Lawe v. El Monte School Dist. of Los Angeles County
| Decision Date | 30 October 1968 |
| Citation | 72 Cal.Rptr. 554,267 Cal.App.2d 20 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Robert LAWE, Petitioner and Appellant, v. EL MONTE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, State of California, a public corporation, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 31823. |
Parker, Berg, Lord & Soldwedel, Pasadena, for appellant.
Harold W. Kennedy, County Counsel, James W. Briggs and Lawrence L. Hoffman, Deputies County Counsel, for respondent.
This is a proceeding in mandamus to compel the school district to advance the petitioner one step on the salary schedule for each of several years and to pay petitioner additional compensation for his services rendered in such years in accordance with such advancement. The court denied the petition for a peremptory writ of mandate and the petitioner has appealed from the judgment.
The facts are not in dispute. The petitioner is a permanent certified teacher and holds a junior high school credential for life which authorizes him to teach all subjects in grades seven through nine. He was first employed in the El Monte School District in the 1958--59 school year and thereafter served continually in that district until the school year 1962--63. For the 1961--62 school year he was paid a salary as designated for step 4 in column Y of the teachers' salary schedule of the school district for that year. He was granted a leave of absence by the school district for the 1962--63 school year to permit him to teach in an American Dependents Education Group School in Germany for the United States Department of Defense. He returned to the school district for the 1963--64 school year and resumed his teaching duties in that and the succeeding years.
Prior to his leave of absence the petitioner taught seventh and eighth grade classes in the El Monte School District. During the 1962--63 school year he taught the eighth grade class in the American Dependents School in Germany. After he returned to the school district upon the expiration of his leave of absence he was given seventh and eighth grade teaching assignments in each school year.
For each school year the school district published a teachers' salary schedule which provided for an annual one step advance in salary to and including step 13. The school district did not advance the petitioner one step in the salary schedule for the school year 1962--63 and thus did not give him credit for his teaching services in Germany during his leave of absence. For the school year 1963--64 he was paid a salary based on a one step increase over his salary for the school year preceding the period of his leave of absence. For each succeeding year the increase in salary was based on the next step in the salary schedule for that year.
The school district provided its teachers with policy statements set forth in a teachers' handbook. The handbook for the 1963--64 school year contained the following statement:
'REGULAR CREDENTIALS
The El Monte School District gave credit to two teachers in the application of the salary schedule for teaching done in other districts while on leave of absence from the El Monte School District for that purpose. Those two teachers had not reached step 4 on the salary schedule before taking their leaves of absence whereas the petitioner had reached step 4 prior to taking his leave of absence for the 1962--63 school year. The interpretation which has been uniformly placed on its salary schedule by the El Monte School District is that a one step advance for each year of approved outside experience is allowable only to the extent of advancing a teacher as high as the fourth step.
Section 13502 of the Education Code is as follows: 'The governing board of any school district shall fix and order paid the compensation of persons in public school service requiring certification...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Palos Verdes Faculty Assn. v. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified Sch. Dist.
...San Diego Federation of Teachers v. Board of Education (1963) 216 Cal.App.2d 758, 762, 31 Cal.Rptr. 146; Lawe v. El Monte School Dist. (1968) 267 Cal.App.2d 20, 22, 72 Cal.Rptr. 554; Eastham v. Santa Clara Elementary Sch. Dist. (1969) 270 Cal.App.2d 807, 810, 76 Cal.Rptr. 198; Shoban v. Boa......
-
Shoban v. Board of Trustees of Desert Center Unified School Dist.
...437, 444, 150 P.2d 455, 154 A.L.R. 137; Kacsur v. Board of Trustees, 18 Cal.2d 586, 591, 116 P.2d 593; Lawe v. El Monte School Dist. of L.A., 267 A.C.A. 17, 19, 72 Cal.Rptr. 554; San Diego Federation of Teachers v. Board of Education, 216 Cal.App.2d 758, 762, 31 Cal.Rptr. 146.) Giving postg......
-
California Teachers' Assn. v. Livingston Union School Dist.
...147 Cal.Rptr. 359, 580 P.2d 1155.) Ultimately, this earlier language of section 13506 was interpreted in Lawe v. El Monte School Dist. (1968) 267 Cal.App.2d 20, 72 Cal.Rptr. 554, as reiterated in Palos " 'It is within the province of the governing board of the school district to determine t......
-
Mayer v. Board of Trustees
...(Rible v. Hughes, 24 Cal.2d 437, 444, 150 P.2d 455.) A latter day case which pointedly tested this principle is Lawe v. El Monte School Dist., 267 Cal.App.2d 20, 72 Cal.Rptr. 554. In that case, the plaintiff, a permanent teacher, had been employed by the district for five years when he was ......