Waterbury Teachers Ass'n v. City of Waterbury

• Decision Date: 07 March 1973
• Citation: Waterbury Teachers Ass'n v. City of Waterbury, 324 A.2d 267, 164 Conn. 426 (Conn. 1973)
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: , 84 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2151, 74 Lab.Cas. P 53,440 WATERBURY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al. v. CITY OF WATERBURY et al.

Page 267

324 A.2d 267

164 Conn. 426, 84 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2151,

74 Lab.Cas. P 53,440

WATERBURY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al. v.CITY OF WATERBURY et al.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

March 7, 1973.

Kevin T. Nixon, Naugatuck, with whom were Robert L. Krechevsky, Hartford, and on the brief, Donald A. House, Neal B. Hanlon, Naugatuck, Martin A. Gould and Richard D. Gould, Hartford, for appellants(plaintiffs).

M. J. Daly III, Waterbury, with whom were John D. Mahaney, Corp.Counsel, and, on the brief, James F. Meenan, Asst. Corp.Counsel, for appellees(defendants).

Before HOUSE, C.J., and SHAPIRO, LOISELLE, MacDONALD and BOGDANSKI, JJ.

MacDONALD, Associate Justice.

This appeal arises out of a dispute between the Waterbury Teachers Association and one of its members, Anthony Russo, as plaintiffs, and the city of Waterbury and its board of education, civil service commission, superintendent of schools and personnel director, as defendants.Essentially, the dispute concerns (1) the denial of the plaintiff Russo's application to take an examination for the position of 'principal III' on the ground that he lacked the necessary qualifications and (2) the alleged unilateral addition of a duty for 'principal III' which is claimed to have been made in violation of the contractual and statutory obligation of the board of education to negotiate concerning conditions of employment.By their action, brought in the Superior Court in January, 1971, the plaintiffs sought injunctive relief and damages.

The undisputed facts are as follows: The Waterbury Teachers Association(hereinafter WTA) is voluntary association composed of and representing a majority of the certified professional teachers of Waterbury.Under the provisions of §§ 10-153a to 10-153g of the General Statutes, the WTA is the exclusive representative for the plaintiff Russo and other employees of the board of education of Waterbury and, as such, has the right to negotiate with the board concerning salaries and other conditions of employment.On December 29, 1969, the WTA entered into a three-year contract with the board of education, which contract was negotiated under the above statutes and was in effect from January 1, 1970, to January 1, 1973.Under the provisions of § 10-153d of the General Statutes, '(t)he terms of such contract shall be binding on the legislative body of the town or regional school district, unless such body rejects such contract at a regular or special meeting called for such purpose within thirty days of the signing of the contract.'The board of aldermen of the city of Waterbury, as its legislative body, did not reject the contract within thirty days and, in fact, affirmatively approved the contract by vote on December 29, 1969, and thereby bound the city of Waterbury anbd the other defendants to the contract.

The civil service system for the city of Waterbury became effective on November 6, 1962, by referendum vote on the electors of the city, and on November 8, 1966, an amendment of implementation thereof was made, also by referendum.Waterbury Charter§§ 201-214.The adoption and implementation of the civil service system were made by amending the charter of the city of Waterbury, and these amendments provide that the civil service commission shall adopt rules and regulations.Id.§ 205.Pursuant to the rules and regulations thus adopted, the employees of the city are divided into unclassified service and classified service, and teachers in the Waterbury school system are placed in the unclassified service and administrators in the classified service.Id.§ 204;Waterbury Civil Service Rules &Regs., c. 2 §§ 2, 3.Principals in the Waterbury school system are administrators and are thus in the classified service.The regulations also establish two classifications of elementary schoools in Waterbury: class II and class III, an elementary school II being a school with up to nineteen regular classrooms and an elementary school III a school with twenty or more such rooms.During September and November of 1970, there was no class I elementary school classification in Waterbury and there had not been for the previous seven or eight years.It is the job prerogative of the board of education of the city to define and designate what is an elementary school II and what is an elementary school III.

The personnel director of the city and the civil service commission, pursuant to the city charter as amended, have a duty to determine and draw up job classifications or job specifications, and these specifications require the approval or disapproval of the board of aldermen of the city.Waterbury Charter§§ 205, 206.Job specifications for elementary school principal II and principal III were prepared by the office of the personnel director and were approved by the civil service commission on April 15, 1970, after a consultation with the superintendent of schools.On April 20, 1970, the Waterbury board of aldermen approved these specifications, which set forth a general statement of duties, distinguishing features of the position, examples of work, required knowledge, skill and abilities, and acceptable experience and training for each position.The specifications for elementary school principal III contain, inter alia, the following paragraph concerning acceptable experience and training: 'Two years' experience as an Elementary School Principal II and possession of a certificate issued by the State of Connecticut for the position of Elementary School Principal III.'The changes in job specifications for elementary principal III put into effect prior to an examination given on June 13, 1970, thus reduced the experience required from three years as elementary principal II to two years as elementary principal II, and under the heading of examples of work added: 'Evaluates all teachers as prescribed by the Superintendent of Schools and/or the Board of Educations.'

On April 27, 1970, the civil service commission announced and posted a notice of examination stating that a written examination for the position of elementary principal III on a promotional basis was to be given on June 13, 1970, and that applications were to be filed on or before 4:30 p.m. on May 22, 1970.Being a promotional examination, as opposed to an open competitive examination which has no resstrictions as to employment of applicants, the examination was restricted to permanent employees of the Waterbury department of education.The WTA did not object to the giving of this promotional examination.Thirteen teachers in the Waterbury system were eligible to take the examination, and two teachers made application to take and did take it.Though both of these teachers passed the examination, only one accepted a position, and there still remained with the civil service commission a pending requisition from the board of education for the position of elementary principal III.To fill this requisition the civil service commission with the approval of the board of education, announced on September 15, 1970, that an open competitive written examination for the position of elementary principal III would be held on November 14, 1970, applications to be filed before 4:30 p.m. on October 15, 1970.The essential difference between the two postings for the elementary principal III examinations was that the June 13, 1970 examination was on a promotional basis while the November 14, 1970 examination was on an open competitive basis.In response to the announcement six applications were filed, five from teachers in the Waterbury system and one from outside the system.Only one of the six applicants qualified to take the examination and, on taking the test, that applicant failed.The position of elementary principal III remains unfilled, and no new examination for the position is scheduled.

The plaintiffAnthony Russo has been employed by the Waterbury board of education as a teacher in grade 5 at Walsh School since September, 1970.From August, 1968 to June, 1970, Russo was a supervising principal in the Ann Antolini School, New Hartford, Connecticut, which was an elementary school consisting of grades four, five and six.Ann Antolini School had eleven regular classrooms in full-time use and three part-time class-rooms, for a total a foureteen classrooms.In September, 1970, Russo held a Connecticut state teachign certificate which qualified him to hold the position of elementary school principal.On September 28, 1970, an application from Russo to take the open competitive examination for elementary school principal III was received at the office of the personnel director of the city.Sometime in October, 1970, Russo was notified that he was ineligible to take the examination because of 'kind of experience.'On receipt of this notice, Russo wrote a letter of inquiry dated October 17, 1970, to the personnel director in which he stated that he did not understand what was meant by 'kind of experience.'On October 20, 1970, the civil service commission notified Russo that he did not have the necessary qualifications to take the examination because he did not have two years' experience in an elementary school with a kindergarten through eighth grade.Furthermore, the personnel director, prior to Octover 17, 1970, officially determined that Russo did not qualify to take the November 14 examination because it was discovered that during his first year as supervising principal of the Ann Antolini School he taught school routinely for two periods per day and only the balance of his time was supervisory.A principal II, or even a supervising vice principal in the Waterbury school system, is defined as an administrator who does not routinely teach, and the Waterbury school system has no classification of teaching principals.Russo had not mentioned in his application that he had been required to teach while serving as an elementary supervising principal.

On November 14, 1970, the civil service...