Court Opinion

ID: 9528777
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:43:52.749153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:20.241644
License: Public Domain

Braucher, J.
(dissenting, with whom Abrams, J., joins). The decision in this case follows in part from the opinion in Bonar v. Boston, 369 Mass. 579 (1976). We did not participate in that decision, and have not had prior occasion to express our opinion that that case was wrongly decided. In this case as in that one the teacher in fact received a timely *327notice that she was not to be employed for the following school year, as required by G. L. c. 71, § 41. We do not see that any legitimate interest of the teacher or purpose of the statute was impaired by the fact that the decisive vote of the school committee took place after rather than before the notice was given. In practical effect both the Bonar case and the present case would have been decided the other way if the superintendent had given notice after the effective date of St. 1974, c. 342, amending G. L. c. 71, § 38. See 369 Mass, at 583 & n.9. The effect of the decision is to give an unqualified teacher life tenure because of a highly technical procedural defect, to the detriment of the children who should be the beneficiaries of the school system. Moreover, if the teacher achieved tenure on April 15, 1973, the vote of July 10, 1973, was a vote to dismiss her, subject to the thirty-day appeal period of G. L. c. 71, § 43A, which was not met.