Sheldon Community School Dist. Bd. of Directors v. Lundblad

• Decision Date: 29 March 1995
• Docket Number: No. 93-1757,93-1757
• Citation: 528 N.W.2d 593
• Parties: 98 Ed. Law Rep. 386 The SHELDON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Appellee, v. Ronald LUNDBLAD, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 593

528 N.W.2d 593

98 Ed. Law Rep. 386

The SHELDON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Appellee, v. Ronald LUNDBLAD, Appellant.

No. 93-1757.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

March 29, 1995.

Becky S. Knutson of Davis, Hockenberg, Wine, Brown, Koehn & Shors, P.C., Des Moines, for appellant.

Thomas J. Whorley of Wolff, Whorley, De Hoogh & Thompson, Sheldon, for appellee.

Thomas W. Foley of Nyemaster, Goode, McLaughlin, Voigts, West, Hansell & O'Brien, P.C., Des Moines, for amicus curiae Iowa Ass'n of School Boards.

Considered by CARTER, P.J., and LAVORATO, NEUMAN, SNELL, and TERNUS, JJ.

NEUMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal by a teacher from a district court ruling on judicial review that reversed an adjudicator's decision to reinstate the teacher following the school board's termination of his teaching contract. The question is whether the record supports the board's finding of just cause for termination. Because we believe the record amply supports the board's decision, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Appellant Ronald Lundblad began his teaching career with appellee Sheldon Community School District in 1973. The hearing giving rise to this appeal took place in December 1992. At that time Lundblad was teaching ninth-grade English and serving as the ninth-grade football coach.

The incident triggering this controversy involved a fourteen-year-old boy in Lundblad's ninth-grade English class. The students in the class had been asked to critique the movie Charly. The student in question gave an oral review of the film which closed with the comment that he would rather be taken out to the parking lot and beaten to death than have to watch the movie again. Lundblad gave the student's presentation a favorable grade, but wrote the following comment on his paper: "I'd be glad to take you out to the street and beat you to death. The way your face looks, I think someone already has." Apparently the boy was suffering an outbreak of teenage acne. Although he made light of the comment among his peers, he and his parents testified that he was extremely self-conscious about his appearance and was hurt and embarrassed by the incident.

The record reveals that this was not the first time Lundblad's use of sarcastic humor had backfired in class. Earlier in the school year, students in one of Lundblad's classes were discussing the rock star Madonna. One of the students in the class--who happened to be the son of a local minister--remarked that Madonna was not so great and that she was just selling sex, something anyone--even he--could do. Lundblad responded that if this student tried to sell sex, "he would go bankrupt" and, furthermore, his brother, Eric, "would be his first customer." In a meeting with the student's parents, Lundblad acknowledged the inappropriateness of his comment, and assured his principal that it would never happen again.

Lundblad's personnel records reveal incidents with a similar flavor throughout his teaching career. In 1986, he resigned as the eighth- and ninth-grade girls' basketball coach after allegedly referring to the girls as "prima donna little bitches" and offending his eighth-grade track team with the observation that they were so bad "they couldn't win the Special Olympics." Conferences with school officials over these comments were accompanied by complaints, denied by Lundblad, that he touched and looked at the girls in inappropriate ways and that his conversations contained sexual overtones that made the girls uncomfortable.

In his own testimony before the board, Lundblad affirmed that humor was part of his teaching technique. He acknowledged, however, that the use of sarcasm with impressionable adolescents could be a dangerous thing. He went on to admit on cross-examination that he once told a student who submitted a paper about teenage suicide that "for extra credit why don't you try it?"

Based on this record, the high school principal and the superintendent of schools believed Lundblad had ceased being an effective role model and could not be counted upon to build self-esteem among his students, an important district goal. The school board concurred in this judgment, concluding that Lundblad's failures constituted just cause for terminating his teaching contract.

Lundblad sought an adjudicator's review of the school board's decision in accordance with Iowa Code section 279.17 (1991). The record before the adjudicator included the transcript of testimony before the board, documentary evidence submitted at the hearing, and the board's findings of fact and conclusions of law.

The adjudicator's ruling noted that during Lundblad's tenure with the school district he had taught over 2000 different students, coached approximately 900 students and, by his own estimation, engaged in "hundreds of thousands" of interactions with students. His classroom teaching style was relaxed and invited student participation. Current and former students alike, however, agreed that Lundblad's humor was "different" and that students "had to know how to take it."

Weighing these factors against Lundblad's "occasional deficiencies," the adjudicator concluded that the record demonstrated no more than significant errors of judgment. He believed that the board's action terminating Lundblad was not supported by a preponderance of competent evidence and must be reversed. The adjudicator did find, however, that Lundblad's offensive joking was inappropriate in a high school setting, and must be addressed. He therefore ordered sensitivity training, at Lundblad's expense, "to prevent similar circumstances from ever again occurring."

The district court, on the board's application for judicial review, reversed the adjudicator's decision. It concluded that the adjudicator's conclusions were internally inconsistent insofar as his finding that Lundblad's conduct was on the one hand unacceptable and on the other insufficient to support just cause for termination. The court also found that the adjudicator strayed from his statutory role by substituting his judgment for that of the board in marking the bounds of tolerable conduct. It is from this decision that Lundblad appeals.

II. Issues on Appeal.

The principal question on appeal is whether the record supports the board's finding that just cause exists to warrant Lundblad's termination. Preliminarily, however, Lundblad challenges the district court's finding that the adjudicator strayed from his statutory authority under Iowa Code section 279.17 in reversing the board's decision.

A. Adjudicator's authority. Iowa Code section 279.17 authorizes an adjudicator to

affirm board action or remand to the board for further proceedings. The adjudicator shall reverse, modify, or grant any appropriate relief from the board action if substantial rights of the teacher have been prejudiced because the board action is:

1. In violation of a board rule or policy or contract; or

2. Unsupported by a preponderance of the competent evidence in the record made before the board when that record is viewed as a whole; or

3. Unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious or characterized by an abuse of discretion or a clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion.

Section 279.17 also directs that the adjudicator, especially when considering the credibility of witnesses, "shall give weight to the fact findings of the board; but shall not be bound by them."

Here the district court rested its refusal to uphold the adjudicator in part on the belief that, in rejecting termination, the adjudicator had "substitut[ed] his judgment for that of the School Board." Lundblad disputes this finding on appeal, claiming the adjudicator acted in conformity with section 279.17 and the district court erred in ruling otherwise. The school board, joined by the Iowa Association of School Boards as amicus curiae, responds by urging this court to narrowly define the adjudicator's role and "confirm the central role local school districts occupy in determining what constitutes just cause for dismissal."

The record reveals that the adjudicator was a highly qualified individual, selected by the parties according to statutory guidelines. See Iowa Code § 279.17. He found no fault with the board's factual findings. He merely concluded that those facts did not support termination for just cause by the requisite preponderance of the evidence. Given that conclusion, he believed that substantial rights of the teacher had been prejudiced, thereby warranting reversal of the board's termination order.

We do not believe this failure by the adjudicator to reach the same conclusion as the board amounts to the unwarranted usurpation of power that the board and amicus suggest. Clearly...