Classified Articles
Classified
News for and about classified employees and paraprofessionals working in public schools and community colleges, and support staff in private schools.
2023 Council of Classified Employees Conference
The theme, "Flexing our Power, Protecting our Progress," was felt throughout the weekend
The annual Classified Council of Employees Conference took place at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco October 27-October 29. The theme of the conference was Flexing Our Power – Protecting Our Progress. Some of the local wins over the past year that were discussed by members included a six-figure settlement for employee overtime, paraeducators getting a living wage, and bilingual employees’ checks reflecting their expertise.
Classified members take their fight to the Capitol
Teanna Tillery, the United Educators of San Francisco Vice President for Paraeduators, has been involved with the union in different capacities for about twenty years. She joined, she says because of the disparity in the way classified members were treated in negotiations.
“I worked in my community for years, and it’s just in my nature that if I see something I don’t understand I like to go to the source and try to understand it,” she said. “I just wanted to be part of the group who could address problems.”
Summer 2023
Volume 13, Number 2
Lawndale Federation brings home
medical coverage for part-timers 
CFT-Sponsored Bills Move Through Legislature
San Francisco Paras Walk the Line
Palomar College Staff Come Together
New Look for Orange County Classified Professionals
“Employees” is now “Professionals” – in line with the CFT approach
Get out your smart phones and change your listing for AFT Local 4794. Members of the Coast Federation of Classified Employees voted unanimously at their spring meeting for a new name and look. “Employees” is now “Professionals” – in line with the CFT approach – and a Local 4794 task force created a new logo.
CFT-Sponsored Bills Move Through Legislature
Key legislation passed through the California Assembly in June, advancing to the State Senate for consideration later this summer.
AB 938 increases base funding under the Local Control Funding Formula by 50% to support a 50% raise in TK-12 salaries. The Assembly passed the CFT-sponsored bill by a unanimous 77-0 vote.
AB 1699 prohibits school districts from retaliating against classified staff for refusing or accepting a vacancy. The bill gives employees at least 10 days to apply for a position before the job opens to the public.
This Is How AFT Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel Do It
Hundreds of AFT PSRPs gathered in Baltimore this spring for the 45th annual conference. The theme – “This Is How We Do It” – was fitting. Paras and school-related personnel kept lessons flowing and children fed throughout the Covid pandemic.
PSRP co-chairs and AFT Vice-Presidents Shelvy Young Abrams and Carl Williams opened the first general session. Abrams chaired the Paras Chapter of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, and Williams leads the Lawndale Federation of Classified Employees.
High Desert Contract Gains
Antelope Valley College classified hope agreement points to better relations with administration. Staff still waiting for new superintendent to honor 2019 State Supreme Court ruling.
Negotiations at Antelope Valley College went late into the night on June 22, when AVC Superintendent Jennifer Zellet and AFT Local 4683 President Pamela Ford put the last touches on a contract for 240 members of the Antelope Valley College Federation of Classified Employees.
Salaries were the main issue at the table. Staff will receive an retroactive raise and increases.
The district will increase contributions to employee benefits, retroactive to October 2022.
Palomar College Staff Come Together for Classified Appreciation Week
Hundreds of classified professionals at this North San Diego County community college were invited to enjoy some well-deserved appreciation and “Cheer on the Dream Team!”in May.
Staff Appreciation Week was an opportunity for members of the Council of Classified Employees/AFT Local 4522 to come together, learn and connect with colleagues. CCE members also collected canned food and other donations to fill the college’s Basic Needs Center for students, employees and the community at large.
Relief for Hard-hit Staff at El Camino College
Not a single member of AFT Local 6142 was furloughed during the Covid pandemic, but the economic crisis hit El Camino College staff hard, and many received notices of 10% increases in rent as soon as eviction moratoriums ended.
“Five union members have told me they live in their cars, and another member was picking cans out of the campus trash cans to buy medicine for his children,” said Local 6142 President Roy Dietz. “That’s humbling, to tell someone about the state you’re in.”
Relief is on the way.
CFT 2023 Convention: United for Justice, United for Education
More and more workers – especially young people – realize how important unions are, and a surging CFT has set its sights on a 50% raise for workers over the next five years. These were some of the hot-button topics at the first in-person convention since CFT’s centennial celebration in 2019.
This year’s meeting in San Francisco convened under the banner, “United for Justice. United for Education.”
San Francisco Paras Walk the Line
The Board of Education and UESF unanimously approved a one-time retention bonus of $1,550 in May for about 1,600 paras
United Educators of San Francisco and the San Francisco Unified School District have met more than 10 times since bargaining began in March, but negotiators haven’t reached an agreement. UESF members are demanding pay raises, more flexible sick day policies, and smaller class sizes.
“The starting salary for a paraeducator in San Francisco is a pitiful $18.70 per hour,” UESF President Cassondra Curiel wrote in a newspaper column as contract talks were starting. “These are trained professionals who are only making $14,500 annually.”
Lawndale Federation brings home medical coverage for part-timers
The District scheduled part-timers so they were always a few minutes short of the ACA requirement to provide health benefits.
Watch this powerful video of members talking about their hard fought win for medical benefits.
For 30 years, the Lawndale Elementary School District denied their part-time classified employees health benefits. The District scheduled part-timers so they were always a few minutes short of the ACA requirement to provide health benefits.
Classified professionals move from “Aspiration to Action”
Conference gives front-line activists the tools to organize and lead during troubled times
First came the pandemic protocols. About 100 participants from 15 AFT locals across California had to test negative for COVID before entering the Council of Classified Employees conference area.
Then came the fireworks. “We need to march in the Capitol for the next Classified Appreciation Week. If they don’t want to recognize the work we do, we need to toot our own horn,” CCE President Carl Williams roared in his welcoming speech. Williams drilled down on “Aspiration to Action,” the conference theme.
AVERTing disaster: Every second counts
Surviving an “active shooter” on campus takes quick decisions and actions
The names of the schools are etched in our minds: Columbine High, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High, Uvalde Elementary. Gunmen with grudges have struck at all grade levels and in every corner of the country.
Most shootings take place at businesses, but news stories more often focus on schools. Deadly shootings are, in fact, tearing up U.S. schools at a record pace. According to Education Week, as of October 24 there have been 40 school shootings this year, with a toll of 34 dead and 88 injured.
Carl Williams tapped to co-chair AFT PSRP Program and Policy Council
Demystifying the acronyms, from AFT and CFT to PPC and CCE
The AFT groups classified employees, support staff, and paraprofessionals together in its Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) division, representing more than 370,000 workers in public and private preK-12 schools, colleges, and universities across the nation.
CFT’s due process bill succeeds, puts classified on even footing with faculty
Summer Assistance expands to community college staff, Juneteenth becomes official school holiday
Governor Newsom capped the 2020-22 legislative session by signing a flurry of bills that CFT sponsored, co-sponsored or supported. Senate and Assembly bills with strong bearing on classified employees ranged from due process during workplace appeals, to a fair repayment plan for accidentally overpaid wages.
Following are the new laws CFT fought to win for classified employees and paraprofessionals.
How does a district build a village for teachers and staff?
Innovative, affordable, and comfortable housing in Daly City welcomes new and veteran employees
The Jefferson Union High School District knew it had a problem holding onto staff. The district was losing about 25% of its certificated and classified employees yearly, and a survey showed that many were leaving the Daly City school district because of the high cost of housing.
Trades workers, custodians ready for increasingly dangerous workplaces
PHOTO GALLERY
CFT conference tackles tough issues of coronavirus, toxic chemicals, climate change, active shooters
Dozens of classified members from locals up and down California recently met at Compton College for the first Custodial and Skilled Trades Conference hosted by the CFT Council of Classified Employees.
“We have talked about this for years, and put it off for two years because of COVID, but here we are,” said a buoyant CCE President Carl Williams.
The new normal for special education instructional aides
‘‘SpEd IAs’’ face student pandemic trauma, larger classes, and low pay
California schools have returned to in-person learning, but acute staff shortages are hobbling the return. The hardest positions to fill are often special education instructional aides.
For “SpEd IAs,” as they are known from early childhood programs to post-secondary classrooms, there is no “social distance” with their students. Assignments may require feeding children, changing diapers, and handling medical equipment. Emotional outbursts can also be physically punishing to paraeducators.
AFT task force tackles national staff shortages in education
CFT seeks to set minimum salaries and hourly pay
COVID didn’t create the national staffing crisis we face, but the pandemic has stretched classified and certificated members so thin that some schools have been forced to shut their doors.
AFT has stepped up to the challenge and created an Education Staffing Crisis Task Force co-chaired by Carl Williams, head of the CFT Council of Classified Employees and an AFT Vice President, and Michael Mulgrew, leader of AFT’s largest local union, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers.