After weeks of building powerful momentum and matching ire, nearly two dozen parents – fearing that a low-profile, little-known union will invade their inner sanctum – last night carried their jagged-edged protests to a School Board they fear may not be sympathetic to their cause.
By now, the impressively mobilized, rigidly determined parents of El Marino Language School have spread the news of their sophisticated campaign to every Culver City home that needs to know about the perceived threat they are confronting.
Since last September, the Assn. of Classified Employees, known as ACE, ardently led by President Debbie Hamme, has been determined to unionize teachers’ aide-types on two campuses.
ACE’s first goal, believed to be a test case to assess the will of the School District to fight back or to cooperate, was relatively small-fry Linwood Howe School where four persons evidently have been gathered into the union’s test.
But the case that has attracted the main attention, ACE’s primary goal, is larger, prestigious El Marino and its historic ALLEM program, Advocates for Language Learning, El Marino, where five times as many potential union members are at stake.
Unlike Lin Howe, where the aides were brought into the union without public knowledge or scrutiny, the muscular parent community of El Marino not only fiercely is resisting the unsubtle overtures ACE is making through the School District, it is virtually daring the pro-union segment of the School Board to defy its will.
The story of the night was how the Board members would respond to the parents’ heartfelt pleas.
New member Laura Chardiet spoke first:
“I have received multiple phone calls and emails over the past two weeks,” she said. “I know parents are concerned about equity, and they are concerned about potential cost increases to run their program. As the former PTA President of La Ballona Elementary School, the former Council PTA President of Culver City and the current Executive Vice President of the Council PTA, trust me. I am down with the parent volunteers. I also know, having worked with (just-resigned Supt.) Patti (Jaffe) through the PTA, she also is down with the parent volunteers. I just want to encourage parents from all of the schools to come to meetings and move this discussion forward.”
New member Nancy Goldberg:
“There is no way to avoid dissent in life. But when a program is obviously needed, wanted and supported, there have to be ways to keep it. I don’t know how long it will take or how much discussion it will take. But I cannot imagine this program going away. I cannot.”
Member Kathy Paspalis:
“I am here for one reason only, our students. The rest is a lot of paper.”
Ms. Paspalis turned to comments her Board colleague, Karlo Silbiger, the President, made in a letter to this newspaper yesterday afternoon (Silbiger Responds to Angry Parents) in which he discussed this case and several times used the plural pronoun “we,” possibly referring to himself and other members. “Karlo knows better than to represent himself as providing Board consensus in public without the Board’s permission,” Ms. Paspalis said. “I hope that gets clarified.”
Neither Prof. Pat Siever nor Mr. Silbiger alluded to the El Marino crisis.
In a post-meeting email to the newspaper, Mr. Silbiger said:
“Kathy Paspalis and Madeline Ehrlich mentioned some confusion in regards to my email to you earlier in the day. I re-read it when I came home. There is no question that I erroneously used the word ‘we.’ I’ll chalk it up to having the flu and not thinking straight this morning when I sent it over. Either way, what I meant to say was that I believe we (the District) will do the things that I mention. If you could post this tomorrow morning, I'd appreciate it. I don't want anyone further to misunderstand my intention.”
