Orange : School Board Gets New Union Proposal

Trustees of the Orange Unified School District are expected to decide today whether to reopen discussions with the district’s classified employees union, which has been on strike since Monday.

Officials of the California School Employees Assn., Chapter 67, delivered the second half of a union proposal to district officials Thursday afternoon in hope of persuading the district to revise a school board-imposed contract that cuts health benefits, imposes furloughs and empowers the district to unilaterally lay off or reduce the hours of workers.

Neither district nor union officials would comment on the substance of the proposals.

Some 400 non-teaching employees, including bus drivers and child-care, food-service and custodial workers, are striking to protest the contract.

“I’m extremely disappointed there was a strike in the first place,” said board member Bob Viviano, one of six trustees who voted for the controversial contract. “But I’m guardedly hopeful that there will be an early end to the strike so we can restore services to the children.”

Meanwhile, district officials reported that about 30 students from El Modena and Villa Park high schools walked out of class in support of the strikers. District officials said the students will be regarded as truant and will be subject to detention.

The strike has caused logistics headaches for the district, which is providing bus service only to special education students. About 7,000 of the district’s 26,000 students normally rely on bus transportation. The job action has also shut down or caused staffing shortages at the district’s 24 child-care facilities.