[Editor’s Note: Ms. Hamme is President of the Assn. of Classified Employees.]
The Assn. of Classified Employees negotiations team met with the School District’s representatives on Thursday, May 26.
We continued to discuss the following items:
• Budget update – We still have not received the detailed information we requested regarding consultant/legal expenses. Hopefully, we will receive specifics at our next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, June 21.
• The District reduced its furlough proposal from 8 days to 7 days. As we reported to you previously, we had submitted a proposal to the District that gave them the exact dollar amount they would have realized from 8 furlough days. While the School Board appreciated our efforts “to think out of the box,” our proposal was rejected because it called for ACE members to take only 3 furlough days next year. The Board felt it would be too difficult to coordinate a work schedule for classified when schools were closed. We were asked to conform to the furlough day “only” offer that was proposed by the Teachers Union.
• The Board is still reluctant to guarantee the restoration of any of the jobs on the cut list. Your team restated our position that we expect the Board to make good on their promise that our jobs would be restored if we made concessions. We were told that if we agreed to the original proposal of 9 furlough days, the Board may be inclined to make a full restoration, but there were no guarantees. Considering the lack of guarantee, we declined to offer more than the Teachers Union. Their current offer stands at 6 days. The savings of a single furlough day to the District from our unit is $40,000, so the total savings for 6 days would be $240,000. We were put in the unenviable position of having to determine which jobs to “buy back” with only $240,000 to “spend.”
• We are hopeful that our current offer will be acceptable to the board. It had been publicly stated by more than one Board member that our agreeing to the proposed number of furlough days would eliminate the need to cut a single job. However, even though the Board itself has progressively reduced its offer from 9 to 8 to 7 days, the rules of the game have changed each time. We do not meet with the District again until Tuesday, June 21.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ms. Hamme may be contacted at antiquer01@aol.com
Your A.C.E. Negotiations team:
Debbie Hamme, Jackie Lee, Robert Gray III, Carol-Ann Goldberg and Marion Serra.
