Does a Kansas school have to keep paying life insurance premiums for a teacher who gave notice they won't return next year?

Plain-English summary

Barton County Community College asked whether it had to keep withholding and remitting optional group life insurance (OGLI) premiums to KPERS over the summer months for teachers on nine-month contracts who had already given notice they would not return the next school year. Kansas's "continuing contract law" normally treats a teacher's employment as continuing into the next school year, bridging the summer gap between contracts, unless the teacher gives timely written notice of nonrenewal.

The Attorney General concluded the continuing contract law does exactly what its name suggests: it prevents uncertainty about whether the employment relationship continues, but only when nothing has been said about ending it. Once a teacher gives proper written notice of nonrenewal under K.S.A. 72-2251(a), the employment relationship terminates when the current contract's term ends, not at some later point in the summer. That means the teacher is entitled to all pay and benefits earned under the completed contract, but is not automatically entitled to continued optional benefits like OGLI once the contract term is over, since those benefits depend on an ongoing employment relationship that has already ended. The opinion was careful to note that nothing stops a school from voluntarily continuing to collect and remit OGLI premiums for a departing teacher during a transition period, or a teacher from separately continuing coverage directly through KPERS after employment ends; the point is only that the school is not legally required to keep doing so once notice of nonrenewal has been given and the contract term has run.

What this means for you

School and college business offices and payroll administrators: the opinion holds that once a teacher on a term contract (not a 12-month contract) gives valid notice of nonrenewal and the contract's stated end date passes, the school's obligation to withhold and remit OGLI premiums to KPERS for that person ends too; continuing to do so afterward is optional, not required.

Teachers who have given notice of nonrenewal: the opinion confirms you remain entitled to whatever pay and benefits your contract already earned through its end date, but your employer-provided OGLI coverage ends with the contract unless you arrange to continue it yourself directly through KPERS.

Common questions

Does continuing contract law turn a nine-month teaching contract into a year-round one? No, according to the opinion. Continuing contract law only fills the summer gap with an ongoing employment relationship when the teacher has not given notice of nonrenewal; once notice is properly given, the relationship ends when the contract term ends.

Can a school still choose to pay OGLI premiums for a departing teacher over the summer if it wants to? Yes. The opinion states this is discretionary for the school, not required, and notes KPERS separately allows a former employee to continue OGLI coverage on their own by paying premiums directly.

Does this opinion apply to 12-month teacher contracts too? No, the opinion expressly limits its analysis to contracts that do not cover a full calendar year, noting a 12-month contract could lead to a different result since there is no gap between one contract's end and the next one's start.

Background and statutory framework

K.S.A. 72-2251(a) is Kansas's teacher continuing contract statute. It deems a teacher's employment contract to continue into the next school year unless the teacher (or the school) gives timely written notice of termination or nonrenewal, generally due by the 14th calendar day after the third Friday in May, or within 15 days of a unilateral contract's issuance if later. The Kansas Supreme Court has explained the doctrine exists to eliminate uncertainty about a teacher's employment status between one contract year and the next, and Kansas courts have held that proper nonrenewal notice ends the legal employment relationship at the contract's stated term, unlike a mere layoff.

K.S.A. 74-4940(a) requires schools to pay continuing-contract employees their compensation in at least 12 substantially equal monthly installments and to keep making standard payroll deductions and remittances, including for KPERS-administered OGLI, while the employment relationship continues. Because the opinion concluded the employment relationship itself ends with a properly noticed nonrenewal at the contract's term end, it followed that the underlying statutory basis for continued OGLI withholding and remittance also ends at that point, subject only to a KPERS-administered option for the individual teacher to continue coverage by paying premiums directly.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• K.S.A. 72-2251(a) (incl. (c)(3)(A))
• K.S.A. 74-4940(a); 77-4940(b)

Cases:

• Krider v. Bd. of Trs. of Coffeyville Cmty. Coll., Montgomery Cnty., 277 Kan. 244, 83 P.3d 177 (2004)
• Thompson v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 259, Wichita, 16 Kan. App. 2d 42, 819 P.2d 1236 (1991)
• McMillen v. U.S.D. No. 380, Marshall Cnty., 253 Kan. 259, 855 P.2d 896 (1993)
• Ottawa Educ. Ass'n v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 290, 233 Kan. 865, 666 P.2d 680 (1983)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.ks.gov/reports-resources/ag-opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/22904/638757267707470000

Original opinion text

February 20, 2025

ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2025-5

Dr. Marcus Garstecki
Barton County Community College President
245 NE 30 Road
Great Bend, Kansas 67530

Re: Schools—School District Employment Contracts

State Boards, Commissions, and Authorities—Public Employees Retirement Systems—State School Retirement System Merger into KPERS

Synopsis: The purpose of continuing contract law is to prevent any uncertainty or controversy regarding the status of a teacher's continued employment by treating the time between the end of a teaching contract and the beginning of the renewed contract as part of continued employment.
Continuing contract law does not apply after a contract's term ends when the teacher has provided the school with proper notice of nonrenewal. After a contract ends and is not renewed, the teacher is no longer considered employed by the school. The teacher is entitled to receive all benefits from the contract but is not entitled to continued voluntary benefits like optional group life insurance. Thus, Barton County Community College is not required to withhold and remit premiums for optional group life insurance to Kansas Public Employees Retirement System after a teacher on a nine-month contract provides notice of nonrenewal of the contract and the contract's term ends. Cited herein: K.S.A. 72-2251; K.S.A. 74-4940.

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Dear Dr. Garstecki:

As the President of Barton County Community College, you ask whether the "continuing contract law" set forth in K.S.A. 72-2251(a) and K.S.A. 74-4940(a) applies to teachers on nine-month employment contracts who have provided timely notice that they will not renew their employment contract for the next school year.1 Specifically, you ask whether a school employer must continue to collect optional group life insurance (OGLI) premiums for those employees after their contract term ends and remit that money to Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS). At the crux of your question is whether "continuing contract law" applies after a teacher gives notice of nonrenewal of their contract, meaning he or she will not be employed at the school for the next school year.

You provided an example of a typical nine-month contract between the College and its teachers, running from the beginning of a school year in August to the end of the school year in May.2 Your question revolves around the summer months after the end of the contract in May, a time when a teacher would typically be on summer break, unless a notice of nonrenewal has been given. Normally, continuing contract law would require considering the teacher as employed by the school during those months, requiring the school to continue to collect funds during those months for employment benefits like OGLI. As explained below, we conclude that, when a teacher gives notice of nonrenewal, the teacher is no longer employed by the school after the contract end date and, therefore continuing contract law would no longer apply to that teacher. Thus, the school would no longer be required to collect OGLI premiums for those months after the contract ends, though nothing in the law prevents schools from doing so if they so choose.

Analysis of this issue requires statutory interpretation. Statutory interpretation begins with the text of the statute, giving words their ordinary, everyday meanings. Only when the language is ambiguous are canons of statutory construction, legislative history, or other background information employed to discern the statute's meaning.3

Continuing contract law's purpose "'is to eliminate uncertainty and possible controversy regarding the future status of a teacher4 and a school with respect to

1 This opinion limits its analysis to contracts whose term does not cover a full-calendar year, i.e., a

12-month contract. Analysis of a 12-month contract may lead to a different conclusion due to the lack of a gap between the end of one contract and the beginning of the other, thus removing the need for continuing contract law. This opinion offers no opinion on those contracts. 2 Attachment A, Barton Community College Sample Primary Faculty Contract. 3 Nauheim v. City of Topeka, 309 Kan. 145, 149-50, 432 P.3d 647 (2019). 4 A "teacher is defined as "any professional employee who is required to hold a certificate to teach in

any school district, and any teacher or instructor in . . . any community college." K.S.A. 72- 2251(c)(3)(A).

the teacher's continued employment.'"5 Continuing contract law helps ensure stability in our state's schools and provides a time where teachers can seek employment and schools to search for new teachers.6

As relevant here, K.S.A. 77-2251 and K.S.A. 74-4940 set forth the parameters of continuing contract law. K.S.A. 72-2251(a) explains that teacher employment contracts are "deemed to continue for the next succeeding school year unless written notice of termination or nonrenewal is served as provided in this subsection." "A teacher shall give written notice to a board that the teacher does not desire continuation of a contract on or before the 14th calendar day following the third Friday in May, or, if applicable, not later than 15 days after the issuance of a unilateral contract," whichever is later.7 K.S.A. 74-4940(a) similarly explains that "all members in school employment who are subject to continuing contract law shall be paid their contractual compensation in not less than 12 substantially equal installments, paid once, or more often, each month." A school employer, with written authorization from the teacher, must pay the balance of the remaining compensation for the school year in one payment once the contract has been entirely fulfilled.8 The school employer must deduct, report, and remit any monthly deductions and quarterly reports as the employer normally would.9

Continuing contract law no longer applies after a teacher informs the school that the teacher will not renew his or her contract to return to teach the next school year. K.S.A. 72-2251(a) explicitly says contracts are deemed to continue to the next school year unless a written notice of termination or nonrenewal is provided. If a teacher on a nine-month contract provides written notice that he or she will not renew the contract, the employer-employee relationship ends when the current contract ends.10 Because the employment relationship is over at this point, the teacher is entitled to the benefits provided by the contract but no continuing benefits.11

5 Krider v. Bd. of Trs. Of Coffeyville Cmty. Coll., Montgomery Cnty., 277 Kan. 244, 246-47, 83 P.3d 177 (2004) (quoting In re Due Process Hearing of McReynolds, 273 Kan. 514, Syl. ¶ 1, 44 P.3d 391 (2002)). 6 Id. at 247. 7 K.S.A. 72-2251(a). 8 K.S.A. 77-4940(b). 9 K.S.A. 77-4940(b). 10 See Thompson v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 259, Wichita, 16 Kan. App. 2d 42, 45, 819 P.2d 1236 (1991)

("As the trial judge noted, nonrenewal of a contract terminates the legal relationship between the contracting parties, whereas a lay-off does not necessarily mean cessation of the employment contract.") 11 In McMillen v. U.S.D. No. 380, Marshall Cnty., 253 Kan. 259, 855 P.2d 896 (1993), as it applied to

a school district nonrenewing a contract for a tenured teacher, the Kansas Supreme Court explained benefits end with the termination of the contract. See id. at 269 ("When all of the applicable statutes are read together in their entirety, it appears clear the legislature intended the contract to terminate at the end of the contract year if appropriate notice of intent to nonrenew was given, subject only to the constitutional right . . . to a minimal pretermination hearing.").

In the College's sample employment contract, Section 8 provides that, if the teacher decides not to renew employment with the College, the teacher "will be paid all compensation due to them on the next available pay day, following their last day worked."12 Under the contact, employment thus ends on the last day of the contract, and all remaining compensation is paid out on the next scheduled pay day.

Because employment and employment benefits end on the last day of employment, a teacher who provides notice of nonrenewal is not entitled to continue to receive OGLI after his or her employment ends. As a result, after a school pays out the remaining benefits earned under the contract, as required by statute, the contract terms are fulfilled. The school is not required to withhold premiums to continue OGLI coverage for the time after the nonrenewed nine-month employment contract ends. Nor would the school be required to remit premiums to KPERS for that time.

With that being said, that does not mean OGLI coverage must necessarily stop when employment ends. As both the College and KPERS acknowledge, a teacher can continue his or her OGLI coverage after the contract term ends. On its website, KPERS explains the situations and the method in which an employee can continue coverage after employment.13 The major difference after employment ends is the requirement that the teacher alone must make payments to KPERS, rather than the school withholding money from the teacher's paycheck and remitting that money to KPERS each month. Additionally, while not required, nothing prevents a school from facilitating this continuation of coverage by voluntarily collecting OGLI premiums from the remaining compensation and remitting those funds to KPERS on behalf of teachers who have provided their notice of nonrenewal. But that action is discretionary, rather than mandatory.

The principal purpose of continuing contract law is to "eliminate uncertainty and possible controversy regarding the future status of a teacher and a school with respect to the teacher's continued employment."14 It does not operate to transform a nine-month contract into a twelve-month contract when that teacher has provided notice that he or she will not renew the contract. And it does not require a school to continue to withhold and remit OGLI premiums after the teacher's employment has ended, though nothing would have prevented the College from doing so if it chose.

12 See Attachment A.
13 Continuing Coverage, KPERS Optional Life Insurance Employer Manual,

https://perma.cc/4FNH-L74E (last visited February 20, 2025); Optional Group Life Insurance Continuation, KPERS, https://perma.cc/2NR8-5H89 (last visited February 20, 2025. 14 Ottawa Educ. Ass'n v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 290, 233 Kan. 865, 869, 666 P.2d 680 (1983).

Sincerely,

/s/ Kris W. Kobach

Kris W. Kobach
Attorney General

/s/ Ryan J. Ott

Ryan J. Ott
Assistant Solicitor General