Court Opinion

ID: 9709379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:46:22.625126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:48.240885
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 27] I agree with the majority that the Legislature intended to “tie together the teacher evaluation and nonrenewal processes” and that the “formal review” referred to in the statute does not refer to the formal nonrenewal hearing. But, I also believe the purpose of N.D.C.C. § 15-47-38(5), requiring that the “reasons given by the school board for its decision not to renew a teacher’s contract must be drawn from specific and documented findings arising from formal reviews conducted by the board with respect to the teacher’s overall performance,” is to avoid the exercise the majority must engage in to reach its result.
[¶ 28] I cannot read the statute to mean that the District can rely on past evaluations which-indicate problems when, as the majority .observes, the most recent evaluation “was generally favorable.” The letters and other activity occurring between that evaluation on March 4, 1998, and the notice of contemplated nonrenewal on March 26, 1998 are not a part of that evaluation. At the most, the letters indicate there were persons who disagreed with the evaluation.
[¶ 29] In order to comport with the statute, I believe the reasons for nonrenewal contained in the evaluation must be ongoing through the most recent evaluation. The typical scenario might be one in which the reasons leading to nonrenewal begin rather low key in earlier evaluations and build to a crescendo in the last evaluation before the notice of contemplated nonrenewal. To rely on prior evaluations when the recent evaluation is favorable may well mislead the teacher.
[¶ 30] If the recent evaluation is imprecise or incorrect, that is a matter the District must deal with internally. If the evaluation was incorrect, incomplete or invalid for whatever reason, it is the District’s responsibility to amend that evaluation before issuing the notice of contemplated nonrenewal. To hold otherwise may lull the teacher into a false sense of security as a result of the most recent evaluation or to permit reasons for contemplated nonrenewal to be drawn from sources not contained in the evaluation and perhaps not agreed to by the evaluators. Either possibility is unacceptable and dilutes the protections to the teacher the statute is obviously meant to provide. The statute is meant to protect the teacher and teachers have a clear legal right to compliance with the statutory procedures for nonrenewal. Simmons v. New Public School Dist. No. Eight, 1998 ND 6, ¶ 4, 574 N.W.2d 561. Dobervich v. Central Cass Public School Dist., 302 N.W.2d 745, 754 (N.D.1981) does not support a proposition that a school board may rely on prior negative evaluations when the recent evaluation is favorable. Significantly, Dobervich was written before the 1983 Amendment to the statute, which required the reasons to be drawn from formal reviews. Furthermore, in Dobervich we observed:
*201Dobervich objects to the fact that evaluations of prior years were relied upon by the board in making its decision, although no notice was given to him that such evaluations would be relied upon ■ nor were they discussed at the nonrenewal hearing. At trial, the board members téstified they relied, in part, upon those evaluations. 'An examination of the transcript of the nonre-newal hearing discloses that-the evaluations were mentioned by some board members as well as by Dobervich himself. Dobervich stressed the positive aspects of those evaluations. There were some negative statements in the evaluations also. Dobervich was not denied his statutory rights by the board’s consideration of these evaluations.
Id. at 754.
[¶31] The application of section 15^17-38(5), N.D.C.C., by the District and approved by the majority permits a school district, to comb past evaluations for reasons for contemplated nonrenewal even though later evaluations are favorable. Because I believe this distorts the intent of the statute and establishes an unacceptable precedent for future nonrenewal actions, I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 32] Gerald W. Vande Walle, C.J.