CSEA Capistrano Chapter 224

BARGAINING UPDATE: The Negotiating Team met with CUSD on Monday. Responses to District’s proposals regarding language items in the Collective Bargaining Agreement were discussed. The parties are scheduled to meet again on December 7, 2009 and will continue discussing CSEA’s responses to District proposals.

It is with heavy hearts that we must report the passing of one of Chapter 224's fixtures, Phil Bordeaux.  He passed away at home this past Saturday.

Phil was the library technician at Aliso Viejo Middle School.  A veteran of the Navy, president of the Lantern Villages Association of Dana Point and Chapter 224 Pre-Retirement Resource, Phil dedicated his life to giving back to his nation and his community.  Phil was a consummate story teller, his soft Georgia drawl drawing you in as he told tales of living in Saudi Arabia, his time in the Navy, and the pride he felt in his family.  He was a dear friend to so many in the CUSD community, and he will be missed.

Phil is survived by his wife, Mary, and his two sons, Serge and Tony.

A memorial service for Phil Bordeaux will be held next Wednesday, November 18th at Sea Terrace Park in Dana Point at 2:00 pm. The address is 33501 Niguel Rd., Dana Point. The park is located near the Dana Point Public Library.
 

Classified employees of CUSD are joining in the call to Restore Pride to CUSD. Classified workers who take great pride in their role supporting public education in CUSD can no longer take pride in a district that has become the subject of criticism and ridicule in the community and among their peers in other school districts. We are joining with other district employees who are working to Restore Pride in CUSD. Classified employees have three points to make to the Board of Trustees:

• STOP MAKING IRRESPONSIBLE FISCAL DECISIONS
  • Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being wasted on legal firms related to the firing of Superintendent Woodrow Carter
  • Interims, consultants and temporary principals.
  • The creation of an Executive Director for Facilities at the cost of $175,000 per year, despite being told that there was no necessity for this position at this time.
  • Rejection of a waiver for the June election which would have saved $500,000. Instead they hired a legal firm to stop the election, wasting more money.

 

• STOP YOUR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR
  • Settling lawsuits with campaign contributors
  • Attacking public education
  • Repeated violations of the Brown Act
  • Attempts to shut down local control of school board elections after promising to promote voting by trustee area when they ran for office

 

• STOP YOUR DISREGARD FOR THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO THE STUDENTS WE SERVE
  • The school board has no respect for the employees, voting for classified layoffs for the past three years and advocating a 10% reduction in salaries
  • In a mean spirited move, they forced a 10% pay cut on management with no warning
  • The School Board does not care that more than half of classified employees are less than 12 months per year, 40 hour per week employees
  • The School Board does not care (and probably doesn’t know) that half of classified employees are not even eligible for the health care benefits they themselves are enjoying at district expense

Wear a Restore Pride in CUSD wristband to show your support of our students, co-workers, and a CUSD that we can all be proud of. Wear CSEA blue to the School Board Meeting on December 15.

The October 2009 Newsletter is available online here before it gets distributed to schools.  Click here to download it to your computer.

At the September members meeting, outgoing Public Relations Officer Evan Wade challenged members to join CSEA's Victory Club to support the fight to mend California's school funding mechanisms.

"I contribute $10 a month," he said.  "I challenge you to sign up at the $1 a month level and get nine of your friends to sign up with you."  He said he didn't want his leaving the District to hamper CSEA's efforts.

Evan's challenge to us comes heading into October, which is CSEA's Victory Club Awareness Month.

The Victory Club helps fund school board campaigns, school bond elections, statewide ballot campaigns and legislative races. Victory Club money cannot be spent on CSEA operational expenses.

Victory Club funds help us to:

• Fully fund education and insure that the promise of full funding for our schools is kept.
• Protect and preserve our pensions. We need to stop legislation and initiatives to take away guaranteed pensions and force employees into risky 401k style plans.
• Provide access to affordable health care. We need to campaign for legislation and ballot measures to insure every classified employee has quality, affordable health care.
• Elect a Governor, legislators and school board members who support public education, classified employees and organized labor.
• Pass school bonds, so we can build, update and renovate our school facilities.
• Stop privatization and outsourcing of classified jobs to the private sector.

 

After many years of working with our chapter, Wyatt McClean has taken on a new assignment working with members in Garden Grove. We have a new Labor Relations Representative, Nathan Banditelli.

Nathan recently joined CSEA as a Labor Relations Representative. He comes to CSEA after working as a Research Analyst for Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania and earned his Masters Degree in Labor Studies from The University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has been busy getting to know us and is looking forward to working with us.

You can meet Nathan at our first Chapter Meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 9 at 4:30 at the District Office. Please join us in welcoming Nate to CSEA and CUSD!