Deal Allows School Guard to Keep Job

A Thousand Oaks High School security guard said she is pleased with the outcome of a school board decision reducing her hours instead of eliminating her position altogether.

“I’m happy because I’m still there,” said Marilynn Slutske, an 11-year veteran with the school. “That way I can be with the kids.”

Citing budget constraints, the Conejo Valley Unified School Board voted 3 to 0, with two abstaining, Thursday night to reduce Slutske’s schedule from seven hours a day to five.

Thousand Oaks High School had spent more than $26,500 beyond what was budgeted in the campus supervision fund, according to district reports. Instead of a security guard, other schools in the district have “campus supervisors” who watch over the parking lots and make $8 an hour and receive no benefits.

Slutske will continue to make slightly more than $13 an hour and keep her major health benefits, although she will lose her dental and prescription medical plans.

Her new schedule will take effect Nov. 10.

Slutske first had been told--a few days before school started this year--that her position was going to be eliminated.

“It was a total surprise, I was devastated. I like my job,” Slutske said. She said her job is necessary even in Thousand Oaks, which she called a good community.

But she said she has work to do, making sure the teenagers don’t smoke and breaking up the occasional fight.

Striving to keep her job, Slutske spent the last few weeks talking to Principal Jo-Ann Yoos and the classified union, and she was able to work out a deal.

“Thank goodness the compromise was able to come about,” she said.