FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The doors of the Baldwin County Alternative School were closed for budget reasons at the end of last year’s school term, but the employment hearing of its former principal, who was terminated in June, began this week.

That hearing comes 14 months after Donald L. Johnson, principal at the Fairhope-based Alternative School since 1997, was placed on administrative leave in October 2008 for charges the Baldwin County School System has not yet divulged, citing privacy rights of the employee that continue until his appeals process is over.

Johnson was terminated by the Baldwin County School Board on June 14, and his appeal of that decision resulted in the arbitration hearing that began Tuesday at the school system’s central office in Bay Minette, said Terry Wilhite, Baldwin County Schools spokesman.

“Once an employee appeals an employment decision, it leaves the hands of the school system and becomes a process of arbitration,” Wilhite said. “It is customarily a very prolonged process and takes an enormous amount of time for it to ever come before an arbitrator.”

Johnson has continued to receive his $82,605 annual salary throughout the period of administrative leave and between his termination in June and this week’s hearing.

“His salary continues until the arbitrator makes a decision,” Wilhite said. “Should the arbitrator rule in Mr. Johnson’s favor, then his employment with the (school) district would be resumed. And we’ve had that happen.”

Wilhite said if the arbitrator upholds the school board’s decision, then Johnson would no longer be an employee of the system and would no longer receive a salary at that point.

“Most of the time, the decision of the arbitrator is taken by the employee and district as final, but there is an appeals process through the court system that can be invoked.”

Located at the corner of Twin Beech Road and South Section Street, the Alternative School served approximately 80 students with disciplinary and related problems throughout the county school system.

Johnson has worked for the county school system since 1993.

Wilhite said the employment hearing, which continued as of press time, “resembles a court proceeding, where both sides make their cases to an arbitrator. Once the hearing concludes, the matter is solely in the hands of the arbitrator, who will file a written opinion of his decision. Oftentimes it’s very brief.”

Once a written opinion is filed in the case, that document and others become accessible to the public, according to state law.

Alabama law states that the termination of a tenured status employee such as Johnson “may be made for incompetency, insubordination, neglect of duty, immorality, failure to perform duties in a satisfactory manner, justifiable decrease in the number of teaching positions or other good and just cause, but cancellation cannot be made for political or personal reasons.”

Wilhite said an arbitration hearing typically takes about a week but sometimes can last up to two weeks.

The school system cannot recover the employee’s salary while he was on administrative leave, or during the appeal period if he loses on appeal, Wilhite said.

“It is quite an aggravation to the school system — not just ours, but those across the state that find themselves in similar circumstances,” Wilhite said, regarding cases like Johnson’s where an employee continues to receive a salary for a period of time after being terminated.

Efforts to reach Johnson during the past year have been unsuccessful.