SCRANTON – An English as a Second Language teacher claims two Northeastern Pennsylvania school districts violated the Transfer of Entities Act when they failed to offer her employment subsequent to a termination those districts made with an agency contracted to provide ESL instructional services.
Natalie Lucke of Dalton filed suit in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas on June 8 versus the North Pocono School District in Moscow, and the Old Forge School District in Old Forge.
Before June 30, 2017, Lucke was employed by the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit (NEIU) as a full-time public school teacher for eight years, as an “English as a Second Language” (ESL) instructor. Lucke also possessed certifications in the areas of “Early Childhood Education, “Early Intervention” and “Elementary Education (K-6)”.
During that same time period prior to June 30, 2017, NEIU had a contractual relationship to provide ESL instruction services with seven public school districts: Riverside, Valley View, Lakeland, Lackawanna Trial, Carbondale, North Pocono and Old Forge (the ESL Consortium School Districts).
Besides ESL classes, the contracts stipulated NEIU would employ and pay the teachers necessary to provide said ESL instruction, classes and education, the district would provide the classrooms and instructional space and in return, the school districts would also reimburse NEIU for the cost of providing the ESL program.
On June 30, 2017, all seven of the ESL Consortium School Districts terminated their contracts with NEIU, instead deciding to provide ESL instruction from their own internal teaching staff, rather than contracting with NEIU. As a result, plaintiff Lucke was terminated from her role that same day.
Per the contracts, the Transfer of Entities Act would govern the rights of the professionals affected by suspension or job loss should the program be terminated, as it was on June 30 of last year. According to the Act, teachers such as Lucke were required to be offered new employment by the agency who took over instruction for those same educational services – in this case, the ESL Consortium School Districts, including the defendants.
Similarly, Lucke (through her legal counsel) notified all seven districts of her rights under the Transfer of Entities Act one week after her termination, on July 7, 2017.
However, neither school district in North Pocono or Old Forge offered Lucke employment for ESL instruction services. Rather, North Pocono hired a brand-new ESL teacher for that role for the 2017-2018 school year, who continues to work there to the present, and Old Forge sub-contracted to a company called Invo Healthcare Association for ESL instruction.
Lucke alleges both of these actions constituted violations of the Transfer of Entities Act.
The plaintiff is seeking the defendants be required to refrain from hiring new teachers and/or using the services of outside companies or organizations, to provide instruction to their students in the area of “English as a Second Language”, require the defendants to offer employment to the plaintiff to provide said instructional services to their students, plus any other relief deemed legal and just under the circumstances, including award the plaintiff any salary, benefits and/other emoluments (retroactive to the start of the 2017-2018 school years of the defendants) that plaintiff would have earned had the defendants honored the Transfer of Entities Act and offered her employment as required by law.
The plaintiff is represented by Jeffrey Husisian of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, in Wilkes-Barre.
Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas case 18-CV-3079
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com