ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

Conduct Unbecoming a School Administrator
Maureen Booth was terminated from her position as principal of Sequoya Elementary
School in Scottsdale Arizona. Ms. Booth was accused of altering test scores in order to secure
incentive-based pay for her teachers. Booth vehemently denied these charges and went so far as
to undergo and pass a lie detector test. It was, however, to no avail (Doherty, 2003). Behavior of
this manner is certainly cause for adverse employment actions. Moreover, Sacken’s (1996) study
primarily focused on those types of alleged misconduct that led to school administrators being
demoted, reassigned, and/or terminated. To borrow from Sacken, this study created a portrait of
the “explicit and implicit parameters of acceptable conduct” (p. 421). He did, however, point to
adverse employment actions for fiscal prudence in his study. Sacken’s (1996) study is important
as it helps to clarify the forms of misconduct that lead to adverse employment actions and
ultimately litigation. Through his research of some 240 legal cases involving adverse
employment actions against school administrators, Sacken identified five categories that led to
adverse employment actions: fiscal exigency, ineptitude, outrageous conduct, self-destructive
conduct, and poor institutional representation.
Reductions in force are common place in most work environments, especially
considering the current economic situation of the United States. Unfortunately, personnel choices
that are based almost entirely on seniority are not always the soundest measure of decision
making. Sacken (1996) explained that almost 10% of the legal proceedings he reviewed were
squarely entrenched in the camp of adverse employment actions for fiscal exigency. Legal claims
of demotion were generally unsuccessful unless a pay deduction was present. It was in Sacken’s
opinion, however, a definite case of demotion in the eyes of the administrators adversely
affected. He explains that “as long as administrators are financially rewarded at levels
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