Opinion
No. 82-1392
Decided August 31, 1983.
Schools — Schoolteachers — Local salary schedule — Full credit for up to five years' actual teaching and military experience must be given, when — R.C. 3317.13 and 3317.14 in pari materia.
O.Jur 2d Schools § 135.
When a board of education adopts a local salary schedule pursuant to R.C. 3317.14, full credit must be given on that local salary schedule for up to five years of actual teaching and military experience as defined in R.C. 3317.13(A).
CERTIFIED by the Court of Appeals for Medina County.
The appellee, Marilyn Rauhaus, was employed by the appellant, Buckeye Local School District Board of Education, as a teacher for the 1980-1981 school year under a one-year limited contract at a salary of $12,420. At that time, the appellee had a bachelor's degree and five years' previous teaching experience.
The salary that she received exceeded the minimum set forth in R.C. 3317.13 for a teacher with her training and experience which, at the time, was $12,019, but the appellant's salary schedule provided a salary of $13,800 for a teacher with appellee's training and experience. The salary given appellee was the salary shown on the appellant's schedule for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and only two years of teaching experience.
As a result, the appellee commenced an action in the court of common pleas in which she alleged that on appellant's salary scale she was given credit for only two years of her prior teaching experience. She demanded judgment for the difference between the salary as determined at the time she was hired and the salary as provided on appellant's salary schedule for her training and experience.
The appellant moved for summary judgment on the basis that appellant fully complied with the law in paying a salary which exceeded the state mandated minimum for a teacher with appellee's education and experience. The appellee filed a cross-motion for summary judgment in which she alleged that she was entitled to credit for all of her prior teaching experience, based on the salary schedule which had been adopted by the appellant. The trial court found for the appellee and ordered payment of the differential between the salary as determined at the time of hiring and the salary as set forth on appellant's schedule for a teacher with appellee's education and experience.
The court of appeals affirmed and, finding its decision to be in conflict with that of the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County in English v. Bd. of Edn. (March 10, 1980), No. 2758, unreported, certified the record of the case to this court for review and final determination.
Green, Schiavoni, Murphy, Haines Sgambati Co., L.P.A., and Mr. Ronald G. Macala, for appellee.
Mr. Gregory W. Happ, prosecuting attorney, and Ms. Mary Ann Kovach, for appellant.
Martin, Eichenberger Baxter Co., L.P.A., and Mr. Stephen D. Martin, urging affirmance for amicus curiae, Ohio Education Assn.
The question before us is whether the appellant, having adopted a salary schedule, complied with the law of Ohio by paying a salary for the 1980-1981 school year which exceeded the minimum salary set forth in R.C. 3317.13 for a teacher with the appellee's years of service and training.
R.C. 3317.13 provides in pertinent part as follows:
"(B) No teacher employed by any board of education shall be paid a salary less than that provided in the schedule set forth in division (C) of this section. In calculating the minimum salary any teacher shall be paid pursuant to this section, years of service shall include the sum of all years of the teacher's teaching service included in divisions (A)(1), (2), (3), and (4) of this section; except that any school district employing a teacher new to the district shall grant such teacher a total of not more than ten years of service pursuant to divisions (A)(2), (3), and (4) of this section.
"* * *
"Each teacher employed by a board of education in a school district shall be fully credited with placement in the appropriate academic training level column in the salary schedule of the district with years of service properly credited pursuant to this section or section 3317.14 of the Revised Code. No rule shall be adopted or exercised by any board of education which restricts the placement or the crediting of annual salary increments for any teacher according to the appropriate academic training level column." (Emphasis added.)
R.C. 3317.14 provides in part that:
"Any board of education participating in funds distributed under Chapter 3317. of the Revised Code shall annually adopt a teachers' salary schedule with provision for increments based upon training and years of service. Notwithstanding section 3317.13 of the Revised Code, the board may establish its own service requirements provided no teacher receives less than the amount required to be paid pursuant to section 3317.13 of the Revised Code and provided full credit for a minimum of five years of actual teaching and military experience as defined in division (A) of section 3317.13 of the Revised Code is given to each teacher." (Emphasis added.)
The appellant did not contest the appellee's claim of five years' teaching experience. Therefore, the number of years of experience is not an issue. What is at issue is whether appellant was obligated to pay appellee only the minimum salary mandated by R.C. 3317.13, or whether appellant must pay appellee the salary shown on appellant's schedule for a teacher with appellee's training and experience.
Appellee relies on Bernardini v. Bd. of Edn. (1979), 58 Ohio St.2d 1 [12 O.O.3d 1], in support of the proposition that she must be given credit on appellant's salary schedule for her five years' prior teaching experience. However, appellant contends that Bernardini is not applicable since the syllabus of that case stands only for the principle that for purposes of R.C. 3317.13, credit for up to five years of prior military service must be given regardless of whether the service was prior to graduation and certification as a teacher.
We recognize the principle that "[t]he syllabus of a decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio states the law of Ohio," Williamson Co v. Radich (1934), 128 Ohio St. 124, paragraph one of the syllabus, and that "such pronouncement must be interpreted with reference to the facts upon which it is predicated and the questions presented to and considered by the Court." Williamson, supra.
In Bernardini, supra, at pages 8 and 9, after determining that the appellee-teacher, Bernardini, was entitled to credit for up to five years of military service, Chief Justice Celebrezze went on to say that "pursuant to the provisions of R.C. 3317.14, the appellee would be entitled to the military service credit even though the salary schedules of the appellant might exceed the statutory minimums provided for in R.C. 3317.13."
The record in Bernardini indicates that the salary schedule adopted by the board of education, as in effect at the time Bernardini was first hired by the board, exceeded the state mandated minimum schedule set forth in R.C. 3317.13. 1208 Ohio Supreme Court Briefs and Reports 3rd Series, case No. 78-619. On that basis, although the dicta of the opinion is not controlling, it is persuasive and fortifies our position that R.C. 3317.13 and 3317.14 must be read in pari materia. Such a reading causes us to conclude that although no teacher can be paid less than the minimum salary provided in R.C. 3317.13 for his or her training and experience, when a board of education adopts a local salary schedule pursuant to R.C. 3317.14, full credit must be given on that local salary schedule for up to five years of actual teaching and military experience as defined in R.C. 3317.13 (A).
Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
CELEBREZZE, C.J., W. BROWN, SWEENEY, LOCHER, HOLMES and O'NEILL, JJ., concur.
O'NEILL, J., of the Seventh Appellate District, sitting for C. Brown, J.
HENDRICKSON, J., of the Twelfth Appellate District, sitting for J.P. CELEBREZZE, J.