Appeal seeking removal of interim school superintendent from that position survives his or her appointment as the school district’s superintendent of schools
Application of Sally Stephenson seeking the removal of the Hamburg Central School District’s Interim Superintendent of Schools and President of its Board of Education, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education, Decision No. 16,330
In two separate applications, Sally Stephenson asked the Commissioner of Education to remove the Hamburg Central School District’s interim superintendent and the School District’s board president. Both appeals were consolidated for decision.
One of the issues concerned the interim superintendent’s assertions that Stephenson’s application for his removal must be denied as moot because he is no longer the interim superintendent.
Although the Commissioner stated that he would “only decide matters in actual controversy and will not render a decision on a state of facts which no longer exist or which subsequent events have laid to rest,” he ruled that such was not the case here.
Noting that it was correct that the interim superintendent was no longer employed by the School Board as its interim superintendent, the Commissioner said that he had appointed to the position of superintendent of schools and thus is a school officer as defined in Education Law §306. Accordingly, said the Commissioner, Stephenson’s application would not be denied on this ground.
Ultimately the Commissioner dismissed both applications after finding that they had not been properly served and for other procedural reasons.
The decision is posted on the Internet at: