Given its popularity, the new organic lunch program at the Lagunitas Community School would seem an unlikely source of conflict—but it’s become the subject of a complaint by the California School Employees Association.
The complaint isn’t about the food, which is widely praised by the school community. It’s not about the chef, a local professional who by all accounts is skilled. And it’s not about the ingredients, which are fresh, local and healthy.
But in an unfair labor practices claim pending with the state, the union alleges that the Lagunitas School District violated its mandate to bargain in good by hiring a preselected candidate for the food services coordinator job and inflating her pay with a $10,000 bonus. The bonus, the complaint argues, was a backdoor means of achieving what the district failed to win at the bargaining table.
The candidate was Meggan Arnoux, a chef who graduated from the school in 1991 and has been running the program since it began last fall.
The complaint accuses the district of withholding information during the talks. Although district negotiators said they had trouble finding candidates, an internal candidate was eager to take the job but did not receive an interview, the complaint alleges.
Steve Rebscher, the school board president, said the district followed proper procedures and acted with the approval of its attorney when it offered the bonus. If it had offered a salary at the low end of the union pay scale, as the union proposed, the district wouldn’t have been able to hire someone with Ms. Arnoux’s experience.
“Here’s a person that’s worked in the field for 20 years,” he said. “If we want a good program, we have to get a good person, and this person’s been fantastic.”
Even taking the bonus into account, Mr. Rebscher said, Ms. Arnoux earns substantially less than her predecessor, who retired at the top of the pay scale.
The union filed its complaint in December with the California Public Employment Relations Board. Last month, the district restructured the program, creating a management position to oversee it that is not part of the union bargaining unit. And last week, it moved Ms. Arnoux into the new post, which will carry additional administrative responsibilities as the program expands to the nearby San Geronimo Preschool next fall.
“We are very hopeful that all these issues are going to get worked out and that we’re going to be able to offer a delicious, dynamic, positive food program next year,” said Katherine Graham, the district superintendent.
The union chapter said it fully supports the food program and is solely concerned with the fairness of the hiring process.
According to the complaint, the district sought to start Ms. Arnoux at about $33 an hour—$9 more than the area’s average rate for cooks. The union’s top offer was $26 an hour. But the bonus brought Ms. Arnoux’s salary to within pennies of the wage the district had failed to negotiate.
The complaint calls on the district to establish a $10,000 professional growth fund that could be used in part to train the passed-over candidate and demands that she receive an interview if the position opens again.
Ms. Arnoux’s organic culinary creations have drawn record numbers of students to the dining room. Last year, about 10 to 15 students participated in the school lunch program each day, but this year it draws closer to 200, Mr. Rebscher said.
“The students are enthusiastic about what they’re getting to eat, and teachers have said that when they’re well fed and nourished, the students are more focused in class,” said Breeze Kinsey, a school trustee. “It’s absolutely a program that is worth carrying on.”