Gouge v. Joint School District No. 1

• Decision Date: 16 March 1970
• Docket Number: 165.,No. 69-C-166,69-C-166
• Citation: 310 F. Supp. 984
• Parties: Mrs. Saxon GOUGE, Plaintiff, v. JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Towns of Winter, Draper, Ojibwa, Meadowbrook, Radisson, Couderay, Villages of Radisson & Couderay, Sawyer County, Town of Hubbard, Rusk County, the Board of Education of Joint School District No. 1, et al., and Stanley Gutowski, Chester A. Boncler, Aubrey Magnuson, Edward Anderson, William Boecker, Jr., Roy Swedberg, Mrs. Lorraine Shydlowski, Mrs. Dorothy Pasanen and Mrs. Hazel Arntz, individually and as members of said Board of Education; and Fred E. Johnson, individually and as Administrator of Joint School District No. 1, Defendants. Mrs. Viola G. KLEIN, Plaintiff, v. JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Towns of Winter, Draper, Ojibwa, Meadowbrook, Radisson, Couderay, Villages of Radisson & Couderay, Sawyer County, Town of Hubbard, Rusk County, the Board of Education of Joint School District No. 1, et al., and Stanley Gutowski, Chester A. Boncler, Aubrey Magnuson, Edward Anderson, William Boecker, Jr., Roy Swedberg, Mrs. Lorraine Shydlowski, Mrs. Dorothy Pasanen and Mrs. Hazel Arntz, individually and as members of said Board of Education; and Fred E. Johnson, individually and as Administrator of Joint School District No. 1, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Wisconsin

310 F. Supp. 984

Mrs. Saxon GOUGE, Plaintiff, v. JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Towns of Winter, Draper, Ojibwa, Meadowbrook, Radisson, Couderay, Villages of Radisson & Couderay, Sawyer County, Town of Hubbard, Rusk County, the Board of Education of Joint School District No. 1, et al., and Stanley Gutowski, Chester A. Boncler, Aubrey Magnuson, Edward Anderson, William Boecker, Jr., Roy Swedberg, Mrs. Lorraine Shydlowski, Mrs. Dorothy Pasanen and Mrs. Hazel Arntz, individually and as members of said Board of Education; and Fred E. Johnson, individually and as Administrator of Joint School District No. 1, Defendants.

Mrs. Viola G. KLEIN, Plaintiff, v. JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Towns of Winter, Draper, Ojibwa, Meadowbrook, Radisson, Couderay, Villages of Radisson & Couderay, Sawyer County, Town of Hubbard, Rusk County, the Board of Education of Joint School District No. 1, et al., and Stanley Gutowski, Chester A. Boncler, Aubrey Magnuson, Edward Anderson, William Boecker, Jr., Roy Swedberg, Mrs. Lorraine Shydlowski, Mrs. Dorothy Pasanen and Mrs. Hazel Arntz, individually and as members of said Board of Education; and Fred E. Johnson, individually and as Administrator of Joint School District No. 1, Defendants.

Nos. 69-C-166, 165.

United States District Court, W. D. Wisconsin.

March 16, 1970.

Richard L. Cates, Robert C. Kelly, Bruce F. Ehlke, John H. Bowers, Madison, Wis., for plaintiffs.

James F. Clark, Ronald J. Kotnik, Madison, Wis., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES E. DOYLE, District Judge.

These are civil actions brought to challenge the defendants' decisions not to retain plaintiffs Gouge and Klein as as teachers in Joint School District No. 1. Each plaintiff seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and an order compelling reinstatement in her teaching position with the defendant School District. Defendants' motions for summary judgment dismissing the actions are presently before the court.

No. 69-C-166 (Gouge) and No. 69-C-165 (Klein) present similar factual situations. Identical relief is sought on identical grounds. The cases have been briefed and argued together. For the purpose of deciding these motions, the cases will be discussed and decided together.

From the pleadings and affidavits on file in No. 69-C-166 (Gouge), I find that there is no genuine issue as to the following material facts:

Gouge was retained as a teacher by the defendant Board of Education for the school years 1963-1964 through 1968-1969 on a series of one-year contracts. At a meeting of the Board held on February 25, 1969, defendant Johnson, Administrator of Joint School District No. 1, recommended nonrenewal of Gouge's contract for the 1969-1970 school year. Johnson informed the Board of the grounds upon which his opinion was based: Gouge "is and has been for some time in a relatively poor state of physical health"; Gouge "failed and evidenced inability to plan and conduct the elementary school vocal music program"; Gouge had exceeded the sick leave available to her under School Board policy for the 1968-1969 school year and the two years previous; Gouge "repeatedly left the class she was conducting for short periods without explanation"; the School District's vocal music program at the elementary level while under Gouge's direction was not "enhanced and expanded" but reluctantly "cut back and curtailed on several occasions" in consideration of Gouge's health; Gouge's "failure and apparent inability to perform and conduct the teaching duties assigned to her has a definite, undesirable and adverse effect on the elementary music program of the school and has caused significant disharmony in the operation of the overall school program of the defendant School District." By unanimous vote, and for the reasons just stated, the Board decided to consider the nonrenewal of Gouge's contract. The Board directed Johnson to give Gouge written notice that the Board was considering nonrenewal and, further, to inform her of her right to a private conference with the Board on the matter. On February 26, 1969, Johnson gave such written notice to Gouge. By letter dated February 28, 1969, directed to Johnson, Gouge requested a private conference with the Board and also a written enumeration of the reasons for the Board's decision to consider nonrenewal. Johnson responded to Gouge's request by a letter dated March 4, the essence of which was:

"Continued curtailment of the music program will never enhance the music program. Your health, as I have observed in the past three years, has affected the vocal music program. This health problem appears to grow more severe each year, which has taken its effect on the program, the number of classes you can meet with, and the handling of youngsters in the program."

On March 11, 1969, a conference between Gouge and the Board was held. Johnson and his staff were present for the conference and were prepared to present the Board and Gouge with information and facts in support of the reasons for considering nonrenewal; Gouge asked that Johnson and his staff be requested to leave the room and not participate in the discussion; and Gouge's request was granted. Following the conference, and after further discussions with Johnson and his staff, the members of the Board present voted unanimously, for the reasons which had been presented to the Board by Johnson on February 25, not to renew Gouge's contract.

There is dispute as to what occurred at the March 11 conference between Gouge and the Board. The Board members allege, by affidavit, that Gouge was presented with the reasons why nonrenewal was being considered, which reasons were substantially the same as those given by Johnson to the Board at its meeting of February 25, 1969; that Gouge was given an opportunity to and did present her side of the case; and that upon conclusion of the conference Gouge voluntarily left the conference without being asked to do so. Gouge alleges, by affidavit, that "at the outset of the conference she asked the members of the Board why they were considering terminating her employment"; that none of the Board members answered; that none of the Board members advised her of what they were considering as a basis for terminating her employment; that one Board member inquired "as to whether defendant Johnson had advised her of the reasons"; that she acknowledged receiving Johnson's letter of date February 26, 1969; that she was asked to read the letter in order to advise the Board of its contents (and apparently did so); that one Board member said that they had not received a copy of the letter and did not know of its contents; that Gouge attempted to explain why the local education association had recommended changing the program, but she was informed that the only thing that was important was the condition of her health; that she then explained that she had recently been examined by doctors who all said her condition was good; and that the meeting then ended. These allegations by Gouge are supported by an affidavit by a representative of the Wisconsin Education Association who accompanied Gouge to the March 11 meeting.

From the pleadings and affidavits on file in No. 69-C-165 (Klein), I find that there is no genuine issue as to the following material facts:

Klein had been employed as a teacher by defendant school district for 18 years, on a series of one-year contracts. For the last two years of her employment she was responsible for the science program in the Winter middle school. At the February 25, 1969, meeting of the School Board defendant Johnson recommended that nonrenewal of Klein's teaching contract for the 1969-1970 school year be considered for the following reasons: Klein had been "unable to adapt to departmentalized team teaching"; Klein did "not have the knowledge or training to efficiently or effectively teach science as a member of the teaching team handling the departmentalized middle school instruction program"; Klein had "failed to follow or adopt many of the practices and procedures developed, recommended and put into practice by the science curriculum committee of the defendant School District Staff although requested to do so by the Administrative Staff of the defendant School District"; "contrary to Administrative Staff recommendations, Klein has persisted in following the traditional method of teaching a self-contained and oriented program in her classes which results in overlap and omissions in the instruction of science and other middle school courses"; Klein "is a self-oriented teacher and does not communicate with her fellow team teachers in the middle school as to correlation of planning, ideas and techniques" which causes "friction and disharmony among the middle school staff"; Klein's failure to correct the deficiencies has had a "definite, undesirable and adverse effect on the middle school science program of the School District and has caused significant disharmony in the operation of the total middle school program". After presentation and discussion of those reasons, and on the basis of those reasons, the Board voted unanimously to consider nonrenewal of Klein's contract. The Board directed Johnson to advise Klein that the Board was considering nonrenewal of her contract and that she could request a private conference with the Board. Johnson complied with the Board's directive in a letter to Klein dated February 26, 1969. In a letter dated March 6, 1969, and addressed to Johnson, Klein requested a private conference with the Board, and also asked to be furnished with the reasons prompting the Board to consider her nonrenewal. In response to the latter request, Johnson made the following comments in a letter to Klein dated March 7, 1969:

"It has been clearly established to the Board of Education that you are a willing teacher. You have attempted to continually upgrade the middle school science program to the best of your ability. However, it is felt that you are working in an area

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