Cloquet Educ. Ass'n v. Independent School Dist. No. 94, Cloquet, C6-83-356

• Decision Date: 24 February 1984
• Docket Number: No. C6-83-356,C6-83-356
• Citation: 344 N.W.2d 416
• Parties: 16 Ed. Law Rep. 306 CLOQUET EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellant, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 94, CLOQUET, Minnesota, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 416

344 N.W.2d 416

16 Ed. Law Rep. 306

CLOQUET EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellant, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 94, CLOQUET, Minnesota, Respondent.

No. C6-83-356.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Feb. 24, 1984.

Syllabus by the Court

The parties' dispute over a specific provision in their master contract relating to hours of service constitutes a grievance subject to mandatory arbitration.

John R. Tunheim, St. Paul, for appellant.

Paul W. Hetland, Susan J. Schoell, St. Paul, for respondent.

Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.

TODD, Justice.

The Cloquet Education Association (Union), the teachers' certified "exclusive representative" under the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, Minn.Stat. Secs. 179.61 to 179.76 (1982) (PELRA), brings this action against Independent School District No. 94, Cloquet, Minnesota, to compel arbitration. The union contends the school district's unilateral assignment of a teacher to chaperone a senior high dance constituted a change in the terms and conditions of his employment and that the school district was therefore obligated to meet and negotiate the matter. The district court concluded the matter was one of "inherent managerial policy" which operates to shield the school district from PELRA's mandatory arbitration provision. We reverse with instructions to enter an order directing the parties to proceed with arbitration.

On October 2, 1981, in response to an apparently insufficient number of volunteer chaperones, Assistant Principal Robert Stevens notified senior high teacher Reon Kinn that he had been assigned to chaperone one senior high dance. On October 14 the union filed a grievance claiming the school district's unilateral action in assigning Mr. Kinn to chaperone the dance violated Article XII, Section 3 [the additional activities provision] of their collective bargaining agreement which provides that any such assignment shall be in accordance with "past practice."

The parties proceeded with the first three steps of the grievance procedure without resolution. Thereafter, the school district refused to proceed, claiming it had "always retained the right to assign teachers to supervision and direction of a wide variety of out-of-class activities." In December 1981, by unanimous resolution, the school district board denied the union's request for a grievance hearing "on the grounds that assignment of personnel is [an] inherent managerial right."

The parties' master contract provides "the terms and conditions of employment" for the teachers for the 1981-1983 school years. The contract in turn defines terms and conditions of employment as "the hours of employment, the compensation therefor, and economic aspects relating to employment, but * * * not * * * educational policies of the school district." The additional activities provision, the core of this dispute, says "[i]t is inevitable that all licensed teaching personnel will have to share in the supervising and directing of a wide variety of out-of-class activities. The duties are inherent in teaching and assignment of such duties shall be in accordance with past practice."

The parties' descriptions of past practice differ substantially. The union claims that the standard and exclusive procedure for securing chaperones for senior high dances "for so long as can be remembered" was that the group sponsoring the dance and the group's advisor would be responsible for securing adult chaperones. Once the chaperones were secured, the building principal would be given the names of the chaperones. If the chaperones were not obtained or if other requirements were not satisfied, the dance would be cancelled. The school district claims past practice consisted of the building principal assigning teachers to chaperone any function when the sponsoring organization was unable to obtain a sufficient number of chaperones.

In accordance with PELRA, the parties' master contract provides for compulsory binding arbitration of grievances. Both PELRA and the parties' master contract define grievance as a dispute or disagreement as to the interpretation or application of agreed upon terms and conditions of employment. See Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.70, subd. 6 (1982). In virtually identical language, both PELRA and the parties' master contract expressly exclude matters of inherent managerial policy from the mandatory grievance arbitration requirement. See Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.66, subd. 1 (1982). Accordingly, we must determine whether the school district's unilateral assignment of a teacher to chaperone a senior high dance was the exercise of an "inherent managerial right" or a change in a "term and condition of employment." If it was the latter, arbitration was mandatory.

In an action to compel arbitration pursuant to the Minnesota Uniform Arbitration Act, Minn.Stat. Sec. 572.08 et seq. (1982), the arbitrability issue "is to be determined by ascertaining the intention of the parties from the language of the arbitration agreement itself." State v. Berthiaume, 259 N.W.2d 904, 909 (Minn.1977).

Drawing upon the 1963 case of Layne-Minnesota Co. v. Regents of the University of Minnesota, 266 Minn. 284, 291, 123 N.W.2d 371, 376 (1963), we delineated as follows the standard applicable in actions to compel arbitration:

(1) If the parties evinced a clear intent to arbitrate a controversy arising out of specific provisions of the contract, the matter is for the arbitrators to determine and not the court. (2) If the intention of the parties is reasonably debatable as to the scope of the arbitration clause, the issue of arbitrability is to be...