ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

argument failed because New York only recognizes “jarema credit” for employees working as
teachers, not administrators. Of the five tenure cases from New York, only one was won by the
administrator, Cowan v. Board of Education (1984 N.Y. Misc.). Cowan claimed that his
reassignment was illegal because the new position was outside his tenure area. When the board
failed to return him to his tenure area when openings arose, Cowan pursued litigation because his
job had moved from one of autonomy to one of subordination. Tenure was a significant area of
litigation in New York because New York is one of the few states that provides tenure for
administrators.
School Actions
School actions includes items such as reduction in force which are actions initiated by
school systems that school administrators have consistently pointed to as one of the issues of
contention regarding their adverse employment action.
Reduction in force. Table 17 reveals that there were 24 cases from 1981-2010 where
litigation occurred involving adverse employment actions and where reduction in force was cited
as the impetus for the action. Of those cases, the adverse actions identified were non-renewal (1
case), termination (6 cases), and reassignment (17 cases). In the one case that involved non-
renewal, the school prevailed in court. In the cases that identified termination as the adverse
action spawned by reduction in force, school administrators won, at least in part, 83% of the time
in litigation. When administrators were reassigned due to reduction in force, the court found the
action in favor of the school 35% (6 cases) of the time and for the employee 35% (6 cases) of the
time; in the other five cases, the decision was split. The data suggest then that a school
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