OJAI : Employees of Schools Seek 12% Pay Boost

About 215 employees of the Ojai Unified School District are seeking a 12% pay increase beginning July 1.

The Ojai Chapter 333 of the California School Employees Assn. has a three-year contract with the district that expires next year. When the contract was approved in 1988, the employees were given the option of reopening salary negotiations, which they are seeking to do.

The Board of Education will discuss the union’s request at a meeting June 5, said William Purdom, assistant superintendent of education.

A public hearing will be held June 26.

The district’s $12.67-million projected budget for fiscal year 1990-91 does not include the raise. Even at present salary levels, the district has projected a $366,000 deficit unless state revenues increase, Purdom said.

The union is also asking the district to pay dental plan premiums for employees’ dependents, to provide health insurance to supplement Medicare for retirees at age 65, to allow workers a second paid day per year for personal business and to conduct a study of salaries for comparable positions in other districts.

Classified employees’ salaries account for $2 million of the district’s total $12.7 million budget this year.

The union represents 215 Ojai school librarians, bus drivers, clerks, teacher’s aides, food service and maintenance workers, crossing guards, computer lab coordinators, mechanics and warehouse workers.

The district has 3,305 students at two high schools, one junior high and five elementary schools in the Ojai Valley.