Little Lake City School Dist. v. Commission on Professional Competence CA2/3

California Court of Appeal·Decided November 26, 2013·No. B244991·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 11/26/13 Little Lake City School Dist. v. Commission on Professional Competence CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION THREE

LITTLE LAKE CITY SCHOOL B244991 DISTRICT, (Los Angeles County

Plaintiff and Appellant, Super. Ct. No. BS135319)

v.

COMMISSION ON PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE,

Defendant and Respondent;

EILEEN HAWKINS,

Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, James C. Chalfant, Judge. Affirmed.

Law Offices of Eric Bathen, Eric J. Bathen and Jordan C. Meyer for Plaintiff and Appellant.

No appearance for Respondent.

Rothner, Segall & Greenstone, Glenn Rothner and Constance Hsiao for Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

Little Lake City School District (District) appeals the denial of its petition for a writ of mandate to set aside a decision by the Commission on Professional Competence (Commission) rejecting the District’s attempted dismissal of Eileen Hawkins, a special education teacher. The District contends the evidence does not support the trial court’s determination that there was no cause for dismissal. We conclude, however, that substantial evidence supports the court’s determination and therefore will affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 1. Factual Background a. 2007-2008 School Year Hawkins was employed by the District as a special education teacher for 13 years. She previously was employed as a general education teacher for 11 years. Her work as a special education teacher involved teaching children with learning difficulties in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) who spent most of their time in a general education classroom.

Hawkins worked at Studebaker Elementary School (Studebaker) in the 2007-2008 school year. She received a performance evaluation for that year in May 2008 from Dr. Susan Grant, principal of Studebaker Elementary School. The performance evaluation stated that Hawkins had met her job requirements and performance objectives “with reservation,” with the exception of the area of “professionalism,” for which she received a rating of “not met.” It stated that Hawkins was not collaborating with classroom teachers on a regular basis and had failed to

timely inform the classroom teachers of the students’ IEP goals. It stated regarding “attendance” that Hawkins was rarely absent, but “she is often late in arriving in the morning, and is frequently late to morning and afternoon staff meetings.”

Hawkins prepared a rebuttal to the performance evaluation challenging some of its statements and conclusions. She stated that her schedule was arranged by the principal and did not allow sufficient time for her to meet with teachers.

b. 2008-2009 School Year Hawkins began to split her time between Studebaker and Lakeland Elementary School (Lakeland) in the 2008-2009 school year, spending mornings at Studebaker and afternoons at Lakeland. She received a performance evaluation for that year in the areas of “professionalism” and “attendance” only, in May 2009. It was prepared jointly by Dr. Grant and Yolanda McIntosh, principal of Lakeland.

The 2008-2009 performance evaluation stated that Hawkins had met her job requirements and performance objectives in those two areas “with reservation.” It stated, with respect to “professionalism” that she had engaged in more direct communication with the administrator at Studebaker regarding setting IEP dates, but her direct communication with teachers concerning students’ progress was “less than satisfactory” and McIntosh’s “request to Mrs. Hawkins regarding her non-presence at Lakeland on Wednesday afternoons has not been honored.” It stated regarding “attendance” that Hawkins was rarely absent, but she was frequently late in the morning, and she worked late in the evening, but “she needs to be accessible to teachers before school.”

c. 2009-2010 School Year Hawkins was assigned more than 20 students at Studebaker in the 2009-2010 school year and only 3 at Lakeland, yet she was required to divide her time equally between the two schools. She received a performance evaluation for that year in May 2010 only from McIntosh, principal of Lakeland. It stated that she had met her job requirements and performance objectives in the areas of “attendance” and “professionalism,” met them “with reservation” in the areas of “subject matter knowledge,” “classroom environment,” and “student control,” and that her performance was “unsatisfactory” in the area of “teaching strategies.”

The 2009-2010 performance evaluation stated that Hawkins was not using the required Cell/ExLL instructional strategies. It also stated: “The materials used (Read Naturally) were not aligned with children[s]’ instructional level, provide for direct instruction, or assess the children for the purpose of driving the instruction. In addition, children were not taught/offered strategies such as chunking, tracking, and going back and rereading. The only prompt/strategy offered was, ‘Sound it out.’ In fact, this same prompt was used with sight words. [¶] And finally she taught three different groups at once, two distinct readers, and a child working on math. Having to move from one subject area to another as witnessed, does not benefit children. It is imperative that she use strategies such as those mentioned above and those attached.” The evaluation also included a list of specific recommendations on the application of teaching strategies.

The 2009-2010 performance evaluation also stated that because Hawkins was rated “unsatisfactory” in “teaching strategies,” she was “required to receive assistance

from a Consulting Teacher as specified in the ‘Permanent Teacher Intervention Component’ in the Peer Assistance and Review program.”

Dr. Joseph Ybarra, Jr., assistant superintendent of the District, met with Hawkins in May and June 2010. He provided her a written summary of the conference noting his concerns with her preparation of IEP’s and the lack of services provided to some of her students. He directed Hawkins to (1) contact an administrator for training in CELL/ExLL; (2) attend a time management class in the fall of 2010; (3) “complete all IEP goals and objective[s] within one month of the initial IEP date”; (4) “input all components of the IEP process into the SEIS program within three days of all meetings”; and (5) report to the principals of Studebaker and Lakeland for an action plan. The summary stated that her failure to demonstrate significant improvement might lead to the termination of her employment. Hawkins submitted a rebuttal to the summary.

d. 2010-2011 School Year Tony Valencia, as the new principal of Studebaker, and McIntosh jointly presented a 90-Day Performance Improvement Plan to Hawkins in September 2010 identifying six areas needing improvement and listing several required actions for each area. The areas of improvement needed were (1) use of CELL/ExLL instructional strategies; (2) meeting the students’ academic needs; (3) meeting all federal special education mandates; (4) timely informing the teaching staff of pertinent information; (5) timely and professionally completing all IEP’s; and (6) completing a time management class during the school year. The plan stated that the principals would

meet with Hawkins five times in the following 90 days to discuss her progress. It stated that her failure to demonstrate significant improvement might lead to the termination of her employment.

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Little Lake City School Dist. v. Commission on Professional Competence CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

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