Aguilera v. Board of Educ. of Hatch Valley

• Decision Date: 14 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 29,190.,29,190.
• Citation: 132 P.3d 587,2006 NMSC 015
• Parties: Cari I. AGUILERA, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the HATCH VALLEY SCHOOLS, Defendant-Petitioner.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 587

132 P.3d 587

2006 NMSC 015

Cari I. AGUILERA, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the HATCH VALLEY SCHOOLS, Defendant-Petitioner.

No. 29,190.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

March 14, 2006.

Corrected April 24, 2006.

Castille & Ortiz, LLC, Robert D. Castille, Los Alamos, NM, for Petitioner.

Martin, Lutz, Roggow, Hosford & Eubanks, P.C., William L. Lutz, Las Cruces, NM, for Respondent.

Cuddy, Kennedy, Albetta & Ives, L.L.P., John F. Kennedy, Samantha J. Fenrow, Santa Fe, NM, for Amicus Curiae, New Mexico School Board Association, New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators.

Jones, Snead, Wertheim & Wentworth, P.A., Jerry Todd Wertheim, Santa Fe, NM, for Amicus Curiae, National Education Association of New Mexico.

Willie R. Brown, Santa Fe, NM, for Amicus Curiae, Public Education Department.

OPINION

BOSSON, Chief Justice.

{1} Pursuant to a reduction in force (RIF) arising from a district-wide financial shortfall, Plaintiff Cari I. Aguilera, a certified arts teacher with the Hatch Valley Schools, was discharged during the term of her contract. Under the New Mexico School Personnel Act, a certified teacher may only be discharged for "just cause," NMSA 1978, § 22-10A-27(A) (2003), defined as "a reason that is rationally related to an employee's competence or turpitude or the proper performance of his duties," NMSA 1978, § 22-10A-2(F) (2003). Ms. Aguilera was not charged with any infractions relating to competence, turpitude or performance.

{2} An independent arbitrator reviewed the School Board's decision to discharge Ms. Aguilera and found there was no "just cause" under Section 22-10A-2(F). However, the arbitrator also found that the discharge was authorized by the district's RIF policy, and therefore upheld the discharge. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding for Plaintiff that "just cause" was limited to reasons based upon performance, competence, or turpitude, and did not include a RIF arising from fiscal problems in the school district. We granted certiorari to clarify the state statute defining "just cause" and what constitutes grounds for teacher termination or discharge. We affirm the result reached by the Court of Appeals, but for different reasons. Contrary to the Court of Appeals, we determine that the plain meaning interpretation of the "just cause" definition is not appropriate, but instead we look to judicial interpretations of "just cause" prior to the time the Legislature defined the term to inform our construction of the statute.

BACKGROUND

{3} At the end of Ms. Aguilera's second year as a high school art teacher, the Board agreed to employ her as an art teacher for a third consecutive year at the middle school, and the parties entered into a contract. However, in early fall of that year, the Superintendent of Hatch Valley, Mr. Billy Henson, notified Ms. Aguilera that he would be recommending to the Board that she be discharged pursuant to a RIF. Allegedly, the RIF was necessary because of shortfalls in state funding and the discontinuation of certain federal grant money. Superintendent Henson made the decision to eliminate Ms. Aguilera's position because art was considered a non-vital academic area. Due to low enrollment, it would have the least effect on the students. The Board accepted the Superintendent's RIF plan, along with his recommendation to discharge Ms. Aguilera in the middle of her contract.

{4} Ms. Aguilera requested a hearing, and the Board upheld its decision. Ms. Aguilera appealed to an independent arbitrator who conducted a de novo review of the Board's decision. See NMSA 1978, § 22-10A-28(D) (2003). After a hearing, the arbitrator found that Ms. Aguilera had an excellent work history with Hatch Valley, and was losing her job as a result of the school district failing "to get its financial house in order." The arbitrator noted that Ms. Aguilera never "had any negative reports in terms of job performance, competence or suggestion of moral turpitude, or ever failed to properly perform [her] duties while employed by the Hatch Valley Public School System." The arbitrator also noted there was evidence that Hatch Valley could have finished the year with sufficient funds to pay Ms. Aguilera's salary. The arbitrator concluded, however, that Hatch Valley's RIF policy constituted "just cause" for the discharge of certified school personnel and termination of tenured employees.¹

{5} Ms. Aguilera appealed the arbitrator's decision to the Court of Appeals which disagreed with the arbitrator's interpretation of state law, and held that the RIF policy did not constitute "just cause" under the School Personnel Act. Aguilera v. Bd. of Educ., 2005-NMCA-069, ¶¶ 21, 23, 137 N.M. 642, 114 P.3d 322. The Court of Appeals determined that a plain reading of the definition of "just cause" and the requirement that a discharge "only" be for "just cause," meant that Ms. Aguilera could only be discharged for reasons personal to her qualifications and performance, and not for a RIF. Id. ¶ 13; see § 22-10A-27(A).

DISCUSSION

{6} The issue in this case is whether statutory "just cause" allows for discharge of a teacher when exigent fiscal circumstances justify a RIF, but the teacher's competence, turpitude and performance do not. Because we are interpreting the School Personnel Act, and its application to this case, we apply a de novo standard of review. Rio Grande Chapter of Sierra Club v. N.M. Mining Comm'n, 2003-NMSC-005, ¶ 17, 133 N.M. 97, 61 P.3d 806; Crutchfield v. N.M. Dep't of Taxation & Revenue, 2005-NMCA-022, ¶ 16, 137 N.M. 26, 106 P.3d 1273.

{7} The term "just cause" was not defined by statute until the Legislature amended the Act in 1991. See 1991 N.M. Laws ch. 187, § 3. However, prior to the 1991 amendment, New Mexico courts had interpreted the meaning of "just cause" or comparable terms for almost half a century. To put the 1991 amendment in proper context, we look first to the history of our case law interpreting the predecessor statutes of the School Personnel Act, commonly known as teacher's tenure statutes. We consider whether the Legislature, in adding a "just cause" definition in 1991, intended to codify that case law and its history or reject it in favor of a new, more limited concept of "just cause." Finally, we examine specifically whether a RIF can be "just cause" for discharge under the Act, and if so, whether "just cause" was proven to discharge Ms. Aguilera.

The History of the Teacher's Tenure Statute and the Swisher Rule

{8} Long before any statutory directive, this Court acknowledged over 80 years ago that a school board had the implicit right to terminate a teacher for "adequate cause," a right derived from its statutory power to employ that same teacher. Tadlock v. Sch. Dist. No. 29 of Guadalupe County, 27 N.M. 250, 256, 199 P. 1007, 1009 (1921); accord Landers v. Bd. of Educ., 45 N.M. 446, 452-53, 116 P.2d 690, 693-94 (1941) (stating that a discharge cannot be without cause). Subsequently, in line with this Court's decisions, the Legislature amended the 1925 version of the Act, to say that no teacher could be discharged "except upon good cause." 1941 N.M. Laws, ch. 202, § 3; see also Ortega v. Otero, 48 N.M. 588, 592, 154 P.2d 252, 254-55 (1944). The Legislature did not define "good cause."

{9} Interpreting the public policy animating the 1941 amendment, we stated:

The effect of the amendment is to further protect the employment status of teachers.

Of greater significance, however, is the time and circumstance of the amendment.

The Legislature of 1941 doubtless sensed the need to get in step with the march of progress toward a greater security to those who have become equipped through education and training to assume positions in our school system.

What is known as Teachers' Tenure Acts have been adopted in most of the states of our union, the objects of which are to encourage men and women to make a lifetime profession of teaching and to stimulate them to seek positions in the school system requiring the qualifications of teachers, and to protect them in their employment from the whims of those possibly politically minded, and to insure their continuance in such employment.

Ortega, 48 N.M. at 593, 154 P.2d at 255; see also Stapleton v. Huff, 50 N.M. 208, 211, 173 P.2d 612, 613 (1946). In light of the legislative policy to protect teachers as professionals, this Court determined that "good cause" meant reasons related to satisfactory performance of duties. Stapleton, 50 N.M. at 211, 173 P.2d at 613; see also Atencio v. Bd. of Educ., 99 N.M. 168, 170, 655 P.2d 1012, 1014 (1982) ("By statute [teachers] are assured an indefinite tenure of position during satisfactory performance of their duties.").

{10} It is from this statutory and jurisprudential genesis that this Court created the basis to analyze a discharge or termination of a teacher when the reason for severing the teacher's employment is not personal, but rather based on some exigent circumstance. In the Swisher case in 1955 this Court noted that "[a]bsent grounds personal to the teacher," the standard to be applied in a discharge resulting from a RIF required the Board "to show affirmatively that there was no position available [that the teacher] was qualified to teach." Swisher v. Darden, 59 N.M. 511, 516, 287 P.2d 73, 76 (1955), superseded by statute on other grounds as stated in Sanchez v. Bd. of Educ., 80 N.M. 286, 454 P.2d 768 (1969). Swisher arose from the aftermath of racial desegregation in the Las Cruces school system. 59 N.M. at 513, 287 P.2d at 74. The local school board closed the segregated, blacks-only high school where Ms. Swisher taught because most of the students had been integrated into mixed-race schools. Id. The local board discharged Ms. Swisher, despite her tenure, because it concluded that her services could no longer be utilized within an integrated school system. Id.

{11} On appeal, the State Board of Education found no "just cause" for the...