for purposes of consideration under KRS 161.765. See KRS 161.720(8). Before the provisions and protections of KRS 161.765 will apply, an individual in a school system must have "completed three years of administrative service. " KRS 161.765(1), (2). In OAG 77-157, copy attached, this office withdrew its prior opinion of OAG 75-413 and in so doing concluded that KRS 161.765 requires "a continuity in a particular school system as an administrator for three years." We further stated:
"The three years must be successive, unless broken by an intervening leave of absence under KRS 161.770, and in the same school system although not necessarily in the same administrative position." OAG 77-157, page 4.
It is this background consideration of KRS 161.765 against which we will view your question.
KRS 161.765 did not become law until 1974 which was during your four-year term as superintendent of schools. Clearly your years as superintendent may not be counted for administrative service for purposes of KRS 161.765 consideration. Thus, since the enactment of this statutory provision relating to school administrators, you have not completed three years of administrative service in the Edmonson County School System. We are of the opinion KRS 161.765 applies only to those individuals who were administrators and already had or now have completed three consecutive years of administrative service in a school system.
Therefore, we must conclude in view of the above, that you would not be entitled to the protections of KRS 161.765 upon completion of your second year as school business administrator and could be demoted as permitted under KRS 161.765(1).