Wistuber v. Paradise Valley Unified School District

In Wistuber v. Paradise Valley Unified School District, 141 Ariz. 346, 687 P.2d 354 (1984) the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a release time provision, as relevant here, where the contract (a collective bargaining agreement) expressly obligated a teacher's association president to perform specific duties in relation to the school district. In the contract, the district released the association's president from teaching duties, but continued to pay a portion of her salary in return for her performing activities and duties inuring to the benefit of the district. Id. at 348, 687 P.2d at 356. The contract expressly stated that the association president "agrees with the District to" undertake ten specific, quantifiable, and verifiable obligations and specified the amount of time in hours she was required to spend on district, as opposed to union, work. Id. at 348 n.3, 687 P.2d at 356 n.3. Although acknowledging many of the president's obligations were duties that "she might have performed in any event" as association president, id. at 349-50, 687 P.2d at 357-58, the Court nonetheless found that the consideration was not grossly disproportionate to the expenditure, id. at 350, 687 P.2d at 358.