State ex rel. Donah v. Windham Exempted Village School District Board of Education

630 N.E.2d 687, 69 Ohio St. 3d 114
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 27, 1994
DocketNo. 92-2607
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 630 N.E.2d 687 (State ex rel. Donah v. Windham Exempted Village School District Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Donah v. Windham Exempted Village School District Board of Education, 630 N.E.2d 687, 69 Ohio St. 3d 114 (Ohio 1994).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

In order to be entitled to a writ of mandamus, the relator must establish (1) that relator has a clear legal right to the relief prayed for, (2) that respondent has a clear legal duty to perform the acts, and (3) that relator has no plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. State ex rel. Manson v. Morris (1993), 66 Ohio St.3d 440, 441, 613 N.E.2d 232, 233-234, citing State ex rel. Berger v. McMonagle (1983), 6 Ohio St.3d 28, 29, 6 OBR 50, 51, 451 N.E.2d 225, 226.

Continuing contracts of employment, i.e., tenure, for teachers are provided for in R.C. 3319.11. State ex rel. Kelley v. Clearcreek Local School Dist. Bd. ofEdn. (1990), 52 Ohio St.3d 93, 94, 556 N.E.2d 173, 174-175; State ex rel. Specht v. Painesville Twp. Local School Dist. Bd. of Edn. (1980), 63 Ohio St.2d 146, 149-150, 17 O.O.3d 89, 91-92, 407 N.E.2d 20, 23. Teachers who are eligible for continuing contract service status in a school district include certified teachers who within the last five years have taught for at least three years in the district. R.C. 3319.11(B). Teacher tenure Acts protect qualified teachers by preventing their arbitrary dismissal; however, these acts omit administrators from coverage because administrators generally exercise executive and discretionary power in addition to holding professional qualifications as a teacher. State ex rel. Smith v. Etheridge (1992), 65 Ohio St.3d 501, 506-507, 605 N.E.2d 59, 63-64; see, also, State ex rel. Saltsman v. Burton (1950), 154 Ohio St. 262, 43 O.O. 136, 95 N.E.2d 377. Therefore, contracts of “other administrators” are always limited contracts. See Bennett v. Lorain Cty. Bd. ofEdn. (1985), 23 Ohio App.3d 136, 23 OBR 248, 491 N.E.2d 742 (applying the holding to school psychologists).

Pursuant to R.C. 3319.09(A), the term “teacher” includes “all persons certified to teach and who are employed in the public schools of this state as instructors, principals, supervisors, superintendents, or in any other educational position for which the state board of education requires certification including persons having a certificate issued pursuant to sections 3319.22 to 3319.31, inclusive, of the Revised Code and employed in an educational position * * *.” As noted by the court of appeals, under the foregoing definition, even school administrators are teachers. However, for purposes of the continuing contract eligibility requirements for administrators, supervisors, and special teachers, R.C. 3319.02(A) defines the term “other administrator” as follows:

[117]*117“As used in this section, ‘other administrator’ means any employee in a position for which a board of education requires a certificate of the type described by division (I), (M), or (0) of section 3319.22 of the Revised Code, provided that an employee required to have the type of certificate described by division (M) of such section spends less than fifty per cent of his time teaching or working with students, or any other employee, except the superintendent, whose job duties enable him to be considered as either a ‘supervisor’ or a ‘management level employee,’ as defined in section 4117.01 of the Revised Code.” (Emphasis added.)

R.C. 3319.22(M) provides that teachers’ certificates may be issued for “[p]upilpersonnel workers, including school psychologists * * Appellant was required to have a certificate of the type described in R.C. 3319.22(M) for school psychologists. Therefore, for purposes of being eligible for tenure, it is clear that a school psychologist would not be a teacher but an “other administrator” if the school psychologist spent less than fifty percent of the time teaching or “working with students.” R.C. 3319.02(A); see, generally, Baker & Carey, 1993-94 Handbook of Ohio School Law (1993) 264, Section T 7.01.

Appellant’s first, second, and part of her third propositions of law assert that the court of appeals erred in interpreting the phrase “working with students” to require the presence of students when the work activity is performed. In construing a statute, a court’s paramount concern is the legislative intent in enacting the statute. State v. S.R. (1992), 63 Ohio St.3d 590, 594, 589 N.E.2d 1319, 1323. In determining legislative intent, the court first looks to the language in the statute and the purpose to be accomplished. Id. at 594-595, 589 N.E.2d at 1323. Words used in a statute must be taken in their usual, normal or customary meaning. Id. at 595, 589 N.E.2d at 1323. See R.C. 1.42.

As the court of appeals determined, if “working with students” were construed as broadly as appellant desires, ie., to include any time spent on an activity which assists or benefits a student regardless of the student’s presence during the activity, the fifty percent or more distinction would be rendered virtually meaningless, since, as appellant admitted in her testimony, the activities of all school employees are ostensibly for the benefit of a student or a group of students. In effect, the limiting preposition “with” would be replaced with the words “in the interest of.” Consequently, appellant’s interpretation of R.C. 3319.02(A) would be contrary to the statute’s plain and unambiguous language. See, also, R.C. 1.47(C) (presumption against any construction that would produce an unreasonable or unjust consequence); State v. Arnold (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 175, 178, 573 N.E.2d 1079, 1082 (cardinal rule of statutory construction that a statute shall be construed, if practicable, as to give some effect to every part of it). Moreover, although R.C. 3319.02(A) is a remedial statute required to be liberally construed [118]*118in favor of administrators and teachers, see, e.g., Smith, supra, at syllabus, the issue here is whether appellant is an administrator or a teacher. The court of appeals correctly determined that the R.C. 3319.02(A) phrase “working with students” requires the presence of the student(s) when the activity is performed.

The court of appeals further concluded that appellant failed to establish that she spent fifty percent or more of her time working with students in her physical presence. Although appellant claims that there was no evidence that she spent less than fifty percent of her time working with students, it is her burden to prove a clear legal right to mandamus relief. State ex rel. Ellis v. Indus. Comm. (1990), 53 Ohio St.3d 64, 65, 559 N.E.2d 454, 455. Prufer’s testimony indicated that appellant’s work activities included only a small percentage of time in the presence of students. Appellant did not testify that fifty percent or more of her time at work was spent in the physical presence of students. Therefore, sufficient evidence supports the court’s finding.

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630 N.E.2d 687, 69 Ohio St. 3d 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-donah-v-windham-exempted-village-school-district-board-of-ohio-1994.