School Union Fights Plan to Scrap Panel
Angered by the La Puente/Hacienda School District’s recommendation to terminate a controversial employee program, the California School Employees Assn. Local 115 began a campaign this week to prevent its abolition by “educating the parents,” union officials said.
At issue is a program that provides an three-member commission to negotiate labor contracts for “classified personnel” such as bus drivers and custodians.
The school district’s recommendation will go to the County Board of Educators, which will decide whether to include on the Nov. 5 ballot a measure that would ask voters to abolish the system, said Supt. John W. Kramar.
But “the parents were given misinformation,” said Vern Wallery, president of the local chapter of the California School Employees Assn.
Parents were told by school board members that eliminating the $400,000-a-year system could help save some of schools threatened with closure, Wallery said.
Such a cut would not guarantee the prevention of a school closure, but it would guarantee the district more muscle in its negotiations with the classified personnel’s union, both sides agreed.
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