Sayre v. Board of Trustees

Opinion

GARGANO, J.

Appellant, Donald B. Sayre, appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court of Fresno County, denying his application for a writ of mandate to compel respondent, the Board of Trustees of the Coalinga College District, to reclassify appellant on the salary schedule as of the 1964-1965 school year, and to pay him the additional compensation he claims he would have received if he had been properly classified at that time, The sole question presented in the appeal is whether the rule adopted by respondent board in 1964, giving school teachers employed for the 1964-1965 school year greater credit and higher placement on the salary schedule than given to school teachers employed before that school year, is arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Education Code section 13506. This section provides in part: “Uniform allowance may be made in any schedule of salaries for years of training and for years of service.

“In no case shall the governing board of a school district draw orders for the salary of any teacher in violation of this section, nor shall any superintendent draw any requisition for the salary of any teacher in violation thereof.” (§ 13506 has been amended, effective July 1, 1970.)

The facts are not in dispute. Appellant was employed by the Coalinga College District for the 1963-1964 school year. Appellant had 12 years of prior teaching experience, and he was given five year’s credit for this experience and placed on the sixth step of the district’s salary schedule; at that time five years was the maximum credit allowed for prior teaching experience; along with other teachers, appellant has advanced one step each year. In 1964 the district board, to facilitate the recruitment of experienced teachers, changed the rule and increased the maximum credit allowed for prior teaching experience from five to nine years. The change did not affect teachers employed prior to the 1964-1965 school year; if the rule change had applied to teachers already employed by the district, during the 1964-1965 school year appellant would have been placed at the tenth step of the salary schedule instead of the seventh step.

On first impression, one would be inclined to agree with appellant’s contention that he is entitled to a reversal of the judgment and an order

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