Despite School Board’s Failure to Vote on his Grievance
Ex-ISD Maintenance Worker Doesn’t Prevail
Ruling: An appeal by an ex-ISD maintenance worker seeking reinstatement and to have his former supervisor disciplined for verbally abusing him is dismissed — despite the failure of his former school board to vote on the ex-worker’s grievance. Ricky Guerrero v. Crosbyton CISD, No. 015-R10-11-2019. Signed April 16 by Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
The commissioner dismissed Guerrero’s appeal on a finding that he had been a noncontractural, at-will employee and that the commissioner is only legally authorized to decide cases involving written school employee contracts.
Although agreeing with CCISD that Guerrero’s appeal should be dismissed, the commissioner rejected the district’s argument about why the appeal should be dismissed.
CCISD claimed that because the school board never voted on Guerrero’s grievance, the grievance never became final at the local district level — and thus the commissioner lacked the legal authority to consider the appeal.
- Note: The record reflects that a motion by the school board president to uphold the administration’s denial of Guerrero's grievance died for lack of a second, and no other vote was taken.
Cited Prior Cases
But, the commissioner cited prior cases (and CCISD’s own policy) that held that if a board fails to act on a grievance, the board’s failure to act is a “final” decision to uphold the administration’s ruling on the grievance.
Because the final administrative ruling on Guerrero’s grievance was to deny it, the board’s inaction in voting made the grievance appealable to the commissioner.