Opinion ID: 2637226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reemployment for an Additional School Year

Text: Section 22-63-203(3) states that a probationary teacher employed by a school district on a full-time basis shall be deemed to be reemployed for the succeeding academic year unless the teacher is given proper notice that the contract is not renewed. § 22-63-203(3). The trial court interpreted this language as requiring Barbour's reinstatement for the 2004-2005 school year. Because litigation was ongoing when the 2004-2005 school year began, however, reinstatement for that school year was impossible. So, the trial court awarded employment for the 2005-2006 school year. This remedy was again delayed when the Board appealed to the court of appeals. In affirming the trial court, the court of appeals went one step further and instructed the Board to employ Barbour for the 2006-2007 year. Now, the Board asks that we overrule the court of appeals and find that reemployment should not be ordered when damages and back pay have been awarded and the Board has given proper notice of termination for the 2005-2006 school year. We agree with the Board and find that the court of appeals overstepped its authority in ordering the Board to rehire Barbour for the 2006-2007 school year. While we have found that Barbour was deemed reemployed for the 2004-2005 school year, the Board's letters of September 2004 and May 2005, notifying Barbour that he was not renewed for 2005-2006 even if the court found in his favor regarding the 2004-2005 school year, foreclosed the renewal of his existing employment contract for 2005-2006 or beyond. Thereby, the employment mandated by the trial court for the 2005-2006 school year exceeded the authority to provide relief for the 2004-2005 school year. Further, the court of appeals exceeded its authority when it ordered Barbour be employed for the 2006-2007 school year. Instead, we find that the statutory remedy available to Barbour is that he be deemed reemployed for the 2004-2005 school year and that he receive back pay and benefits for the 2004-2005 school year. The statute implicated by the Board's failure to give notice, section 22-63-203(3), states that in the absence of proper notice a probationary teacher . . . shall be deemed to be reemployed for the succeeding academic year. § 22-63-203(3). The question is what form this deemed employment takes and the meaning of the phrase succeeding academic year. We addressed a similar situation in Norwood, 644 P.2d at 18. There, as here, the school board failed to give proper notice that a teacher's contract would not be renewed. The trial court awarded both back pay and reemployment. We affirmed. In his answer brief, Barbour argues that Norwood is controlling and requires that this court affirm the trial court's award of both back pay and reemployment. In Norwood, we did not specifically address whether reemployment is required, even years after the violation, when reemployment may no longer be available because the school year at issue has been completed. Moreover, there is no indication in Norwood that the Alamosa Board raised the question of whether the reemployment remedy is available beyond the school year at issue by sending Norwood proper notice that the teacher's contract for the following year would not be renewed. Thus, our opinion in Norwood affirmed the court of appeals decision that Norwood was entitled to have been reemployed for the next academic year, after seven years of litigation, without further clarification. Norwood at 18. Here, despite the failure to give notice regarding the 2004-2005 school year, the Board did provide Barbour proper timely notice that his contract would not be renewed for 2005-2006 or future school years. Courts do not have the authority to require reinstatement beyond the school year at issue where, as here, the Board has foreclosed that remedy. Reinstatement is only available where the trial court enjoins the Board's unauthorized termination in time for the school year in question or the Board does not undertake steps to terminate the teacher's contract for the succeeding and all future school years. While reinstatement may not always be possible, the statute makes clear that a wrongfully terminated teacher is nonetheless deemed reemployed. Here, the trial court did not enjoin the Board from terminating Barbour's contract prior to the 2004-2005 school year. He was nonetheless deemed reemployed for that school year. Further, because the Board's September 2004 and May 2005 letters properly notified Barbour that any and all contractual relationships between him and the Board were terminated, Barbour could not be reemployed beyond the 2004-2005 school year. The 2004-2005 school year having passed, reinstatement was not possible. Consequently, the trial court erred when it awarded Barbour employment for the 2005-2006 school year despite the Board's timely, written notice that, regardless of the litigation outcome, Barbour would not be retained beyond the 2004-2005 contract year. We also find that the court of appeals erred when it exceeded its authority by extending the trial court's order of reinstatement to the 2006-2007 school year. Thus, we find that Barbour was deemed reemployed for the 2004-2005 school year but that relief in the form of an additional year of employment is not available at this late date. Although the 2004-2005 school year has passed, Barbour is nonetheless deemed reemployed and the Board is obligated to compensate him in the amount he would have received had he actually worked the 2004-2005 school year for the Hanover School District.