Opinion ID: 1764342
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Elsie Edwards :

Text: Elsie Edwards is licensed to teach Business and Spanish. As a long-call reserve teacher, she taught five business classes per day at Marshall-University High School from September 2, 1970, to January 24, 1971, and five Spanish classes per day at Southwest High School from January 25, 1971, to the end of that school year. On August 26, 1971, Edwards was hired as a regular contract teacher and since then has held a full-time position as a Spanish teacher in the district's modern languages department. Marcia Hallock, another teacher in the modern languages department, began teaching on December 20, 1970, in a four-tenths, part-time position at University High School. For the next 2 years she remained at the new Marshall-University High School as an eight-tenths, part-time Spanish instructor and thereafter became a full-time teacher in the district. In 1978, the district decided to discontinue 14 positions in the modern languages department. The board determined that Hallock had greater seniority than Edwards. As a result, Edwards was among the 14 teachers whose contracts were terminated. Edwards contends that her seniority was improperly determined and that the board erred in retaining Hallock instead of Edwards. Section 125.17, subd. 11, provides that teachers must be terminated in any department in the inverse order in which they were employed. The district has followed a policy of dating a teacher's employment for purposes of this section from the date the teacher first became a regular contract teacher. Hallock first came under contract in December 1970, and although her position was only part-time, the district calculated her seniority from that date. Edwards, on the other hand, worked for the district full-time as a long-call reserve teacher from September 1970, but did not have a contract until August 1971. Her seniority was computed from the later date. Edwards contends that her employment for purposes of section 125.17, subd. 11, should have included her pre-contract time as a long-call reserve teacher. [4] We agree. While we have never confronted the question of whether long-call reserve service must be counted toward seniority under section 125.17, subd. 11, Edwards relies heavily upon our decision in Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, in which we concluded in the circumstances of that case that a teacher who had taught in a single long-call reserve position for an entire year was entitled to have the year counted toward her 3-year probationary period for acquisition of tenure. [5] Edwards argues that if long-call reserve experience applies toward tenure, it must apply toward seniority as well. The district responds that tenure is not comparable to seniority and that, therefore, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers is not on point. Tenure is the right to continue in permanent employment subject to termination only for cause and in compliance with procedural safeguards. Tenure is a status  once it is acquired, each teacher's tenure is equivalent, and one tenured teacher does not inherently have superior rights to another, regardless of years of service. Seniority, on the other hand, gives rise to an additional set of rights, granted by contract or by statute, that do increase with years of service. The district fails, however, to explain why this distinction between tenure and seniority warrants the conclusion that service applied toward the former should not also be applied toward the latter. [6] We conclude that Edwards' full-time, long-call reserve experience should have been included in the computation of her seniority. Section 125.17, subd. 2, defines the probationary period leading to tenure as the first three years of consecutive employment. Section 125.17, subd. 11, requires termination in the inverse order in which the teacher was employed.  (Emphasis added.) There is no indication that employment for one purpose is not equivalent to employment for the other. Furthermore, while there is a difference between the ultimate goals of tenure and seniority, it would seem that, contrary to the district's contention, teaching service should be applied more readily toward seniority than toward tenure. The probationary period prerequisite to tenure is an opportunity for the school district to observe and evaluate a teacher's abilities before deciding whether to employ her personally. McSherry, 202 Minn. at 108, 277 N.W. at 544. A school district would have a difficult task of evaluation if a reserve teacher spent her probationary period in a variety of temporary assignments. In contrast, evaluation of the teacher's competence is not a prerequisite to the acquisition of seniority. A seniority system simply reflects the opinion that a teacher with more years of hard work and experience should have greater security than a teacher with fewer years. It therefore seems illogical to ignore Edwards' year of full-time, long-call reserve service while applying Hallock's part-time contract service in computing seniority under section 125.17, subd. 11. Edwards devoted the same time, effort, and commitment and gained equal experience as a regular contract teacher. The school board acted on an erroneous theory of law, and the district court erred in dismissing Edwards' petition for certiorari. Because our holding on this issue is dispositive, we do not consider the other issues raised by Edwards' appeal. The district court is reversed.