Critics blasted a decision made last Thursday by Shoreline Unified School District’s board of trustees to cut the hours of a groundskeeper, Ernesto Orozco, from full to half-time while three out of the board’s seven trustees continue to receive voluntary, district-funded health benefits.
Most distressing was the fact that slicing Mr. Orozco’s job from eight to four hours a day will save the district around $25,000—roughly equivalent to what the district pays annually for trustee benefits, at around $8,700 each for trustees Clarette McDonald, Kegan Stedwell and Jane Healy, according to the district’s business manager, Bruce Abbott.
As a half-time employee, Mr. Orozco will no longer be entitled to the same health and welfare benefits—including dental, vision, life and a Kaiser health insurance plan—that are available to full-time employees and trustees. That loss, he said, is particularly tough since two of his five children are disabled by muscular dystrophy.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay everything,” said Mr. Orozco, who has lived in various parts of West Marin since arriving 20 years ago from Jalisco. “I’m worried about the medical insurance for my kids.”
Mr. Orozco’s employment marked the only involuntary casualty of the district’s year-long struggle to reduce a structural budget deficit, which last summer was revealed to be in the red by over half a million dollars.
Approved 4-0 by trustees—Jim Lino, Monique Moretti and Ms. Stedwell were absent—on Thursday, the resolution that cut Mr. Orozco’s hours also eliminated five other part-time positions, including a secretary, an instructional aide and a special education assistant, Following the resolution’s approval, last Thursday’s meeting launched headlong into a discussion over whether the board should formally revise its policy on health benefits. Since December, a cadre of trustees have argued that removing the benefits might dis-incentivize future candidates from running for board seats, of which four out of seven will be up for election on Nov. 3.
“What you’re doing is that you’re saying someone who doesn’t earn enough can’t be on the board,” Ms. Healy said. “I couldn’t afford to do that.”
A handful of parents and teachers have long called on the remaining three trustees to voluntarily relinquish their benefits, a move they consider akin to an act of solidarity with a school district that has witnessed program cuts and the retirement of many mainstay teachers and staff throughout last school year.
Though legal counsel advised trustees in December that they could not vote to end benefits for current board members, as individuals they can voluntarily give up their benefits. The board as a whole can also adopt a policy that would prohibit new, future trustees from receiving benefits. (New trustees could, however, have the option to pay for the district’s benefits package out-of-pocket.) Mr. Abbott was unsure whether a new policy would apply to re-elected incumbents or just to first-time board members.
At the close of Thursday’s meeting, board president Jill Manning-Sartori directed Mr. Abbott to draft a revision of the board’s policy that would set a definitive date after which no future elected trustees could receive benefits. He will present a first reading of the policy at next month’s meeting.
But regardless of any decision around benefits, Ms. Manning-Sartori said, the groundskeeper position would have been reduced as part of the district’s long-term plan to close its deficit.
“You’re talking about apples and oranges,” she said. “We would still be laying off partial positions, even if we ended board benefits. They’re not the same thing.”
As groundskeeper, Mr. Orozco assumed landscaping duties at all six of the district’s schools and regularly assisted West Marin School’s maintenance head, Gilo Rodriguez, in a variety of custodial tasks beyond the groundskeeper responsibilities. Some on Thursday wondered whether the loss of the extra help would impact Mr. Rodriguez’s ability to ensure safety at the school.
“[Gilo] really needs help, and doesn’t have enough,” said Avito Miranda, president of West Marin School’s Parent-Teacher-Student Association and a school parent who plans to run for election to the board this fall. “The little [help] he has, you guys are going to take it away. It’s all about saving money, but why do you not give up the benefits?”
Speaking with the Light, Mr. Orozco said he left ranch work over a year ago in Hicks Valley to accept the groundskeeper position at Shoreline. Had he known the district would hack his hours in half so soon after hiring him, he said, he may not have left the ranch, where he enjoyed job security through seniority.
Now, he is training to become a bus driver for the district; pending approval from California Highway Patrol, he could move into that role as early as the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, Mr. Abbott told the Light. Bus driving would give Mr. Orozco enough work to return to full-time hours again and earn back his health benefits, Mr. Abbott said, though there’s no guarantee yet that he will be hired.
“When the dust settles, our hope is that he will still be a full-time employee,” Mr. Abbott told the Light on Monday. “We are certainly doing our best to find some way to make his hours [full-time].”
The board also approved an agreement with the Marin County Office of Education to hire a county-appointed administrator for special-education services, a role previously held by an outside contractor, Pat O’Connor. The county has not yet been decided who will fill the position.
In December, board terms will expire for Ms. Manning-Sartori, who represents Tomales and Marshall; Ms. Stedwell, who represents Point Reyes Station, Inverness and Olema; Ms. Moretti, who represents Bodega, Bodega Bay, Dillon Beach and Valley Ford; and Ms. McDonald, who also represents those towns.
Of the four, Ms. Manning-Sartori and Ms. McDonald have signaled their intent to run for re-election; Ms. Stedwell and Ms. Moretti will not seek new terms.
The board will continue a discussion next month on whether to revise its policy so that voters are only allowed to vote for trustee candidates running in their specific area jurisdictions.