Opinion ID: 1982121
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: michigan teacher tenure act

Text: Given that abandonment is a recognized doctrine and that the facts here indicate that plaintiff did abandon his rights to recall in Hamtramck, there remains the question what procedure is required. This issue has become one of characterization, that is, if abandonment is a species of resignation, then a full hearing is not required. However, if abandonment is a species of tenure revocation, then a full hearing is required before a school board may remove a teacher from a recall list. This is more than a mere exercise in semantics. This dispute as to characterization formed the basis of the State Tenure Commission's and circuit court's decisions that a full hearing was not required, as well as the Court of Appeals decision that a hearing was required. We hold that neither the teacher tenure act nor due process requires a full hearing before an abandoning teacher's name may be removed from the recall list. The following are the different articulations by the commission, the circuit court, and the Court of Appeals. [Plaintiff] suggests, however, that a controlling board's treatment of a teacher's actions as an abandonment is a revocation of continuing tenure. By equating these two concepts, appellant contrives an argument in an attempt to lead us to conclude that a teacher's abandonment can only be dealt with under Article IV [dealing with discharge or demotion and the requisite procedural safeguards]. Abandonment and revocation of continuing tenure are two distinct and different matters, however. An abandonment is a voluntary resignation  without a written offer to terminate the employment relationship. A voluntary resignation does not give rise to any Article IV rights. Ordinarily, a resignation terminates the employee's right to further employment. (Emphasis added.) [Decision and Order of the State Tenure Commission, January 27, 1983 at p 11.] The circuit court quoted the passage above and added: If one were to accept the premise upon which this argument is founded, that abandonment is a method of discharge, then it is certainly arguable that it allows a circumvention of safeguards. However, the Commission declined to accept that premise. See order of January 27, 1983 at 11. The Court of Appeals rejected this approach and focused on the act of the board in removing Tomiak's name from the recall list: The Commission concluded that plaintiff abandoned his employment in Hamtramck in favor of his contractual commitment in Roseville. Thus, according to the Commission, there was no revocation of tenure by defendants, but only an acknowledgment of plaintiff's voluntary abdication of tenure. We disagree with this characterization of the circumstances. Even if plaintiff had already decided to give up his rights in Hamtramck, it is clear that he still had tenure there until defendants removed his name from the recall list. It cannot be denied that defendants acted, and that their action amounted to a revocation of plaintiff's tenure. A teacher may remove himself from the protections of the statute by expressly resigning without giving the 60-days notice required by MCL 38.111; MSA 15.2011. Wright v Port Huron School District, 13 Mich App 1, 5; 163 NW2d 673 (1968). However, there was no such resignation in this case. We perceive that a teacher has two distinct rights at the time of a layoff. First, a right to recall and, second, subsequent employment rights to a shorter probationary period in another school. MCL 38.92; MSA 15.1992. [7] Included in the first right are the full tenure rights in the original school district. However, the rights in the original school district are entirely dependent upon the right to recall, and an abandonment of the right to recall is a resignation of the dependent tenure rights in the original school district. Although plaintiff was removed from the recall list, and Hamtramck concedes that his subsequent employment tenure rights have not been forfeited, he continued to have residual tenure rights both with Hamtramck and other school districts. [8] The state tenure commission said: An abandonment is a voluntary resignation  without a written offer to terminate the employment relationship. A voluntary resignation does not give rise to any Article IV rights. Ordinarily, a resignation terminates the employee's right to further employment. Should the teacher be subsequently reemployed by the same school district, however, he or she could not be required to serve out a probationary period. Lash v Dearborn School District (64-1). Similarly, if the resigning teacher is employed by another controlling board only a one year probationary period could be required. MCL 38.92; MSA 15.1992. In contrast, if a controlling board invokes the penalty for improper resignation, the teacher would no longer enjoy these benefits of continuing tenure status. Obviously, this is not a penalty to be taken lightly. Moreover, the penalty can only be extracted through formal action by the controlling board. Stevens v DeWitt Public Schools (77-35). [Decision and order of the State Tenure Commission, January 27, 1983 at p 11.] Hence, the Court of Appeals decision that his tenure was revoked does not, in our view, aptly describe what occurred. The focus upon the board's act of removing plaintiff's name from the list ignores the actions and inaction of plaintiff which preceded the board's response. Accordingly, because there was not a revocation of tenure, the notice and hearing provisions of MCL 38.102; MSA 15.2002 do not apply. The provisions of MCL 38.111; MSA 15.2011 create certain duties for a teacher who resigns. Restating for the convenience of the reader, the statute provides: No teacher on continuing tenure shall discontinue his services with any controlling board except by mutual consent, without giving a written notice to said controlling board at least 60 days before September first of the ensuing school year. Any teacher discontinuing his services in any other manner than as provided in this section shall forfeit his rights to continuing tenure previously acquired under this act. Here, plaintiff did not expressly resign, and by not doing so, what occurred can be described as resignation by mutual consent. [9] We believe the obvious import of MCL 38.111; MSA 15.2011 is to protect school boards from precipitous resignations, as well as to preserve residual subsequent employment rights. The statute expressly allows resignation by mutual consent, which obviates the need for a written notice. In this case, Tomiak's refusal to accept recall and Hamtramck's removal of his name from the recall list acted as mutual consent resignation. However, resignation by mutual consent still preserves the residual subsequent employment rights. Therefore, the Court of Appeals characterization of this case as tenure revocation is incorrect, because the subsequent employment rights remain with the abandoning teacher. Through the doctrine of abandonment, the commission construed the statute to allow a teacher to discontinue his services by mutual consent, and to preserve tenure rights without compliance with the written notice requirements of § 1. We find the reasoning of the Court of Appeals decision in Purcell v Ferndale School Dist, unpublished opinion per curiam, decided November 24, 1982 (Docket No. 59505), persuasive, if not authority. In Purcell, the Court held that a teacher who returned from a sabbatical and refused to teach all of his assigned courses had abandoned his employment. The district had assigned different classes than those he had taught before leaving; a dispute ensued, and, when the school year began, he refused to teach any of his classes. When the district notified him that his absence would be considered a voluntary resignation, he appealed to the Tenure Commission. The commission found abandonment, and the circuit court affirmed. Certainly, factual distinctions are apparent between Purcell and this case. However, we agree that a finding of abandonment is more properly considered a resignation than a revocation of tenure. Thus, we find that the Tenure Commission properly followed its own precedent in holding that plaintiff was not entitled to a full hearing. [10] We also find two sister states to be in accord with the position that abandonment is a resignation and does not require a full hearing. See Jacobs v Wilkes-Barre Twp School Dist, 355 Pa 449; 50 A2d 354 (1947); Miller v Noe, 432 SW2d 818 (Ky App, 1968). The teacher tenure act does not precisely anticipate the procedure required for abandonment. However, it does contemplate voluntary resignation under Article V, § 1. We find that article v, logic, and prior judicial reasoning compels the conclusion that an abandoning teacher does not preserve the right to the full hearing reserved for those teachers who are arbitrarily discharged from a teaching position which they actively sought to retain.