Teachers Union v. Board of Education

• Decision Date: 16 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. 120,120
• Parties: BALTIMORE TEACHERS UNION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, LOCAL 340, AFL-CIO v. MARYLAND STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

840 A.2d 728

379 Md. 192

BALTIMORE TEACHERS UNION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, LOCAL 340, AFL-CIO v. MARYLAND STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al.

No. 120, Sept. Term, 2000.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

January 16, 2004.

Joel A. Smith (Keith J. Zimmerman, Kahn, Smith & Collins, P.A., on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner/cross-respondent.

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (Elizabeth A. Cavanagh, Jenner & Block, LLC, on brief), Valerie V. Cloutier, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty Gen., on brief), for respondents/cross-petitioners.

Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE,¹ RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, JJ.

ELDRIDGE, J.

Baltimore Teachers Union, American Federation of Teachers, Local 340, AFLCIO, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City a complaint for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, alleging that the Maryland State Board of Education lacked statutory authority to enter into a contract with Edison Schools, Inc. for the operation and management of three Baltimore City public elementary schools. The Circuit Court held that the State Board acted within its statutory authority conferred by the General Assembly. Before argument in the Court of Special Appeals, the Union filed in this Court a petition for a writ of certiorari. We granted the petition and shall affirm.

I.

Governance of the Maryland public school system is two-tiered. The Maryland State Board of Education is the head of the State Department of Education, a principal department of the State government. Maryland Code (1978, 1999 Repl. Vol.), §§ 2-101 and 2-102 of the Education Article. Twenty-three county boards of education and the New Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (the "New Board") operate as the statutory heads of the twenty-four local public school systems.² The State Board is charged with the general supervision of the Maryland public schools, including the development and implementation of educational policies. § 2-205 of the Education Article.³ The State Board is authorized to adopt rules and regulations for the administration and enforcement of the education law. § 2-205(c). In 1993, the Board promulgated regulations establishing public school performance standards that were adopted and codified in the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) 13A.01.04.01-.08. Regulation.01 establishes the scope of the regulations and regulation .02 is the definition section. The student performance areas tracked by the State are set forth in regulation.03. Regulation .04 establishes the standards that apply to the student performance areas. Regulation .05 sets out the reporting requirements, and the mandate that each public school develop a school improvement plan is set forth in regulation .06.

The regulations further set forth a two-phased process for public schools that fail to meet the prescribed student performance standards. Regulations .07 and .08 describe "local reconstitution" where, if a school fails to meet all standards at a level of satisfactory or better in the student performance areas, the State Board may require the overall program and management of a school to be placed under the direct control of the local school board.⁴ By February 2000, the State Board had ordered 97 schools throughout Maryland to be placed under local reconstitution. Of these, 83 schools were in Baltimore City.

If a school under local reconstitution fails to show sufficient improvement, regulation.10 provides for "state reconstitution" by which the State Board determines the overall program and management of the school. In 1999, the State Board reconstituted three of the lowest performing public elementary schools in Baltimore City, Furman L. Templeton, Montebello, and Gilmor. Student performance remained stagnant at these elementary schools despite being under local reconstitution for at least three years. No more than 10% of the students at the schools had met the State's standard in all student performance areas in any year since 1993 when the school performance regulations were adopted.

The State Board examined the feasibility of closing one or more of the underperforming elementary schools. The Board determined that any closure would result in increased transportation costs and the transfer of students to other low performing public schools already under local reconstitution. The Board concluded that the most viable option was to contract out the operation and management of the three schools to a third party.⁵ Following a request for proposals in accordance with the State procurement procedure, the State Board and the New Board entered into a "Contract for the Operation and Management of Schools Under State Reconstitution in Baltimore City" with Edison Schools, Inc., for a term of five years.⁶ The contract with Edison was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works on March 22, 2000.

Edison is a private company specializing in the management of public schools. It operates under contracts with local school districts and boards of charter schools. Pursuant to its contract with the State Board, Edison is required to provide the three public elementary schools with curriculum and curriculum development, instructional services, instructional and support personnel, teaching tools, special education and related services, educational services with limited or no English proficiency, and other services which may be necessary. Edison serves as the employer of all employees hired for the elementary schools and is responsible for providing management and professional development for all personnel working in the three schools. Edison has the power to hire, assign, discipline, and dismiss all personnel hired at the schools.

The Baltimore Teachers Union initiated the present action in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against the State Board and the New Board. The gist of the Union's action was set forth in the beginning of its complaint as follows:

"1. This is an action for declaratory judgment, injunctive and equitable relief. The facts and claims in this action are solely a matter of statutory law and turn on the authority of the Maryland State Board of Education (`MSBE') and the New Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (`Local Board') as granted by the State legislature.

"2. Plaintiff shall request that the Court find that MSBE acted ultra vires in its promulgation of C.O.M.A.R. 13A.01.04.08. and 13A.01.04.02(B)(8)(b)."

The State Board and the New Board filed motions to dismiss the complaint for lack of standing. Alternatively, the State Board moved for summary judgment, maintaining that the Board acted within the scope of its statutory authority by promulgating the challenged regulations and contracting with a private vendor for the operation of the three elementary schools. The Union filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. Edison filed a motion to intervene which was unopposed.

Following a hearing, the Circuit Court issued an order declaring that the Union had standing, that the challenged regulations were within the State Board's statutory authority, and that the two Boards were statutorily authorized to enter into the contract.

The Union filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, and the State Board filed a cross-appeal on the standing issue. Prior to argument in the intermediate appellate court, the Union filed in this Court a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted. Baltimore Teachers v. State Board of Education, 362 Md. 359, 765 A.2d 142 (2001). The petition presented the single question of whether the challenged regulations and contract were authorized by the General Assembly.

II.

As a threshold matter, we must first consider whether the Baltimore Teachers Union had standing to challenge the reconstitution regulations and the Edison contract. The respondent State Board filed a motion to dismiss the Union's complaint for declaratory judgment on the ground that the Union lacked standing to bring the instant matter, and the Board's cross-appeal challenges that portion of the declaratory judgment upholding the Union's standing. See Joseph H. Munson Co. v. Secretary of State, 294 Md. 160, 168, 448 A.2d 935, 939 (1982),

affirmed,

467 U.S. 947, 104 S.Ct. 2839, 81 L.Ed.2d 786 (1984).

The Board argues that for an organization like the Union to have standing "to bring a judicial action, it must ordinarily have a `property interest of its own ... separate and distinct from that of its individual members.'" Medical Waste Associates, Inc. v. Maryland Waste Coalition, Inc., 327 Md. 596, 612, 612 A.2d 241, 249 (1992), quoting Citizens Planning and Housing Association v. County Executive, 273 Md. 333, 345, 329 A.2d 681, 687 (1974). The Board further argues that the Union has not "`suffered some kind of special damage from such wrong differing in character and kind from that suffered by the general public.'" Medical Waste, 327 Md. at 613, 612 A.2d at 249, quoting Rogers v. Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, 253 Md. 687, 691, 253 A.2d 713, 715 (1969). We disagree. The Union's interests are sufficient to satisfy standing requirements.

The Union is an unincorporated association and the exclusive collective bargaining agent for the employees of the Baltimore City Public School System. See §§ 6-401 and 6-407 of the Education Article. As the designated collective bargaining agent, the Union is charged with statutory rights and fiduciary duties to negotiate for, and to act in the best interests of, the public school employees. § 6-510(b). The Union has a legal relationship with the New Board by way of the protection and benefits embodied in the negotiated labor agreement on behalf of Baltimore City public school employees. The function of the labor agreement is to set wages and establish minimum labor standards for the bargaining unit.

The reconstitution regulations and the Edison contract disturb those established standards and interject a competing labor...