Kavanaugh

This appeal by the West Sonoma County Union High School District and its governing board is from a judgment granting a petition for writ of mandate and directing the district to reemploy respondent Alta Kavanaugh as a probationary certificated teacher, effective with the commencement of the 1999-2000 school year. [1]

The judgment was based on the trial court's reading of Education Code section 44916, which provides that new certificated employees must receive a written statement indicating their employment status and salary "[a]t the time of initial employment." [2] For a temporary employee, if the statement does not indicate the temporary nature of the employment, the employee is deemed to be a probationary employee. We conclude that the statute requires a school district to provide the statement when its governing board takes formal action to employ a new certificated temporary employee rather than on the date that employee first renders paid service to the district, and we reverse the judgment.

Certain of the underlying facts are undisputed. During the summer of 1999, respondent, a certified secondary language arts teacher who had been teaching in the Hemet…