Court Opinion

ID: 9742540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:15:37.046022+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:33.387213
License: Public Domain

DOYLE, Justice
(dissenting).
The majority seems to imply that school boards are not required to follow the notice requirements set forth in the applicable statutes. I believe the consequences are manifest. If school boards are not held to the prescribed notice requirements, we will be destroying one of the safeguards against arbitrary and capricious action on the part of school boards. Thus, where the patent purpose of the legislature in passing the involved statutes was to protect a teacher’s, welfare, the majority would construe the statutes in a manner leading to a contrary result.
Further, it is my opinion that SDCL 13-43-10 plainly provides that failure of the board to adhere to the notice requirements results in the automatic renewal of the teacher’s contract. In my view, and I believe the majority concedes this, the school board proceeded improperly. Therefore, the appellant has a contract as a matter of law. The majority is now depriving the appellant of a contract which by law had already been conferred upon him. It is a singular case when one loses what the law has in one instance provided when attempting only to enforce one’s right to that conferred.