ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

Holding: The court held with the examiner’s findings that the districts were in accordance
with ICA in using a combined seniority list for the Grades 7-12 as they were part of the
consolidation measures but not the elementary employees.
Reasoning: The court quickly resolved that the ICA outlined for a “combined seniority
list of teachers in the cooperating districts.” This point solidified the examiners’ view, which was
that the elementary school was not part of the cooperative agreement. Including the elementary
teachers and administrators in this list would be a statutory violation.
1988
Disposition: The court affirmed the decision of the hearing examiner.
Citation: Daury v. Smith, 842 F.2d 9, (1988 U.S. App.).
Key Facts: Jeffrey Daury served as a principal for the Pittsfield School System for 13
years. Around 1979, Daury’s evaluations began to suffer due to an inordinate amount of
complaints from parents, and at this same time Daury served on the collective bargaining team
for the Pittsfield Teacher’s Association. Daury was reassigned to a grade leader position
following a school reorganization for fiscal exigency. Daury’s reassignment was determined on
seniority and the performance of six principals. From that, the board determined that Daury was
the administrator who needed to be reassigned.
Prior to the demotion, the school system cited three incidents among others that made the
board require Daury to be evaluated by a psychiatrist before returning to work from a paid leave
of absence. The first was a near physical altercation with a district-level administrator over
school funding. The second was a verbal altercation with Superintendent John Davis over
documents in Daury’s personnel file that he had not signed. The third was an incident were
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