BRANDYWINE AFF. NCCEA/DSEA v. Brandywine Bd. of Ed.

• Decision Date: 26 January 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 82-239.
• Citation: 555 F. Supp. 852
• Parties: BRANDYWINE AFFILIATE, NCCEA/DSEA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the BRANDYWINE SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

555 F. Supp. 852

BRANDYWINE AFFILIATE, NCCEA/DSEA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the BRANDYWINE SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 82-239.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

January 26, 1983.

Sheldon N. Sandler, Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, Wilmington, Del., for plaintiffs.

Henry N. Herndon, Jr., and David H. Williams, Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams, Wilmington, Del., for defendants.

OPINION

MURRAY M. SCHWARTZ, District Judge.

Presently before the Court is a civil rights action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for declaratory and prospective injunctive relief. Plaintiffs, Brandywine Affiliate-NCCEA/DSEA, Christina Affiliate-NCCEA/DSEA, Colonial Affiliate-NCCEA/DSEA, and Red Clay Affiliate-NCCEA/DSEA, are labor organizations that are the exclusive negotiating representatives of school teachers in their respective school districts in northern Delaware. Plaintiffs, Michael F. Epler, Laura L. Shepard and Betty F. Edwards, are tenured teachers who claim to have been laid off as a result of decreased enrollment or a decrease in education services by the defendants—the Boards of Education of the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay School Districts.

The gravamen of the complaint is that the defendants, by failing to observe termination hearing procedures set forth in 14 Del.C. § 1413¹ and § 1420,² have, without due process of law, deprived the plaintiffs of a property interest in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants' actions constitute a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.³ Alternatively, the plaintiffs have asserted a pendent state claim that the defendants' failure to follow termination procedures prescribed by 14 Del.C. §§ 1413 and 1420 violated state law. The plaintiffs seek an injunction directing the defendants to hold termination hearings in accordance with 14 Del.C. §§ 1413 and 1420. Jurisdiction is present pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(3).

Presently before the Court are cross-motions for summary judgment. The facts underlying the plaintiffs' claims are not in dispute. Teachers employed in school districts within Delaware can only be dismissed for cause⁴ after receiving notice and a hearing.⁵ State law governs the conduct of the termination hearings.⁶ Hearings to terminate a teacher either during the school year or at the end of the school year are governed by 14 Del.C. §§ 1413 and 1420. Prior to 1978, teacher termination hearings were conducted by and before the local boards of education in the State's school districts.

However, in 1978 termination procedures changed in what became one school district encompassing most of the geographical area of New Castle County, Delaware, and one-half of the public school children of the State of Delaware. In Evans v. Buchanan, 447 F.Supp. 982, 1014-1039 (D.Del.1978), aff'd, 582 F.2d 750 (3d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 923, 100 S.Ct. 1862, 64 L.Ed.2d 278 reh'g denied, 447 U.S. 916, 100 S.Ct. 3004, 64 L.Ed.2d 865 (1980), a school desegregation case, this Court ordered the consolidation of eleven school districts located in New Castle County. In Evans,⁷ the Court entered an Order which modified certain state statutes with respect to governance of the court-created consolidated district, the New Castle County School District ("NCCSD"). One such change altered the pre-existing termination hearing procedures in the newly consolidated district. In brief, the statutory language was modified so that this district's board of education would be relieved from any possible statutory obligation to conduct termination hearings—an issue presently before the Court. In Evans, the Court did not consider whether termination procedures could be modified without modifying 14 Del.C. § 1413. The NCCSD adopted the practice of appointing hearing officers to conduct termination hearings who then made recommendations to the board. The board would then review the record of the proceedings before the hearing officer, the report of the officer and any written response of the teacher under review and then render a final employment decision. (Doc. 5, p. 2, Ex. A).

In July, 1980, the General Assembly of the State of Delaware authorized the State Board of Education ("State Board") to reorganize the New Castle County School District. 14 Del.C. § 1003. Following passage of this legislation, the State Board devised an acceptable reorganization plan that divided the New Castle County School District into the four school districts over which the defendants now preside. In June, 1981, this Court approved the four-district plan of the State Board of Education. C.A. Nos. 1816-22, Order (D.Del. June 2, 1981).

The four school districts involved in this suit are the successors to the NCCSD. With respect to conduct of teacher termination proceedings, each of the four school boards have instituted procedures based upon the modified procedures utilized by the now nonexistent NCCSD.⁸ Defendants have stated at oral argument that they have and will continue to follow such procedures.

At issue in this case is whether the four defendant school boards are authorized under this Court's Order in Evans v. Buchanan or under the laws of the State of Delaware to have adopted and utilized the modified hearing procedures originally instituted by the NCCSD. Plaintiffs come to federal court seeking a definitive ruling on the effect of this Court's orders upon the termination hearing procedures utilized by the defendants. Plaintiffs also present a federal constitutional claim alleging that the defendants' deviation from statutorily prescribed hearing procedures constitutes a deprivation of a constitutionally protected interest without due process of law. Alternatively, the plaintiffs seek to have the Court exercise pendent jurisdiction over the state claim that the defendants' deviation from statutorily prescribed procedures is in violation of state law.

I. The Effect of the Court Orders in Evans v. Buchanan

The effect of this Court's orders in Evans v. Buchanan with respect to the issue presented in this case cannot be fully appreciated unless one keeps in mind both the central focus of that case and the chronological interface of court orders and state legislative acts. Both will be briefly reviewed.

Evans v. Buchanan was concerned with the constitutional rights of all public school children within the geographic desegregation area. Accordingly, during the course of proceedings in Evans v. Buchanan, this Court stated that "it must be remembered it is the constitutional right of students, not ... teachers, that must be remedied," Evans v. Buchanan, 435 F.Supp. 832, 841 n. 30 (D.Del.1977), and that "this lengthy litigation concerns the constitutional rights of children, not ... teachers." Evans v. Buchanan, C.A. Nos. 1816-1822, slip op. at 6 (D.Del. Dec. 22, 1977).

In January, 1978 as part of its Remedy Order, this Court, as a matter of administrative necessity, ordered that all references to the board of education be deleted from 14 Del.C. § 1413. Evans v. Buchanan, C.A. No. 1816-22, Order, Attachment 1, B-10 (D.Del. Jan. 9, 1978). Operating under the court-modified statute the NCCSD appointed hearing officers to conduct tenured teacher termination hearings. Subsequently, the Delaware General Assembly by amending Chapter 10 of Title 14 authorized the State Board of Education to reorganize the NCCSD.⁹ At the same time that the Delaware General Assembly passed the legislation enabling the State Board to create four districts within the geographical desegregation area it also provided that "the reorganized ... districts shall be organized and administered according to the title 14." 14 Del.C. § 1004.¹⁰ More specifically to the point of teacher termination, the Delaware legislature provided that nothing in Chapter 10 "shall be deemed to alter or affect in any way ... Chapter 14 of this title." 14 Del.C. § 1005.¹¹

Pursuant to this statutory authorization, the State Board of Education created four districts to replace the single NCCSD. In June, 1981, the Court approved the implementation of a four-district reorganization of the New Castle County School District as authorized by State law, 14 Del.C. c. 10 and modified the Remedy Order of January 9, 1978 by ordering, in part that:

The provisions of Attachment Number 1 to the Court's January 9, 1978 Order dealing with Title 14 of the Delaware Code in the context of desegregation shall apply to the New Boards, except to the extent that such provisions may be inconsistent with subsequently enacted statutes of the State of Delaware.¹²

From the above chronological interface of federal court orders and state legislation, defendants vigorously urge the state legislature knew of this Court's Order modifying Chapter 14 and the NCCSD's practice of using hearing officers for teacher terminations and therefore when it provided that nothing in amended Chapter 10 shall be deemed to alter or affect Chapter 14, the General Assembly was conferring its approval of this Court's 1978 Order changing Chapter 10 and the consequent use of hearing officers. Any other construction, argues defendants, would be violative of the rule of statutory construction that a legislature is presumed not to modify existing law by subsequent legislation unless explicitly so stating in the subsequent legislation.

Defendants' argument would be more persuasive if it comported with reality. In the actual world of teacher terminations in the State of Delaware, two procedures were being followed. In the Court-created NCCSD, hearing officers were employed. In the remainder of the school districts in the state, the respective district school boards continued the uniform preexisting practice of the district school boards presiding over and conducting teacher termination hearings. Thus, at the time of the 1980 amendment to Chapter 10, there...