Report on School Contract Rejected

A Glendale school employees association this week rejected a report by the state Public Employment Relations Board that found that a contract offer made by school district officials was “reasonable.”

Members of the Glendale Support Services Assn. had requested a board review after a 14-month salary dispute, charging that the district had engaged in unfair practices. The association, which represents counselors, speech therapists and nurses, said it will seek to prove at a Sept. 20 hearing that the district failed to bargain in good faith with the 44-member association.

If no agreement is reached at that time, a formal hearing will be scheduled within 60 days. The association has not threatened a strike when school reopens next month.

The dispute is over the disposition of state funds given to the Glendale Unified School District last year to pay for adding an average of seven minutes of instruction to each school day.

Accord With Teachers

The district successfully negotiated a 10.5% salary increase with the 800-member Glendale Teachers Assn. last fall, but it reached an impasse with its offer of a 5.6% raise to school counselors and an 8.5% raise to the remaining members of the support services group.

Support personnel continue to receive salaries based on a 1983-84 agreement.

School counselors in the district work a 10-month calender year, and the rest of the association members work a nine-month year similar to a teacher’s.

The employees group contends that the longer school days will mean an increased workload. They are asking for a raise equal to that given to teachers.

But district officials have said that, unlike teachers, the district’s support personnel will not be affected by the increased school day.

District Opinion

If support personnel, because of time limitations, “cannot accomplish what they have scheduled or what they would like to do, the matters can be rescheduled, postponed or dropped,” the district said in the state report. “Teachers, on the other hand, must be before their students in their assigned classes for the entire class periods.”

School counselor and association member Don King said that, historically, the district has granted the same raise to teachers as it has to members of the Glendale support services group. Nearby districts, including Burbank, La Canada, Pasadena, Norwalk and Pomona, have given teachers and support personnel equal share in the state funds for increased instruction time, King said.

“We are asking for comparability,” he said.

The findings of the May 3 board hearing, made public this week, said the demand by counselors for percentage changes in their pay schedule deserves consideration by the district, though the report noted that Glendale counselors are among the highest paid in the Los Angeles area.

District Called Reasonable

However, the report stated that the district is reasonable in its contention that extending the school day by an average of seven minutes does not warrant an additional pay increase above the current offer.