44 A.D.2d 876 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1974
Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Ulster County, which granted petitioners’ motion to stay arbitration. On September 1, 1969 Mrs. Lynne Friedman was appointed to a three-year probationary period as a teacher in the Livingston Manor School District. On April 9, 1971 the New York State Legislature passed an amendment to the Education Law to become effective on May 9, 1971, which substituted a five-year probationary period for the previously applicable period of not less than one year nor more than three years (L. 1971, eh. 116). The Legislature did not make any specific provision for persons who were then serving in three-year probationary status and this amendment was generally assumed to have extended all existing periods of probation to five years (see Matter of Central School Dist. No. 1 of Towns of Carmel and Putnam Valley [Mahopac Teachers Assn.], 72 Misc 2d 503). However, it became evident that it was not the Legislature’s intention to abrogate contracts previously made (N. Y. Legis. Annual, 1972, pp. 110-111), and thus chapter 116 of the Laws of 1971 was amended by section 5 of chapter 953 of the Laws of 1972 to add a new section, section 16, which specifically provides that the provisions of chapter 116 of the Laws of 1971 “shall not apply .to persons who were employed as * * * teachers * * * in public school districts in this state who were appointed to a probationary period prior to May ninth, nineteen hundred seventy-one.” This amendment, effective June 8, 1972, further provided that school districts had until July 31, 1972 to dismiss or retain those teachers who would acquire tenure by virtue of their original probationary periods on or prior to June 30, 1972. On June 13, 1972, Mrs. Friedman was denied tenure and terminated as of June 30, 1972 by the School Board and was so notified by letter dated June 19, 1972. On or about June 22, 1972, the Livingston Manor Teachers Association, the recognized exclusive bargaining representative for the professional personnel in the school district, filed a formal grievance alleging that Mrs. Friedman’s termination violated the procedures set forth in the collective bargaining agreement in that: she had not been notified of her impending termination before March 15 or within 30 days of termination as specified by the contract; she had not been properly observed during her probationary period; the administration had failed to make constructive criticism; and derogatory material was put into her file without her knowledge. The redress sought by the teachers association was Mrs. Friedman’s reinstatement with tenure. In a letter written July 21, 1972 the Supervising Principal denied all the charges contained in the grievance, and the Board of Education, after a hearing, reaffirmed this decision and denied the grievance. On or about September 21,