Lentz v. Commonwealth

510 A.2d 922, 98 Pa. Commw. 167, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2275
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 13, 1986
DocketNo. 2902 C.D. 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 510 A.2d 922 (Lentz v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lentz v. Commonwealth, 510 A.2d 922, 98 Pa. Commw. 167, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2275 (Pa. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Craig,

The question in this case is whether employees of the state Department of Education who provide teaching services to inmates of the state’s correctional institutions are in positions governed by the state Civil Service Act,1 or instead are in jobs regulated by the Public School Code by virtue of a provision in that Code2 which embraces every teacher “of a class organized and supervised by the Department of [Education] in an institution wholly or partly supported by the Commonwealth. . . .”

[169]*169This action, brought by George Lentz and the Correctional Instructional Vocational Education Association (union), as bargaining representative, on behalf of the departments employees who teach in correctional institutions, is addressed to this courts original jurisdiction and to our appellate jurisdiction as well. The original jurisdiction count, an action for declaratory judgment, and the appellate count, seeking to review the State Civil Service Commissions determination that the employees are within the state civil service, are consolidated for decision.

Because this case centrally involves statutory construction, we first set forth the salient provisions of the two statutes involved. As a basis for claiming that the Civil Service Act excludes these teachers from state civil service, the union cites section 3(d)(7) of that Act, 71 P.S. §741.3(d)(7), which provides that the “Classified service” within the state civil service system includes all Department of Education positions with the exception of positions expressly excluded. That subsection states:

(d) ‘Classified service’ includes:
(7) All positions now existing or hereafter created in the Department of Education, including positions in the Vocational Education Management Information Systems and excluding the presidents, faculty members and student employes of the State colleges, the heads and faculty members of the department’s other educational institutions and excluding also county superintendents, assistant county superintendents and supervisors of special education. . . . (Emphasis added.)

Alongside that provision, the union also cites section 1926 of the Public School Code, 24 P.S. §19-1926, which reads:

[170]*170It shall be within the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Instruction to organize and to supervise schools and classes according to the regulations and standards established for the conduct of schools and classes of the public school system in the Commonwealth in all institutions wholly or partly supported by the Commonwealth which are not supervised by public school authorities. Schools and classes so established in wholly State-owned institutions shall be financed by the department of the State government having jurisdiction and control of such institutions. Except as otherwise provided by law, a teacher in a school or of a class organized and supervised by the Department of [Education] in an institution wholly or partly supported by the Commonwealth, teachers in the Pennsylvania State Oral School for the Deaf, teachers in the Thaddeus Stevens Trade School and teachers in the Scotland School for Veterans’ Children shall enjoy the same privileges, including tenure rights, and be subject to the same laws as a teacher in the public schools of the Commonwealth. (Emphasis added.)

By stipulation, the parties have established the undisputed fectual background pertinent here. In the ten adult state correctional institutions in Pennsylvania under the control of the Department of Corrections, the Department of Education since 1974 has had the responsibility for making educational services available to a total community of 14,000 inmates, all of whom are eligible for educational services regardless of age. Inmates below the age of twenty-one constitute seven to nine percent of the total.

The petitioner union’s collective bargaining agreement governs the tenure and benefits of 250 Adult [171]*171Corrections Education Specialists, of whom 100 are full-time and 150 are part-time. They provide general education development (GED) programs, adult basic education, vocational instruction and some post-secondary education, serving as teachers, librarians, counselors and job placement specialists.

The Department of Education prefers but does not require that they have teaching certificates; difficulty in attracting teachers with certificates has centered upon the vocational trade instructors. For certification, the Department of Education recognizes the service of provisionally certified teachers to the extent that such service involves the teaching of inmates below the age of twenty-one and meets other criteria.

Since July of 1978, the Department of Education has subjected these teachers to performance evaluations in ratings under the same systems which apply to employees in classified civil service.

Since July of 1974, these teachers have not provided the educational programs in the state juvenile confinement facilities, for which the Department of Education contracts with local school districts and intermediate units to provide educational programs, as this court noted in Allegheny Intermediate Unit v. Jarvis, 48 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 636, 410 A.2d 389 (1980).

With reference to these facts, the unions central contention is that the two statutory provisions quoted above should be treated as being in pari materia, 1 Pa. C. S. §1932, by reading the Public School Code as covering these teachers because each of them serves in “a class organized and supervised by the Department of [Education] in an institution wholly of partly supported by the Commonwealth . . . ,” and concomitantly by reading the Civil Service Act to exclude these teachers from its coverage as “faculty members of the departments other educational institutions. . . .”

[172]*172The Commonwealth, on the other hand, argues that the Public School Code provision is expressly subject to what is “otherwise provided by law.” Thus, the Commonwealth contends, even though each of these teachers literally functions within “a class organized and supervised by the Department of [Education] ... in an institution wholly or partly supported by the Commonwealth,” the Civil Service Act does provide otherwise, by placing all positions of that department under state civil service, with the sole pertinent exception being those teachers who are faculty members in other educational institutions of that department, the Department of Education—not these teachers who are “faculty members” only in institutions of the Department of Corrections.

As the applicable principle of interpretation, the Commonwealth relies upon 1 Pa. C. S. §1933, which provides that, whenever general statutory provisions and special statutory provisions are in conflict, the special ór more narrow provision prevails. According to the Commonwealth, the Public School Code provision, with its except-as-otherwise-provided phrase and its applicability to all teachers, constitutes the general provision, while the Civil Service Act subsection, pertaining only to Department of Education employees, is the narrower special provision and therefore. the one which prevails.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pennsylvania School Boards Ass'n v. Zogby
802 A.2d 6 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
PA SCHOOL BOARDS ASS'N, INC. v. Zogby
802 A.2d 6 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Gilliam v. Thomas, No. Cv95 032 46 86 (Nov. 20, 1997)
1997 Conn. Super. Ct. 11402 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
510 A.2d 922, 98 Pa. Commw. 167, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lentz-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1986.