Hitchcock v. BOARD OF TRUS., CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS INDEPENDENT SCH. DIST.

232 S.W.3d 208, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 4051, 2007 WL 1500305
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 24, 2007
Docket01-06-00376-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 232 S.W.3d 208 (Hitchcock v. BOARD OF TRUS., CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS INDEPENDENT SCH. DIST.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hitchcock v. BOARD OF TRUS., CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS INDEPENDENT SCH. DIST., 232 S.W.3d 208, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 4051, 2007 WL 1500305 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.

Appellant, Judy Hitchcock, a teacher at Matzke Elementary School (“Matzke”) appeals from the trial court’s summary judgment ordering that she take nothing against appellee, Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (the “District”). In five issues, Hitchcock argues that (1) the exhaustion of administrative remedies doctrine does not bar her causes of action because (a) the doctrine no longer exists under the 1995 amendments to the Education Code and (b) the 15-day deadline for filing a grievance violates the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code and the open courts, due process, and equal protection provisions of the Texas Constitution; (2) the exhaustion requirement does not apply to her claims; (3) the District breached her employment contract with the District, causing her damages; (4) alternatively, she has established a right to recover from the District under the doctrine of quantum meruit; and (5) the District’s actions constitute an unconstitutional taking under Article I, section 17, of the Texas Constitution.

We affirm.

*211 Facts and Procedural History

Hitchcock teaches physical education at Matzke pursuant to an employment contract with the District. During the 2003-04 through the 2005-06 school years teachers at Matzke were required to be at school from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. This time period is referred to as the “workday.” During these same school years, the school day began for students at 8:10 a.m. and ended at 3:10 p.m. This time period is referred to as the “instructional day.”

Under section 21.404 of the Texas Education Code, each classroom teacher is entitled to at least 45 minutes every day, “within the instructional day,” for “instructional preparation, including parent-teacher conferences, evaluating students’ work, and planning.” 1 In Weatherbie v. Tuloso-Midway Independent School District, the commissioner of education concluded that the requirement that the planning period be scheduled within “the seven-hour school day” under section 13.902, the predecessor to section 21.404, required that the planning period be scheduled during the time when students were in class — i.e., during the instructional day. 2 During the spring of 2003, Anne Odum, the principal at Matz-ke, informed the “large group” teachers’ 3 representative on the campus planning committee that the group’s planning periods for the 2003-04 school year would be scheduled from 7:40 a.m. until 8:25 a.m. The planning period was entirely within the teachers’ workday but included 30 minutes outside of the students’ instructional day. Later that spring, when Odum met with the “large group” teachers, Hitchcock questioned the fairness and propriety of this schedule, but was informed by Odum that she had checked and that the schedule was permissible and was being used at other schools in the district.

During the 2004-05 school year, Hitchcock’s planning period was scheduled from 7:30 a.m. until 8:25 a.m. At some point, a newly-hired teacher for that year informed Hitchcock that planning periods scheduled outside of the instructional day were illegal. Sometime at the end of September or the beginning of October 2004, Hitchcock located the rule governing the scheduling of planning periods in the Faculty Handbook and the commissioner’s Weatherbie decision and showed them to Odum. On February 10, 2005, Odum met with Hitchcock and offered to reschedule her planning period. On February 18, 2005, Hitchcock and two other teachers filed a Level One grievance with the District “requesting] that the district immediately provide a full teacher planning and preparation period within the instructional day as required by law,” or, “[a]s an alternative ..., provide them with additional compensation for the temporary waiver of their rights ... based on their individual hourly rate of pay and prorated for the time given them for planning and preparation outside of the instructional day.” Odum responded to the grievance by rescheduling their planning periods from 8:10 a.m. until 9:05 a.m., effective February 23, 2005.

On March 10, 2005, despite the scheduling change to her planning period, Hitchcock attempted to appeal her grievance to the next level, Level Two. The District’s general counsel responded on March 22, 2005 that appellant’s “requested relief was *212 granted in its entirety” by the February 23, 2005 scheduling change and that if an issue had not been addressed by the first grievance, the appropriate procedure would be to “initiate the grievance process again.” That same day, Hitchcock responded that she had requested to proceed to Level Two because of her desire to recover payment for the days during the current school year when her planning period had been scheduled outside of the instructional day.

On April 6, 2005, Hitchcock filed a second Level One grievance, which “requested] that the district provide her with additional compensation ... for planning and preparation outside of the instructional day....” Odum denied her grievance as untimely because it had not been filed within 15 days of the date Hitchcock “knew or should have known about the issue giving rise to the complaint,” and because she was not entitled to recover unliquidated damages. This decision was upheld at Level Two on May 19, 2005 by Betty Willis, the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Instruction, and at Level Three on June 13, 2005 by the school board.

On July 22, 2005, Hitchcock filed her original petition in Harris County district court alleging four causes of action — (1) breach of contract; (2) damages due to violation of statute; (3) quantum meruit; and (4) unconstitutional taking. She further alleged, “[T]here are no adequate and sufficient administrative remedies available ... and therefore no administrative remedies which are required to be exhausted.” Following the filing of this action in district court, Hitchcock appealed the Level Three decision to the commissioner of education. On September 30, 2005, the Administrative Law Judge issued a proposal for decision recommending that the case be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because Hitchcock failed to exhaust her administrative remedies when she did not file her grievance within the 15-day deadline. On March 27, 2007, the trial court issued an order granting the district’s motion for summary judgment, which had argued that Hitchcock had failed to properly exhaust her administrative remedies and that she had not suffered any damages for which she could be legally compensated; denying Hitchcock’s motion for summary judgment; and ordering that Hitchcock “take nothing” against the District.

Standard of Review

Because summary judgment is a question of law, we review a trial court’s summary judgment decision de novo. Bendigo v. City of Houston, 178 S.W.3d 112, 113 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2005, no pet.).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

El Paso Independent School District v. McIntyre
457 S.W.3d 475 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Larsen v. Santa Fe Independent School District
296 S.W.3d 118 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Lamar Corp. v. City of Longview
270 S.W.3d 609 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Chapman v. Abbot
251 S.W.3d 612 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
232 S.W.3d 208, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 4051, 2007 WL 1500305, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hitchcock-v-board-of-trus-cypress-fairbanks-independent-sch-dist-texapp-2007.