FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The principal of the Baldwin County Alternative School has not worked for most of the school year, while continuing to earn an annual salary of almost $83,000, but no decision has yet been reached about his case, a Baldwin County Board of Education spokesman said this week.

“Mr. Don Johnson has been on paid administrative leave pending an internal review,” said Terry Wilhite, director of communications for the school board. “This remains an open human resources matter that hopefully will be resolved soon. Comment is not made nor information released on open HR matters, consistent with the employee’s due process rights.”

Donald L. Johnson has been principal since 1997 at the Alternative School in Fairhope, which serves approximately 80 students with disciplinary and related problems throughout the county school system, according to the school Web site. The school is located at 6925 Twin Beech Road.

Efforts to contact Johnson this week were unsuccessful.

Johnson’s first job with Baldwin County Schools was as assistant principal at Daphne Middle School, where he worked from 1993 to 1995. He became assistant principal at Daphne High School in 1995 and moved to the Alternative School as principal two years later, according to the school Web site.

He graduated from Robertsdale High School in 1974, and received a bachelor’s degree in education from Troy State University in 1978 and a master’s in social studies there in 1982. He worked as department chairperson and social studies instructor at Opelika High School from 1978 to 1993, where he was also head track coach and assistant football coach. He has served as past vice-president of the Baldwin County Principals and Supervisors Association and is currently enrolled at Nova University.

More than two months ago, Wilhite said a decision on Johnson’s case was imminent.

“We’re awaiting a report from the investigator hired to do the internal review,” Wilhite said on March 2. “We expect it to be delivered over the next few days. Once the report is received, it will be reviewed by our human resources department. HR will then make a recommendation to the superintendent.”

Later that month, the school board voted unanimously to permanently close the Alternative School as part of some $23 million in budget cuts because of a shortfall in state sales tax, while bracing for a projected $24 million deficit in September on top of that, according to media reports at the time. The Alternative School students and tenured teachers will be moved to other schools for the upcoming school year, while non-tenured employees will be laid off, according to those reports.

As part of its budget-cutting efforts and to prevent some layoffs and transfers, the Baldwin BOE adopted an early-retirement incentive program in February that would offer a one-time cash incentive of up to $20,000 to employees who accepted the offer by April 1 and retire by Aug. 1, according to the school board’s Web site. To be eligible for that program, school employees had to submit a retirement letter between Feb. 20 and April 1.

Wilhite said Johnson was placed on paid administrative leave on Oct. 20 when his current annual salary was $82,605, and that he was initially hired by Baldwin County Schools on July 19, 1993.

“He was still on the payroll today,” Wilhite said Thursday in reply to whether Johnson had applied for early retirement.

Yesterday, Wilhite stated that no retirement letter had been received.