Request By:
Mr. Jim Hampton, Superintendent
Knox County School
Post Office Box 700
Barbourville, Kentucky 40906
Opinion
Opinion By: Chris Gorman, Attorney General; V. Lynne Schroering, Assistant Attorney General
You have raised three questions on the hiring process in a school-based decision making school. KRS 160.345(2)(i) provides:
From a list of applicants recommended by the local superintendent, the principal at the participating school shall select personnel to fill vacancies, after consultation with the school council . Requests for transfer shall conform to any employer-employee bargained contract which is in effect. If the vacancy to be filled is the position of principal, the school council shall select the new principal from among those persons recommended by the local superintendent. Personnel decisions made at the school level under the authority of this subsection shall be binding on the superintendent who completes the hiring process. The superintendent shall provide additional applicants upon request.
(Emphasis added.) First, you ask how "consultation" is to be interpreted. Under one point of view, the principal has discretion to make the final decision on personnel selection, after conferring with the council. Under another point of view, the council has the final decision by voting on applicants and informing the principal.
It is the opinion of this office that consultation, as used in KRS 160.345, has only that meaning applied through customary usage, i.e. , to seek advice. Random House Dictionary, First Ballantine Books Edition; Twelfth Printing; August 1990, p. 190. All statutes are required to be written in nontechnical language in words with everyday meanings. KRS 446.015. Therefore, the principal retains final hiring authority.
Second, you ask what information the council may require in employment issues. For example, you ask whether the council may have access to all applications and transcripts for a position, not just the applications for individuals recommended by the superintendent. In view of the fact that the statute clearly gives to the superintendent the power to make recommendations to the principal for his consideration, upon consultation of the principal with the council, we conclude that the council has a right to see applications and accompanying materials on applicants who have been recommended, but not on applicants who have not been recommended by the superintendent.
Third, you ask whether councils may interview applicants, including non-recommended applicants. For the reason set forth above, it is the position of this office that it is impermissible for the council to interview applicants who have not been recommended by the superintendent. Whether the council may interview recommended applicants is a matter to be negotiated between the council and the principal. If the principal wishes for the council to interview applicants and to make recommendations to him, this office finds no prohibition against that procedure. If the principal desires to seek the advice of the council in another manner, that, also, may be acceptable. The principal decides on how to seek the advice of the council.