Welcome to our newest SAUSD thread – “Classified SAUSD Employees!” We have added this thread by popular demand. Our 2009 SAUSD thread already has over 400 comments. Now we are offering a series of new threads so that our readers can focus on specific issues related to the SAUSD.
In this thread we invite parents, teachers and other community stakeholders to discuss “Classified SAUSD Employees.”
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Thanks Art for posting new threads. I really appreciate the effort you put in for us.
Does anybody know whats going on with CSEA? I hear that certificated are voting on health insurance like blue shield but what about us? I honestly don’t have faith in our union. There is a serious lack of communication and unity. If we were all truly “united” the district might actually take us seriously. Instead of throwing an unfair labor practice for dso’s and custodians why don’t they defend everybody? Why does the district office have people with 12 months while people with less get the cuts? Lets keep in mind who is behind the operations at the school sites.
#2,
You are most welcome! I am also a teacher. I am an adjunct instructor at Cerritos College – and I am a member of our union too (American Federation of Teachers, which is part of the AFL-CIO).
As a certificated person I can only answer from our perspective. I am trying to learn a little more about your contract and those issues affecting you. All I do know is that the district is switching to Blue Shield for the HMO and PPO that we pay for, eliminating Blue Cross. This is a district decision and not something we can negotiate. From all indications, the doctor match is better with Blue Shield. We’ll see how it works out but in my opinion Blue Cross has offered terrible service, so it couldn’t really get worse. Blue Cross says they lost money on Santa Ana Unified last year and will try to recoup the costs through increases, so I think the district is wisely choosing another provider. Kaiser will remain the same except a slight increase in prescriptions, emergency room copays (which will all increase under the Blue Shield program as well).
It would be nice if a classified person could invite another classified person who is active either in the union or at the district level to participate in this discussion. I think the goal here is to try to get real dialogue with real facts, so any help the classified people can provide would be great. I can tell you that the certificated people are appalled at the treatment you have received in the last year and we value your service as vital to our jobs and the education of our students. Thank you for all of the wonderful and necessary work you do!
As a CSEA CHAPTER LEADER, I cannot comment on any Blog.
As a Classified Employee of SAUSD you have the opportunity to sin up for our email communications, newsletter, and attend Chapter Meetings.
We have a 24-hour email system (CSEA41@Hotmail.com) to answer questions and Chapter Hotline (714) 600-5158. As to the Classified CBA it’s on our web site http://www.csea.com or under outside links of the SAUSD Staff web site.
CSEA HW Benefits were not up yet for renewal and remain the same for Classified Employees. Except SAUSD Blue Cross is changing to Blue Shield sometime soon. More information will follow in the Newsletter.
By the way CSEA is also an AFL-CIO affiliate.
Duane H Lundquist
CSEA 41 CJS
Negotiations Chair
Csea41Lundquist@hotmail.com
“As a CSEA CHAPTER LEADER, I cannot comment on any Blog.”
Mr. Lundquist,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to visit Orange Juice!
You cannot repost information and communications at the OJ, that may have been overlooked by your membership?
It makes sense that you cannot post your personal opinions using your leadership name. I understand the need to stay un-controversial in a public forum. However, it doesn’t seem obvious why you could not participate here if someone is asking for union information that they may not have been aware of.
Just asking for clarification, is all.
Mr. Lundquist,
Please continue to post factual information, I don’t think there is any conflict in that. Maybe you could answer a few questions that come from Classified members from time to time. It may go a long way towards differentiating between fact and rumor. Welcome!
#7 and #8
Now you see what we have to put up with in our union. Mr. Lundquist has posted before..I believe the mantra was “vote for Noji”. He has been on the negotiations committee before as well and known to be deep in the tank for the district.
We all know he could put out general information either named or under an anon, but chooses to use his “position” as an excuse not to.
Does anyone know whats going on with classified layoffs. It is obvious the our so called union leaders are not distributing that information out to it members. A good idea would be to get rid of union dues for everyone and only those who think the union does a good job participate in paying union dues.
I have discussed this with the CSEA rep at my site. Your union is trying to come up with a way for the district to have to decide on layoffs prior to the end of the school year. There are some problems with this due to the budget and some other factors that I am do not fully understand (I will ask more this week). One goal is to try to avoid the situation that occurred last year when the certificated staff was already on summer vacation after the layoff notices went out. It was very difficult for us to provide any support when there was really no means of communication. If I find out more, I will let you know.
@Duane H Lundquist The problem is that there is little to no communication. I received maybe 2 newsletters this year. I’m on the mailing list and have received nothing. How do I find about chapter meetings? Its either on the same day or the day after its on. Does every site have a union rep? Just how strong are we? Last year we lost a lot of good people. Sure some came back but in the end they lost hours. What happened for the teachers? MOST not some came back. Just how can anybody feel confident in our so called union?
@ #11 It would be a big help if we could find out about layoffs before we all go to summer vacation. It put more salt in the wound last year every time I had to explain what happened. Nobody knew what was going on and when the certificated staff came back they saw an empty office. It was like we just disappeared. The district silenced all of us. I remember our protest last summer and I believe if the notice was out during the school year we would have had more numbers. At the very least if we did know before June we could protest like the teachers and then the word is out. Teachers will know and parents will at least be warned about whats happening.
Of course the district will do everything it can to have a repeat of last year as far as layoff notification for Classified Staff. Talk to your reps and make sure they all understand that the timing of notification is a big issue for you. I know they are trying to do something about it, I’m just not sure how much power they have on this issue.
#12/13
Even working out of the district office all anyone hears are rumors. Site reps either know nothing, or say they don’t.
Don’t bother going to the CSEA Chapter #41 webpage either at:
http://www.csea.com/content/OptionC/c_1.asp?ChapterID=41
The latest news entry was Ira Hypock resigning as president in 2007 and the latest copy of the newsletter is May of 2004.
Mr. Lundquist refers to the CSEA (state) webpage and to outside links in the SAUSD staff webpage.
If anyone has found any CSEA links in the SAUSD staff website other than the CSEA state page or the dead chapter #41 webpage, please put those links up here for everyone. Not all of us have access to district computers while working.
Another Anon Teacher. Thanks for trying to get more information because we can’t. The end of the school year ploy is getting pretty worn. As you can read we rarely get newsletters either.
If prior years are any example we will get little information, have no input, and be notified of the results of negotiation after the fact with a recommendation to ratify because it was the best the negotiations team could get. We will be told that if we don’t ratify the agreement more jobs will be cut so just be thankful.
@#14 I know many would like to give the benefit of the doubt to CSEA but like we are saying here there is a lot of mis communication. Maybe we can go to the Classified meeting at the district this week. Wait a minute! What meeting? Don’t worry they are still in negotiations. Whats the status of the negotiations? Oh we don’t know yet but you will be updated soon. Of course we should let our reps know about timing. If they really were looking out for us they would already be doing this. How do we know they are or not? You will see it in the next bulletin. But wait the last one I got was in October! There is no communication! This time last year many did not know about the cuts coming. I found out on my last day of work. At least this year we can plan ahead for the cuts. I know I come off very upset and I’m sorry. But honestly what CSEA has to remember that whatever they do they are dealing with many people with families. When they favor one classification over another they screw up with a system thats suppose to be fair. Maybe they should remember whose paying for their “services”. Oh yeah while I mentioned it there is special study session regarding the budget on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 4 p.m.
I am trying to become involved with more things. I know how important classified people are as my mom and dad (now retired) were one. I know that the union seems to be helping security and custodians. I know security wanted the 12 months back but I feel that is not needed. I also hope the office workers know in advance as when my child started school the principal told me his staff found out during the summer. That is not right. My calls to district? I have got one call back and they tell me “the budget effects us all” I don’t think so as those people don’t have to worry about their jobs. I want to be sure the school is staffed with nurses, clerks, secretaries, etc.. These are the people who make the school work too. I would like to see the principals work the fax machine, copy machines..believe me I am in there enough times to see who runs the offices.
Office personnel have been working as school nurse stand-ins since nurses were cut to 2-3 days a week. This is a time-bomb for medical insurance lawsuits, yet the union(s) have done nothing. Parents should know about this… who will you tell?
From what I am seeing everyone is doing everyone’s job! Secretary’s are filling in for attendance,clerks, nurse…Office Managers are stepping in for Registrars, nurse, attendance..These people are dumping their own trash and I heard one teacher say they are even cleaning the floors themselves. I have contacted District office saying this has to stop. I am at a loss as now I do not get any calls back and they said ” they do not control the school sites” Who do I go to now/
anyone notice that clerk job that is going to be flown? It is a all in one job that almost has all classified office jobs rolled into one. In other words they want this person to do all of those jobs such as phones, nurse, etc.. probably in 3 1/3 hours.
At every site there seems to be a portion of the day when the phones go unanswered. We have trained “office aides” (students) who answer the phone while people are at lunch. There just aren’t enough people to enable lunches to be taken and phones to be answered. There was a time that we prided ourselves on the fact that the phone was answered within 2 rings, those days are gone. The only way you will be heard as a parent is to attend board meetings and make a brief presentation highlighting your concerns. We already know that no one will listen to the staff, classified or certificated.
In a comment I made here on 04/04/09 (#15) I pointed out that the local CSEA chapter # 41 website was basically dead. The most current stories were dated in 2007 and the most current newsletter was dated in 2004.
A visit to the webpage now shows some actual very minor changes. All the 5 year old newsletters are gone. In fact the newsletter section is now totally blank!
But there was something positive. A large blue banner has been put at the top of the page that announces the following:
“Next chapter meeting has been changed to April 16th at the labor hall across the street from the district office, 4:30pm – 6:00pm. Chapter meetings have been changed to the third Thursday of the month at the labor hall”
Well it’s a start but a sad commentary on CSEA chapter #41. Since Lindquist bothered to put a “non” comment here we know he reads this blog and could have put up the meeting information here. I don’t think that would have violated his “confidentiality” vow of silence. Now how about some newsletters or progress reports?
A couple of questions that you might ask directly to Lundquist during the next chapter meeting:
Is the union paying for legal defense for the IA at Saddleback who was arrested for a sexual attack against a student?
Was Lundquist served with legal papers not even a month ago charging him with lack of non-representation of classified employees who have been treated badly by SAUSD? The story goes that the district was also served the same day and immediately suspended a “supervisior” and a supervisorial underling named in the complaint. There will be formal investigations coming and state and federal governments are involved.
Mr. Lundquist is dumb for showing up here and telling all the readers that he has no intention of keeping employees informed. He basically is saying he is going to continue to withhold important information and continue to non-represent union members. Maybe classifieds can all get their union dues returned under the last couple of chapter presidents who have attacked their own members in order to get personal favors from SAUSD.
@ #23 My thoughts exactly! Mr Lundquist is a perfect example of why Classified don’t trust the union. It must be paradise for the District to have CSEA the way it is. So poorly run that they are being sued by the very people they are suppose to protect! I rather have my union dues returned to me and take my chances with the district.
@#21 Child labor is necessary to get the job done somewhat. How else will the office run without Classified? You can only keep subs for a certain amount of time so why bother to pay for anybody? You have a population of students you can use. I’m sure if you ask any office manager would agree. Oh no they might say but get real. In every school I have been to it seems that “office aids” are the new unpaid classified. You stick students on the phones and make them greeters. Hey they speak Spanish? Excellent! Why pay for a bilingual person when you can just plant a student at the desk. Not once have I called a school and had an adult pick up. The copier machine is down? Send student so and so to put in a replacement part. Just make them read the instructions first. Is my child a new employee for SAUSD? Who can I talk to? Nobody listens and that I would agree with you. What we need is for parents to stand up and speak. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON ALL YEAR! Ask the board if its reasonable for schools to recruit students this way. Ask them if this is acceptable. Failure is not an option……
At my school we have always had the “office aide” student elective. In the past, it has actually been a useful elective for both the students and the teachers. Many students have learned some good administrative skills when placed with the right teachers. However I would have to agree with #25 that we walk a very fine line between something that benefits the students and something that only benefits the district through child labor. This year it seems that students are doing the job of the classified staff (who is no longer there) much more often than in years past.
This thread is going to be closed. Please read and post comments about SAUSD at this link:
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/new-2009-sausd-corruption-thread/