Keith v. Community School Dist. of Wilton in the Counties of Cedar and Muscatine

• Decision Date: 18 January 1978
• Docket Number: No. 59016,59016
• Parties: Derwood G. KEITH, Appellant, v. The COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF WILTON IN THE COUNTIES OF CEDAR AND MUSCATINE, Iowa, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 249

262 N.W.2d 249

Derwood G. KEITH, Appellant, v. The COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF WILTON IN THE COUNTIES OF CEDAR AND MUSCATINE, Iowa, Appellee.

No. 59016.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Jan. 18, 1978.

James L. Sayre, of Dreher, Wilson, Adams & Jensen, Des Moines and T. L. Hinman, Iowa City, for appellant.

Walter A. Newport, Jr., of Newport, Buzzell, Liebbe & Fortini, Davenport, for appellee.

Heard before MOORE, C. J., and MASON, RAWLINGS, REYNOLDSON, and HARRIS, JJ.

MASON, Justice.

Derwood G. Keith, plaintiff teacher, appeals the trial court's order dismissing his petition in a law action challenging the action of the defendant school board in refusing to renew his employment contract.

We narrate some of the facts giving rise to this lawsuit.

May 8, 1974, the Community School District of Wilton in the counties of Cedar and Muscatine by its board of directors voted to discontinue the teaching contract of Keith. June 12 Keith filed a petition in the Muscatine District Court in four divisions seeking (1) declaratory judgment that his contract was still in force and he was, therefore, entitled to reinstatement, (2) damages for breach of contract, (3) a writ of certiorari to compel the school district to provide him with various documents and records, (4) declaratory judgment that section 279.13, The Code, 1973, was unconstitutional because it deprived him of procedural due process under Amendment 14 of the Constitution of the United States.

At the close of plaintiff's evidence he sought and was granted leave to amend the fourth division of his petition whereby he alleged section 279.13 was unconstitutional because it deprived him of property and liberty without due process.

Prior to the action of the board of directors, Keith had taught vocational agriculture for 21 years in the Wilton school system. There is nothing of record to indicate any problems with Keith's performance as a teacher until after the 1967-68 school year. In that year Keith served as president of the Wilton Education Association and was involved in heated and argumentative contract negotiations with the school board. Between that year and 1974 when this action arose, two other proceedings had been commenced by Wilton school boards of different membership to consider termination of Keith's teaching contract. Both proceedings had ended in compromise settlements.

The last compromise included an addition to Keith's contract whereby he agreed to meet at least once a month with his principal, Mr. Williams, and the superintendent and agreed to adhere to board policy. This procedure was followed during the 1973-74 school year. It resulted in discussions about the administrators' criticisms as well as communications to Keith of minor criticisms expressed by members of the school board. The principal testified he considered none of these conferences to have been unfavorable to Keith.

Mr. Williams testified that pursuant to the Policies and Procedures of the Board of Education he made an evaluation of Keith. This document dated March 11, 1974, was the first evaluation made of Keith's work and it was favorable to him. After Mr. Williams had apparently completed his evaluations of his staff, he made a blanket recommendation to the school board that all his teachers be continued under contract for the next year.

March 20 a meeting was held between Keith, Williams and four of the five board members. This meeting was called so board members could make criticisms and suggestions to Keith based on their investigations of the vocational agriculture programs of two other school systems. Nothing was said at this meeting about the possibility of terminating Keith's contract. After the meeting, Keith and Williams spoke and expressed to each other their opinions the meeting had been a step toward better understanding and communication between the board and Keith.

A special meeting of the school board was held March 25. The notice of this meeting which had been published in the local newspaper did not include Keith's name but declared the purpose of the meeting was to consider personnel problems. At the meeting two patrons of the school district spoke before the board. They voiced dissatisfaction with the vocational agriculture program as it had been conducted in recent years.

Immediately thereafter and without any discussion among its members, the board voted to send a letter to Keith indicating its intention to terminate his teaching contract at the end of the school year. At no time prior to March 20 did the board's minutes reflect any discussion of Keith and his alleged problems. In a stipulation entered into by the parties it was agreed the board had discussed Keith's problems several times at different meetings but these discussions had not been entered into the minutes.

Keith received the letter March 28 and testified at trial he had no prior knowledge the board was considering termination of his contract. Mr. Williams did not expect such action by the board because he felt the March 20 meeting had satisfied the board substantial changes would be made in Keith's courses.

March 29 Keith requested a private conference with the board and a written statement of specific reasons the board was considering for termination of his contract. The board set the private conference for April 5 and sent a statement of reasons to Keith. This statement was formulated by the board's attorney after he conducted separate interviews with each board member. A representative sample of the reasons is as follows:

"I

"Members of the Board feel that the students in your Vocational classes who do not go on to a college or a university program after graduating from high school should be as well equipped for obtaining employment after graduation as the Community School District of Wilton can equip them. They feel that these students should be receiving far more training in your vocational classes than you are giving them. Some specific examples of such failures and shortcomings are as follows:

"A. Board members have visited the vocational departments in the schools of other comparable communities and have learned that their accomplishments and lines of instructions are far superior to yours.

"B. You have failed to give your students sufficient practical projects in their shop courses to develop their vocational skills. For example:

"1. You made a request that your vocational shop be equipped with welding tables and partitions between the welding tables. You were told that if you would submit a bill of particulars on the material needed for these items they would be furnished you. That the actual construction of the welding tables and partitions should be done by your shop students since such activities would develop their skills as well as demonstrate the kind of work it takes for planning, working out bills of materials, visualizing the final product, and working from the beginning in physically creating the items to be built through to the final completion of the projects. However, your students were never asked to formulate such plans. No bills of particulars for the materials you needed were ever presented. No welding tables were ever made by your students even though you already had the welding and other tools you needed to construct them. No partitions were built by your students. The entire project, loaded with great potential for developing skills in your students, totally failed to get off the ground.

"2. Two years ago (approximately) you were asked to have your shop students make bicycle racks for use at the school by students who rode bicycles to school. It was understood that the necessary materials would be furnished when you advised what materials would be needed. Your classes have never made the bicycle racks. You have never submitted a list of the materials you would need for such bicycle racks. The project has simply fallen by the wayside.

"C. * * *

"D. * * *

"E. Other vocational instructors have their students build shops and buildings, do all the painting, and wire or rewire the simpler electrical conduits. * * * Your standards along these lines fall far below the standards of such other vocational instructors and the results you obtain for your students are accordingly far less helpful in preparing your students for their later careers.

"II * * *

"III

"The Board feels that you fail to motivate your students. In other community school districts the teachers have an enthusiasm and an interest that is reflected in the students of the districts. * * *

"IV

"The Board feels that your work as a teacher is so ineffective that the parents and other adults in the school district can detect it in the work produced by your students. As a result they are critical of the efforts of the school administration in failing to provide a teacher capable of developing the young people who take your vocational agriculture courses as those young people should be developed, * * *. In other words, enough of the adults here feel that the students of the district should have a different vocational agriculture teacher than the one we have that the Board feels it to be the duty of its members to replace you by one who can more nearly serve the needs of the students.

"V

"The Board feels that the morale and spirit within this school district will be substantially improved if a new teacher takes over the work you have been doing. It casts no reflection whatsoever on your personal life and has no quarrel whatsoever with that. * * *."

At the April 5 private conference Keith was represented by his attorney and an attorney for the Iowa State Education Association. They were permitted to make and did make statements which supported Keith and which were aimed at the reasons the board had given for its termination action.

At the April 8 board meeting, the board voted to terminate Keith's contract and thereafter followed the procedures set forth in section 279.13, The Code, 1...