Four months later, a state grievance board judge overturned the board's decision and ordered them to rehire Austin.
Now school officials have hired Austin to oversee a free after- school program at Elk Elementary Center. It's a federally funded program that Elk Elementary parents say they do not want.
Austin will, in effect, replace Sam Stewart, who has supervised the school's paid after-school community education program for children during the past seven years.
Stewart made $63,000 last year - $33,500 as a teacher and $29,500 as the after-school program supervisor. His combined salary was more than all but a handful of top school administrators.
School officials have criticized Stewart for ordering R-rated videos and $300 worth of crab legs and shrimp with taxpayer money. They say he spends most of his time in his office each afternoon, while children watch Disney movies.
"They basically just watch movies," said Assistant Superintendent Leonard Allen. "It's not a structured program. I don't know what Mr. Stewart does other than organize the program."
School board members will try to sort out the matter at a meeting tonight.
Austin did not return phone messages left at school and his home Wednesday.
Angry Elk parents plan to present a 400-signature petition in support of keeping Stewart's program.
"There's going to be a big confrontation," said Lisa Smalley, president of Elk's Parent Teacher Organization.
"Parents are getting things shoved on them. Why are they trying to replace a Cadillac with a Yugo? It's just ridiculous."
Here's why: School officials say Stewart's program doesn't stress academics. They have a $1.5 million 21st Century Learning Grant to provide after-school programs at five county schools. Elk is one of them.
They promise six certified teachers, free transportation to selected pickup sites and free after-school day care for at least three years.
"Why would anyone balk at that?" asked county schools Superintendent Ron Duerring.
Stewart said school officials won't be able to top his program. The Governor's Cabinet on Children and Families commended it as an "exemplary" early childhood education program. It also was recognized by the Pew Charitable Trusts foundation.
Children create arts and crafts every afternoon, Stewart said. They practice karate, complete homework assignments in "Homework Club," jump in a Jupiter Jump and watch movies - "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King" - but only once a week.
"They're jeopardizing an exemplary program," Stewart said. "This should be in every major school in the county.
"This has been my heart and soul. I love it."
He believes school officials' criticism of him is unfair.
Yes, staff members ordered R-rated videos from a mail-order movie club, but it was a mistake, he said. The employees reimbursed the school.
And yes, Stewart ordered the seafood from Sam's Club, but it was for the kids, not him. He organized a beach party last summer. It was the first time some of the children had sampled shrimp and crab legs.
Stewart said poor children aren't shut out of the program. Fees are charged on a sliding scale. Some kids get in free, he said.
School officials have offered Stewart a teaching job in the new program. He'll still oversee his program an hour each morning, as well as on Fridays and during part of the summer.
They called Austin an "excellent" teacher and predict she will do an "outstanding" job.
Austin was placed at Elk Elementary in 1997 after an administrative law judge overturned her firing by the Kanawha County school board.
During grievance hearings, Austin acknowledged that she deliberately passed gas beside a teacher's aide, but said it was a joke. She said she never expelled gas on a parent at Pratt Elementary.
Austin also acknowledged she threatened to put cayenne pepper on a misbehaving student's tongue. But that, too, was a joke, she said.
She said she displayed the student's glass eye to show a substitute teacher how to replace it in an eye socket. She admitted saying, "This eye is looking at you," to a secretary while displaying the artificial eyeball.
Austin said she had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, according to grievance records. She attributed some of her behavior to the disorder.
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