Court Opinion

ID: 9635701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:00:53.066552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:19:30.419895
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(concurring).
A provision of the collective bargaining agreement between the Philadelphia Board of Education and its teachers permits an “unsatisfactory” rating of a professional employee to be the subject of a grievance and so arbitrable. In my view this provision is consonant with the scheme and intent of the Public Employe Relations Act, Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, No. 195, 43 P.S. § 1101.-101 et seq. (Supp.1975) [herein PERA] and, in the words of Section 703 of that Act, 43 P.S. § 1101.703, is neither “in violation of, or inconsistent with or in conflict with” the provisions of The Public School Code, Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30; as amended, 24 P.S. §§ 1-101 et seq. I therefore agree that the School Board was in error in resisting arbitration and that the court of common pleas correctly so decided and was warranted in granting equitable relief.
The Court, in reaching its conclusion to affirm the trial court, relies on its decision in what it terms “the closely related case” of Board of Education v. Philadel*86phia Federation of Teachers, 464 Pa. 92, 346 A.2d 35 (1975). That case in turn relied on the interpretation of Section 703 of the Act contained in the Court’s opinion in Penna. Labor Relations Board v. State College Area School District, 461 Pa. 494, 337 A.2d 262 (1975). In the former case I dissented and in the latter disagreed with the portion of the opinion now relied upon. I continue of the views I expressed in those cases,1 and feel equally strongly that in today’s opinion the Court continues its unwarranted distortion of the plain language of Section 703 when it repeats that that section prohibits a delegation by a school board (or, presumably, any other public employer) of “a particular function to the arbitrator only if the General Assembly has mandated that the function shall be discharged by the board alone” (my emphasis) ,2 Opinion of the Court, ante at 561.
The present case, in my view, bears only a superficial similarity to Board of Education v. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, supra. The holding there was that PERA (Act 195) permitted a school board to agree to arbitrate the propriety of discharging a non-tenured teacher — thus sanctioning, as I believe, an impermissible surrender of a board prerogative under the School Code. See Sections 508, 1108 and 1122, of the School Code, Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, art. 5, § 508 as amended, and art. 11 §§ 1108 & 1122, as amended, 24 P.S. §§ 5-508 (Supp.1975), 11-1108 (Supp.1975), 11-1122. Moreover, the agreement in that case, which stipulated that *87the discharge of a non-tenured teacher should be only for “just cause”, left the arbitrators free to adopt a standard for the discharge of teachers which differed from the carefully enumerated grounds of the School Code, i. e., incompetency, immorality, intemperance, cruelty, persistent and wilful violations of the school laws. Section 1122 of the School Code, supra.
In the case at bar, the collective bargaining agreement provides that the rating of a teacher as “unsatisfactory” is a proper subject of grievance and so of arbitration. Unlike a decision as to whether a teacher, tenured or otherwise, shall be discharged — matter clearly entrusted by the School Code to the school board — rating a teacher’s performance is an administrative function. It is governed by standards and regulations set by the Department of Public Instruction, and is done by or under the supervision of the superintendent of schools or by such other administrator as supervises the work of the teacher being rated; no unsatisfactory rating is valid unless approved by the district superintendent. Sec. 1123 of the School Code, 24 P.S. § 11-1123 (Supp.1975).3
Under the agreement now before us a teacher’s rating, if unsatisfactory, is reviewable in arbitration, but only to test whether it is warped by specified vices, viz., “capriciousness, arbitrariness, unfairness, prejudice, failure to conform with prevailing practices for rating or absence of factual support for such rating.” (Collective bargain*88ing agreement, Article B-V, Section 2F(ii), R. 6a). Thus the effect of the arbitration provision is to interject, in a case where a grievance is asserted, an additional step into the rating procedure — a further scrutiny, in addition to that of the district superintendent under the School Code, to ensure the procedural fairness of a recorded black mark against the competency of a teacher. The authority of the school board to make the ultimate decision whether or not to suspend or discharge a teacher is not abridged. I agree with the Court that the agreement in question “neither modifies nor creates an alternative to [the Code’s] dismissal procedure; nor does it provide for a review of the dismissal of a tenured teacher. . . . All the parties have done is to afford the teacher a further procedural protection . . ..” Opinion of the Court, ante at 562. As I observed in the outset, I cannot see that this rather limited additional review of an administrative function is “in violation of, or inconsistent with, or in conflict with”, see § 703 of PERA, the scheme of the School Code governing the rating of professional employees. It is clear that under the Code not only the rating system but the rating process is to be fair; the arbitration to which the parties have agreed is designed to make doubly sure that unfairness does not creep into the handling of a particular case. Section 703 of PERA is not a bar to this design.

. See 464 Pa. 92, 108, 346 A.2d 35, 45 (1975) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting) and 461 Pa. 494, 513, 337 A.2d 262, 271 n. 1 (1975) (Pomeroy, J., concurring).

. The actual provision of § 703 is as follows: “The parties to the collective bargaining process shall not effect or implement a provision in a collective bargaining agreement if the implementation of that provision would be in violation of, or inconsistent with, or in conflict with any statute or statutes enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or the provisions of municipal home rule charters.” Act of July 23, 1970, P. L. 563, No. 195, art. VII, § 703, 43 P.S. § 1101.703 (Supp.1975).

. One purpose of rating is to aid in the determination as to whether a professional employee shall be dismissed for incompetency. Section 1123 of the Code, 24 P.S. § 11-1123 (Supp.1975), supra. Another purpose of rating is to provide an order for suspensions in connection with decreases in size of the staff of professional employees. Section 1125(a) of the Code, 24 P.S. § 11— 1125. Under the latter section it is the duty of boards Of school directors to establish a permanent record system containing ratings of each professional employee. A copy Of any unsatisfactory rating is required to be sent to the professional employee concerned. No such employee may be dismissed unless such rating records have been kept on file by the board of school directors. Ibid.