## Facts

- Jim R. Barton was a career (tenured) teacher employed by Clinton Public Schools (Independent School District No. I-99 of Custer County, Oklahoma) and was certified to teach multiple subjects, including driver/safety education, biology, zoology, and industrial arts.
- The district hired Barton to teach driver’s education, which he taught for approximately 19 years.
- The superintendent implemented a reduction-in-force (RIF) to reduce expenditures for the 1992–93 school year and eliminated the driver’s education program.
- As a result of the program elimination, the district did not renew Barton’s teaching contract.
- Barton asserted he was qualified for other teaching assignments within his certification areas and that the district retained probationary (nontenured) teachers in positions he could have filled.
- Barton presented evidence suggesting the district employed more certified teachers in the year after his layoff than in the year before.
- The district relied on a collectively bargained RIF policy that treated elimination of the “position” as the initial factor and did not expressly require placing tenured teachers into positions held by probationary teachers.

## Issues

1. Whether, when a RIF eliminates a tenured teacher’s position, the district must make reasonable accommodations to give the qualified tenured teacher priority for contract renewal over probationary teachers holding positions the tenured teacher is qualified to fill.
2. Whether summary judgment was proper where evidence suggested the district retained probationary teachers in positions within the tenured teacher’s certification areas.

## Decision

- The Oklahoma Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the Court of Appeals’ decision, reversed the trial court’s summary judgment for the district, and remanded.
- The court held that, under controlling precedent, a district must make reasonable accommodations to give qualified tenured teachers priority for renewal over probationary teachers when the tenured teacher’s position is eliminated in a RIF.
- The court concluded the district’s claim of no duty to provide such priority was legally incorrect.
- Because fact questions remained regarding Barton’s qualifications for other available positions and the district’s compliance with its priority obligation, summary judgment was improper.

## Legal Principles

- When a tenured teacher’s position is eliminated pursuant to a RIF, and the teacher is qualified for another teaching position occupied by a probationary teacher, the district must make reasonable accommodations to give priority for contract renewal to the tenured teacher over the probationary teacher.
- Tenure protections confer a right to continued employment absent lawful grounds for nonrenewal; a RIF cannot be applied in a way that nullifies priority protections for career teachers.
- A locally adopted or collectively bargained RIF policy cannot be applied to defeat controlling tenure protections recognized by state law.
- Summary judgment is improper where the record permits a finding that the district retained probationary teachers in positions for which a displaced tenured teacher was qualified and did not provide the required priority.

## Conclusion

The court required districts implementing RIFs to prioritize qualified tenured teachers for renewal over probationary teachers in available positions, and it remanded for fact-finding on whether the district failed to provide Barton that priority.


Barton v. Indep. Sch. Dist. No. I-99 of Custer Cnty., 914 P.2d 1041 (Okla. 1996)