Realignment
Realignment is required by 24 PS § 11-1125.1(c) (qv) when a school district suspends a professional employe who is certified in more than one area. A district must make changes in its staff to ensure that properly certified professional employes displace other professional employes who are employed in the area of shared certification and who have less years of seniority within the school district. The suspension has to be for one of the causes stated in 24 PS § 11-1124.
For example, because of a substantial decrease in pupil enrollment a school district intends to suspend a professional employe who teaches English. The employe with the least amount of seniority teaching English has fifteen years of experience and is certified in both English and social studies. The school district must realign the professional staff on the basis of seniority so that the employe teaching English with fifteen years of experience displaces a professional employe who teaches social studies and who has less than fifteen years of experience. If the displaced social studies teacher has certification in another area, the school district must realign its professional staff so as to displace a professional employe who has less seniority in that other area of certification.
In Filoon v. Middle Bucks Area Vocational-Technical School, 160 Pa. Commw. 124, 634 A.2d 726, 729 (1993), Commonwealth Court defined realignment:
With regard to what constitutes a realignment for purposes of the School Code, we have adopted the definition "to reorganize or make new groupings of." Fry v. Garnet Valley School District, 86 Pa. Commw. 206, 209, 485 A.2d 508, 510 (1984) (citing Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 954 (1981)).
In Dallap v. Sharon City School District, 524 Pa. 260, 571 A.2d 368 (1990), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court summarized the obligation of school districts to realign professional staff on the basis of seniority:
In undertaking a realignment prompted by…. [one of the reasons in 24 PS § 11-1124]… school districts have no choice but to replace less senior employees with more senior ones who carry proper certification . . . . If a position exists and an employee's certification enables him to fill that position, he must be given the opportunity to do so by displacing the less senior employee.
571 A.2d at 370-71. Sometimes realignments can result in the demotion of employes, which results in a realignment demotion. (q v) Appeals concerning realignments and realignment demotions go to the court of common pleas and from there to Commonwealth Court.
School Code 24 PS § 11-1152.1(c)