Board of Education of the Round Valley Unified School District v. Round Valley Teachers Ass'n

We granted review to determine whether a school board may, through collective bargaining, agree to give greater procedural protections to probationary employees than those set forth in Education Code section 44929.21, subdivision (b) (section 44929.21(b); all statutory references are to the Education Code unless otherwise noted). Section 44929.21(b) provides procedures that a school district must follow when notifying a probationary employee of its “decision to reelect or not reelect the employee for the next succeeding school year to the position,” but otherwise allows districts to decline to reelect a probationary employee without cause. (See Fontana Teachers Assn. v. Fontana Unified School Dist. (1990) 201 Cal.App.3d 1517 [ 247 Cal.Rptr. 761 ] (Fontana); Grimsley v. Board of Trustees (1987) 189 Cal.App.3d 1440 [ 235 Cal.Rptr. 85 ] (Grimsley).) For the reasons discussed below, we conclude section 44929.21 preempts the procedural protections contained in the collective bargaining agreement, and that the arbitrator exceeded his powers in this case by purporting to give effect to those preempted provisions. Because the arbitrator exceeded his powers by enforcing provisions…