Mississippi Advisory Opinions July 22, 1983: 19830722 (July 22, 1983)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mr. Ellis Braxton

Route 2, Box 225

Lorman, Mississippi 39069

Schools—Qualifications for County Superintendent

Dear Mr. Braxton:

Attorney General Bill Allain received your recent letter of request and assigned it to me for research and reply. Your inquiry states as follows:

Section 37-5-73 of the Mississippi Code Annotated (1972) makes it unlawful for the election commissioners of any county to place the name of any person who does not qualify under terms of that subsection upon the ballot as a candidate for county superintendent of education. That section also requires that a candidate for county superintendent of education “has not less than four (4) years' actual experience as a teacher, or in an administrative position, in some public school of the State of Mississippi...”.

In order to perform our duties, we, the duly elected election commissioners of Jefferson County, Mississippi, need clarification of the term “public school” as used in Section 37-5-73 of the Mississippi Code . Our specific problem involves a candidate for superintendent of education who has worked in the field of education for the past ten (10) years as a teacher and consultant. His experience includes four (4) years as a classroom instructor in a federally funded community action agency program for handicapped children. However, he has never worked for a county or municipal school district.

Our question is: Does the above described experience qualify as experience as a teacher in a public school within the meaning of Section 37-5-73 of the Code ?

Mississippi Code Ann. § 37-5-73 (2) (1972) provides the following:

(1) Before anyone shall be eligible to hold by election the office of county superintendent of education he shall be a qualified elector and a citizen of the state for four years, and of the county for two years immediately preceding his election. In counties where the office of county superintendent of education is made appointive, the said county superintendent shall not be a public officer per se, and in the discretion of the county board of education and for good cause set forth on its minutes, such appointive county superintendent need not be a qualified elector or a citizen of the State of Mississippi on the date of his employment; the term of his employment shall be by written contract not to exceed four years.

(2) No person shall be eligible to the office of county superintendent of education unless such person shall hold a certificate to be issued by the state department of education certifying that he holds a bachelor's degree and also that he shall hold, or be eligible to secure, a Class A certificate as defined in the rules and regulations of the state department of education covering the certification of instructional personnel, awarded by an institution approved by the state department of education, and that he has not less than four years' actual experience as a teacher, or in an administrative position, in some public school of the State of Mississippi or of a state extending reciprocal licensing of teachers to the State of Mississippi. It shall be unlawful for the election commissioners of any county to place the name of any person upon the ballot as a candidate for county superintendent of education who does not qualify under the terms of this subsection, and, in counties wherein such office is appointive, it shall be unlawful for the county board of education to appoint a person to such office who does not qualify under the terms of this subsection. (Emphasis supplied.)

The language underlined was added to the statutes by Laws of 1953, Extraordinary Session, ch. 9.

Miss. Const. art. 8, § 201, provides the following:

The Legislature may, in its discretion, provide for the maintenance and establishment of free public schools for all children between the ages of six (6) and twenty-one (21) years, by taxation or otherwise, and with such grades, as the Legislature may prescribe. (Emphasis supplied.)

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1977) defines the word “public” as follows:

1 a: of, relating to, or affecting all the people or the whole area of a nation or a state. b: of or relating to a government. c: of, relating to, or being in the service of the community or nation... 5 a: accessible to or shared by all members of the community...

Unless the contrary sufficiently appears, words in a statute are to be interpreted according to their usual and most common sense, and as they would ordinarily be understood by the public in general. Clark v. State , 198 Miss. 88, 21 So.2d 296 (1945) . The Legislature gave no indication that the term “public school” in § 37-5-73 should be imputed with any other meaning than that provided for in § 201 of the Mississippi Constitution. In other words, the term “public school” would mean those schools established pursuant to the authorization in § 201.

Therefore, since the experience about which you inquire was with a federally funded community action program for handicapped children and apparently not with a public school system, it is our opinion this experience would fail to satisfy the four years' actual experience as a teacher or in an administrative position in some public school as required in § 37-5-73 .

If this office can be of benefit in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Bill Allain Attorney General