Jersey Shore Education Ass'n v. Jersey Shore Area School District

Dissenting Opinion by

Judge Doyle:

In Scanlon v. Mount Union Area Board of School Directors, 51 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 83, 415 A.2d 96 (1980), aff'd per curiam, 499 Pa. 215, 452 A.2d 1016 (1982), we held that 180 days of instruction are required under Section 1501 of the Public School Code of 19491 and strike activity can justify providing less than 180 instructional days only when it renders scheduling impossible. Although the trial court in the present instance found that in order to provide the required number of *170days instruction would have to resume no later than October 17, 1984, implicit in that finding was an allowance of six snow days2 which could have been made up in various other ways if snow did occur.

In Armstrong School District v. Armstrong Education Association, 5 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 378, 386, 291 A.2d 120, 125 (1972) we said:

If a strike is to be enjoined on the basis that insufficient make-up time actually will exist, the strike must at the very least have reached the point where its continuation would make it either clearly impossible or extremely difficult for the District to make up . . . [the lost time].

As in Armstrong, the injunction here was premature; there was no clear and present danger to the public as is required prior to the issuance of an injunction under Section 1003 of the Public Employee Relations Act.3

Judge Craig joins in this dissent.

Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, as amended, 24 P.S. §15-1501.

The Superintendent of Schools testified that the last possible day for a strike to continue and still schedule 180 pupil instruction days, with six snow days, was October 17, 1984. There was other testimony that the last day would have been October 19, 1984.

Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, as amended, 43 P.S. §1101.1003.