Issaquah Education Ass'n v. Issaquah School District No. 411

706 P.2d 618, 104 Wash. 2d 443
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 12, 1985
Docket51162-4
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 706 P.2d 618 (Issaquah Education Ass'n v. Issaquah School District No. 411) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Issaquah Education Ass'n v. Issaquah School District No. 411, 706 P.2d 618, 104 Wash. 2d 443 (Wash. 1985).

Opinions

Dore, J.

This appeal of two consolidated causes of action is brought as a class action on behalf of the plaintiffs and all similarly situated members of the bargaining unit of the Issaquah Education Association. Their employer, Issa-quah School District 411, uses "supplemental contracts" to compensate some of its certificated employees for extended day duties performed beyond the basic contract year. Employees contend this practice violates the continuing contract statute, RCW 28A.67.070. The trial court granted summary judgment of dismissal in favor of the School District. We affirm.

Facts

Issaquah School District 411 issues a "basic contract" to cover work done within the time frame of the "basic school year", a period of approximately 182 days. The District also issues an "extended days supplemental contract", which is used to provide extra compensation. These extended days contracts are used to compensate certificated employees who performed, as part of their professional duties, the additional tasks incident to being a department head. They are also used to compensate educational specialists such as special education teachers, counselors and librarians who work additional days at the beginning, during or at the end of the basic contract school year.

Examples of these duties under supplemental contracts in the case of a department head include coordinating instruction within a department, serving as liaison between department teaching staff and the building principal, assisting in planning and administering the department budget, planning and conducting department meetings with certificated staff, and assisting in scheduling the department staff.

Because the combination of regular and extended days [445]*445duties requires more time to perform than the basic contract school year of 182 days, the School District uses supplemental employment contracts to, in effect, lengthen the school year and the total days of service required for these employees.

The School District has continually followed the practice of issuing supplemental contracts and has never regarded such supplemental contracts as being subject to the continuing contract law. Issuance, modification, or failure to issue supplemental contracts leaves the basic contracts intact and unaffected. This practice has never impaired or in any way adversely affected the basic 182-day employment contracts of the District's certificated employees.

The practice of issuing supplemental contracts for extended days differs among school districts. While some districts follow the practice of Issaquah School District 411, others include extended days in the employee's basic contract and treat them as subject to the continuing contract statute.

At the beginning of the 1981-82 school year, the Issaquah School District notified the plaintiffs and other affected certificated employees that, because of budgetary considerations, they were going to reduce by one-half the number of extended days, and the compensation therefor, for that current school year, as compared with the previous 1980-81 school year. This reduction in the extended days contracts was accomplished by issuing supplemental contracts after the beginning of that school year, without first complying with the procedure under the continuing contract statute, RCW 28A.67.070. That statute requires, among other things, notice of probable cause for any change in contract terms for the ensuing year, which notice must be delivered prior to May 15 of the preceding school year.

After receiving such notice, plaintiffs filed a complaint in King County Superior Court challenging this reduction in extended days as a violation of RCW 28A.67.070. Subsequently, during that school year, the School District restored the additional extended days of compensation for [446]*446those certificated employees which they had previously reduced. The School District repeated the same practice for the ensuing 1982-83 school year by again treating these extended days contracts as noncontinuing, and issuing new supplemental employment contracts. This action again reduced the number of extended days and compensation for plaintiffs. A second complaint was filed in King County Superior Court, again seeking to determine whether this practice is illegal.

Plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment on both complaints. In response, the District also moved for partial summary judgment of dismissal on behalf of the School District.

The trial court granted summary judgment of dismissal, finding that the School District was "entitled to judgment as a matter of law that the extended day supplemental contracts are exempt from the continuing contract law. ..." Plaintiffs appeal.

Issue

Whether the School District's use of supplemental employment contracts to compensate certificated employees for extended days duties performed beyond the basic contract school year violates the continuing contract statute, RCW 28A.67.070.

Decision

The Legislature has developed a statutory scheme within which the employment, discharge, and reduction in rank of certificated teachers and administrators must take place. RCW 28A.58.099 empowers school boards to employ teachers for not more than 1 year. The statutory scheme further provides, in RCW 28A.67.070, that the 1-year contracts authorized by RCW 28A.58.099 are automatically renewed for the coming year unless notice of probable cause for nonrenewal is served upon the employee prior to May 15 of the current contract year and it is thereafter established, pursuant to specified procedures, that sufficient cause for nonrenewal exists. See Barnes v. Seattle Sch. Dist. 1, 88 [447]*447Wn.2d 483, 563 P.2d 199 (1977). The pertinent portions of the continuing contract statute, RCW 28A.67.070, provide as follows:

No teacher, principal, supervisor, superintendent, or other certificated employee, holding a position as such with a school district, . . . shall be employed except by written order of a majority of the directors of the district . . . nor unless he is the holder of an effective teacher's certificate or other certificate required by law . . .
The board shall make with each employee employed by it a written contract, which shall be in conformity with the laws of this state, and except as otherwise provided by law, limited to a term of not more than one year. . . .

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Issaquah Education Ass'n v. Issaquah School District No. 411
706 P.2d 618 (Washington Supreme Court, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
706 P.2d 618, 104 Wash. 2d 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/issaquah-education-assn-v-issaquah-school-district-no-411-wash-1985.