Court Opinion

ID: 9726201
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:37:22.87079+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:24.230233
License: Public Domain

GRODIN, J.,
Concurring. — I do not agree that the “formal vote of the members of the board” which Education Code section 35163 requires for “every official action” is satisfied by some undefined “consensus,” particularly where the trial court finds that there was no “vote” at all. Nor is it satisfied by the fact (if it is a fact) that the board’s action was recorded in the minutes of the board meeting and in the journal of its proceedings, since the requirement for recordation of official acts is imposed by section 35163 in addition to the requirement for “formal vote.” To me, a formal vote means at least a procedure by which each member of the board indicates in some formal and express way his approval or disapproval of a pending proposition.
Nor do I agree that board policy 420.7 became inconsistent with state law simply because there was a reduction in funding for teacher aides. It is apparent, and at oral argument the board conceded, that the reduction in funding could have been accommodated by other means including, for example, the means now advocated by the union, i.e., by reduction in the number of teacher’s aides.
The trial court determined, however, that the school board “received no protest in the 1976-1977 school year and had no reason to believe that a similar change in school year 1977-1978 was or would be a matter of protest or objection until a formal protest was made on February 8, 1978.” By that time, of course, it was too late to effectuate the layoff-by-seniority alternative for which the union now contends, for the teacher aide (or aides) who would have lost employment altogether *706by that alternative had already been employed. Under the circumstances, it could reasonably be said that the union was estopped from asserting its position, and on that ground I join in the result.
A petition for a rehearing was denied April 9, 1981. Grodin, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.