Court Opinion

ID: 9851770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:19:20.576609+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:14.976182
License: Public Domain

Brachtenbach, J.
(dissenting) — The majority essentially holds that the continuing contract statute applies only to contracts for regular professional duties performed during the state-mandated 180-day school year. Under the analysis of the majority, so long as a school district executes a separate contract to cover duties to be performed during "extended days" and labels the contract as a supplemental contract, "extended days" duties are not subject to the continuing contract statute. No consideration is given to the relationship between the basic contract duties required of a certificated employee and these "extended days" duties. This analysis ignores the way in which certificated school employees' jobs are structured and undermines the primary purpose of the continuing contract statute. Therefore, I dissent. I would remand for trial, to determine whether the cutbacks in the "extended days" contracts altered the terms and conditions of the certificated employees' basic contracts.
The primary purpose of the continuing contract statute is to provide certificated school employees with notice and other procedural protections if their employment contracts will not be renewed for the following school year. Certificated employees are entitled to notice of any change which *454results in a contract that is not "substantially identical" to their prior contract. RCW 28A.67.070. Barnes v. Seattle Sch. Dist. 1, 88 Wn.2d 483, 488, 563 P.2d 199 (1977). Contracts requiring materially different levels of responsibility are not "substantially identical". Bremer v. Mount Vernon Sch. Dist. 320, 34 Wn. App. 192, 198, 660 P.2d 274, review denied, 99 Wn.2d 1016 (1983). Failure to notify an employee of nonrenewal creates an immediate vested right to a contract containing substantially identical terms and conditions. Barnes, at 488.
If a school district requests a certificated employee to perform duties which are not described in the employee's basic contract, a supplemental contract must be executed. Supplemental contracts are exempt from the continuing contract statute. RCW 28A.67.074. We have recognized that contracts with teachers for the supervision of extracurricular activities fall within this exemption. Kirk v. Miller, 83 Wn.2d 777, 779-80, 522 P.2d 843 (1974). I agree with the majority that the distinction between curricular and extracurricular duties is not the sole criterion for determining the relevance of the continuing contract statute. Majority, at 451. A school district should have the flexibility to institute special programs or fund additional services without creating a vested right in employees in the additional work time those programs require. However, I disagree with the majority when it allows a school district to make arbitrary distinctions between "basic" duties and "supplemental" duties in order to delay basic staffing level decisions until after the continuing contract deadline has passed. This interpretation of the statute allows the exception to swallow the rule.
As with many professional jobs, certificated school employees are required to complete a particular set of tasks to earn their salaries. Work produced, rather than hours clocked in at the workplace, forms the basis for their compensation. The payment of certificated employees by the day for days worked in excess of the 180-day basic school year is a convenient way for establishing levels of compen*455sation for those duties. However, some duties performed by certificated school employees during days when school is not in session are as much a part of their basic contract responsibilities as are duties performed during the "basic" school year. A department head must plan the department's budget and schedule staff for the year as well as supervise teachers during the school year. A librarian must set up the library and order resource materials as well as supervise student use of the library. Certificated employees cannot perform their school year duties without performing this type of "extended days" duties.
When a school district cuts back the "extended days" for which certificated employees will be compensated, many of the duties which the employees have in the past performed during those "extended days" do not disappear. Those duties are a necessary part of performing the duties required under the certificated employees' basic contracts. Rather, responsibility for performing those duties shifts so that those duties must now be performed under the terms of the employees' basic contract. Indirectly, by changing their "supplemental contracts", the school district has changed the employees' basic contract so that more work is required for the same compensation.
In this case the Issaquah School District has arbitrarily differentiated between professional duties performed during the "basic" school year and those performed during "extended days." It is impossible to determine from the record before us what effect the cutback in compensation for "extended days" had on the basic contracts of District certificated employees. If professional duties covered by the "extended days" contracts are truly additional duties which can be cut back or eliminated without affecting the duties employees must perform under their basic contracts, the District should be allowed to change the contracts without complying with the continuing contract statute. For example, the District should be able to eliminate compensation for attendance at a workshop if the workshop need not be attended, or for planning a department's budget if budget*456ing responsibilities are transferred to another employee. However, if professional duties covered by the "extended days" contract are necessary to, or included within the certificated employees' basic contract responsibilities, and cutbacks in "extended days" increase employees' work loads under their basic contracts, the District should not be allowed to alter the "extended days" contracts without complying with the continuing contract statute.
I would remand for determination of this issue which is fundamental to resolution of this question.
Utter and Goodloe, JJ., concur with Brachtenbach, J.