Letters and Comments for September 22, 2009

Nebeker

Not fair to classified staff

To the Editor:

I was amazed and dismayed to read the Aug. 10 Observer article “School board OKs classified contract” that the La Grande School District classified staff are taking a huge pay cut to help reduce the school budget deficit.

Come on, citizens of La Grande. These people work the hardest and are the lowest paid in the school system. And while I am sure they no doubt feel very good about doing their part to help the schools and the community they love, is this really fair?

While it is admirable that they are willing to make this wonderful sacrifice, is there any disparity in the fact that another classified staffer got a $15,000 raise to do a job he was already doing?

The article in the June 4 Observer, “LG teachers agree to pay cut,” the school board said that Plants and Operations Manager Gary Howland was not going to be replaced, yet it seems this is exactly what happened at the expense of the school teaching staff, the taxpayers and now the classified staff.

What is wrong with the picture when cooks and janitors who work hard and are underpaid are asked to give up four days of pay, possibly five and another classified staff is given an astronomical raise? What kind of impact does this cut have on the classified staff’s families?

With health insurance rising out of control, can the classified staff afford to take a freeze in health care benefits along with a big cut in pay? Single parents or one-parent wage earner families who work for the school district certainly cannot afford this kind of reduction.

Diane Nebeker

La Grande