500 P.2d 376 (Colo.App. Div. 1 1972)
Max J. WHEELER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
SCHOOL DISTRICT #20 IN the COUNTY OF EL PASO and State of Colorado, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 71--430.
Court of Appeals of Colorado, First Division
June 6, 1972
Rehearing Denied June 27, 1972.
Hobbs & Waldbaum, Larry F. Hobbs, Denver, for plaintiff-appellant.
Horn, Anderson & Johnson, R. E. Anderson, Colorado Springs, for defendants-appellees.
SMITH, Judge.
Plaintiff-appellant, Max J. Wheeler, is a tenured teacher in the defendant school district. The plaintiff was relieved from his duties as principal of a junior high school in the district and was subsequently assigned as an elementary school physical education teacher, a teaching position for which he believes he is unqualified. Three claims for relief were asserted in the present action, only one of which is before us, the others having yet to be heard. In the claim for relief at issue here, plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction against his removal as a principal and his assignment as an elementary school physical educational teacher pending determination of the other claims. Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction was denied by the trial court. We affirm that denial.
Plaintiff contends that the action of the district in transferring him to a position for which he is not qualified deprives him of the right to practice his profession as a teacher in a position for which he is qualified. Plaintiff also asserts that there is a violation of the public interest in that the children of the elementary school will suffer immediate and irreparable injury as they will be deprived of a qualified physical education teacher. However, the court found, upon the evidence presented, that plaintiff was qualified to teach elementary school physical education.
The evidence is undisputed that plaintiff has a teacher's certificate, type B, under C.R.S.1963, 123--17--14(2), and that such a certificate satisfies the requirement of 1967 Perm.Supp., C.R.S.1963, 123--18--3, that all teachers must have a certificate. The superintendent of the defendant school district testified that he believed the plaintiff, who had majored in physical education in college, to be qualified to teach elementary school physical education. Plaintiff's initial teacher's certificate contained an endorsement indicating his qualification to teach physical education in grades kindergarten through twelve. There was, therefore, ample evidence supporting the trial court's finding that the plaintiff is qualified for the position in question, and we will not disturb this finding. Adler v. Adler, 167 Colo. 145, 445 P.2d 906.
The granting or denial of a preliminary injunction is a matter in the sound discretion of the trial court, and its determination will not be disturbed in the absence of an abuse of discretion. Crosby v. Watson, 144 Colo. 216, 355 P.2d 958. We find no abuse of discretion in the failure of the trial court to grant injunctive relief.
We affirm the trial court's denial of the injunction.
SILVERSTEIN, C.J., and PIERCE, J., concur.