Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06
SALARY IN TWELFTHS
Controllers Decision in Regard
to School Officers.
TEACHERS PAY IN TENTHS
Former Will Lose and Latter Will Not
by the Ruling.
DISPUTED CASES ARE HELD UP
Judge Tracewel Discourses at Length
on Much-Mooted Problem-Lays
Down the Law.
'1spUTED CASES ARE HELD UP

= II. y IraceWeli, controller OF the treasury,
today rendered the much-looked-for de-
cision to the District Commissioners on the
payment II the salaries of school teachers
and officers of the District schools. He
holds that teachers should be paid in ten
installments and school officers who per-
form service ali the year round in twelve
installments.
The controller does not touch some of
the questions submitted to him, and will
probably take them up later. 49,
The decision Is as follows:
Il am in receipt of your reference dated
October 4, 1905, wherein you request q de-
cision. among other questions therein sub
mitted by you, as to whether the teachers
and officers Of the District schools shall be
paid the salaries appropriated by law for
their respective places for the present fiscal
year in installments of tenths or twelfths,
the names of such officers and teachers ap-
pearing upon the payrolls of the schools of
the District of Columbia for the month Of
September, each of whom was legally ap-
pointed such officer or teacher by the
present board of education, some of whom,
however, i'll each class not having been &C
tually appuinte6 by the board of education
until after the LIST day Of July last, but the
appointments to which purport to relate
back to and be effective from July / last.
LAS to this latter class you ask on what
dates should their salaries commence.
LAS the above questions affect the prompt
payment of more than thousand teachers
and officers, l will dispose of them in this
decision, leaving for future consideration
and determination the remaining questions
of your submission, as they involve the
salaries of but a limited number of officers
and teachers
when the present board Of education, on
the 9th day of July last, organized under
the act of June 80 GA s. Ii, 314). which
provided for its existence. 1t found the
following regulation of the old board OF
education:
1.-The salaries Of all teachers duly elect
ed, whose service commences with the
school year, and who shall perform their
duties. shall begin on the first day of Sep
TENDER and shall be paid in ten monthly
installments. the first to be made on the
first of October or as near that date as
practicable. The salaries of other teachers
shall begin when they enter upon their
duties. The pay Of a school day shall be
the thirtieth part of a tenth part Of the
annual salary Of q teacher
THE present board adopted and made
this regulation its regulation.
Powers of Board.
1.-The board Of education, among its other
powers granted by the act supra, is au-
thorized to determine all questions of gen.
eral policy relating to the schools
and direct expenditures This regulation
Is one fixing the method of expanding the
appropriations for teachers salaries. Is it
ultra wires? Teachers in the public schools
of the District of Columbia have been paid
according to it's provisions continuously,
under laws appropriating for their salaries
not substantially different from the present
law since the year 1870. This construction
by the administrative officers, whose duty
it has been to pay the salaries of teachers,
unless clearly contrary to law, should not
be overturned, but, on the contrary, up
held.
Il held in II Con. Dec, 2s7, under date
of December 10, 1904 that Notwithstanding
the provisions of the act Of April IS, 1904,
which provides:
That the annual compensation of Of
ficers, agents and employees of the United
States for services rendered subsequent to
June 30, 1904, shall be divided into twelve
equal installments one of which shall be
the pay for each calendar month -
such latter statute was not applica BILE to
the expenditures of the appropriation for
teachers in the District schools, and that
the practice of making the school year
one of ten months instead of full fiscal
year for the purpose of paying teachers
their salaries was not in violation Of law
or of that act, the reason given being that
such teachers are neither officers, agents
or employees of the United States
1T is provided by section Of the act of
Congress approved June 20, 1906 (34 s. L.,
1888:
Hereafter, where the compensation of
any person in the service of the United
States is annual or monthly, the following
rules for the division of time and computa-
ton Of pay for services rendered are here
by established. Annual compensation shall
one of which shall be the pay for each
calendar month: and in making payments
for fractional part Of a month e-thir-
tieth Of one of sucE instruments or Of q
n y cot cho11
rate Of pay. X
In Tenn Installments.
''Fhe regulation supra, providing for the
payment Of salaries Of teachers in ten
instalments is not repugnant to this lat
ter act, for the reason that the act is con-
fined to salaries of persons in the service
Of the United States.
THE officers and teachers Of the District
schools are not persons in the service Of
the United States.
THE Attorney General. in % A. G., 80,
makes the above proposition too plain for
extended argument. The question before
him was whether the civil service act ap-
proved January 10, 1888. known as the
Pendleton act. which is applicable to off,
GERS and employees of the United States.
was applicable to clerks and other en-
ployes of the District Of Columbia He
held that such act was not applicable
Among other things in the opinion, he said:
IheSe citations ana decisions make it
very clear that the officers and employees
of the District of Columbia are not officers
and employees of the general governm emit Ct
the United States but of the munich } al cor
poration known the District of C,uu;-
bia. They receive their compensation
from the moneys of the District, half of
which are contributed through the appro-
priation by Congress and half by taxation
upon property Of the inhabitants of the
District. They are as distinct from the
civil service Of the United States as would
be the officers of any city government in
one of the states of the Union from the
civil service of the state itself. I therefore
advise you that the provisions of the civil
service act cannot legally be applied to
the officers and employees of the District Of
Columbia.
This regulation, in so far as l am ad-
vised. is not in conflict with any other law
with which am familiar. 1t certainly is
not derogatory to public policy, and works
no perceivable injury to the teachers, but
had its inception in, and no doubt was
based upon the fact that all the real serv-
ices rendered by the teachers are rendered
during the active school year, namely, from
September 1 to June 80 Of a given year.
IF teachers were said in twelve INSTALL
ments. instead of ten. commencing with
July 1, 1t might and would OFTEN happen
that teacher resigninG on the first day OF
September of given year would have
ceiyed two inStaAmentS of say a 81 900