Lead Opinion
Opinion
We address in this case the proper interpretation of Education Code section 44916,
Plaintiff Alta Kavanaugh, a certificated teacher, did not receive written notice of her status as a temporary employee until she had been working in the classroom more than two weeks. Although the trial court held such notice came too late and concluded Kavanaugh must be considered a probationary employee by operation of section 44916, the Court of Appeal reversed. We conclude the trial court was correct and rеverse the judgment of the appellate court.
Facts
Defendant West Sonoma County Union High School District (the District) had an opening for a high school English teacher for the 1999-2000 school year. The District’s personnel manager, Susan Panas, declared she prepared an announcement for the position that explained the opening was for a
By contrast, Torch declares he never told Kavanaugh her position would lead to a permanent one, and he denies discussing the tenure procedure with her. Although he declares, “I always tell the candidates for temporary positions that the employment is a temporary one-year contract,” he does not state he told Kavanaugh she was interviewing for, and being hired for, a temporary position.
Kavanaugh began working on August 26, 1999. On September 9, 1999, the Board of Trustees for the District met and ratified Kavanaugh’s hiring as a high school English teacher at Analy High School “effective 8-26-99.” The board’s action was confirmed by a letter Panas sent to Kavanaugh dated September 13, 1999. The letter stated: “At the Board Meeting on September 9, 1999[,] the Board of Education approved your employment as a temporary teacher at Analy High School effective August 26, 1999.” (Italics added.) Kavanaugh admits receiving the letter and states in her declaration that this was the first time she had any notice she had been hired as a temporary, rathеr than a probationary, teacher.
By October 18, 1999, Panas had verified Kavanaugh’s prior academic and employment history so as to establish her proper place on the salary schedule. At that time, she notified Kavanaugh to come to the District office to sign her contract. Kavanaugh did so on November 9, 1999, at which time she asked Panas why her contract provided that she was only a temporary employee after principal Torch had told her she would be classified as a probationary employee. Kavanaugh asserts that Panas told her: “That’s just something this district does. Don’t worry. If you get a good evaluation, they’ll retroactively make you probationary.” Panas specifically denies these allegations in her own declaration.
Discussion
A.
Plaintiff Kavanaugh sought a writ of mandate from the trial court. A writ of mandate “may be issued by any court ... to compel the performance of an act which the law specially enjoins, as a duty resulting from an office, trust, or station . . . .” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1085, subd. (a).) To be entitled to relief, Kavanaugh must show the District has a clear, present and ministerial duty to reelect (rehire) her and that she has a clear, present and beneficial right to performance of that duty entitling her to a writ of mandate. (Santa Clara County Counsel Attys. Assn. v. Woodside (1994)
B.
“The Education Code establishes four possible classifications for certificated employees: permanent, probationary, substitute and temporary.” (Taylor v. Board of Trustees (1984)
A certificated teacher’s classification also governs the level of statutory job protection the teacher enjoys and controls the level of procedural protections that apply if he or she is not reelected. In general, permanent employees may not be dismissed unless one or more statutorily enumerated grounds are shown. (§ 44932.) Probationary employees may not be dismissed during the school year except for cause or unsatisfactory performance (§ 44948.3), but, on timely notice, “may be nonreelected without any showing of cause, without any statement of reasons, and without any right of appeal or administrative redress.” (Bellflower Education Assn. v. Bellflower Unified School Dist. (1991)
The dispute in this case arises from the heightened job protection the Education Code provides for certificated teachers classified as probationary employees of a school district versus teachers classified as merely temporary employees. If Kavanaugh is considered a probationary employee, the District was obligated to retain her for the following year because it failed to notify her by March 15th of the school year that it was considering not doing so for economic reasons. (§§ 44949, subd. (a), 44955, subds. (a), (c).) Alternatively, if Kavanaugh is considered a temporary employee, the District was legally entitled to dismiss her because it notified her of her dismissаl “before the end of the school year.” (§ 44954, subd. (b).)
Kavanaugh’s status turns on the proper interpretation of section 44916. That section provides: “The classification [of a certificated employee] shall be made at the time of employment and thereafter in the month of July of each school year. At the time of initial employment during each academic year, each new certificated employee of the school district shall receive a written statement indicating his employment status and the salary that he is to be paid. If a school district hires a certificated person as a temporary employee, the written statement shall clearly indicate the temporary nature of the employment and the length of time for which the person is being employed. If a written statement does not indicate the temporary nature of the employment, the certificated employee shall be deemed to be a probationary employee of the school district, unless employed with permanent status.” (Italics added.)
Section 44916 thus mandates that a school district comply with three requirements if it desires to hire a “new certificated employee” (such as plaintiff Kavanaugh) as a temporary employee: it must (a) notify the employee of his or her salary and status as a temporary employee; (b) do so in a written notice; and (c) give such notice “[a]t the time of initial employment.” Although the District’s September 13th letter constituted written notice to Kavanaugh of her employment status, thereby satisfying the first two requirements of section 44916, Kavanaugh argues that notice came too late to satisfy the third requirement, because the phrase “at the time of initial
We begin our discussion with the oft-repeated rule that when interpreting a statute we must discover the intent of the Legislature to give effect to its purpose, being careful to give the statute’s words their plain, commonsense meaning. (California Teachers Assn. v. Governing Bd. of Rialto Unified School Dist. (1997)
We often rely on the canons of statutory construction to assist us in discerning the correct interpretation of statutory language. Thus, we have explained that a statute should be interpreted “ ‘with reference to the whole system of law of which it is a part so that all may be harmonized and have effect.’ ” (Select Base Materials v. Board of Equal. (1959)
In order to ascertain a statute’s most reasonable meaning, we often examine its legislative history. (Flannery v. Prentice (2001)
We turn finally to a consideration of the Legislature’s apparent purpose in enacting section 44916. Reading the section as a whole (Renee J. v. Superior Court (2001)
Reading section 44916 to mean that certificated teachers must be informed in writing, on or before their first day of paid service to their employing districts, of their salary and employment status is thus consistent with the apparent purpose of the statute. Once a school year begins, for teachers to find a job as other than a substitute is much more difficult. A requirement that employing distriсts inform applicants for certificated positions of their proposed employment status (permanent, probationary, temporary, substitute) before they actually begin working avoids the kind of bait-and-switch scenario in which a teacher begins the school year believing his or her status is probationary (with the accompanying level of job protection) only to
This interpretation of section 44916 is also consistent with the sole legal authority in this area. In California Teachers Assn. v. Governing Board (1987)
The Court of Appeal did not resolve whether Grelling should be considered a returning teacher or one newly hired for the 1982-1983 school year, deciding that, in either case, he did not receive the written notice required by section 44916 and thus must be considered a probationary employee by operation of law. “[H]e did not receive a written statement concerning his classification as a temporary employee in July 1982 [i.e., as would hаve been required for a continuing teacher], or when he began teaching at the beginning of the 1982-1983 school year (as would have been required for a newly hired teacher].” (Governing Board, supra,
Like the facts in the instant case, those of Governing Board, supra,
By contrast, were we to accept the District’s proffered interpretation of section 44916, governing boards of school districts would be permitted to provide written notice of a teacher’s classification and salary level at some indeterminate future time, when it was convenient for the governing board to meet, possibly well after the teacher had rendered paid service and long after the information could be of practical use to him or her. This interpretation, accepted by both dissenting opinions, fails to explain what Kavanaugh’s employment status was during the two weeks she taught classes but had not received written notice of her status. Absent from both opinions, moreover, is any explanation of how long a teacher must wait for the governing board to meet and formally hire the teacher so that he or she, as the dissenters would have it, might be given written notice of employment status, notwithstanding that the Legislature considered notice of classification of such importance as to enact section 44916 expressly addressing the issue.
The District argues that accepting Kavanaugh’s interpretation would violate the familiar canon of statutory construction that “courts must avoid
The alleged absurdity the District describes hinges on no other option being available for a district to address the problem of the emergency hire. But the logistical problem of having to convene a school board meeting every time a teacher must be hired can be solved by having the board delegate the hiring power to school principals or other appropriate employees to address such emergencies. (See § 35161 [“The governing board of any school district may . . . delegate to an officer or employee of the district any
The District also argues that Kavanaugh’s interpretation would lead to absurd results in another way: It contends that governing boards must verify a new employee’s employment and educational history before finalizing his or her employment status and salary level. “Consequently, if the phrase ‘at the time of initial employment’ were interpreted to mean the first date of paid service, governing boards would be deprived of their statutory authority to classify new certificated employees in every instance where former employers or post-graduate institutions failed to respond promptly to a hiring district’s requests.”
The District overstates its case. To begin with, the concern about classifying new employees applies only to probationary employees, for temporary employees can be dismissed at any time; accordingly, they may be dismissed immediately upon discovery that their claimed educational accomplishments were inflated or their references falsified. Moreover, although it is true that a delay by former employers or colleges and universities may hamper a governing board’s ability to classify a teacher before he or she actually begins working, a district can simply give the new employee—on or before his or her first day of paid service—written notice that the position is a temporary one pending confirmation by the school board and verification of the teacher’s educational and employment references, at which point the teacher can be reclassified as probationary. In addition, a district can give the teacher written notice that he or she is temporary and then reelect the teacher for the following year, at which point his or her year as a temporary employee would be deemed a year as a probationary employee. (See § 44917.)
The District’s final argument also fails to persuade. The District argues that interpreting section 44916 to require written notice on or before a
Conclusion
We conclude plaintiff Kavanaugh was not given written notice of her status as a temporary employee “[a]t the time of [her] initial employment,” because she did not receive such notice on or before her first day of paid service. Accordingly, pursuant to section 44916, she must be considered a probationary employee as a matter of law. Because the District did not provide her with statutorily required notice before March 15th, the District had a clear, present and ministerial duty to reelect her for the following school year, and she has a clear, present and beneficial right to performance of that duty, entitling her to a writ of mandate. (Santa Clara County Counsel Attys. Assn. v. Woodside, supra, 7 Cal.4th at pp. 539-540.) We therefore reverse the decision of the Court of Appeal and remand the case to that court with directions to affirm the trial court’s decision to issue a writ of mandate.
George, C. J., Kennard, J., and Moreno, J., concurred.
Notes
All statutory references are to the Education Code unless otherwise stated.
The District apparently did not produce a copy of the announcement in the trial court for verification.
This rule applies to school districts with an average daily attendance of 250 or more and to probationary employees whose probationary period commenced during or after the 1983-1984 fiscal year. (§ 44929.21, subd. (b).)
A school district may choose not to reelect a probationary employee “without providing cause or other procedural protections to the terminated employees” (Board of Education v. Round Valley Teachers Assn. (1996)
See, e.g., section 44830, subdivision (h) (“If the basic skills proficiency test is not administered at the time of hiring, the holder of a vocational designated subject credential who has not already taken and passed the basic skills proficiency test may be hired on the condition that he or she will take the test at its next local administration” (italics added)); section 44830.2, subdivision (f)(3) (fingerprint and criminal history evidence “shall be destroyed upon the hiring determination in accordance with [relevant regulations]” (italics added)); section 87102, subdivision (b) (“The governing board of each community college district shall publish and distribute a record of the success rate of measurable progress, with respect to its goals and timetables, in hiring employees through its affirmative action employment program” (italics added)).
The legislative history of section 44916 includes a September 4, 1974, letter from State Senator Arlen Gregorio, the author of the bill that became section 44916 (Sen. Bill No. 1942 (1973-1974 Reg. Sess.)), to then Governor Ronald Reagan, stating that the proposed law “would require school districts to notify new employees of their employment status at the time of hiring." (Italics added.) Needless to say, since it was not at issue, the letter does not discuss the difference between the time of hiring and the time a teacher begins work. Moreover, “ ‘[i]n construing a statute we do not consider the objective of an authoring legislator when there is no reliable indication that the Legislature as a whole was aware of that objective and believed the language of the proposal would accomplish it.’ ” (People v. Johnson (2002)
Notification as late as a teacher’s first day of paid service to the district may well be too late for the teacher to secure a different job, but of course this represents the last day the governing board can comply with section 44916 to avoid the automatic reclassification provided for in the statute. Nothing forbids a district from giving earlier notice. Nevertheless, that a governing board is obligated to inform teachers of their employment status by the first day of paid employment, and is not permitted to delay notice while it formalizes that employment, at least makes it more likely that teachers will be told in a fashion that will be timely for purposes of considering other employment. The Legislature may well have believed that an earlier date, such as notice at the time teachers are offered the position (as opposed to formally hired), may place too much pressure on school districts to cоmmit themselves too soon. Section 44916 may thus be viewed as a balancing of the interests of teachers and school districts.
At oral argument, counsel for the District admitted that the six months of delay in Governing Board, supra,
Contrary to Justice Chin’s dissenting opinion, in reaching our conclusion this court is not engaging in “micromanagement” of school districts (dis. opn. of Chin, J., post, at pp. 926,
Section 35163 states: “Every official action taken by the governing board of every school district shall be affirmed by a formal vote of the members of the board, and the governing board of every school district shall keep minutes of its meetings, and shall maintain a journal of its proceedings in which shall be recorded every official act taken.”
"[A] school board of a school district constitutes a ‘legislative body’ of a ‘local agency.’ ([Gov. Code,] §§ 54951, 54952.) Thus [a school board] is subject to the requirements of the Brown Act, and must conduct its meetings in open sessions unless a statutory exception authorizes a closed or executive session.” (Fischer v. Los Angeles Unified School Dist. (1999)
The Court of Appeal recognized this possibility but dismissed it, concluding “there is nothing in this record that the District’s board ever took action to delegate its power to employ temporary teachers.” That the District may not have delegated the hiring function to principal Torch is beside the point; it is the possibility of such delegation that undercuts the District’s argument that Kavanaugh’s proposed interpretation of section 44916 is absurdly unworkable within the parameters of the statutory scheme.
Dissenting Opinion
I join in Justice Brown’s dissenting opinion. I write separately to explain further my reasons for my dissent. In my view, the majority misinterprets Education Code section 44916
Justice Brown correctly notes that, under section 44916, “ ‘the time of initial employment’ ” has the same meaning as “the time the school district
The majority recognizes that its holding is unsupported by either the statute’s language or its legislative history. Instead, it citеs the statute’s purpose to benefit teachers by requiring timely written notice of employment terms. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 920-921.) I agree that teachers should receive timely notice of their employment terms, and that it is good practice for any employer to give written notice of employment status before an employee actually begins work. However, obvious, and major, practical problems exist in convening a school board meeting before every new employee begins actual work, especially when a teacher must be called in on short notice. The unexpected often occurs in public education. Often, for example, a teacher must be hired to start teaching quickly, perhaps next Monday, to fill an immediate and unexpected need. The majority is now telling the school district—without support from either the statutory language or its history— that it may not allow that teacher to start immediately without risking a reclassification that the school board may find inappropriate in light of the district’s needs as a whole. This court should not engage in this sort of micromanagement. It should not squeeze public schools into a bureaucratic straitjacket that may prevent them from meeting the needs of their students.
The Legislature used the general term “[a]t the time of initial employment” to afford school districts flexibility in deciding how and when it
Using this case as illustration, the majority reasons that written notice before a teacher actually begins work “avoids the kind of bait-and-switch scenario in which a teacher begins the school year believing his or her status is probationary (with the accompanying level of job protection) only to discover after the year has started—when it is too late to find another position—that the position is only temporary.” (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 921-922.) The majority declares that “had the District provided notice . . . on or before Kavanaugh’s first day of paid service to the District, this litigation could hаve been avoided.” (Id. at p. 922.) The record reflects otherwise.
It is undisputed that Kavanaugh received written notice of her employment status as a temporary teacher in a letter dated September 13, 1999, only two weeks after she began work. It is undisputed that Kavanaugh had left her previous teaching job for a teaching position in the District for the 1999-2000 school year. It appears undisputed that she taught in the District for most, if not all, of that school year. As a probationary teacher, Kavanaugh could have been nonreelected for the following year for economic reasons, provided the District notified her by March 15, 2000. (§§ 44949, subd. (a), 44955, subds. (a), (c).) As a temporary teacher, Kavanaugh could have been nonreelected for the following year for economic reasons, provided the District notified her “before the end of the school year.” (§ 44954, subd. (b).) Thus, Kavanaugh would not have been automatically entitled to more than one school year of teaching in the District, whether employed as a probationary or a temporary teacher. Indeed, the record reflects that Kavanaugh only had taken a one-year leave of absence from her previous teaching job, thus indicating that she was not unequivocally relying on her new teaching job as more than a one-year position.
Kavanaugh’s job classification matters in this case only because the District believed that Kavanaugh was a temporary employee. It accordingly gave notification of nonreelection on April 20, 2000, instead of on March 15, 2000, dates which occurred many months after Kavanaugh received her written notice. In giving notification of nonreelection on April 20th, the District reasonably relied on its September 13, 1999, letter that Kavanaugh’s position was a temporary one. Thus, the timing of the written notice appears to be immaterial in this case. In finding that the written notice of job classification was untimely, and deeming Kavanaugh a probationary employee under section 44916, the majority places form over substance.
Baxter, J., concurred.
All further statutory references are to the Education Code.
Section 44916 states, in part, that “If a school district hires a certificatеd person as a temporary employee, the written statement shall clearly indicate the temporary nature of the employment and the length of time for which the person is being employed.” The latter clause is clearly dependent on the former clause.
Dissenting Opinion
I respectfully dissent. Like the Court of Appeal in this case, I conclude Education Code
Section 44916 should be read in conjunction with section 44915, which immediately precedes it. Section 44915 provides, “Governing boards of school districts shall classify as probationary employees, those persons employed in positions requiring certification qualifications for the school year, who have not been classified as permanent employees or as substitute employees.” Section 44916 provides, “The classification shall be made at the time of employment and thereafter in the month of July of each school year. At the time of initial employment during each academic year, each new certificated employee of the school district shall receive a written statement indicating his employment status and the salary that he is to be paid. If a school district hires a certificated person as a temporary employee, the written statement shall clearly indicate the temporary nature of the employment and the length of time for which the person is being employed.” (Italics added.)
Thus, section 44915 refers to the board classifying teachers, and section 44916 specifies when that classification by the board must be made. Moreover, section 44916 specifically refers to the “school district hir[ing]” a teacher. The majority does not dispute the Court of Appeal’s assertion that under the Education Code, “the power to employ and classify certificated employees is vested exclusively in the governing board of a school district.” (See §§ 44830, subd. (a), 44830.7, 44831, 44909, 44915, 44917, 44919, 44920.) If thе governing board employs and classifies employees, it is difficult to understand how a teacher could “receive a written statement indicating his employment status and the salary that he is to be paid” prior to the board determining those matters. Or how a notice that must indicate the temporary status in which the teacher was “hire[d]” could issue before such “hir[ing]” occurs. It thus seems “the time of initial employment” means nothing different from and cannot precede the time the school district “hires” the new teacher. (§ 44916.)
Moreover language similar to that in section 44916 appears in section 44830, subdivision (b). Section 44830, subdivision (b) provides: “[N]o school district governing board shall initially hire on a permanent, temporary, or substitute basis a certificated person seeking employment in the capacity designated in his or her credential unless that person has demonstrated basic skills proficiency . . . .” (Italics added.) If the board “initially hire[s]” teachers in section 44830, subdivision (b), it would seem consistent that it is the board’s, not the school’s, action to which section 44916 refers when it uses the language “initial employment” and “hires.”
In addition, when the Legislature intends consequences to attach from the moment paid service is first rendered, it says so explicitly. For example, sectiоn 44845 provides, “[e]very probationary or permanent employee employed after June 30, 1947, shall be deemed to have been employed on the date upon which he first rendered paid service in a probationary position.” (Italics added; see, e.g., § 44846 [“As between two or more employees who first rendered paid service to the district on the same date”]; § 44847; § 44848 [“When any certificated employee shall have resigned or been dismissed for cause and shall thereafter have been reemployed by the board, his date of employment shall be deemed to be the date on which he first. . . rendered paid service . . . after his reemployment” (italics added)].) No such language appears in section 44916.
The majority claims the absence of such language is inconclusive because in other statutes the Legislature uses the word “hiring,” and thus “has not
The majority relies in part on California Teachers Assn. v. Governing Board (1987)
Thus, contrary to the majority’s assertion that the statutory language and legislative history are inconclusive (maj. opn., ante, at pp. 919-920), these sources of information, together with the language of related statutes, consistently support the interpretation that “time of initial employment” is when the board hires the teacher, not when she begins work.
Rather than relying on such sources, the majority primarily focuses on the various results it asserts would ensue if we affirm or reverse the Court of Appeal. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 920-923.) These too fail to persuade, and indeed, it is the majority’s result that implicates significant policy concerns. For example, the majority contends that interpreting “initial employment” to mean “before [a teacher] first render[s] paid service to [his or her] employer”
To the contrary, the majority’s suggestion new teachers always be told they are temporary when they start, but that this status may change after the board votes, does nothing to implement the clear notice and security that is the purpose of section 44916. Rather, it interprets the statute in a manner that provides less direction to teachers. Section 44916 requires a written statement of what a teacher’s employment status and salary will be, not “written notice that the position is a temporary one pending confirmation by the school board and verification of the teacher’s educational and employment references, at which point the teacher [could] be rеclassified as probationary.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 925.)
Moreover, as the majority also notes, a “school district’s need for new employees . . . may not be apparent until sometime closer to the beginning of the school year, or even after the school year has begun.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 921.) Here, plaintiff began work on August 26, and was informed on September 13 she was temporary. (Id. at p. 915.) Contrary to the majority’s assertion, this was not “midyear” notification. (Id. at pp. 922-923.) Rather, it seems unlikely plaintiff’s employment prospects for the current school year changed dramatically during such a brief time period.
In addition, the purpose of a governing board is to oversee the entire district, and make hiring and salary decisions for a particular school against the backdrop of the needs of the district’s other schools. Requiring boards to delegate their hiring and classification authority, as the majority suggests, to each individual school will lead to a fragmented and fiscally chaotic personnel situation. (See maj. opn., ante, at pp. 924-925.) Moreover, it hardly seems appropriate for this сourt to state when such power should be delegated, or to impose nonsensical and counterproductive duties on school administrators.
Certainly the apparent purpose of section 44916 is to provide a new teacher prompt notice of her salary and classification. Given that the statute has existed for over a quarter of a century, however, and this is the first case to raise the issue of when the notice must be given, it does not appear school districts allow a teacher’s employment status to remain in limbo for prolonged periods of time. Moreover, caution is appropriate because the narrow
I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Baxter, J., and Chin, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied April 16, 2003, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. Baxter, J., Chin, J., and Brown, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
All statutory references are to this code.