Court Opinion

ID: 9710905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:20:09.883375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:00.235407
License: Public Domain

Quinn, J.
Defendant appeals from a circuit court judgment which, on review of a Teacher Tenure Commission decision, required defendant to conduct hearings prior to recalling teachers who were laid off because of reduction in staff due to economic reasons. We reverse for two reasons:
1. The teachers involved, Chester and Glassgold, were not qualified for the positions to which they could have been recalled.
2. There is no provision in the teacher tenure act for the hearing that was ordered.
MCLA 38.105; MSA 15.2005 provides:
"Any teacher on permanent tenure whose services are terminated because of a necessary reduction in personnel shall be appointed to the first vacancy in the school district for which he is certified and qualified.”
It is undisputed on the record that both Chester and Glassgold were tenured and certified, but it is also undisputed on the record that neither was *230qualified for the positions to which they could have been recalled. The Tenure Commission so found on undisputed testimony and the trial court and this Court are bound by that finding, Const 1963, art 6, § 28. It is apparent that the trial judge ignored this constitutional limitation on his authority when he stated:
"In looking to the teaching certificates of Chester and Glassgold one finds that both seem to be qualified to teach a number of different grades.
"It would seem that the 'lay-off of these two teachers without a recall based on their qualifications would be equatable to a discharge. Because of the personal nature of this alleged lack of qualification and the possible damage that can be done to the two teachers, Chester and Glassgold should be allowed the same type of hearing given in the case of discharge or demotion under MCLA 38.101 [MSA 15.2001] and 38.104[MSA 15.2004].”
In stating that there is no provision in the teacher tenure act for the hearing that was ordered, we are not unmindful of Freiberg v Board of Education of Big Bay De Noc School Dist, 61 Mich App 404; 232 NW2d 718 (1975). That case is totally inapposite to the question involved in this case. Involved here is a hearing before the local school board. In Freiberg, the hearing involved was before the Tenure Commission. In Freiberg, the issue was whether the Tenure Commission had jurisdiction to hold a hearing involving budgetary matters when the teacher involved claimed that his layoff purportedly because the financial condition of the district required staff reduction was in fact a subterfuge to get rid of him. Here the issue is whether there is any statutory requirement that a local school board hold a hearing on the qualifi*231cations of a teacher before not recalling him from layoff due to necessary staff reduction.
MCLA 38.105 is the last section of article IV of the teacher tenure statute. That article deals with discharge, demotion or retirement and requires the local school board to hold hearings in cases of discharge and demotion. We read MCLA 38.105 as expressing a legislative intent that termination because of necessary staff reduction is not discharge or demotion requiring a hearing. If the Legislature intended otherwise, it would have provided for such a hearing. As it stands, rehiring after layoff because of necessary staff reduction is left to the judgment of the local school board.
Reversed and the decision of the Tenure Commission is reinstated. No costs as a public question is involved.
T. M. Burns, P. J., concurred.