California School Employees Ass'n v. New Haven Unified School District

In its August 19, 1975, regular meeting, the Governing Board of New Haven Unified School District (hereafter District) adopted a 1975-1976 school calendar which included two “board holidays”: January 15, 1976, Martin Luther King Day, and May 5, 1976, Cinco de Mayo. The holidays were adopted as holidays solely for teachers and students. Classified employees were required to work on the two holidays and received no additional compensation. California School Employees Association (hereafter Association) then filed a petition for writ of mandate seeking holiday pay for the two holidays for classified employees of the District. Through stipulations and admissions, the issues were narrowed to the question of the rate of holiday pay and the question of which party had the right to make the election between monetary compensation and compensating time off.

The court below concluded (1) that the classified employees were entitled to the two holidays pursuant to Education Code section 13656; (2) that pursuant to the same statutoity authority, those classified employees who worked on the holidays were entitled to either get paid compensation in the amount of one and one-half times…