Crowl

—Education Code section 44938, subdivision (a), provides in relevant part: “The governing board of any school district shall not act upon any charges of unprofessional conduct unless at least 45 calendar days prior to the date of the filing, the board or its authorized representative has given the employee against whom the charge is filed, written notice of the unprofessional conduct, specifying the nature thereof with such specific instances of behavior and with such particularity as to furnish the employee an opportunity to correct his or her faults and overcome the grounds for such charge . . . .” (All further undesignated statutory references are to the Education Code.) The principal question in this case is whether a school district “act[s] upon any charges of unprofessional conduct” when it suspends a teacher from employment for unprofessional conduct. We conclude it does, so that the notice prescribed by section 44938 must be given.

Don Growl, a permanent certificated employee of respondent San Juan Unified School District (District), was ordered suspended for 15 days without pay for unprofessional conduct (§ 44932, subd. (b)) following a hearing before the…