Fremont RE-1 School District v. Jacobs

Joyce Jacobs (plaintiff) was a bus driver for the Fremont RE-1 School District (school district) (defendant) in Colorado. In 1983, Jacobs was fired by Norman Lemons, the school district’s director of business services. The Fremont Board of Education (school board) had a policy that delegated the school board’s discharge authority to the superintendent and gave the superintendent the authority to delegate this power to the director of business services. The director of business services then had full authority over discharge decisions. Colorado courts had previously established that school boards could delegate administrative powers if rules were in place to limit the discretion of the agents. In contrast, powers that required more judgment on the part of school boards were nondelegable unless the legislature expressly authorized the delegation. A school board’s power to hire and fire teachers was deemed nondelegable. Jacobs filed suit against the school district, claiming that her firing was unlawful because the school board could not delegate the power to discharge her to the director of business services. The trial court ruled in favor of the school district, and Jacobs appealed. The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the school board could delegate its discharge power because the power was administrative in nature, but that the delegation had to include specific standards that eliminated most of the administrator’s discretion. The case was appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court.