Support staff at Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) continue to push for an improved contract, including a wage increase and more sick days. Negotiations are at an impasse and now in the hands of a fact finder.
Support staff addressed the HUUSD Board in the public comment portion of their January 10 meeting. As they spoke, others stood behind them holding up signs. One read: “We have families, bills and needs – just like you.”
Support staff include paraeducators, administrative assistants, food service staff, maintenance staff, technology support staff, librarian assistants, SLP assistants, student support, and registrars.
PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK
Staff said they are asking for a fair wage increase in the context of soaring costs of housing, utilities, and health care. HUUSD director of finance and operations Lisa Estler said that for fiscal year 2022-23, instructional assistants were making between $19.50 and $30.16 hourly. Student support specialists made between $19.50 and $25.83 hourly. And food service workers made between $19.50 and $23.41.
Matt Currier, a support specialist at Brookside Primary School, said it’s become hard to afford the most basic needs for his family of four. Last winter, he said they barely had enough heating fuel and were at risk of going without heat.
HUUSD board chair Kristen Rodgers, who was reading a statement drafted by the board, said that the most recent contract offer presented by the board included a 5% raise and paid lunches (8.81% total) for fiscal year 2024, a 4% raise and paid lunches (7.51% total) for fiscal year 2025, and a 3% raise and paid lunches (6.29% total) for fiscal year 2026.
SICK LEAVE BANK
Daniel Lillard, an administrative assistant for the Harwood special education department, read a petition written by the support staff’s bargaining committee and signed by over 90% of teachers and school staff in the district. She said that support staff should be allotted the same number of sick days as teachers are.
HUUSD superintendent Michael Leichliter said that teachers currently have 20 sick days built into their contracts. Full-time support staff are allotted 12 and part-time staff get 10.
Rodgers said that after the most recent offer extended by support staff negotiators on October 31, the board’s chief negotiator countered that offer with the creation of a Sick Leave Bank – which offers the ability to solicit donations of personal or sick leave from other employees, but it was rejected.
FORCED TO CHOOSE
Several support staff told the board that when they run out of sick days, they are faced with choosing between forgoing pay or coming into work while sick. Currier said that last year when he took time off beyond his allotted sick days, “I got a letter threatening discipline up to dismissal.”
“I was shocked by this approach and have been afraid of losing my job just for getting sick.” He added that working closely with students on a daily basis makes staff members susceptible to illness – that “getting sick is kind of part of my job right now.”
Julie Johnson, a paraeducator at Warren Elementary School, said that she recently had to take a leave of absence from work because she didn’t have enough sick or personal days.
“As of right now, I have seven hours and 41 minutes left of sick days, and 15 hours of personal days for 94 days left of school.” This worried her, as she cares for her 28-year-old son who is diagnosed with autism. “People have lives,” she said. “They have bills. They need the support of the board. They need the support of the community.”
RETAINING STAFF
Support staff have been working without a contract for over a year. Rodgers said that negotiations began in May 2022 when the school board approached the Harwood Unified Education Association Support Staff unit and offered a 21% increase in wages for the 2022-23 school year – an amendment to the last year of their contract.
According to an agreement between the HUUSD Board and the support staff association, the board set the minimum hourly pay rate for custodians and maintenance workers at $20 and the rate for all other support staff at $19.50. The agreement reads that wages were adjusted “in order to attract and retain support staff in the current labor market.”
Some support staff members who spoke at the board meeting said it’s not uncommon for employees to have one or two jobs in addition to their HUUSD positions. Some said they knew of other employees who left their HUUSD jobs for higher paying work at fast food restaurants or Walmart.
The board and support staff negotiators are at an impasse with negations. A neutral third-party fact finder is currently evaluating information from both parties and will produce a report.
