A state agency has rejected a request by Shoreline Unified School District to intervene in negotiations with the classified employees union over proposed changes to health benefits. The district’s chapter of the California School Employees Association has been negotiating for over a year with district officials, who want to swap health insurance for health savings accounts, stipends for premiums and an incremental pay raise. According to the district, the proposal would make costs predictable, while costing Shoreline money in the short-term. (The teachers union accepted a similar proposal last year; that change will cost Shoreline roughly $175,000 in the first three years, after which the district expects to save money, according to the chief business official.) Last month, Shoreline’s superintendent, Bob Raines, argued that the negotiations had reached an impasse and asked the Public Employment Relations Board to mediate. In declining the request, Felix De La Torre, the relations board’s general counsel, pointed out that the two parties have only held three meetings and that the employees union was awaiting information from the district so it could compare costs of current health benefits with the district’s proposal. “I’m the not the least bit surprised that [the relations board] agreed with us,” said Linda Borello, president of Shoreline’s chapter of the C.S.E.A. “But I think it’s unfortunate this occurred so late in the year. We’re down to 19 days left of school, and we can’t negotiate during the summer.” The employees union has requested specifics about how the proposed health savings accounts would cover health services, co-pay amounts, prescriptions and hospitalization costs, in hopes of crafting a clear comparison.