Classified workers at Burbank Unified School District have been
rallying at recent school board meetings to protest a proposed salary
increase, an amount they see as inadequate and unfair.
"We hope to get the public involved," said Cheryl McDonald, a
campus supervisor at Burbank High School, who spoke at a recent
meeting. "We want the district to hear our voices and to show them
we're willing to take a stand and not just be pushed around, like we
have been for so many years."
The district's classified staff generally includes positions like
teacher's aides, custodians, food service workers and campus
supervisors; their contracts are negotiated separately from the
teaching staff.
Classified staff received a 2% raise for the 2004-2005 school year
that was effective Jan. 1, 2005. The district's teachers received
raises that averaged 4.5%, effective July 1, 2004.
Some of the larger raises among the teaching staff, according to
Burbank Unified School District Board President Paul Krekorian, were
to make up for years of low-pay raises that had put teachers'
salaries in Burbank behind those of teachers in comparable California
school districts.
"We were in danger of losing some teachers," Krekorian said.
Many classified staff are unsatisfied with the disparity and,
according to McDonald, the salary of classified staff in the Burbank
district is itself in the bottom 50 percentile when compared to other
districts.
"I would like for them to treat us as an equal," said Gloria Lara,
a teachers aide at John Burroughs High School. "For some of us, it's
not a living wage."
Some classified staff, including Lara, have considered leaving the
district to seek work elsewhere, but stay because they feel loyalty
to the students and co-workers.
"The only thing keeping me from doing that is that I like the
students that I work with and I like the teacher I work with," Lara
said. "I love what I do, that's why I'm here.
"If it wasn't for classified employees, district phones wouldn't
be answered, restrooms wouldn't be cleaned and children wouldn't be
fed," McDonald said.
Krekorian explained that although the district values the services
classified workers provide, budget constraints limit the ability to
offer large wage increases.
"When we give a raise it's not just for this year, it's forever,"
Krekorian said. "We have to take a good hard look and figure out how
to be as fair as possible."
The district's staff are part of California School Employees Assn.
