Court Opinion

ID: 9679292
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:47:39.262233+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:12.098847
License: Public Domain

Mackenzie, P.J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. The State Tenure Commission has adhered to the anniversary-date method of computing the probationary period since 1950, see Davis v Harrison Community Schools Bd of Ed, 126 Mich App 89, 94; 342 NW2d 528 (1983), and I agree with other panels of this Court which have endorsed that method, Davis, supra, p 96; Cadillace Area Public Schools Bd of Ed v Ward, 134 Mich App 811; 351 NW2d 873 (1984). Clearly, there is a need for a workable method of computation which can be easily applied and which will have fairly predictable results. I believe the anniversary-date method better satisfies this need than does the "substantial compliance” approach adopted by the majority.
In Blurton v Bloomñeld Hills Bd of Ed, 60 Mich App 741; 231 NW2d 535 (1975), the plaintiff teacher had in fact met the two-year anniversary date test; it was necessary in that case to determine whether the plaintiff had substantially complied with the two-year probation period requirement only because there had been a mid-period hiatus in employment. See also Ward, supra. Hence, I would hold that the threshold require*821ment is that the two-year anniversary-date test be met, and that "substantial compliance” is an issue only where, although the teacher satisfies the anniversary-date test, there was some hiatus in employment during the course of the two-year period.
In the present case, plaintiff fails to meet the threshold requirement of satisfying. the two-year anniversary date test since his employment began on October 3, 1979, and ceased August 26, 1981. While an exception to the two-year anniversary-date requirement might properly be made where it is shown that the school district in bad faith and without legitimate reason delayed hiring until after the start of the school year in an apparent attempt to evade its obligations under the teacher tenure act, plaintiff herein has made no such claim of bad faith. I would reverse the circuit court and reinstate the tenure commission’s decision.