Board of School Commissioners v. Walpole

801 N.E.2d 622, 20 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1453, 2004 Ind. LEXIS 32, 2004 WL 51834
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 13, 2004
Docket49S00-0303-CV-112
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 801 N.E.2d 622 (Board of School Commissioners v. Walpole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of School Commissioners v. Walpole, 801 N.E.2d 622, 20 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1453, 2004 Ind. LEXIS 32, 2004 WL 51834 (Ind. 2004).

Opinions

BOEHM, Justice.

The relationship between a school board and its teachers is governed in Indiana by statute. The Teacher Tenure Act provides that upon request of the teacher, a school board must conduct a hearing to consider the termination of a permanent or semi-permanent teacher's contract. Indiana Trial Rule 28(F) provides for trial discovery procedures to apply in certain administrative proceedings. We hold that this Rule does not apply to a termination hearing under the Tenure Act.

Michael Walpole was a permanent teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools. In October of 2002, the Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis suspended Walpole with pay. On December 20 of that year, the Superintendent gave Walpole notice that the Board planned to hold a meeting on January 28, 2008, to consider the Superintendent's recommendation that Walpole's contract be canceled. At some point not disclosed by the record, Walpole exercised his statutory right under the Tenure Act, and requested a hearing. The hearing was set for January 27 in compliance with the requirement of the Tenure Act that it be held after at least thirty days notice, but within forty days of the notice. On January 9, eighteen days before the hearing, Walpole sought to invoke Indiana Trial Rules 28(F) and 34 by serving a request for production of documents. He also informally asked the Board to allow him to take several depositions and requested a postponement of the hearing to accommodate the desired discovery.

At a pre-hearing conference held the next day, January 10, the representative of the Board stated that the Board intended to provide Walpole with all relevant documents, including the documents he requested, subject to privilege and confidentiality concerns. Walpole renewed his request for a continuance to allow time for discovery. On January 21, the Board denied Walpole's request for formal discovery and also rejected his request for a continuance. Walpole then requested a continuance to permit a court to decide the matter, but that request was also denied.

On January 22, Walpole filed this lawsuit in Marion Superior Court. After a hearing, the trial court entered a preliminary injunction enjoining the Board from conducting its hearing and ordering the Board to allow Walpole a reasonable opportunity for discovery under Trial Rule 28(F). The trial court concluded that a school board "is an administrative agency for such things as discovery under Trial Rule 28(F)," and ruled that to the extent Trial Rule 28(F) conflicts with the Tenure Act, the Trial Rule governs.

[624]*624The Board took this interlocutory appeal of the trial court's granting of a preliminary injunction pursuant to Appellate Rule 14(A)(5) and petitioned for emergency transfer to this Court pursuant to Indiana Appellate Rule 56(A). The Board argued that this "appeal presents a 'substantial question of law or fact of great public importance and an emergency exists which makes a speedy determination of the question desirable' in this Court." This Court granted transfer.

The Tenure Act requires a school board to notify a permanent teacher when it plans to cancel the teacher's contract. Ind.Code § 20-6.1-4-11 (1998). Upon notification, the teacher may request a hearing on the matter. Id. At the hearing, the teacher is entitled to receive a statement of the reasons for the recommendation and to present evidence related to those reasons. Id. Walpole argues, and the trial court agreed, that Indiana Trial Rule 28(F) applies to these hearings, allowing him to conduct full discovery in preparation for the hearing.

Trial Rule 28(F) provides:

(F) Discovery proceedings before administrative agencies
Whenever an adjudicatory hearing, including any hearing in any proceeding subject to judicial review, is held by or before an administrative agency, any party to that adjudicatory hearing shall be entitled to use the discovery provisions of Rules 26 through 37 of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure. Such discovery shall include any relevant matter within the custody and control of the administrative agency.

By its terms, this rule applies only to an "adjudicatory hearing" before an "administrative agency." A school board acting under the Tenure Act on a termination has been held not to be an "administrative agency" for purposes of the Administrative Orders and Procedures Act (AOPA) because AOPA applies only to state-wide agencies and does not apply to arms of local government. Stewart v. Fort Wayne Cmty. Sch., 564 N.BE.2d 274, 277 (Ind.1990). However, the Court of Appeals has concluded that a school board should be treated as an administrative agency for some purposes when it considers a teacher's termination. Specifically, Scott County School District v. Dietrich, 496 N.E.2d 91, 92 (Ind.Ct.App.1986), held that when a school board hears charges against a teacher the board is an "administrative agency" that triggers the requirement of Trial Rule 52(A)(2) that a reviewing trial court make special findings of fact. The court reached this conclusion even though the Tenure Act does not require the Board to make findings of fact. Similarly, in Doran v. Board of Education, 152 Ind.App. 250, 283 N.E.2d 385, 387 (1972), the Court of Appeals held that a school board acts as an administrative body when hearing charges against a teacher and therefore "is charged with the same legal procedure of accepting or rejecting evidence as a state wide administrative body." Although Scott County and Doran used the terms "administrative entity" and "administrative body" to refer to the school board, Trial Rule 52(A)(2) uses "administrative agency," and that is the same term that is found in Trial Rule 28(F). From these cases, Walpole reasons that Trial Rule 28(F) applies in a termination hearing. We agree that Rule 52(A)(2) is properly applied to judicial review of a Tenure Act termination. But that Rule applies to the trial court, not to the school board, and is plainly an intraju-dicial branch provision. The provision Walpole invokes involves somewhat different considerations.

We think that when a school board acts to determine whether a teacher's employ[625]*625ment should be terminated, the board does not act as an administrative agency as that term is used in Rule 28(F). In this context, a school board is not performing a typical agency action. It is not acting as a regulator, setting rates or issuing licenses, or otherwise affecting members of the public. Although it is a public body, the board is performing a managerial act, essentially acting as an employer dealing with the internal operations of its organization.

To be sure, the Tenure Act regulates this process and confers on permanent teachers a property interest in their jobs. See Stewart, 564 N.E.2d at 280. The Act also requires that the school board's actions be for cause, confers a right to a hearing, and provides for judicial review. These characteristics of the school board's action do not lead us to the conclusion that the hearing is adjudicatory. They arise from the requirements of the statute, not from the nature of the school board's actions under review. The Board remains an employer dealing with a personnel matter, albeit one with procedures and rights that exist by mandate of the statute.

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Related

Bankhead v. Walker
846 N.E.2d 1048 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2006)
Board of School Commissioners v. Walpole
801 N.E.2d 622 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
801 N.E.2d 622, 20 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1453, 2004 Ind. LEXIS 32, 2004 WL 51834, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-school-commissioners-v-walpole-ind-2004.