Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 21 > Chapter 1 > Part 6 - Answers

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Board: means the local board of education holding jurisdiction in its respective territory. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Collaborative conferencing: means the process by which the chair of a board of education and the board's professional employees, or such representatives as either party or parties may designate, meet at reasonable times to confer, consult and discuss and to exchange information, opinions and proposals on matters relating to the terms and conditions of professional employee service, using the principles and techniques of interest-based collaborative problem-solving. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Director of schools: refers to the local director of schools, or to any other officer performing the functions of a director of schools. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Incompetence: means being incapable, lacking adequate power, capacity or ability to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the position. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Inefficiency: means being below the standards of efficiency maintained by others currently employed by the board for similar work, or habitually tardy, inaccurate or wanting in effective performance of duties. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Management personnel: means those professional employees certified by the local board of education to represent the board in the collaborative conferencing process. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Management team: means employees who devote a majority of their time to the system-wide area or areas of professional personnel management, fiscal affairs or general management and shall specifically include principals, assistant principals, supervisors and others whose principal responsibilities are administration rather than teaching. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Memorandum of understanding: means the written document that memorializes and records the understanding reached by the board of education and its professional employees, or their respective representatives, if so designated, as to the terms and conditions of professional services set forth in this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Neglect of duty: means gross or repeated failure to perform duties and responsibilities that reasonably can be expected of one in such capacity or continued unexcused or unnecessary absence from duty. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: means one (1) or more individuals, organizations, associations, or their representatives. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Professional employee: means any person employed by any local board of education in a position that requires a license issued by the department of education for service in public elementary and secondary schools of this state, supported, in whole or in part, by local, state or federal funds, but shall not include any member of the management team, as defined in this part, or a retired teacher who is employed as a teacher in accordance with title 8, chapter 36, part 8. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Representative: includes any person, or group of persons, organization or association that is designated and authorized by professional employees or local board of education to act for the professional employees or the local board, respectively, under this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Strike: means the failure with others to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position, the stoppage of work or the abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment, and without the lawful approval of one's superior. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Teacher: includes teachers, supervisors, principals, director of schools and all other certificated personnel employed by any local board of education, for service in public, elementary and secondary schools in this state, supported in whole or in part by state or federal funds. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• terms and conditions of professional service: means those fundamental matters that affect a professional employee financially or the employee's employment relationship with the board of education and that are specifically designated as such under this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Transfer: means removal from one (1) position to another position under jurisdiction of the same board. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105