Trustees, Missoula County School Dist. No. 1 v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 13 July 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-568,87-568
• Citation: 757 P.2d 1315,232 Mont. 501
• Parties: , 47 Ed. Law Rep. 1216 TRUSTEES, MISSOULA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Petitioner and Respondent, v. Carol ANDERSON, Mike Bowman, Missoula County Superintendent of Schools; and Ed Argenbright, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Respondents and Appellants.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 1315

757 P.2d 1315

232 Mont. 501, 47 Ed. Law Rep. 1216

TRUSTEES, MISSOULA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Petitioner and Respondent, v. Carol ANDERSON, Mike Bowman, Missoula County Superintendent

of Schools; and Ed Argenbright, Superintendent of

Public Instruction, Respondents and

Appellants.

No. 87-568.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs May 26, 1988.

Decided July 13, 1988.

Emilie Loring, Big Fork, for respondents and appellants.

Robert L. Deschamps, Co. Atty., Missoula, and Rick Bartos, Office of Public Instruction Helena, for petitioner and respondent.

HUNT, Justice.

In an administrative proceeding, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction concluded that the Missoula County Superintendent of Schools properly found that the petitioners, Board of Trustees for the Missoula County School District No. 1, failed to carry its burden of proof that respondent Carol Anderson was incompetent to teach in the classroom in the Missoula county schools. The District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County, reversed the decision of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The respondent, Anderson, appeals. We reverse.

The sole issue presented to this Court for review is whether the District Court abused its discretion in substituting its judgment for that of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction?

Respondent Carol Anderson holds a Montana elementary teaching certificate with special education and elementary curriculum endorsements. She was a tenured teacher employed by the Missoula school district from 1970 to 1983. During those thirteen years, Anderson taught, along with two other teachers, special education in a self-contained team teaching environment. Throughout Anderson's thirteen years of teaching, seven separate administrators gave her satisfactory evaluations for her teaching performance in the classroom. The evaluations indicated that she performed ably and well above a minimum sufficiency level.

Anderson requested and was granted an unpaid leave of absence for the 1983-84 school year. During that year, enrollment declined in the special education, self-contained program and the administrators determined that two teachers were sufficient to handle the program. In the spring of 1984, Anderson accepted a contract from the Board of Trustees for the Missoula County School District No. 1 (Board of Trustees) for the 1984-85 school year. As a consequence of her previous position being eliminated, the administrators had planned to transfer Anderson to some other teaching position available within the district.

The Board of Trustees adopted a written policy in 1983 requiring teachers seeking positions with the district or teachers requesting a voluntary transfer within the district to participate in a structured interview for available teaching positions. These interviews are a series of questions prepared by those responsible for the program. Each question has an anticipated response drawn from the Board of Trustees' policy and curriculum. Anderson, an involuntary transferee, participated in four structured interviews during the summer of 1984 and did not perform well in any of the four interviews.

Based upon the four structured interviews and the subsequent recommendation of the school administrators, the Board of Trustees dismissed Anderson on September 10, 1984 for incompetence. When making this determination of incompetency, the Board of Trustees apparently did not consider Anderson's satisfactory classroom performance. As a result of this finding, the Board did not place Anderson in any of the teaching positions available in the district.

Anderson sought administrative review of the Board of Trustees' action. Pursuant to Montana Administrative Procedure Act (MAPA), Secs. 2-4-101 to -711, MCA, the Missoula County Superintendent of Schools held a hearing and concluded that the Board of Trustees did not meet their burden of proof that Anderson was incompetent to teach in the Missoula county schools. In making this conclusion of law, the County Superintendent of Schools noted that the Board of Trustees relied solely on Anderson's four structured interviews and apparently did not consider Anderson's thirteen years of classroom teaching and the satisfactory evaluations she received from the principals who observed her ability to perform in the classroom. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction affirmed the County Superintendent's conclusions. The Board of Trustees sought review from the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, which reversed the State Superintendent's decision, finding that the Board of Trustees meet their burden of proof that Anderson was incompetent to teach in one of the available teaching positions in the district.

The sole issue Anderson raises on appeal is whether the District Court abused its discretion in substituting its judgment for that of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction?

When confronted with reviewing an administrative decision, as in the present case, this Court recognizes that a rebuttable presumption exists in favor of the agency's decision and that the burden of proof is on the party attacking it to show that it is erroneous. Thornton v. Commissioner of Dept. of Labor and Industry (Mont.1980), 621 P.2d 1062, 1064-65, 37 St.Rep. 2026, 2028. This Court also recognizes that judicial review of an administrative decision is limited in nature. When reviewing an agency's findings of fact, a reviewing court must affirm the findings unless they are clearly erroneous. If the findings of fact are supported by reliable...