Mayer

I respectfully dissent. The majority’s decision rests on a strained reading of two footnotes in Palos Verdes Faculty Assn. v. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified Sch. Dist. 21 Cal.3d 650 [ 147 Cal.Rptr. 359 , 580 P.2d 1155 ], and a misplaced reliance on decisions which were legislatively jettisoned by the 1969 amendment to former Education Code section 13506 (now § 45028).

The pre-1969 version of section 13506 was interpreted in Fry v. Board of Education (1941) 17 Cal. 2d 753 [ 112 P.2d 229 ], as requiring school boards to observe “within reasonable limits” the principle of uniformity of salaries for teachers performing like services with like experience but not to preclude boards from making “reasonable classifications.” (Id., at pp. 757-758.) Shortly after Fry , the Supreme Court in Kacsur v. Board of Trustees (1941) 18 Cal.2d 586 [ 116 P.2d 593 ], explained that the phrase “within reasonable limits” was used in Fry “so that a school board would still retain some discretion as to the fixing of salaries even as to teachers performing like services with like experience.” (Id., at pp. 594-595.) The Fry-Kacsur progeny upheld a number of “reasonable” variations from the uniformity…

I fully concur in the majority opinion. I add, however, that I find nothing in the statute or the cases or the requirement for *498 uniform treatment that requires a district to treat as a year of “experience” a year of unsatisfactory experience. Salary increases are based on experience because it is presumed that the ability to teach effectively increases with experience. However, a year of unsatisfactory experience need not be presumed to increase teaching ability or effectiveness. Unsatisfactory teaching no matter how long continued will not increase teaching ability or effectiveness.

It also seems to me that the construction of the statute so as to deny the governing boards of districts the right to make rational distinctions would raise questions as to the validity of the statute.

McDANIEL, J.

In this case we are called upon to decide the narrow and singular question of whether action taken to implement a particular school teachers' professional competence, pay-incentive provision in a collective bargaining agreement entered into between the trustees of the Los Alamitos School District, respondent below, and the Los Alamitos Education Association, the collective bargaining exclusive representative (Gov. Code, § 3540.1, subd. (e)) for the teachers of the district, violates present section 45028 of the Education Code, after its amendment as former section 13506 in 1969, and thus whether, because of such asserted violation, the district can be mandated to cease enforcing the challenged provisions of the agreement so implemented. [1]

In pertinent part, section 45028 provides that "each person employed by a district in a position requiring certification qualifications [i.e., a teacher] ... shall be classified on the salary schedule on the basis of uniform allowance for years of training and years of experience." Petitioners below and respondents here are teachers employed by the school district.

After March 7, 1977, and during the principal periods…

In this case we are called upon to decide the narrow and singular question of whether action taken to implement a particular school teachers’ professional competence, pay-incentive provision in a collective bargaining agreement entered into between the trustees of the Los Alamitos School District, respondent below, and the Los Alamitos Education Association, the collective bargaining exclusive representative (Gov. Code, § 3540.1, subd. (e)) for the teachers of the district, violates present section 45028 of the Education Code, after its amendment as former section 13506 in 1969, and thus whether, because of such asserted violation, the district can be mandated to cease enforcing the challenged provisions of the agreement so implemented.

In pertinent part, section 45028 provides that “each person employed by a district in a position requiring certification qualifications [i.e., a teacher]... shall be classified on the salary schedule on the basis of uniform allowance for years of training and years of experience.” Petitioners below and respondents here are teachers employed by the school district.

After March 7, 1977, and during the principal periods of employment here…