2020 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 2 - Elementary and Secondary Education
Article 6 - Quality Basic Education
Part 6 - Employment
Subpart 2 - Conditions of Employment
§ 20-2-211. Annual Contract; Disqualifying Acts; Job Descriptions

1. All teachers, principals, other certificated professional personnel, and other personnel of a local unit of administration shall be employed and assigned by its governing board on the recommendation of its executive officer. Minimum qualifications for employment of all personnel may be prescribed by the State Board of Education unless otherwise provided by law. Employment contracts of teachers, principals, and other certificated professional personnel shall be in writing, and such contracts shall be signed in duplicate by such personnel on their own behalf and by the executive officer of the local unit of administration on behalf of its governing board.
2. Any other provisions of this article or any other laws to the contrary notwithstanding, each local governing board shall, by not later than May 15 of the current school year, tender a new contract for the ensuing school year to each teacher and other professional employee certificated by the Professional Standards Commission on the payroll of the local unit of administration at the beginning of the current school year, except those who have resigned or who have been terminated as provided in Part 7 of Article 17 of this chapter, or shall notify in writing each such teacher or other certificated professional employee of the intention of not renewing his or her contract for the ensuing school year. Such contracts when tendered to each teacher or other professional employee shall be complete in all terms and conditions of the contract, including the amount of compensation to be paid to such teacher or other professional employee during the ensuing school year, and shall not contain blanks or leave any terms and conditions of the contract open. A letter of intent or similar document shall not constitute a contract and shall not be construed to require or otherwise legally bind the teacher or other professional employee to return to such school system. Upon request, a written explanation for failure to renew such contract shall be made available to such certificated personnel by the executive officer. When such notice of intended termination has not been given by May 15, the employment of such teacher or other certificated professional employee shall be continued for the ensuing school year unless the teacher or certificated professional employee elects not to accept such employment by notifying the local governing board or executive officer in writing not later than June 1.
3. Any other provisions of this article or any other laws to the contrary notwithstanding, no local governing board shall employ any person as a teacher who has been discharged from the armed forces of the United States with a dishonorable discharge as a result of desertion or any person who has fled or removed himself from the United States for the purpose of avoiding or evading military service in the armed forces of the United States, excluding those who have been fully pardoned.
4. Each local school system shall have a job description for each certificated professional personnel classification, shall have policies and procedures relative to the recruitment and selection of such personnel, and shall adhere to such recruitment and selection policies and procedures. Such policies and procedures shall assure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, or national origin. Such policies and procedures shall also include the announcement in writing of the availability of all certificated positions within the local school system and the submission of such available positions to a state-wide online job data base maintained by the state.

(Code 1981, §20-2-211, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1657, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1169, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1546, § 4; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1936, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1072, § 2; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1390, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, §§ 33, 34; Ga. L. 2003, p. 499, § 1; Ga. L. 2009, p. 4, § 1/HB 455; Ga. L. 2010, p. 2, § 1/HB 906; Ga. L. 2010, p. 237, § 1A/HB 1079; Ga. L. 2011, p. 647, § 6/HB 192; Ga. L. 2013, p. 1061, § 15/HB 283; Ga. L. 2013, p. 1091, § 3/HB 244.)

- Procedure for nonrenewal of contracts, § 20-2-942.

- For note on the 1994 amendment of this Code section, see 11 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 184 (1994).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Editor's note.

- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former Code 1910, § 1551(941/2) and former Code 1933, § 32-913, which were subsequently repealed but were succeeded by provisions in this Code section, are included in the annotations for this Code section.

Teacher's action for reverse discrimination under federal law could not be made against school superintendent and school board members in their individual capacities. Reynolds v. Glynn County Bd. of Educ., 968 F. Supp. 696 (S.D. Ga. 1996), aff'd, 119 F.3d 11 (11th Cir. 1997).

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-211 contemplates continuous employment under the same contract of employment. Those who resign or are terminated are not covered by the provisions of subsection (b). By definition, one who is employed under a contract later than the beginning of the school year is not entitled to a notice of nonrenewal. Oates v. Coffee County Bd. of Educ., 198 Ga. App. 77, 400 S.E.2d 355 (1990), cert. denied, 198 Ga. App. 898, 400 S.E.2d 355 (1991).

- Office of county superintendent of education is substituted for the office of county school commissioner and the county superintendent is authorized to execute contracts with teachers on the part of the board. Orr v. Riley, 160 Ga. 480, 128 S.E. 669 (1925) (decided under former Code 1910, § 1551 (941/2)).

Contracts between county boards and teachers in schools under their supervision must be in writing. Orr v. Riley, 160 Ga. 480, 128 S.E. 669 (1925) (decided under former Code 1910, § 1551 (941/2)).

- No contract made by a county board of education for the employment of a teacher to serve in the schools under the jurisdiction of the board is legal or possesses any validity if the contract is not in writing. Dodd v. Board of Educ., 46 Ga. App. 235, 167 S.E. 319 (1933) (decided under former Code 1910, § 1551 (941/2)).

- Since a county board of education is a political body and has no power other than that conferred by statutory authority, no contract made by the board which is illegal and invalid because the contract is not in writing is, relative to exceptions to the application of the statute of frauds, enforceable against the board, notwithstanding a part performance of the contract by the opposite party thereto. Dodd v. Board of Educ., 46 Ga. App. 235, 167 S.E. 319 (1933) (decided under former Code 1910, § 1551 (941/2)).

- School district, acting through the district's board of education, was authorized to take employment actions with respect to district personnel only on the recommendation of the interim superintendent, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 20-2-211, as the board had no independent authority to hire, fire, or otherwise assign district personnel; the intent or the motive of the interim superintendent in not recommending a former employee for a position as a principal or assistant superintendent was attributable to the board of education and therefore the school district. Gordon v. Dooly County Sch. Dist., F. Supp. 2d (M.D. Ga. Dec. 28, 2005).

- Even though this section, as to all counties where it was applicable, made it obligatory that the boards of education should contract in writing with their teachers, it was not applicable so as to limit the contractual power of the Board of Education of Richmond County under the local acts (Ga. L. 1872, pp. 46, 456-463; Ga. L. 1937, pp. 1409-1413). County Bd. of Educ. v. Young, 187 Ga. 644, 1 S.E.2d 739 (1939) (decided under former Code 1933, § 32-913).

- When a county board of education did not terminate or suspend the complainant teacher during the teacher's contract year, but simply decided that the board was not going to renew the teacher's contract for the upcoming year, O.C.G.A. § 20-2-211(b), and not O.C.G.A. § 20-2-940, applied. Baker v. McIntosh County Sch. Dist., 264 Ga. App. 509, 591 S.E.2d 362 (2003), overruled on other grounds by Wolfe v. Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga., 300 Ga. 223, 794 S.E.2d 85 (Ga. 2016).

- Tenured assistant principal effectively waived the principal's right to a due process hearing under O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-940 and20-2-942(b)(1) when the principal voluntarily filed for retirement and began receiving retirement benefits; by operation of O.C.G.A. § 47-3-101(a), the principal was no longer an employee of the school district and no longer entitled to a due process hearing. Ashley v. Carstarphen, 347 Ga. App. 457, 820 S.E.2d 70 (2018).

- Elementary school orchestra and band teachers' equal protection claims failed because: (1) the school district had a rational basis for treating those teachers and Grades 1 through 3 paraprofessionals differently with regard to which employees would be retained since, inter alia, "teachers" and "paraprofessionals" were treated differently under Georgia law; and (2) the district was not collaterally estopped from defending against the equal protection claims since the district was not subject to offensive, non-mutual collateral estoppel. Demaree v. Fulton County Sch. Dist., F.3d (11th Cir. Apr. 8, 2013)(Unpublished).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 68 Am. Jur. 2d, Schools, § 150 et seq.

- 78 C.J.S., Schools and School Districts, §§ 315 et seq., 383 et seq.

- Validity, construction, and effect of municipal residency requirements for teachers, principals, and other school employees, 75 A.L.R.4th 272.