BUENA PARK : Classified Employees at School Get Raise

After working for two years without a contract, the Buena Park School District’s non-teaching employees have reached agreement with the Board of Trustees on a new pact that includes a pay raise and bonus.

Trustees on Monday agreed to give the employees a 1.5% salary increase and a 1% bonus for the 1993-94 school year, which is drawing to a close. Union members ratified the pact last week.

“We’re pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with the classified employees and that we were able to provide them with a small salary increase,” said Supt. Jack Townsend.

Barbara Michel, president of the California School Employees Assn.’s Buena Park chapter, which has 125 members, said the non-teaching employees are also happy about the pay increase, which is retroactive to the start of the school year.

Michel said the 1.5% pay hike translates into 11 cents an hour more for the majority of the classified employees, who serve as office clerks, bus drivers, custodians and maintenance and cafeteria workers. The total package will give each employee about $212 more annually, Michel said.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “It was the employees’ choice (to accept the contract offer), and I think they’re happy with it.”

The district’s 200 classified employees have not had a pay raise since 1991, Michel said.

Michel said the two-year negotiations were the longest in the history of the 104-year-old school district.

The contract ends in October. Negotiations are expected to begin in late summer for the 1994-95 contract, Michel said.

Townsend said that the school district has not been able to give employees raises because of financial problems caused by the poor state economy.

“It’s been very difficult to give raises when there are no new dollars coming in,” he said. “We feel that we were in a position to do what we did in terms of salary and still maintain a reserve. . . . We did the best we could for them.”

The district’s teachers have also worked the past two school years without a contract. Townsend said district officials are expected to present teachers a proposal for a final agreement for the 1993-94 contract June 9.

Michel said one issue the classified employees and the district failed to agree on is a provision that would require all classified employees to become union members and pay union dues. The union dropped that demand in return for the pay raise, but will bring the issue in its next round of negotiations, Michel said.

Michel said that by law, the union is required to represent all classified employees, even if they are not union members. She said it is only fair that they contribute to the local union chapter to offset legal fees and other costs, which include negotiating contracts.

But Townsend said the issue is a philosophical one with trustees.

“The governing board feels employees should not be forced to join a union to work in a school district,” he said.