Commissioner's Decision

ISD Improperly Denied Employee Her Right
To a School Board Grievance Hearing
Ruling: An ISD employee had a right to a grievance hearing before her school board despite claims by the district that her complaint had been rendered “moot” because her grievance had been essentially resolved in lower-level administrative grievance proceedings. Mayela De La Garza v. Grand Prairie ISD, No. 032-R10-02-2020. Signed July 24 by Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

Background
Long-time paraprofessional-certified GPISD employee De La Garza filed a grievance with the district upon being told that her noncontractural job as an office manager in the food services division was one of several positions to be eliminated due to budget constraints.

De La Garza asserted that: 1) she believed that her job was being eliminated because she had reported to district higher-ups her concerns over billing practices by the ISD’s food services contractor and 2) the contractor’s director had created a hostile working environment.

De La Garza asked in her grievance that she remain employed by GPISD in the same professional capacity in a position that did not require her to come into contact with the contractor’s director or with another food services supervisor that she named.

The district’s interim human resources director granted the Level I grievance by allowing De La Garza to be employed in the same professional capacity in another division where she would not have contact with the two individuals she had complained about.

The new position — as an elementary case services worker — was at the same pay grade classification as her former job, but required her to work 14 fewer days.

Dissatisfied
De La Garza, dissatisfied, because she believed the new job was a demotion, filed a Level II administrative grievance appeal, which the district dismissed. She then filed a final Level III grievance appeal seeking a hearing before the school board.

Instead, she received a letter from the district’s attorney stating that her Level III grievance appeal would not be heard by the board because her complaint had been designated as “moot” because her requested remedies had been granted at Level I, and that she had to start a new grievance process if she wanted to complain about her new position, which she had accepted.

De La Garza appealed to the commissioner, who sided with her by concluding that even if ISD officials have deemed that an employee’s grievance has been resolved in the employee’s favor at a lower administrative level, the district can’t use that fact to unilaterally deny the employee’s timely request to appeal the grievance through the final school board level.

The commissioner ordered the board to hold a hearing on De La Garza’s Level III grievance as soon as possible.