California School Employees Ass'n v. Personnel Commission of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District

Petitioners appeal from a judgment discharging an alternate writ of mandate and denying a peremptory writ of mandate in an action wherein petitioners sought to compel respondent Personnel Commission of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (“Commission”) to annul, vacate and set aside its judgment of May 11, 1967, dismissing petitioner Virginia Keidel, formerly a bus driver employed by the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (“District”), to compel respondent District to rescind, annul and set aside its action of May 2, 1967 dismissing Mrs. Keidel, to compel both respondents to reinstate her, and to recover damages for lost compensation due to her.

Petitioners contend that Mrs. Keidel was improperly dismissed, and that District and Commission failed to follow the mandatory dismissal procedures provided for in the Education Code. We have concluded that the correct procedures were not followed and that the trial court’s judgment denying mandate should be reversed.

The record herein discloses that on March 21, 1967, Baldwin, the personnel director of Commission and District, informed Mrs. Keidel that District, for various reasons, had terminated her services as bus…