Hatfield School District Appeal

70 Pa. D. & C. 352, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County
DecidedJuly 20, 1949
Docketno. 3
StatusPublished

This text of 70 Pa. D. & C. 352 (Hatfield School District Appeal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hatfield School District Appeal, 70 Pa. D. & C. 352, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

Corson, J.,

This is an appeal by school board members of Hatfield Joint Consolidated School during 1944-1945, from surcharge by the school district auditors.

In the school year 1944-45 those hereinafter referred to as appellants, Willard S. Detwiler, J. Roscoe Anders, Nelson S. Hartranft, Daniel K. Ziegler, George E. Moyer, George S. Kratz, Jr., Howard Nice, Emil Berger, Alexander McArthur (since deceased), and J. Andrew West (since deceased), served on either the Hatfield Township School Board or Hatfield Borough School Board which together formed the Hatfield Joint Consolidated School Board. Appellants conducted the affairs of the school, during the fiscal period in question, in such manner that the auditors deemed them subject to surcharge for two alleged derelictions of duty: (1) The overpayment of an individual appointed to replace a teacher who became ill and subsequently resigned; and (2), a deficiency in tuition billed to nonresident pupils.

The apparent tardiness of the auditors in filing a report which the legislature prescribed in the Act of April 13, 1943, P. L. 39, sec. 2, 24 PS §2271, to be accomplished within 30 days for the preceding year, is explained by the fact that protracted litigation arose over the necessity of school directors and officers sub[354]*354mitting the activity fund records to the auditors. The board members were ordered to submit the activity fund records for audit in Hatfield School District Auditors’ Petition, 63 Montg. 25 (1946), and in Hatfield Township School District Auditors’ Petition, 161 Pa. Superior Ct. 388 (1947). That the refusal to submit these records was not dilatory in nature and that their respective rights were unsettled is manifested by the fact there was such litigation and that the 1949 session of the legislature deemed it necessary to enact a law attempting to answer the questions that have arisen as to the control of activity fund records: Act of April 14, 1949, P. L. 466.

As to the first basis of surcharge, the facts are as follows: Miss Eileen Weaver had been employed to teach fourth grade in the district for the year 1944-45. Her salary was to be $1,800 for 180 teaching days, which amounts to $10 per teaching day. Shortly after the school year began Miss Weaver became ill. It was necessary for the principal, E. B. Laudenslager to procure substitutes. Several successive substitutes were obtained: Mrs. Weaver, Mrs. Clemmer, Mrs. Krupp, and Miss Betty Laudenslager. Substitutes Weaver, Clemmer, and Krupp were paid $6 per day for the days they taught, in accordance with the school board resolution of November 1, 1943, that substitute teachers be paid that amount. Apparently the regular teacher received the $4 balance of the original contracted $10 per teaching day.

Substitute Laudenslager, who was a daughter of the principal, received $10 per day for the eight days she substituted. Miss Laudenslager says that this was due to an agreement between the regular teacher, Miss Weaver, and herself, whereby Miss Weaver agreed to forego her $4. Appellants approved resulting check for $80 to Miss Laudenslager. At the meeting of appellants, on February 5,1945, Miss Weaver’s resignation [355]*355was accepted. Miss Laudenslager was appointed by them to serve as a substitute for the remainder of the year. Miss Laudenslager was paid at the rate of $10 per diem for the rest of the school year, although there was no specific authorization for such payment.

The surcharge imposed for overpayment of Miss Laudenslager from February 5th to the end of the school term cannot be sustained. Miss Laudenslager was not a “substitute” after February 5th, as that word was employed by the school board when they passed the resolution limiting pay of substitutes to $6 per day.

The legislature has distinguished between substitute and temporary professional employes, as used in the Teachers Tenure Act of April 6, 1937, P. L. 213, as amended, 24 PS §1121: Substitute . . . “any individual who has been-employed to perform the duties of a regular professional employe during such period of time as the said regular professional employe is absent on sabbatical leave or for other legal cause authorized and approved by the board of school directors or to perform the duties of a temporary professional employe who is absent, or who has been employed with the approval of the district or county superintendent and of the Superintendent of Public Instruction .- . . to fill a vacancy until an acceptable qualified teacher can be obtained”.

On the other hand a temporary professional employe is “. . . 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”.

While this definition does not absolutely control the action of the school board, it does indicate crystallized thinking on the matter of those who administer • the school system of the Commonwealth, the Department [356]*356of Public Instruction, and of the two lawmaking bodies. Betty Laudenslager would, in their contemplation, be clearly a temporary professional employe and not a substitute. She was employed for a limited time to perform the duties of a regular professional employe whose services were terminated by resignation.

Webster’s International Dictionary indicates the meaning of the word “substitute” is to take the place of another who is absent. That seems to be the common understanding of the word. Substitute is generally employed to label the person or thing which is used to serve in the place of the permanent person or thing that is absent or unavailable for the time being. That is the concept of substitute which appellants must have had in mind when they passed the $6 a day resolution of November 1943. Hence, when the regular teacher resigned and there was a new appointment, the appointee was not to take the place of another during her absence, but to fill a vacancy left by her resignation. After February 5th, Betty Laudenslager was not just taking the place of Miss Weaver during her absence.

The reason behind the resolution may well have been legislation with regard to the Commonwealth reimbursement to school districts of a certain percentage of teachers’ salaries. Reimbursement by the Commonwealth for the payment of teachers’ salaries shall not be made for substitutes, except where a professional employe has been granted leave of absence: Act of June 20, 1939, P. L. 482, sec. 1, 24 PS §1121.

Since the school district would not receive any reimbursement for substitute’s pay, it is natural that they would want to limit moneys paid to these substitutes. With the entire salary being paid out of local funds it is not improbable that an economy-minded school board would restrict the amount of salary to be paid. If this was behind the resolution of November [357]*3571943, application of the resolution would be without reason in this case, since Miss Laudenslager would be recognized by the Commonwealth as a temporary professional employe. The Act of June 20, 1939, supra, provides that the Commonwealth shall pay to the school district for each temporary professional employe the same share of salary provided by law in cases of professional employes. Furthermore, Miss Laudenslager might have been hired as a substitute by the principal, for he is empowered to obtain substitutes. However, her employment was considered by the school board. Employing teachers and filling of teacher vacancies is a matter for the board.

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Related

Hatfield Township School District Auditors' Petition
54 A.2d 883 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1947)
Hagan Lumber Co. v. Duryea School District
121 A. 107 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
70 Pa. D. & C. 352, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hatfield-school-district-appeal-pactcomplmontgo-1949.