503 S.W.2d 35 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1973
Plaintiff, a probationary teacher (§ 168.-104(5) RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S.) of Scott
The board of education is permitted by § 168.126, subd. 1 to contract with and employ a probationary teacher; the section provides that the “contract . . . shall specify the number of months school is to be taught and the wages per month to be paid.” In part, § 168.126, subd. 2 states: “If in the opinion of the board of education any probationary teacher has been doing unsatisfactory work, the board of education . . . shall provide the teacher with a written statement definitely setting forth his alleged incompetency and specifying the nature thereof If improvement satisfactory to the board of education has not been made within ninety days of the receipt of the notification, the board of education may terminate the employment of the probationary teacher immediately or at the end of the school year. . . . On or before the fifteenth day of April but not before April first in each school year, the board of education shall notify a probationary teacher who will not be retained by the school district of the termination of his employment.” Under § 168.126, subd. 3, a “probationary teacher who is not notified of the termination of his employment shall be deemed to have been appointed for the next school year, under the terms of the contract for the preceding year.”
According to the stipulation of facts, plaintiff had been employed by defendant school district as a probationary teacher for the 1970-71 school year. On April 8, 1972 [1971?], the district determined she “was an unsatisfactory teacher and failed to renew [her] teacher’s contract for 1971-72, [and] did not give [her] notice in writing specifying her alleged teaching deficiencies, and did not afford [plaintiff] the opportunity to correct those alleged deficiencies, within the ninety (90) day period set forth in” § 168.126, subd. 2, and on “April 9, 1971, [plaintiff] received notice from [the district] that her teaching contract for the school year 1971-72 would not be renewed.” At this point it is well to note that plaintiff does not contend there was any interruption of her 1970-71 contract by defendants or that she was not fully compensated in accordance with that particular agreement.
Except incidentally, we are not here involved with indefinite contracts [§ 168.-104(3)] between a permanent teacher [§ 168.104(4)] and a school district [§ 168.-104(6)] that, subject to § 168.106, continue in effect indefinitely and which may be modified (§ 168.110) by a board of education [§ 168.104(1)] or terminated for the reasons stated in § 168.114 only following due notice (§ 168.116) and hearing (§ 168.-118), after which a permanent teacher who has been demoted or whose indefinite contract has been terminated, is afforded a right of appeal. § 168.120. However, a comparison of the statutory provisions relating to contracts of permanent teachers who have tenure and agreements between a school district and a probationary teacher who has no tenure, makes it clear that probationary teachers’ contracts are annual agreements for one school term [§ 160.-011(11)] or one school year, and that appointment of the probationary teacher for the next school year on the same terms is automatic only if he is not notified of the termination of his employment between April 1 and 15 of the current contract year. § 168.126, supra.
As we comprehend plaintiff’s urgings, she asseverates that although she was
Plaintiff’s interpolation of § 168.-126, in our opinion, results from a futile effort to commingle independent insoluble circumstances incapable of admixture, i.e., (1) the act of discharging or dismissing a probationary teacher (either immediately or at the end of the current school year) by terminating the existing contract of present employment after proper notice and a 90 day allowance for correction,
The judgment is affirmed.
. The termination of a current contract before the expiration of the agreement term, albeit the probationary teacher’s actual discharge would not be effective until the end of the existing school year, would extinguish his right to continued or renewed employment for the following school year. Birdwell v. Hazelwood Sch. Dist., 352 F.Supp. 613, 622 (E.D.Mo.1972).