Opinion
Argued May 1, 1978
May 30, 1978.
Schools — Dismissal of nonprofessional employe — Right to hearing — Budgetary considerations — Public School Code of 1949 Act 1949, March 10, P.L. 30 — Local Agency Law, Act 1968, December 2, P.L. 1133.
1. A nonprofessional school employe dismissed because budgetary considerations required the elimination of her position is not entitled to a hearing under either the Public School Code of 1949, Act 1949, March 10, P.L. 30, or the Local Agency Law, Act 1968, December 2, P.L. 1133. [516-17]
Argued May 1, 1978, before Judges MENCER, ROGERS and DiSALLE, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 578 C.D. 1977, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County in case of Dorothea Pefferman v. School District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, No. G.D. 76-03863.
Complaint in mandamus in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County seeking a hearing to challenge dismissal by employer. Judgment entered for defendant. SMITH, JR., J. Plaintiff appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Stanford A. Segal, with him Christopher Lepore, and Gatz, Cohen, Segal and Koerner, for appellant.
Persifor S. Oliver, Jr., Assistant Solicitor, with him Justin M. Johnson, Solicitor, for appellee.
Dorothea Pefferman has appealed from a judgment entered against her and in favor of the School District of Pittsburgh in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County after trial by a judge without a jury. Pefferman had sued the school district in mandamus seeking an order requiring the district to provide her with a hearing at which she could challenge the basis for her dismissal from employment.
Prior to her dismissal, Pefferman was a nonprofessional employee of the school district holding the position of Information Services Specialist. Immediately after her dismissal, she filed a formal request for a hearing which the school district denied. With several other school district employees who had been terminated or demoted at the same time without being provided a hearing, Pefferman filed a complaint in mandamus seeking an order requiring the school district to provide hearings for the complainants and to reinstate them with back pay. The school district filed an answer and a request for admissions which was answered somewhat equivocally by the plaintiffs. After the cases of the other plaintiffs were severed, Pefferman's suit proceeded to trial before a judge without a jury. At trial, counsel for Pefferman admitted that Pefferman was a nonprofessional employee and that she was terminated as the result of the school district's adoption of a budget which abolished her position. Counsel for Pefferman also stated that the only issue before the court was whether a nonprofessional employee dismissed because of economic reasons is entitled to a hearing. We agree that this was the only issue before the court and we agree with the trial judge that the issue was decided in Sergi v. School District of Pittsburgh, 28 Pa. Commw. 576, 368 A.2d 1359 (1977). For reasons fully discussed in that opinion, nonprofessional employees dismissed for budgetary reasons are not entitled to a hearing under either the Public School Code of 1949 or the Local Agency Law.
Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, as amended, 24 P. S. § 1-101 et seq.
Act of December 2, 1968, P.L. 1133, as amended, 53 P. S. § 11301 et seq. Nonprofessional employees dismissed for reasons of "incompetency, intemperance, neglect of duty, violation of any of the school laws of this Commonwealth, or other improper conduct" are entitled to a hearing under Section 514 of the School Code, 24 P. S. § 5-514.
Accordingly, we enter the following:
ORDER
AND NOW, this 30th day of May, 1978, it is ordered that the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County dated February 22, 1976 entering judgment against Dorothea Pefferman in favor of the School District of Pittsburgh be and the same is hereby affirmed.