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Davis v. Little Rock School District8/31/2005
Appellant Franklin Davis appeals from a summary judgment in favor of his former employer, appellee Little Rock School District. We affirm.
The pertinent facts are as follows. Davis was an elementary-school principal in the Little Rock School District. In mid-1997, the District began investigating complaints by several teachers and parents that Davis had sexually harassed them. Davis was confronted with the accusations and denied them. Following another similar complaint in November 1997, the District was prepared to terminate Davis's employment. Instead, Davis was transferred to an associate-principal position at Central High School. Thereafter, in March 1998, yet another sexual-harassment complaint was made against Davis, this time by a Central High School teacher.
In an April 2, 1998 letter to Davis, District Superintendent Leslie Carnine stated that he would recommend termination of Davis's contract "because the District has received numerous complaints of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct by you directed at both teachers and patrons of the District." Carnine further stated that Davis was entitled to a hearing before the District board. On May 4, 1998, Davis, who was represented by counsel, responded as follows:
Please be advised that, in lieu of the proceeding required by the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, including the right to a school board hearing, I will agree to the submission of the recommended termination of my contract to binding arbitration through the American Arbitration Association. The offer to utilize this alternate dispute resolution process is based on the premise that formal judicial processes can be time consuming, costly and frustrating for both parties. The authority for a school district to submit a non-renewal/termination recommendation to binding arbitration is recognized by the Attorney General of the State of Arkansas in Opinion No. 95-136.
On May 12, 1998, the District accepted Davis's offer to arbitrate and referred him to its attorney to coordinate selection of the arbitrator and to schedule the hearing.
For reasons that are unclear from the record, the arbitration hearing did not take place until June 1999. At the hearing, several women who were either teachers, school-district employees, or mothers of children in the district testified that Davis had either conducted himself in a sexually inappropriate manner in their presence or made lewd and suggestive comments to them. Davis denied the allegations. On July 12, 1999, the arbitrator issued an award in which she found that "the recommendation not to renew [Davis's] contract was not arbitrary, capricious or discriminatory and should be upheld. [Davis's] contract is not renewed for the 1999-2000 school year." However, in Davis's favor, she found that the District should have paid Davis for the entire 1998-99 school year, and she ruled that he was entitled to all salary and benefits that he had not received for that period. On July 23, 1999, Davis received $24,561.94 "in full and complete satisfaction of the arbitration award dated July 12, 1999."
On or about July 26, 1999, Davis asked the arbitrator to reconsider the award. His request is not contained in the record, but Davis states in his reply brief that he was giving the arbitrator "notice that the award did not comport with the requirements" of the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (TFDA), a statutory scheme comprised of various procedures that a school district must follow when nonrenewing or terminating a teacher's contract. See Ark. Code Ann. ยงยง 6-17-1501 to -1510 (Repl. 1999 and Supp. 2003). The arbitrator, citing Rule 33 of the National Rules for the Resolution of Employment Disputes, de
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