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Contracts, rulings and playing around

Our Voice

Hickory Daily Record Editorial

Published: July 2, 2009

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS in North Carolina, like city and county managers, serve at the pleasure of the governing board.

That means they can be dismissed for any reason or no reason. Unless they have a contract.

Contracts that encompass reasons for dismissal complicate the easy-come, easy-go authority of school boards, county commissioners and city councils.

There is an easy escape, however. Generally speaking, if a board wants to dismiss a manager or superintendent immediately and without justification, pay off the contract.

A board willing to spend the money can give the heave-ho without telling anyone why and leave the fired super without recourse.

Be stingy with the money, though, and the contract becomes a complicating factor for the governing board.

It's a simple arrangement, really, but one that can get out of hand. And, sometimes, money can make the problem go away.

There are examples that probably come to mind.

BEFORE SONIA SOTOMAYOR'S critics get too gleeful over the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the appellate court decision regarding New Haven firefighters' reverse discrimination suit, they should remember that the lower court unanimously asked for Supreme Court review.

The Supreme Court nominee was in the appellate majority that ruled against the firefighters. However, she signed on to the request for the high court to examine the issue.

The Supreme Court accepted the request and ruled in favor of the firefighters.

The request provides the lower court majority with a measure of insulation, considering the judicial history of discrimination cases and affirmative action.

Regardless of the appellate ruling, the losing party would have appealed. That the justices kicked the case upstairs was prudent, given the circumstances.

There may be some skeletons in Sotomayor's closet, and senators should expose them if they exist. This Supreme Court reversal isn't one of them.

GOV. MARK SANFORD has admitted to more untoward dalliances, not just the full-fledged affair that compelled him to go AWOL on the people of South Carolina for a South American tryst.

He's doomed a political career after his time as governor is up. His apologists should examine their rhetoric before Sanford's mud sticks to them, too.