Laguna Beach : School District Labor Talks Remain Stalled

Negotiations remain stalled in the nearly year-old dispute between the Laguna Beach Unified School District and the California School Employees Assn., which represents the district’s non-teaching employees.

A mediator hired by the Public Employee Relations Board has met with both parties, but no progress has been made, said Linda Burton, president of the union’s Laguna Beach local. “We’re at an impasse and the mediator wasn’t able to help us,” she said.

Burton said employees will meet Thursday, and she did not rule out a strike vote at that time.

The district’s bus drivers, custodians, clerical and food service workers are paid less than their counterparts in other Orange County school districts, and both sides agree that is a major issue in the negotiations.

The district’s non-teaching employees earn 3% to 9% less than the county median, according to Clyde Lovelady, district business manager. “Our classified, management and administrative employees are the second lowest paid in the county,” he said.

The union and the district agree that classified employees’ salaries need to be brought up to the county median, but Burton said the district’s offer of a total pay increase of $30,000 a year, to be split among approximately 70 classified employees, is $8,000 less than what the union is seeking.

The union already has accepted a district offer of a 4% cost-of-living increase, 2% less than it requested, she said.

Another major dispute between the union and the district hinges on the school district’s practice of contracting with private companies for services usually rendered by classified employees. The union maintains that the district is obliged, under terms of its agreement with the employees, to negotiate with the union before it makes outside contracts.

Lovelady said he believes the union and the district will be able to reach accord when they meet a second time with the mediator, on April 18.