Perrea v. Cincinnati Pub. Sch.
| Decision Date | 20 April 2010 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 1:08-cv-352. |
| Citation | 709 F.Supp.2d 628 |
| Parties | Paul PERREA, Plaintiff,v.CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio |
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Ted L. Wills, Attorney at Law, Cincinnati, OH, for Plaintiff.
Mark Joseph Stepaniak, Daniel Joseph Hoying, Ryan Michael Martin, Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Cincinnati, OH, for Defendants.
ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (doc. 30) and Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. 29). Plaintiff Paul Perrea, a teacher for Defendant Cincinnati Public Schools (“CPS”), challenges the constitutionality of CPS guidelines that require CPS to try to maintain approximately the same racial balance for the teaching staff at each school within the district when making certain types of teacher placement decisions. Perrea also alleges race discrimination and First Amendment retaliation.
The Court ultimately concludes that Defendants did not retaliate against Perrea in violation of the First Amendment. The Court also concludes that Defendants are not liable for race discrimination insofar as they did not take an adverse employment action against Perrea for purposes of Title VII, Ohio Revised Code chapter 4112, or 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Nonetheless, the Court finds that the CPS staff racial balance guidelines are unconstitutional. Defendants violated Perrea's equal protection rights if they “surplussed” him on the basis of his race. Genuine issues of disputed material fact preclude summary judgment on Perrea's race discrimination claim founded upon the Equal Protection Clause. However, Defendant Mary Hahn is entitled to qualified immunity on the equal protection claim.
Accordingly, and for the reasons that follow, the Court will GRANT Plaintiff's motion and GRANT IN PART AND DENY IN PART Defendants' motion.
This statement of facts, except where otherwise indicated, is derived from the Defendants' Statement of Proposed Undisputed Facts (Doc. 29-1) and Plaintiff's Responses (Doc. 35-1) thereto.
CPS hired Paul Perrea as a long-term substitute teacher in December 2002. Perrea has taught science at Hughes Center, a CPS high school, since 2004. Perrea asserts that Hughes Center is the “highest performing” school in the CPS system that matches his training, experience, and individual qualifications.
Perrea is a member of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (“the Union”), the union representing CPS teachers. The terms of Perrea's employment are governed by a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between CPS and the Union. The dispute between Perrea and CPS in this case arises in part from provisions in the collective bargaining agreement which call for consideration of “the racial balancing of staff” when teachers are surplussed i.e., removed from their current position at a particular school based on decreased enrollment or a change in program offerings at that school. (CBA, 27-1 at 11.)
The surplus process is described in § 250(3) of the collective bargaining agreement:
( Id. (emphasis added).) Pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, teachers who are surplussed remain employed by CPS and have the opportunity to transfer to any existing vacancy in the school district. If a teaching position opens up in the teacher's original school, the surplussed teacher has the right to stay at the school. Other provisions in the collective bargaining agreement relating to teacher transfers also require that transfers should be “consistent with the racial balancing of the staff.” ( Id., 27-1 at 7, 10.) Racial balancing is not mentioned in any provision of the collective bargaining agreement that relates to hiring, firing, or laying off teachers.
Staff racial balance provisions are contained in at least one other CPS document. Paul McDole, a human resources manager at CPS, testified that the CPS treasurer's department provides the CPS Student-Based Budgeting Guideline for HR/Staffing (“Budgeting Guideline”) to schools to aid in the student-based budgeting process. (McDole Dep. 84, 84-90.) The Budgeting Guideline contains a paragraph called “Staff Racial Balance” that addresses the racial composition of the staff at each school. ( Id.; Budgeting Guideline, Doc. 31-5 at 3.) The “Staff Racial Balance” provision provides, in relevant part, as follows:
It is important that the staff racial balance for each school be maintained as close as possible when considering surplussing. However, a school shall be in compliance with Board Policy if the school is within plus or minus 10% of the representative teacher work force.
(Budgeting Guideline, Doc. 31-5 at 3.) McDole testified that treasurer's department did not send out the Budgeting Guideline to the CPS school principals for the 2008-2009 school year. (McDole Dep. 136.)
During the 2005-2006 school year, Perrea initiated a voluntary transfer request by filling out a “Transfer Request Form” and selecting positions at Taft High School and Woodward Career Technical as his transfer choices. (Perrea Dep. 67-71.) Perrea testified that he was not sure that he would have accepted a transfer away from Hughes Center, but that he wanted to learn more about the specifics of open positions. ( Id.) CPS did not select Perrea for the transfer positions at Taft or Woodward. Perrea filed a grievance concerning his transfer requests, but the Union withdrew Perrea's grievance without his consent.
During the 2006-2007 school year, Perrea again voluntarily submitted a Transfer Request Form and selected positions at Clark Montessori, Walnut Hills, and Western Hills Design Tech as his transfer choices. Perrea continued teaching science at Hughes Center after he was not selected for a transfer position.
In February 2007, during the 2006-2007 school year, Perrea asked a CPS administrator, Dr. Elizabeth Holtzapple, when the semester exams administered to CPS ninth-grade students would be made available to the public. Dr. Holtzapple responded that the semester exams were “secure test documents” and would not be released publicly. Perrea continued to request that the exams be released. Defendants characterize Perrea's communications as unprofessional and inappropriate, including one email in which Perrea called the semester exams “a joke” and referred to CPS administration as “dysfunctional and mendacious.” (Doc. 31-11 at 5.) 1 Defendant Mary Hahn, the principal at Hughes Center, counseled Perrea in a letter dated March 16, 2007 to communicate with CPS administrators in a more professional manner. (Perrea Dep. 199-200; Doc. 31-11 at 3.) Perrea was brought to a disciplinary council meeting in May 2007 about his semester exam requests. (Perrea Dep. 199-200; Hahn Dep. 174, 177-79, 184-85.)
Perrea testified that Principal Hahn told him on May 30, 2007 that he would be disciplined. (Perrea Dep. 199-200.) Perrea testified further that Principal Hahn told him that he should “stop wasting [his] time on the semester exams and be the best teacher that [he] can.” ( Id. at 199-200, 209.) Nonetheless, CPS did not formally discipline Perrea for his communications regarding his request to review the semester exams.
On April 21, 2008, Plaintiff filed a mandamus action in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking the release of the semester exams as public records under the Ohio Public Records Act. Perrea v. Cincinnati Pub. Schs., No.2008-0748 (Ohio). On September 17, 2009, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a slip opinion denying the writ of mandamus. Id. slip. op. (Ohio Sept. 17, 2009).
During the 2007-2008 school year, approximately 101 teachers were assigned to Hughes Center. CPS determined in February 2008 to eliminate surplus teaching positions at Hughes Center based on changes in enrollment and corresponding reductions in teacher allocations. Principal Hahn was informed that she needed to surplus twenty-seven teaching positions for Hughes Center for the following 2008-2009 school year. On or about February 21, 2008, Hahn told Perrea that he was being surplussed. Perrea testified that Hahn told him that he had been “surplussed for racial balancing.” (Perrea Dep. 93-94.) He also stated that Hahn referenced a seniority list of the teachers and indicated that, while Perrea was white, another science...
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