TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jun 15, 2020

The Tennessee Supreme Court today upheld the transfer of a West Tennessee assistant principal to a teaching position at another school. The court held that Stephen Geller, an assistant principal at Henry County High School, did not prove that his transfer violated the Tennessee’s Teacher Tenure Act. Geller was serving as assistant principal when a new principal was hired. The principal reassigned Geller to another school because he did not have an administrator license, which provides training in instructional leadership. Geller sued, arguing that he did not need the license because his duties did not involve more than 50% instructional leadership. The court found that the principal had a right to transfer Geller because he wanted all assistant principals to be teaching as much as possible with a new “priority on instructional leadership.”