California Teachers Ass'n v. San Diego Community College Dist.
| Decision Date | 25 April 1980 |
| Citation | 164 Cal.Rptr. 173,105 Cal.App.3d 173 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff and Cross-Appellant, v. SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT et al., Defendants and Appellants. Civ. 16541. |
Donald L. Clark, County Counsel, Lloyd M. Harmon, Jr., Chief Deputy County Counsel, Timothy K. Garfield and Greer D. Knopf, Deputys County Counsel, San Diego, for defendants and appellants.
Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Krepack, Laurence D. Steinsapir and Howard M. Knee, Los Angeles, for plaintiff and cross-appellant.
California Teachers Association (CTA) sought a peremptory writ of mandate from the Superior Court directing San Diego Community College District (District) to reclassify and re-employ certain part-time teachers (part-timers) as contract or regular (collectively, permanent) employees for the 1976-1977 school year and to award the part-timers up to four years back pay, with interest, equal to the deference between their salaries as temporary employees and the salaries to which they would have been entitled as permanent employees.
The Superior Court granted the writ on the issue of reclassification, but denied it as to back wages. The basis for its ruling was its interpretation of Education Code section 13337.5 () 1
Pending this appeal our Supreme Court in Peralta Federation of Teachers v. Peralta Community College Dist. (1979) 24 Cal.3d 369, 155 Cal.Rptr. 679, 595 P.2d 113, clarified the meaning of section 13337.5. Peralta holds the final paragraph of that section must be read independently from the preceding three paragraphs, and, therefore part-timers may be classified as temporary employees under that section without limitation. Only those temporary employees who were hired before the effective date of the legislation, November 8, 1967, are entitled to permanent classification. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment for further proceedings to permit the trial court to determine which part-timers, if any, fall within the protected category. We also decide those persons who are so reclassified as permanent employees are entitled to pro rata back pay on the basis of the number of classroom hours they taught compared to the number of classroom hours taught by full-time teachers.
CTA sued on behalf of its members who taught community college classes in San Diego County during the 1976 spring semester and who were classified as temporary employees because they worked less then 60 percent of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment for permanent employees having comparable duties.
The actual composition of the class represented by CTA is not clear from the record. Most of the teachers appear to have been employed for approximately one year, although some had a temporary status for ten years or longer.
The district employs three classes of instructors: regular ("permanent" or "tenured"), contract ("probationary") and temporary. Some regular and contract teachers are employed part-time and are paid a salary prorated to the salary of a full-time teacher. Temporary teachers are paid a flat hourly rate which is less than the amount paid a salaried employee. Temporary employees do not receive certain fringe benefits associated with contract or regular employment, and they may be dismissed without notice or hearing. However, they are not expected to hold office hours, serve on professional committees or supervise student activities, all of which are required of full-time instructors.
The part-timers possess appropriate academic credentials and many have taught courses of accepted importance to regularly enrolled students. The courses were sometimes interchangeable with those taught by contract or regular teachers requiring the same preparation and presentation.
As noted previously, and as counsel for the parties stipulated at oral argument, Peralta controls the issue of reclassification. The remaining question, and one not fully addressed in Peralta, is the appropriate measure of retroactive compensation under former section 13503.1 for those instructors ordered reclassified and reemployed as permanent employees.
Section 13503.1 provided that any person employed by a school district in a certificated position who served less than the minimum school day as defined in the Education Code, could contract to serve as a part-time employee and that "(i)n fixing the compensation of part-time employees, governing boards shall provide an amount which bears the same ratio to the amount provided full-time employees as the time actually served by such part-time employees bears to the time actually served by full-time employees of the same grade or assignment." (Italics added.)
The statute, in furnishing the answer to the method of compensating part-time employees also creates the problem for the phrase "time actually served" is wonderfully ambiguous. Not surprisingly, both parties submit the "plain meaning" of this language supports their respective arguments.
CTA's solution is to tie the ratio to the number of classroom hours taught by full-time teachers. Thus, those teachers who are reclassified should be awarded pro rata wages as back pay based on the ratio of the number of classroom hours they taught, as compared to the number of classroom hours taught by full-time teachers. The District argues that this neat formula ignores a variety of nonclassroom hours taught by full-time instructors and is not an accurate...
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California Teachers Assn. v. San Diego Community College Dist.
...granted the writ on the issue of reclassification but denied it as to back pay. The district appealed from the former ruling Cal.App., 164 Cal.Rptr. 173, and CTA appealed from the latter. Most of the issues presented in these appeals were resolved by our decision in Peralta Federation of Te......