Michigan City Educ. Ass'n v. Board of School Trustees of Michigan City Area Schools

• Decision Date: 18 September 1991
• Docket Number: No. 50A03-9008-CV-322,50A03-9008-CV-322
• Citation: 577 N.E.2d 1004
• Parties: 69 Ed. Law Rep. 869 MICHIGAN CITY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION and Brian Vukadinovich, Appellants-Defendants, v. BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF THE MICHIGAN CITY AREA SCHOOLS, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 1004

577 N.E.2d 1004

69 Ed. Law Rep. 869

MICHIGAN CITY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION and Brian Vukadinovich Appellants-Defendants, v. BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF THE MICHIGAN CITY AREA SCHOOLS Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 50A03-9008-CV-322.

Court of Appeals of Indiana Third District.

Sept. 18, 1991.

Richard J. Darko, Mary Jane LaPointe, Lowe Gray Steele & Hoffman, Indianapolis, for appellants-defendants.

Marsha Schatz Volk, Edward L. Volk, Newby, Lewis, Kaminski & Jones, La Porte, for appellee-plaintiff.

GARRARD, Judge.

This appeal concerns the arbitrability of the immediate cancellation of a semi-permanent teacher's indefinite teaching contract.

Brian Vukadinovich (Vukadinovich) was employed, as a semi-permanent teacher, by the Michigan City Area Schools. On March 22, 1988, the Board of School Trustees of the Michigan City Area Schools (School Corporation) cancelled Vukadinovich's indefinite teaching contract. The School Corporation and Michigan City Education Association (Association) had entered into a collective bargaining agreement that was effective August 15, 1987. That agreement (Master Contract) provided for a grievance procedure that culminated in binding arbitration of unresolved grievances.

After exhausting the grievance procedure as outlined in the Master Contract, Vukadinovich sought an arbitration hearing. It was held on November 10, 1988. ¹ The arbitrator's award, issued January 17, 1989, found in favor of Vukadinovich and ordered him reinstated with back pay and all benefits and rights.

Following the arbitrator's award, the School Corporation filed an action seeking to have the award vacated. The Association and Vukadinovich counterclaimed for confirmation of the award. The arbitrator's award was vacated by the trial court as a summary judgment in favor of the School Corporation. Vukadinovich and the Association appeal that judgment.

The deciding issue in this case can be stated as follows: Is teacher discharge a grievance that may be the subject of binding arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement between a school board and a teacher's association? We hold that it is not. ²Discussion

"We are thus confronted with another aspect of the ongoing legal evolution of the rights and responsibilities that exist between public employees and public employers." Gary Teachers Union, Loc. No. 4, A.F.T. v. School City of Gary (1972), 152 Ind.App. 591, 284 N.E.2d 108, 110. The 1972 Gary Teachers Union case, supra, established that school boards may collectively bargain with teachers' representatives. These agreements may contain provisions that detail a grievance process that culminates in binding arbitration. Id., 284 N.E.2d 108, 114; see also IC 20-7.5-1-4, Subjects of Bargaining.

There are limits placed upon collective bargaining in the public school teacher arena. What is, and what is not, a proper subject for binding arbitration has been variously litigated. For example, the case of Sch. City of E. Chicago v. E. Chicago Fed. (1981), Ind.App., 422 N.E.2d 656, upheld an arbitrator's award adverse to the school. This grievance concerned a dues deduction provision in the agreement. In contrast, the cases of Tippecanoe Ed. Ass'n v. Bd. of School Trustees, etc. (1981), Ind.App., 429 N.E.2d 967 and Anderson Fed. of Teachers, etc. v. Alexander (1981), Ind.App., 416 N.E.2d 1327, teach that the scope of binding arbitration is not unlimited. ³ The scope of collective bargaining is restricted because of school corporation duties to the public, the legislature and to the employees as individuals. These duties the school corporation "must not be permitted to bargain away." Anderson Fed. of Teachers, etc. v. Alexander (1981), Ind.App., 416 N.E.2d 1327, 1331.

The labor relationships between school corporations and teachers are governed by the Certificated Educational Employee Bargaining Act (CEEBA), IC 20-7.5-1-1 et seq. The CEEBA expresses undeniable limitations upon the scope of collective bargaining between these parties. Public policy considerations in the CEEBA prologue are explicit:

(d) The relationship between school corporation employers and certificated school employees is not comparable to the relation between private employers and employees among others for the following reasons: (i) a public school corporation is not operated for profit but to insure the citizens of the State rights guaranteed them by the Indiana State Constitution; (ii) the obligation to educate children and the methods by which such education is effected will change rapidly with increasing technology, the needs of an advancing civilization and requirements for substantial educational innovation; (iii) the Indiana General Assembly has delegated the discretion to carry out this changing and innovative educational function to the local governing bodies of school corporations, composed of citizens elected or appointed under applicable law, a delegation which these bodies may not and should not bargain away; and (iv) public school corporations have different obligations with respect to certificated school employees under constitutional and statutory requirements than private employers have to their employees.

IC 20-7.5-1-1(d) (emphasis added).

The Anderson, supra, court's analysis of the CEEBA culminated in a finding that the Act "plainly [removed] the firing of teachers from the scope of collective bargaining." 416 N.E.2d 1327, 1332. We find that court's approach convincing. Additionally, a pertinent section in the CEEBA reads in part:

No contract may include provisions in conflict with (a) any right or benefit established by federal or state law, (b) school employee rights as defined in Section 6(a) of this chapter, or (c) school employer rights as defined in Section 6(b) of this chapter. It shall be unlawful for a school employer to enter into any agreement that would place such employer in a position of deficit financing as defined in this chapter, and any contract which provides for deficit financing shall be void to that extent and any individual teacher's contract executed in accordance with such contract shall be void to such extent.

IC 20-7.5-1-3 (emphasis added). The crucial portion of Sec. 3 is that no contract may include provisions in conflict with school employer rights as defined in Sec. 6(b) of this chapter. Sec. 6(b) reads:

(b) School employers shall have the responsibility and authority to manage and direct in behalf of the public the operations and activities of the school corporation to the full extent authorized by law. Such responsibility and activity shall include but not be limited to the right of the school employer to:

(1) direct the work of its employees;

(2) establish policy;

(3) hire, promote, demote, transfer, assign and retain employees;

(4) suspend or discharge its employees in accordance with applicable law;

(5) maintain the efficiency of school operations;

(6) relieve its employees from duties because of lack of work or other legitimate reason;

(7) take action necessary to carry out the mission of the public schools as provided by law.

IC 20-7.5-1-6(b) (emphasis added).

We quote the Anderson case:

So the Legislature has plainly expressed its intent that the responsibilities and authority of school corporations, as partially described in section 6(b) of the Act, are duties entrusted by the Legislature to the sole discretion of school corporations, and can not be restricted in a collective bargaining agreement.

Anderson Fed. of Teachers, etc. v. Alexander (1981), Ind.App., 416 N.E.2d 1327, 1332.

In the case of Tippecanoe Ed. Ass'n v. Bd. of School Trustees, etc. the court followed the construction of the CEEBA as expressed in Anderson. In Tippecanoe the school board was prohibited from delegating to an arbitrator the authority to rule on a teacher transfer. Tippecanoe Ed. Ass'n v. Bd. of School Trustees, Etc. (1981), Ind.App., 429 N.E.2d 967, 973. See also IC 20-7.5-1-6(b)(3), supra. Several other jurisdictions are cited in Tippecanoe to support that ruling. 429 N.E.2d 967, 973-74.

The board is free to adopt binding procedures and criteria that are relative to decisions such as the firing of teachers. It may also, via a collective bargaining contract, bind itself to the procedures and criteria. We hold that legislative intent bars the board from delegating to an arbitrator the authority to rule on teacher dismissal matters. Those matters are for the exclusive province of the school boards. This would be so in the instant case, even assuming arguendo that the Master Contract was clear on this point. See n. 2, supra.

Teacher dismissal by a school board cannot be done with impunity. We note that, in carrying out the school purposes, a public school governing body is granted many enumerated specific powers. IC 20-5-2-2. But,

[T]he compensation, terms of employment and discharge of teachers shall, however, be subject to and governed by the laws relating to employment, contracting, compensation and discharge of teachers....

IC 20-5-2-2(7), Indiana General School Powers Act. The Teacher Tenure Act (TTA) is the legislation that provides recourse in the dismissal of teachers in Indiana. IC 20-6.1-4-1 et seq. The policy of TTA "is to establish a uniform tenure system for all the schools of the state and must be construed liberally with that aim and end in view." School City of Lafayette v....