Appellee Yvonne Butler was a principal at a DeKalb County elementary school. On August 13, 2010, appellant DeKalb County School District notified appellee it would be terminating her employment on grounds of 1 incompetency; 2 insubordination; 3 wilful neglect of duties; and 4for other good and sufficient cause.1 Appellee was placed on suspension while the charges were pending.2 A hearing was scheduled pursuant to the Fair Dismissal Act, OCGA § 20-2-940 et seq., but the parties agreed to a continuance and then the hearing never took place.3 On May 11, 2011, appellant offered appellee, in lieu of termination, a contract for a classroom teaching position for the 2011-2012 school year and required that she sign and return the contract before May 19, 2011, if she chose to accept the offer. On May 31, 2011, appellee responded to the May 11 letter by asserting that she had a right to an FDA hearing. In her May 31 response, appellee never indicated she would be accepting the offered position of classroom teacher. On June 30, 2011, upon hiring new counsel, appellee returned the signed teaching contract “under protest.” On July 15, 2011, appellant issued appellee a separation notice indicating appellee’s employment had ended as of June 30, 2011.
On March 9, 2012, appellee filed the instant mandamus action, requesting an FDA hearing, a name-clearing hearing, and damages for breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in regard to the proffered 2011-2012 teaching contract. Both parties moved for summary judgment and the trial court granted and denied in part both parties’ motions. The trial court’s ruling effectively granted appellee’s petition for a writ of mandamus and held that appellee was entitled to an FDA hearing because she was a tenured employee and had been demoted from an administrator to a teacher. In addition, the trial court held that the request for a separate name-clearing hearing was moot as appellee could clear her name at the FDA hearing. Finally, the trial court denied appellee’s claim of damages for breach because it found that appellee had not timely accepted the contract to be a classroom teacher for the 2011-2012 school year.
