186 Ga. 602 | Ga. | 1938
The civil-service act in question (Ga. L. 1937, p. 879) is as follows: “An act to provide for civil service for teachers and employees of the public-school systems of all counties in the State of Georgia having a population in excess of 200,000; to provide for establishment of rules and regulations for the employment and discharge of such teachers and employees; and for other purposes.
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same:
"Section 1. In all counties of this State which have a population in excess of 200,000 under the last or any future census of the United States, all teachers and other employees employed by the board of education of such counties shall serve during good behavior and efficient service, under such rules and regulations as may be established by the board of education.
" Section 2. All teachers, supervisors, and principals, as well as other employees of such county public-school systems who are in the employ of such county boards of education at the time this act becomes effective, and who shall have been so employed for a*608 total period of as long as three years, . . shall be automatically reappointed . . and no person shall be discharged from such position or refused reappointment except for disability, inefficiency, insubordination, or moral turpitude; Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall require the board of education of any such county to continue any person in the same position or capacity, but, subject to the other provisions hereof, it shall require only that each teacher, supervisor, or principal shall be reappointed to one of such positions; Provided, however, that no such employee shall be transferred from one such position to another against his wishes, except to promote the efficiency of the county-school system.
“Section 3. The boards of education of such counties shall adopt such rules and regulations for the persons who are under this act placed under civil service, . . so that they shall serve during good behavior and efficient service, and so that they shall not be discharged without notice being given to them, charges preferred, and opportunity to be heard. No employee shall be discriminated against for the exercise of any constitutional right.
“ Section 4. The provisions of this act shall become effective . . on July 1, 1937.
'“Section 5. Any and all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.”
This is the -first legislation in this State regulatory of civil service as relates to teachers in public schools of counties, employed by county boards of education, though there are such statutes which refer to other kinds of employment in municipalities, as applied in City of Macon v. Bunch, 156 Ga. 27 (118 S. E. 769); Blount v. Parham, 184 Ga. 515 (191 S. E. 911); McAfee v. Board of Firemasters of Atlanta, 186 Ga. 262 (197 S. E. 802); Winn v. Adams, 185 Ga. 173 (194 S. E. 185) (referring to county police). In 11 C. J. 814, it is said of civil service: “In general it is confined to functions in the great administrative departments of State. In its enlarged sense the term means all service rendered to and paid for by the State or nation, or by political subdivisions thereof, other than that pertaining to naval or military affairs.” The counties are subdivisions of the State, and the boards of education are administrative bodies of the counties in which they exist; and consequently employment of teachers
It will be perceived that the quoted portion of section 2 of the act does not, as in some statutes of other States, create a so-called probative period after original appointment of a teacher, to test qualifications before becoming entitled to automatic reappointment or continued tenure of position; but the right to automatic reappointment, or continuance in tenure of position, is based on merit demonstrated by past service of the teacher, under employment of the board of education for the prescribed time. The act contemplates that a teacher who has for the prescribed time in the past demonstrated to the board of education his qualifications as set forth is competent, and should have the protection afforded by its provisions. This competency is the dominant thought indicating
If the civil-service act should be construed to exclude teachers who on July 1st had not signed contracts for the next ensuing scholastic year, the whole staff of teachers employed before passage of the act could be denied its advantage. Manifestly no such result was intended. The act as a whole should be construed as protecting teachers possessing the prescribed qualifications, and not as excluding teachers possessing them merely because in the interim between one school year and the next they had not signed a contract for the ensuing year when the act went into effect during such interim. In the instant case the board of education, with the civil-service act in mind, regarded Miss Long as a teacher, and re-elected her for the school year 1937-1938. She was notified of her election by letter of June 30, with the statement that a contract would follow. In these circumstances she was in the employment and employed as a teacher within the meaning of the civil-service act on July 1, the date the act went into effect. The contract fixing her salary for the school year, payable $150 monthly, was forwarded on July 30, which she signed and returned. This was all satisfactory to the board of education, except that she appended the note.that if certain provisions of the contract were violative of the civil-service act, it was not to be understood that she was assenting to them. That is substantially the cause of controversy. If any part of the contract was violative of the act, such part of course was unenforceable against Miss Long,
There is nothing in the civil-service act requiring the board of education to maintain salaries of teachers unchangeable in amount for future 'years. The prayer for mandamus sought to compel payment of salaries at $150 per month to petitioner so long as she should remain a teacher in the school. This would extend beyond the school year of 1937-1938, if she remained a teacher after that year. As to salary for such amount after such period she was not entitled to mandamus. In this respect the case differs from Oxman v. Independent School District, supra, which was quite similar on the main facts, except that was an action at common law for salary already accrued; not mandamus to compel payment of specified salary accrued and to accrue in future years.
Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part.