School workers protest raise

Classified workers at Burbank Unified School District have been

rallying at recent school board meetings to protest a proposed salary

increase, an amount they see as inadequate and unfair.

“We hope to get the public involved,” said Cheryl McDonald, a

campus supervisor at Burbank High School, who spoke at a recent

meeting. “We want the district to hear our voices and to show them

we’re willing to take a stand and not just be pushed around, like we

have been for so many years.”

The district’s classified staff generally includes positions like

teacher’s aides, custodians, food service workers and campus

supervisors; their contracts are negotiated separately from the

teaching staff.

Classified staff received a 2% raise for the 2004-2005 school year

that was effective Jan. 1, 2005. The district’s teachers received

raises that averaged 4.5%, effective July 1, 2004.

Some of the larger raises among the teaching staff, according to

Burbank Unified School District Board President Paul Krekorian, were

to make up for years of low-pay raises that had put teachers’

salaries in Burbank behind those of teachers in comparable California

school districts.

“We were in danger of losing some teachers,” Krekorian said.

Many classified staff are unsatisfied with the disparity and,

according to McDonald, the salary of classified staff in the Burbank

district is itself in the bottom 50 percentile when compared to other

districts.

“I would like for them to treat us as an equal,” said Gloria Lara,

a teachers aide at John Burroughs High School. “For some of us, it’s

not a living wage.”

Some classified staff, including Lara, have considered leaving the

district to seek work elsewhere, but stay because they feel loyalty

to the students and co-workers.

“The only thing keeping me from doing that is that I like the

students that I work with and I like the teacher I work with,” Lara

said. “I love what I do, that’s why I’m here.

“If it wasn’t for classified employees, district phones wouldn’t

be answered, restrooms wouldn’t be cleaned and children wouldn’t be

fed,” McDonald said.

Krekorian explained that although the district values the services

classified workers provide, budget constraints limit the ability to

offer large wage increases.

“When we give a raise it’s not just for this year, it’s forever,”

Krekorian said. “We have to take a good hard look and figure out how

to be as fair as possible.”

The district’s staff are part of California School Employees Assn.

Local Chapter 674. The district is in ongoing negotiations with this

union as well as the teachers union. It is district policy, however,

not to publicly discuss the terms of private negotiations with either

union.

“We don’t disclose our position and we don’t negotiate at public

meetings,” Supt. Gregory Bowman said. “Everything you’re hearing is

one side and doesn’t tell the full story.”

Bowman, who declined to disclose the amounts on the table,

explained that the district is not in a growth period, making it more

difficult to grant salary increases.

Bowman hopes that over the next week negotiations with the

classified employees union will bear fruit.

“We always want to see an amenable agreement to both parties,

which is what usually results from these kinds of negotiation

sessions,” Bowman said. “We understand the issues they have, but our

resources are limited.”

QUESTION

Should the district’s classified employees get a raise? E-mail

your responses to o7burbankleader @latimes.comf7; mail them to the

Burbank Leader, 111 W. Wilson Ave., Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell

your name and include your address and phone number for verification

purposes only.