Request By:
Honorable B. Robert Stivers
Attorney at Law
First National Bank Building
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
As legal counsel for the Laurel County Board of Education you have been asked by that board to request an advisory opinion from the Office of the Attorney General regarding the following two questions:
1. Is it mandatory upon the school board to accept the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to hire an assistant superintendent or can the Board refuse to hire an assistant superintendent?
2. If the Board hires an assistant superintendent, does it have the sole discretion in fixing the amount of the salary?
As you noted in your letter, an applicable statutory provision is KRS 160.360, which reads as follows:
"Each board of education may, on the nomination of the superintendent of schools, appoint as many assistant superintendents as it deems necessary, whose compensation shall be fixed by the board."
As to your first question, we believe a recent opinion of this office, OAG 79-78, copy attached, is responsive to the issue at hand. KRS 160.380 as well as KRS 160.360 is applicable to a position assignment such as an assistant superintendent once such a position has been created by a local board of education. See Snapp v. Deskins, Ky., 450 S.W.2d 246 (1970). It should be noted that KRS 160.360 has as its genesis Section 4399-34 the same as does KRS 160.380. Again see OAG 79-78, supra.
Regarding the fixing of the salary for the assistant superintendent position, we believe this is left as a sole responsibility of a local board. KRS 160.360 clearly states that the board fixes the salary for an assistant superintendent position. Further support for this conclusion, if it were needed, may be found in KRS 160.290(1). Part of the general powers and duties of a local board of education is to "appoint such officers, agents and employes as it deems necessary and proper, prescribe their duties, and fix their compensation and terms of office." (Emphasis supplied.) We cannot see the matter as being subject to a different conclusion.