Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 315223.cor.pdf

to be removed from the school, and was required to man the dunk tank at the school

carnival.

On February 1, Ms. Easterling received a notice from Ms. Thomas that she wanted

to meet. Having become concerned about her job security, Ms. Easterling contacted her

union, the Spokane Education Association. The union appointed Mike Boyer to represent

her. Mr. Boyer contacted Ms. Thomas about the requested meeting, after which Ms.

Thomas canceled it.

On May 3, Ms. Easterling received a phone call from Brent Perdue, an employee

in the district's human resources department, who told Ms. Easterling that she should

contact her union representative. In several conversations occurring in the week

thereafter, Mr. Perdue spoke to Ms. Easterling about resigning her position rather than

face nonrenewal. The district does not dispute that Mr. Perdue conveyed the option for

Ms. Easterling to resign. It claims to have had an understanding with the union and a

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No. 31522-3-111
Spokane Sch. Disl. No. 81 v. Spokane Educ. AssJn

long-standing practice of allowing provisional employees to resign rather than receive a

potentially more stigmatizing notice of nonrenewal.

Ms. Easterling did not agree to resign, and on May 9 the district sent a letter

notifying her that it would not renew her contract; she received it on May 11. The

reasons stated for the nonrenewal were persistent late arrival, inappropriate absences, and

lack of responsiveness to administrator requests. That same day, and apparently before

Ms. Easterling picked up her mail, Mr. Boyer filed a grievance on her behalf. The

remedy requested by the grievance was a finding of violations of the collective