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| One foot in front of the other . . . |
By Elizabeth Kruska
This opinion can be boiled down pretty simply: if there is a statute that tells you what steps to follow in your particular situation, follow those steps. You don’t get to make up your own steps if you’d like the law to protect you.
Mr. Clayton was a teacher in the Northfield school system. He had a contract and was a member of the Washington South Education Association. Because he had an employment contract, he was subject to the rules set forth in this statute, which sets forth the steps that are to be taken if a teacher with a contract is subject to suspension or termination. Because he was a member of the Association, which had a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), he was also subject to those rules.
There were some allegations that Mr. Clayton did and said some unbecoming things during his course of being a teacher. The school wanted to investigate those complaints, so they put Mr. Clayton on paid administrative leave pending investigation. They provided notice. Under the statute, this would have triggered Mr. Clayton’s right to appeal and have a hearing with the school board about the matter. After the hearing the school board could affirm or reverse the suspension, or take other action, like a dismissal. There’s a timeline for these steps to be taken.
So, Mr. Clayton got suspended and was given his opportunity to respond. And he… just sort of didn’t respond. Then a meeting got scheduled, and he didn’t respond to that, either. A week or so later, Mr. Clayton and the Association representative met with the Superintendent. They met again after that and received a notice of suspension.
Mr. Clayton didn’t appeal in accordance with the steps set forth in the statute. The school board met in a warned meeting, went into executive session, and decided to terminate Mr. Clayton.
Shortly after that, Mr. Clayton, along with the Association, filed a grievance, saying this all happened outside the scope of the collective bargaining agreement. The Vermont-NEA (National Education Association) got involved and thought they all had to go to arbitration because that was set forth in the collective bargaining agreement. The school disagreed, since
It took the position it followed the statute.
The school board filed a motion in the trial court to enjoin arbitration. The trial court agreed with the school board, and said Mr. Clayton and the Association didn’t have a right to go to arbitration. Mr. Clayton and the Association appeals.
SCOV affirms.
Without getting too far into the weeds on all this, basically, SCOV says, if there’s a statute, follow it. And if, on appeal, there’s an issue with the construction of a statute, SCOV looks at it wholly anew and tries to figure out what the legislature meant when it wrote the statute. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.
So, here the issue is that there are two competing sets of rules: the statute, and the collective bargaining agreement. But the statute rules in this situation because it governs pre-termination review procedures, which is the situation Mr. Clayton faced. Although the collective bargaining agreement does discuss certain termination issues, it’s not meant for pre-termination review.
There was an argument that the arbitration should have happened because non-judicial conflict resolution is preferable to litigation. SCOV bats this away and says that the appeal process set forth in the statute for pre-termination issues is not even litigation; it’s a hearing before a school board. A teacher facing this kind of disciplinary action doesn’t get to pick between the school board hearing and arbitration. Arbitration may come into play later after the school board has made the decision to terminate a teacher.
So, long story short, the statute has steps for how a teacher facing termination gets to appeal a suspension. SCOV points out that the statutory framework and steps ensure that the teacher is ensured due process by providing a hearing and ability to provide information so that the board can make an informed decision.
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