District 300 Education Ass'n v. Board of Education of Dundee Community Unit School District No. 300

334 N.E.2d 165, 31 Ill. App. 3d 550, 1975 Ill. App. LEXIS 2820
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided August 25, 1975·No. 74-159·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE RECHENMACHER

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from an order of the circuit court of Kane County dismissing a complaint for declaratory judgment and for injunctive relief, brought by a group of school teachers against the Dundee Community School District.

The defendants after mating detailed answers to the complaint, moved to strike certain paragraphs thereof, including paragraphs 13 to 21, inclusive, set out below, paragraph 9, hereafter referred to, and the paragraph justifying the cause as a class action. After considering the issues raised by the pleadings the trial court struck these paragraphs and then on motion of the defendants dismissed the complaint as not stating a cause of action. The court did not specifically rule on the propriety of the suit as a class action but stated in his memorandum opinion that the decision on the merits of the allegations as to unreasonable assignments disposed of the case on its merits, rendering the class action question moot. That issue is not raised in the plaintiffs’ brief and we do not consider it here.

The complaint comprises some 25 paragraphs in addition to the prayer for relief. However, the gravamen of the complaint is that the plaintiffs, while employed as teachers of specific academic subjects, were assigned various nonteaching duties requiring their presence for supervision of certain nonacademic school activities, such as football and basketball games, pep rallies and music programs, which took place on Saturdays or weekday evenings. These assignments were compensated at a rate of pay lower than their contract pay as teachers. The plaintiffs contend these assignments are in violation of the School Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 122) and they seek a declaration from the court so stating and injunctive relief requiring the school board to refrain from mating such assignments to teachers.

Paragraphs 13 through 21 of the complaint set forth the assignments complained of which are the basis of the suit and which may be summarized as follows:

13. An industrial arts teacher was assigned to ride a “Pep” bus on a Saturday.

14. A mathematics teacher was assigned to supervise an afternoon footbaD game on a Saturday and a footbaD game on a Friday evening (not consecutive).

15. An English teacher was assigned to “two supervisions as needed.”

16. A mathematics teacher was assigned to supervise wrestling matches on two different Saturdays.

17. A guidance counselor was assigned to supervise a “vocal” on a Friday evening and a “vocal program” on a Thursday evening.

18. A mathematics teacher was assigned to supervise a footbaD game and dance on a Friday evening.

19. A biology teacher was assigned to supervise a footbaD game on a Friday night and a basketball game on a Saturday night.

20. A social science teacher was assigned to supervise a footbaD game on a Friday night and a basketball game on a Friday night.

21. A biology teacher and a German teacher were assigned to supervise a basketball game on a Friday night.

The plaintiffs contend these assignments are in violation of the School Code. However, the only specific provision of that statute they invoke as to teacher assignments is a paragraph in section 24 — 2 (ID. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 122, par. 24 — 2) reading as follows:

“Hohdays. A teacher shall not be required to teach on Saturdays or legal school holidays, which are January 1, February 12, Good Friday, May 30, July 4, the first Monday in September, commonly called Labor Day, # * * and any day appointed by the President or Governor as a day of fast or thanksgiving.”

This section, it will be noted, refers only to teaching at such times and is not concerned with the supervisory or chaperoning duties set out in the plaintiffs’ complaint. The gist of the complaint is that such assignments as indicated above bear no reasonable relationship to the contractual duties imposed on the plaintiffs under their teaching contracts. The complaint also states the assignments complained of are “in conflict with the rules and regulations established by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that are set forth in ‘Exhibit A’.” However, Exhibit A is merely a copy of a memorandum of the Superintendent of Public Instruction authorizing school administrators to make use of noncertified personnel, commonly referred to as “Teacher Aides” when “under the immediate supervision of a teacher holding a valid certificate” or in two other instances, supervision of lunch rooms or as chaperones on a bus trip not connected with the academic program of the school. The only relevancy of this memorandum to the complaint seems to be in its reference to the possibility of using such teacher aides as chaperones on a bus for a trip of nonacademic nature. In other words, if the school authorities had wished to do so they could, if such person was available, have assigned a teacher aide to chaperone the bus trip which in one instance a regular teacher was assigned to ride. The choice, of course, was clearly with the School Board under the memorandum set forth as an exhibit and it was not-mandatory that they hire a teacher aide in any of the cases referred to.

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District 300 Education Ass'n v. Board of Education of Dundee Community Unit School District No. 300, 334 N.E.2d 165, 31 Ill. App. 3d 550, 1975 Ill. App. LEXIS 2820 (Ill. Ct. App. 1975).

334 N.E.2d 165 (District 300 Education Ass'n v. Board of Education of Dundee Community Unit School District No. 300) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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