Saye v. St. Vrain Valley School Dist. RE-1J, RE-1J and V

• Decision Date: 10 March 1986
• Docket Number: RE-1J and V,No. 83-2160,83-2160
• Citation: 785 F.2d 862
• Parties: 31 Ed. Law Rep. 35 Dianne M. SAYE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. VRAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICTicki Ploussard, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 862

785 F.2d 862

31 Ed. Law Rep. 35

Dianne M. SAYE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. VRAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT RE-1J and Vicki Ploussard Defendants-Appellees.

No. 83-2160.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

March 10, 1986.

William P. Bethke (Larry F. Hobbs and Vonda G. Hall, with him on brief), of Hobbs/Bethke & Associates, Denver, Colo., for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard N. Lyons (Daniel F. Bernard, with him on brief), of Grant, McCarren & Bernard, Longmont, Colo., for defendants-appellees.

Before SEYMOUR, SETH, Circuit Judges, and ELLISON, ^* District Judge.

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

Dianne Saye brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) against Saint Vrain Valley School District and Vicki Ploussard, the principal of Frederick Elementary School in the District. Saye taught special education classes at Frederick for three years as a probationary employee. Ploussard was Saye's supervisor for the last year and a half of her employment. Saye alleges that her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when the District followed Ploussard's recommendation not to renew her teaching contract because Ploussard's decision was in retaliation for Saye's exercise of her rights to free speech and association. After Saye had presented her case to the jury, the district court granted defendants' motion for a directed verdict. Saye appeals, and we affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

The following undisputed facts describe the circumstances giving rise to this litigation. Saye first taught at Frederick for the 1978-79 school year and received favorable reports and evaluations from her supervising principal, Amin Wahab. Wahab left Frederick in the fall of 1979. The assistant principal, Roger Rugg, then became acting principal until January 1980, when Ploussard took over. Ploussard continued as Saye's supervising principal for the 1980-81 school year, Saye's third and last year at Frederick.

During Saye's second year at Frederick, she had a particularly disruptive student in her special education class. In early March of 1980, Ploussard prepared Saye's annual evaluation for the 1979-80 school year. Although Ploussard's report was very positive and recommended renewal of Saye's contract, Ploussard also recommended that Saye be considered for a transfer because she thouqht Saye had become emotionally distraught over the misbehavior of this student. Ploussard stated that her transfer recommendation should not reflect negatively on her high regard for Saye's teaching ability, that the proposed transfer would avoid teacher "burn-out" and allow another teacher to become involved with the student and his parents. In April 1980, Ploussard indicated in a memo that she was reconsidering her favorable report of the previous month in light of Saye's continuing problems with this student and the possibility of legal action instituted by his parents. Ploussard stated that she could recommend transfer rather than nonrenewal only because of Saye's prior good reports, and that Saye should be closely supervised and evaluated during the coming year before she was given tenure.

Saye was not transferred and began her third year of teaching at Frederick in fall of 1980. The disruptive student was no longer in Saye's classroom, and Ploussard had cut her teacher aide time by more than half. Saye was upset about the way in which aide time had been allocated, and in early September she called Elizabeth McCall, the assistant director of special education, about the matter. In addition, Saye worked out a different aide arrangement with another teacher. As a result of Saye's activity regarding the aide situation, other teachers and aides became upset, one aide threatened to quit, and Ploussard held several meetings to resolve the problem. At one of these meetings Saye apologized for upsetting anyone.

Saye also discussed aide time with the mothers of two students in her special education class. Thereafter one parent got in touch with the director of special education, Mr. Ronayne. A meeting was held on November 24, 1980, among Ronayne, McCall, Ploussard, and the two parents, at which alternatives to the use of aides were explained. In a subsequent evaluation recommending Saye's nonrenewal, McCall and Ploussard stated that Saye had not properly presented the aide time issue to the parents, precipitating the need for the meeting.

Saye was elected faculty representative for the district's education association in September of her third year. The faculty representative acted as an intermediary between teachers and the principal or the administration. During the fall of 1980, Saye relayed information to the faculty on contract negotiations and allegedly began hearing complaints from other teachers about Ploussard's practices as principal. Saye discussed the handling of these complaints with two prior faculty representatives, and a decision was made to hold a meeting at which the teachers could discuss these issues with Craig Russell, who provided national and state education association services to local associations and coordinated and led local union activities. The notice of the meeting was put in general terms, and did not indicate that Ploussard's activities as principal would be on the agenda.

Saye decided to avoid the meeting, which was scheduled for the end of the school day on November 5, 1980. Although she called in sick, she spent the day skiing with her husband and was subsequently reprimanded and docked a day's pay. Immediately after the meeting, Russell discussed with Ploussard the issues that had come up.

On January 26, 1981, Ploussard gave Saye a written memo describing Saye's role in precipitating the student aide situation that had arisen in early September. Ploussard stated that she was considering using the memo as grounds for recommending Saye's nonrenewal. Saye filed a union grievance on February 11, 1980, alleging that the memo was harassment in retaliation for her activities as faculty representative. On February 13, Saye received a written memo from Ploussard and McCall stating that they were seriously considering not recommending her for re-employment and setting out seven reasons supporting nonrenewal, one of which concerned Saye's discussion of the student aide situation with the two parents. Ploussard prepared Saye's annual evaluation report on February 24 and recommended nonrenewal. The District superintendent, Keith Blue, followed Ploussard's recommendation in presenting the issue to the District School Board, and the Board voted not to re-employ Saye.

On appeal, Saye contends that her discussion of the student aide issue with parents and her activities as faculty representative were protected by the First Amendment. She alleges that the trial court erred in directing a verdict for defendants on these claims because an issue of fact exists as to whether her employment was terminated in retaliation for her exercise of these rights. In granting defendants' motion, the district judge held that to the extent the student aide issue was a matter of public concern, the manner in which Saye raised the issue was so disruptive that her speech was not constitutionally protected. The court further found no merit to the claim based on Saye's union activity because she had intentionally absented herself from the meeting. We affirm the district court's dismissal of Saye's claim arising from her speech about the student aide issue. However, we conclude that a fact issue exists on whether Saye's constitutionally protected union activities were a motivating factor in the nonrenewal decision, and we reverse and remand for further proceedings on that claim.

II.

As an initial matter, we address the standard of review applicable to our consideration of the lower court's grant of a directed verdict in this case. The Supreme Court discussed the analysis governing a public employee's claim that an adverse employment decision violates the right to free speech in Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983). There the Court pointed out that "[t]he inquiry into the protected status of speech is one of law, not fact," and that a district court's views on this issue are therefore not subject to the clearly erroneous standard of review. Id. at 1690 n. 7. An appellate court must make "an independent constitutional judgment" on whether, under the particular circumstances, the statements at issue are constitutionally protected. Id. at 1692 n. 10 (quoting Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 190, 84 S.Ct. 1676, 1679, 12 L.Ed.2d 793 (1964) (opinion of Brennan, J.)). However, the underlying historical facts upon which the constitutional claim is grounded are subject to the traditional standards of review governing the treatment of historical facts in any other case. See Gonzalez v. Benavides, 712 F.2d 142, 145 (5th Cir.1983); see generally Miller v. Fenton, U.S., 106 S.Ct. 445, 451-52, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985) (subsidiary factual questions regarding voluntariness of confession); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958-60 & n. 17, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984) (facts requiring application of ordinary logic and common experience distinguished from those requiring independent review by appellate court).

In reviewing the propriety of a grant of a directed verdict, a court must view the evidence most favorably to the nonmoving party and give her the benefit of all fair inferences to be drawn from the evidence even though reasonably contrary inferences may be drawn. Martin v. Unit Rig & Equipment Co., 715 F.2d 1434, 1438 (10th Cir.1983). A directed verdict is appropriate only when the facts and inferences, thus viewed, point so strongly in favor of one party that reasonable minds could not come to a different conclusion. Dataq, Inc. v. Tokheim Corp., 736 F.2d 601, 603 (10th Cir.1984). Accordingly, we must view the historical facts in this case most...