Politics & Government
Union Urges 'Black Thursday' Protests for Grossmont District Support Staff
Wearing of black clothing signals fear of layoffs and pay cuts in the 12-campus high school district.
The local chapter of the California School Employees Assocation has called for “Black Thursday” protests in the Grossmont Union High School District amid fears of looming support staff layoffs.
“The whole atmosphere has been very creepy, like we are working under a Gestapo state,” said one district employee.
The 12-school district, with an annual budget of $185.5 million, is on a list of 120 school districts in the state that could have trouble paying their bills this year and next.
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Library, food service, janitorial and clerical workers and others have been urged to wear black armbands or black pants and shirts Thursdays to protest feared loss of jobs and a proposed 7 percent pay cut.
Sixty classified employees could lose their jobs, the chapter has said.
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According to a posting by Grossmont High Chapter 443, district officials told the CSEA bargaining unit Thursday that school principals were told to cut their budgets by $1 million each but that they also can “shift their staffing” and “trade one position for another.”
But in separate negotiations with leaders of the Service Employees International Union, Deputy Superintendent Scott Patterson said “there was no funding cuts at the sites,” according to the CSEA posting.
In talks with the district, CSEA officials say they were told that principals were given more authority this year than ever before.
The result, said the web posting, is: “Bargaining unit members are bumping and out the door NOT because they have to cut funding. It appears it was and is the principal’s choice!”
The report to members added: “West Hills and Granite Hills principals chose NOT to cut classified employees! Thank you, Georgette Torres and Paul Dautremont, for doing the right thing and making the right choice with regard to classified this year.”
Members were told: “If you are not being laid off due to grant funding being eliminated, you need to ask your principal who or what you are being traded for.”
One local CSEA member, who didn’t want to be identified, wrote Patch that efforts are under way to identify examples of wasteful or mismanaged spending on top-level administrators.
(One example cited by CSEA: An unidentified district official making $142,000 a year also would get $18,900 a year to buy additional life insurance, tax-sheltered annuity or “any other voluntary deduction offered by the district.”)
“While it is not within the character of many loyal and dedicated employees to be whistleblowers, the level of distrust has risen to the point where people cannot avoid speaking out,” said the CSEA member—the same one who likened the office atmosphere to the Nazi Gestapo era.
“Traditional avenues of communication within the district have sadly eroded and with no one else to turn to, employees are hoping to at least make information available to residents and parents. In the end, the students—our communities—are the ones who will suffer the most.”
The next meeting of the Grossmont CSEA chapter is 4 p.m. April 17 at the Technology Resources Compound, 301 North Mollison Ave., in El Cajon. The school board next meets at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at the East County center in El Cajon.
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