Antel v. McDonald School District

71 Pa. D. & C. 216, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 237
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Washington County
DecidedAugust 22, 1949
Docketno. 295
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 71 Pa. D. & C. 216 (Antel v. McDonald School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Washington County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Antel v. McDonald School District, 71 Pa. D. & C. 216, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 237 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

Carson, J.,

Plaintiff in an action in assumpsit seeks to recover from defendant school district $2,150 salary alleged to be due him for the school year 1947-48, notwithstanding the fact that he did not teach for defendant that year.

At the close of plaintiff’s testimony, defendant moved for a compulsory nonsuit which was granted. Plaintiff filed a motion to lift the compulsory nonsuit, which motion is the subject of the instant argument.

Defendant is a school district of the fourth class conducting a small high school with only one shop teacher. The course in general shop was taught prior to the war, but in 1942 the shop teacher left for other employment. It was impossible then to secure a professional employe with the proper qualifications. This condition was general, hence acts of assembly were passed, and rulings were made by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction authorizing the lowering of the qualifications of teachers during the war in order to secure teachers. Plaintiff, a former teacher without the required professional certificate, was then operating a farm in the neighborhood and was solicited to assist with the teaching in the emergency. He has made a real effort to improve his educational qualifications and did acquire certificates to teach additional subjects. Unfortunately he was not able to secure the required credits to become an accredited professional employe.

Plaintiff was employed by defendant for the school year 1946-47 and not having tendered a written resignation and having been notified that his services were [218]*218no longer required, claims that he was automatically reémployed for the school year 1947-48, under the provisions of the Teachers’ Tenure Act of April 6, 1937, P. L. 213.

Plaintiff was originally employed by defendant at the beginning of the school year 1942-43, as a substitute teacher and such service as he furnished thereafter was rendered in pursuance of the original hiring. Through inadvertence on the part of the school district officials a formal teacher’s contract was tendered to and executed by plaintiff for the year 1946-47. The mere signing of such contract did not alter plaintiff’s status as a “substitute” teacher. He had only a temporary certificate as a teacher of general shop work, which certificate was recognized only until the expiration of the war emergency or until a duly qualified teacher of such subject was secured.

Plaintiff was hired at the beginning of the school year 1942-43 without a signed written contract, with the approval of the Washington County Superintendent of Schools, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of the professional employe regularly filling-such position. Plaintiff was not then and has not since become a permanently certified teacher of general shop work. The officers of the school district did encourage plaintiff to try to qualify himself to secure the necessary permanent certificate to entitle him to remain as a “professional” employe under the School Code, but plaintiff has been unable to secure such certificate and therefore never qualified to execute the contract so inadvertently signed. Plaintiff had a permanent teacher’s certificate limited to teaching-graded school and carpentry work. Plaintiff has since acquired additional certificates to teach in limited fields of electricity, wood and sheet metal work, but has not secured the necessary certificate to secure the approval of the Washington County Superintendent of [219]*219Schools and of the Pennsylvania Superintendent of Public Instruction, to certify as a fully qualified teacher of general shop work.

Plaintiff was continued as a substitute teacher during the years 1943-44,1944-45, and 1945-46. Such employment together with the increases in salary were authorized and approved by the Washington County Superintendent of Schools and the Pennsylvania Superintendent of Public Instruction. At the end of the school year 1946-47 defendant school district was finally able to secure and employ a fully certified and accredited teacher of general shop. At the close of the 1946-47 school year, plaintiff’s duties as a substitute teacher were terminated as provided by law. Plaintiff could not have lawfully entered into a binding contract within the meaning of the school code of Pennsylvania to teach general shop for the reason that he was not qualified, certified, or accredited as such teacher.

The legislature classifies the teaching profession into “professional employes,” “temporary professional employes”, and “substitute” employes. The effort to improve the standards of the teaching profession has brought frequent amendments to the School Code of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309. The employment of teachers is regulated by section 1201 of the School Code of May 18, P. L. 309, 24 PS §1121. The amendments of 1937,1941,1943,1945, and 1947 reflect the considered judgment of the school authorities of Pennsylvania and of the legislature. The raising of the educational qualifications of the teaching profession has been strenuously opposed by some of the teachers lacking such qualifications. The numerous cases instituted in the courts and carried to the appellate courts evidence this struggle.

The absence of many of the qualified teachers while engaged in military service or employed in war industries, so depleted the supply of available professional [220]*220employes, that the legislature in order to secure the best possible teachers available, authorized the directors of the school districts with the approval of the county superintendent and of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to employ substitutes to fill bona fide vacancies until accepted qualified teachers could be obtained. Such emergency teachers were classified as “temporary professional employes” or “substitute” teachers. A “temporary professional employe” is defined as “any individual who has been employed to perform, for a limited time, the duties of a newly created position or of a regular professional employe whose services have been terminated by death, resignation, suspension or removal.” Plaintiff is now attempting to raise his original employment from “substitute” to “temporary professional employe”. If plaintiff had been a “temporary professional employe” he would have had to comply with the code, sec. 1201, in an endeavor to secure classification as “professional employe”. Plaintiff’s attempt to classify himself as a “temporary professional employe” and now entitled to status of “professional employe” has failed, because he has not been able to obtain the necessary credits and certificate. Neither the schools which he has attended, nor the county superintendent, nor any other official is authorized to issue certificates to plaintiff to entitle him to the professional certification because he has not acquired the necessary qualifications.

The legislature and school officials, foreseeing the termination of the war would return many qualified teachers to their profession and also would release many who were engaged in war work from such temporary employment, fixed a time limit during which the school districts might employ those without “professional employe” qualifications, and this time limit expired on June 30, 1949. This limitation of time [221]*221and the definition of the word “substitute” is of statutory origin:

Section 1201, 24 PS §1121:

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Related

George v. Department of Education
325 A.2d 819 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 Pa. D. & C. 216, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/antel-v-mcdonald-school-district-pactcomplwashin-1949.