Kenneth Bernard Hannigan v. State Florida

At issue here is whether a collective bargaining agreement between a school board and the representative of its teachers may provide a binding arbitration procedure for review of the school boards decision to discharge a teacher on continuing contract status, or whether such a teacher is required to pursue an appeal to the Department of Education as provided in Section 231.36(6), Florida Statutes (1977). The trial judge ruled that the statutory avenue of appeal must be pursued to the exclusion of any alternative avenue provided in the collective bargaining agreement. In order to reach that decision, the trial judge first determined that a circuit court has subject matter jurisdiction to render a declaratory judgment concerning the arbitration provisions of a collective bargaining agreement in the public employment field. We agree with the trial judge on the question of subject matter jurisdiction in this case, but hold that he was in error in ruling that the arbitration provisions of the collective bargaining agreement did not provide an alternative means of review to the discharged teacher. Therefore, we reverse.