A Valley Center teacher is suing the district, citing breach of contract after she was terminated without due process earlier this year.

Janet Decker, who worked as a gifted-program coordinator at Valley Center High School and Valley Center Middle School for 16 years, was issued a notice in April that her contract would not be renewed for the current school year, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Sedgwick County District Court.

The Valley Center school board later voted to end Decker’s employment after an executive-session meeting with the teacher but without a due process hearing.

Decker argues in the suit that although Kansas lawmakers eliminated due process for educators in 2014, teachers who earned the right before that change are still entitled to the protection.

Decker’s attorney, Richard Paugh, referred questions about the lawsuit to the Kansas National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, which is representing individual teachers in Decker’s and five other pending cases.

The union argued before the Kansas Supreme Court last week that the Legislature ran afoul of the Kansas Constitution’s one-subject rule when it inserted a provision that eliminated teacher tenure into a school finance bill in 2014.

Cory Gibson, Valley Center’s superintendent, said district officials received word of the lawsuit on Friday and “have not had an opportunity to review the contents of that notice.”

“It may be premature on our part to comment on this case at this time,” Gibson said in an e-mail.

David Kirkbride, executive director of the South Central Kansas NEA, said Decker had been on a plan of assistance but that the requirements of the plan, drawn up by school administrators, “were just very high, and there wasn’t enough time” to accomplish them in one year.

“I didn’t think she had a fair opportunity,” Kirkbride said. “I think she provided good service as a gifted coordinator for Valley Center for a number of years, and I just think this was inappropriate the way she’s been treated.”

Gibson, the Valley Center superintendent, pointed to language in the district’s current teacher contract that spells out procedures for dismissal.

According to the contract, a teacher with at least four years’ experience who receives a notice of nonrenewal may meet with the school board and have legal counsel and witnesses.

Decker’s lawsuit argues that procedures negotiated by the union and district and written into the contract “cannot substitute for the procedures provided under the Teacher Due Process Act.”

The lawsuit seeks reinstatement of Decker’s teaching position and back pay for what she would have earned had she had her contract renewed.