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

at the step one conference.

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No. 3 I 522·3·II1
Spokane Sch. Dist. No. 81 v. Spokane Educ. Ass 'n

After providing that "[n]on renewal of provisional employees and matters relating

to evaluation ... shall be grievable only through Step Three" of the grievance procedure,

the CBA goes on to state that "[ s]uch grievance shall pertain solely to alleged procedural

discrepancies." CP at 109. Accordingly, procedural discrepancies arising during the

processing of a grievance are themselves subject to the article VII, section 3 limitations

and are therefore not arbitrable. Were that not clear from the language of the provision

itself we would conclude, as we have above, that because the only remedy sought by the

amended grievance is another year of provisional employment the grievance is essentially

challenging the district's evaluation and nonrenewal, thereby subjecting that basis for the

grievance to article VII, section 3.

4. FMLA

Finally, Ms. Easterling indicated in her amended grievance that the reason for her

persistent tardiness was most often her daughter's severe allergies and, when an allergic

reaction occurred, her need to stabilize her daughter before leaving for school. Her initial

grievance did not mention a FMLA-related issue at all. She contends on appeal that the

district should have notified her of her state and federal FMLA rights and made a

reasonable accommodation for her situation.

As with the other issues that were ostensibly distinct from Ms. Easterling'S

challenge to her nonrenewal, the fact that she requests the remedy of another year of

provisional employment reveals that this, too, is essentially a challenge to the district's