[img]1131|left|Patti Jaffe||no_popup[/img]Regardless of the outside temperature, the warmest place in Culver City tomorrow will be the room where Teachers Union Prez David Mielke is huddling with School District Supt. Patti Jaffe and District Human Resources Director Leslie Lockhart to talk about the non-union teacher aides at El Marino League School.
The language specialists are in their 26th year. Suddenly there is a reported rush to unionize them after having been left alone until now.
In Mr. Mielke’s union update published in the newspaper yesterday, the headline read, “District Forcing ACE Union to be the Bad Guy,” and that will be a central topic of the meeting.
Said Ms. Jaffe:
“I said to him, ‘Where are you getting your information?’ and ‘Do you know what has been done here?’”
On Board’s Next Agenda
It is no coincidence that the spiritedly disputed matter of organizing the quarter-century-old unorganized language aides will be on the agenda for Tuesday’s 7 o’clock School Board meeting in Council Chambers, City Hall.
The seats are expected to be packed with parents opposed to any unionization attempt.
The crackling subject has been percolating for months, between pro-union and anti-union partisans out of community view. Emotions have been busy.
Board President Karlo Silbiger said that it will be a time for listening not deciding.
“The matter is on the agenda as an information item,” he said. “Leslie Lockhart will update us on the issue. Then we will hear from any members of the public who wish to comment.
No Verdict
“We will not be making any decisions because there is nothing on which to make a decision.”
Ms. Jaffe, who revealed last week she is entering her final four months on the job, said “the history of what has gone on here” will be discussed before the general public for the first time.
At tomorrow’s Jaffe-Mielke meeting, Ms. Jaffe said that Ms. Lockhart “will tell him about all the meetings she has had, with the parents, with ACE (Assn. of Classified Employees) and with the School Board. A Board member attended one of the meetings.
“It isn’t like this is something that has not been discussed,” the superintendent said. “We have been meeting with everyone.
“We have had discussions about what needs to be done and how to proceed,” Ms. Jaffe said. “Attorneys have met with the aides and with parents.”
A separate issue is, what kind of expression should be on the faces of School District leaders?
The District’s role in this delicate minefield drama still is to be defined.
What About Timing?
The most obvious and most melodramatic question is:
Why now?
Ms. Jaffe believes the issue was awakened when parents at Lin Howe School sought to introduce a similar but not identical aide program last year. Like El Marino with its ALLEM (Advocates for Language Learning, El Marino) program, Lin Howe parents themselves raised funds to pay for the aides.
“Evidently that is when it became an issue with ACE,” Ms. Jaffe said.
Debbie Hamme, President of ACE, has said she was not aware of ALLEM until last October. However, District officials said the ALLEM program openly was discussed two Supers ago, when Laura McGaughey was in charge.
It is not as if ALLEM was a secret or mysterious project.
“We have so many parent volunteers,” Ms. Jaffe said. “A principal says these people want to volunteer, and they go through fingerprinting, they go through TB testing, and then, you’re a volunteer. That is it.
“Now that more booster clubs are being involved, they started saying, ‘You are volunteering. We are going to pay you.’
“That is what happened. Booster clubs were paying some of the people we had down as volunteers. They are paying them.”
ALLEM has paid volunteers throughout its 26-year history, according to Ms. Jaffe.
“Due to budget cuts,” she said, “parents really have been stepping up. Most of them go through the Education Foundation. They set up separate accounts for each school. So the people making the donations, like the booster club at Lin Howe, has an account. They might say ‘we want to pay for art instruction assistants.’ The money does not go into a big pot.
“When an El Martino donation is made, it would be earmarked for the adjuncts (language aides) at El Marino to keep track of what is going on, not from our end. This is what happens in most districts.
“The District becomes a pass-through.
“It isn’t as if the District is going to take your money. It’s not our money. It’s their money, and they have their own account.”
What is the District’s role today?
What is the ideal outcome for the School District?
“It is up to the School Board to give us direction on how they want to proceed,” Ms. Jaffe said, not for the first or even 25th time.”
As for the Assn. of Classified Employees, the little-known party at the heart of the controversy, “they have done nothing,” Ms. Jaffe said. “They have not filed a lawsuit. I don’t know how that report got started. Consequently, nothing has changed.”
What is Ms. Jaffe’s role at this intersection?
“To make sure people know the truth,” she said. “What are we going to proceed on if there is nothing to proceed on?”
As for tomorrow’s meeting with Mr. Mielke, “I will tell him that when we meet with the Board on Tuesday night, we will get what the Board is thinking.
“We need to work with the Board and the community to be sure we address the needs of the students, and that we do what is legal.
“I don’t want to take rights away from anyone, not the parents, not ACE, not the Teachers Union, not the Board.
“This is a different kind of an issue. It needs to be looked at in a manner of listening with an open mind, hearing what everyone has to say and coming to common ground.”
Ms. Jaffe said that the School Board will not make a decision Tuesday “because there is not anything to decide. Nothing has happened.”
