Court Opinion

ID: 9789944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:44:19.735177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:25.312030
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
specially concurring:
I concur with the majority opinion that substantial and competent evidence was presented to support the magistrate’s findings. The district court erred in reversing the magistrate court for failing to find that the board adopted a policy requiring an annual determination for special service salaries on an individual basis. The magis*493trate considered the evidence that the board adopted such a policy prior to the master agreement, but concluded in the memorandum opinion “that the policy of the board from 1973 until 1977 when the master agreement was signed, has been to give additional pay for high school teachers who teach a sixth period.” That finding of fact was supported by some competent, although conflicting, evidence and thus should not have been overturned.
Nevertheless, the majority opinion should not be interpreted to hold that a school board’s action is void unless the action is specified in the minutes of the meeting. The minutes are prima facie or the best evidence of a board’s action, but where an action taken by a board is omitted from the minutes, other evidence may be used to prove the action. See Knutsen v. Frushour, 92 Idaho 37, 436 P.2d 521 (1968); McFetridge v. Wieck, 7 Or.App. 389, 490 P.2d 1044 (1971). The rule is contrary if a statute specifically requires an action to be recorded; however, I.C. § 33-508 merely requires the school board clerk to make a general record of the proceedings and “enter in said record all matters required by law, or by the board .... ” See Joseph v. Village of Downer’s Grove, 104 F.2d 974 (7th Cir.1939); McFetridge v. Wieck, supra. In the present case, the assistant superintendant, who kept the policy book for the board, testified that on April 15, 1974, he presented to the board the “provisions for employment,” which contained the language of annual determination, and he implied that the board acted to adopt the provisions, even though not recorded in the minutes. He also testified that a copy was mailed to each employee. Although the magistrate court was unconvinced by this evidence, it could have held that this evidence established a policy for the board.