Randolph County Board of Education v. Bonnie Scalia, Harry L. Vannoy, John P. Horne, John J. Rector, and Ben L…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reversed a circuit court order that had set aside a hearing examiner's decision in favor of five school employees who grieved being used as substitute teachers. The court held that a hearing examiner's final order under the Educational Employees Grievance Act, W.Va. Code, 18-29-1 et seq., may not be reversed unless clearly wrong, mirroring the APA standard of W.Va. Code, 29A-5-4(g). Applying that deferential standard, the court found substantial evidence that the Board's chronic underfunding of its substitute-teacher line item precluded an 'emergency' under W.Va. Code, 18-4-10(10), and that no fiscal deficit actually existed. The hearing examiner's decision was reinstated.