Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 14, 1986.
Arbitrator ignores bare facts of layoffs
by Doug Ross
Staff writer
UNION TWP. ー An arbitrator has ruled that the School Board must rehire a male physical education teacher even though the office he will use is accessible only through the women’s locker room.
The board laid off Larry Ailes instead of Debbie Disney, a Wheeler High School physical education teacher with less seniority, when it laid off teachers last spring.
Had Disney been laid off, Ailes would have become the boys’ and girls’ physical education teacher at the high school, Superintendent Glenn Krueger said.
It was common sense for the board to lay off a man instead of a woman, Krueger said.
“The PE teacher can’t even get into his or her office because it’s in the locker room with semi-nude or nude girls,'' he said.
It would be possible to have a female business teacher supervise the girls showering, but that would take 15 minutes away from each of her classes, Krueger said.
Under the teacher contract, the board is obligated to obey the arbitrator’s decision. The district received a copy of the March 4 ruling this week.
In addition to rehiring Ailes from Westville School, the board was ordered to pay him the difference between his salary at Westville and what his salary will be at Union. Krueger estimated the amount to be $8,000 to $10,000.
Bringing back Ailes and giving him back pay will cost each of the district’s teachers $301 in 1986 because that money will be drained from the salaries account, Krueger said.
Ailes, who was a physical education teacher at Union Center Elementary School, was among 11 teachers laid off in a cost-cutting move.
The arbitrator “took it to the letter of the law” by following the seniority rule in the teacher contract, Krueger said.
But the case was whether AIles should have taught girls’ phys ed, Krueger said, and the arbitrator assigned Ailes to a different position.
Ailes was reinstated to his previous position at Union Center. That position has been abolished since Ailes was laid off. A new elementary physical education teacher also teaches social studies, which Ailes isn’t qualified to teach.
The subject is likely to be discussed at the next School Board meeting, Krueger said.
“Our contention was that they could hire an aide” to supervise the girls’ showers, said Robert Rosinski, UniServe director for the Indiana State Teachers Association.