Teacher Wins Case Over Breach Of Contract
Last updated Wednesday, May 28, 2008 7:29 PM CDT in News
By The Morning News
LITTLE ROCK - A Greenwood teacher fired after being accused of making harassing phone calls to school district employees is entitled to her full salary for the school year she missed, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
The court affirmed a lower court decision in favor of special education teacher Barbara Ann Leonard in her breach of contract lawsuit against the Greenwood School District.
Leonard's contract for the 2006-07 school year called for a salary of $39,831. She was suspended Aug. 2, 2006, and was fired by the Greenwood School Board the following Oct. 16 after a closed hearing.
The board voted 6-0 to accept the superintendent's recommendation to fire Leonard for alleged harassing phone calls, among other things.
Leonard sued the district in Sebastian County circuit court. At a hearing, evidence revealed several harassing and inappropriate calls were made to the home of Jay and Terri Weaver, both school district employees. The calls were traced to a cellular telephone Leonard owned.
Leonard testified that she discovered her 17-year-old niece, who was living with her, had made the calls and that the teenager was later punished. The girl admitted during the trial that she had made the phone calls with Leonard's teenage daughter.
Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh ruled Leonard met her burden of proof and should receive the full benefits in her contract for the 2006-07 school year.
In its appeal, the school district argued Fitzhugh erred when finding Leonard met her burden of proof and that Leonard, who had just started teaching in the district and was on probation, had no right to appeal the school board's firing under the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.
The Court of Appeals rejected both arguments.
The court said the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act applies to renewing teacher contracts, not to terminating them.
A "definite term may not be terminated before the end of the term, except for cause or by mutual agreement, unless the right to do so is reversed in the contract," Judge John B. Robbins wrote for the court.
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