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Classified staff press board on LMT reclassification and rising insurance costs; parents call for clearer emergency planning
Summary
During public comment classified staff urged clearer reclassification language and hour-equity for library media technicians, and a long-time employee said health-insurance premiums rose sharply after the district changed carriers. Speakers also asked the board for stronger emergency plans after a recent multi-day power outage at a high school.
Several classified employees used the public-comment period at the Nov. 14 Orange Unified School District meeting to press the board on personnel-equity and compensation issues.
Beth Cypress, an LMT at Villa Park Elementary, said library media technician duties have expanded substantially since 2001 and asked the board to urge the district to adopt clear contract language and processes for reclassification. "Please urge the district to add clear and fair contract language regarding reclassification, and then do the right thing and reclassify the positions that have dramatically changed within OUSD over the years," she said.
Kimberly Atkinson, an LMT at Serrano Elementary, described a permanent reduction in hours in 2009 that left some LMTs with fewer daily hours despite larger enrollment at their sites; she provided school-by-school examples she said demonstrate inequity and said HR and the union have not resolved the issue. Peter Ritchie, an LMT at Fletcher Academy, told the board the job now includes device-tracking, musical‑instrument inventories and training responsibilities and urged reclassification to reduce turnover.
A separate public speaker, identifying herself as Beth Albright and a classified employee of more than 20 years, presented a chart she distributed that lists year-by-year Kaiser premiums and employee contributions from 2019 through 2025. She said employees are paying substantially more since the district's move away from CalPERS; the speaker provided year-specific figures and asked that bargaining include a higher employer contribution for medical insurance. The speaker also referenced a prior board meeting quotation attributed to Deputy Superintendent David Rivera that the district and employees would save $5,200,000 per year; that figure was reported by the speaker and was not independently confirmed during the meeting.
Several speakers also urged stronger emergency plans after a multi‑day power outage at El Medina High School. Dr. Heather Chapman said site and district staff lacked clear communications and access to vital digital records during the outage and called for district-level emergency plans that include communication methods and access to digitized student information. Another parent and resident said outages in the shared grid have happened repeatedly and urged a temporary operational fix while a longer-range plan is developed.
Board members asked staff to provide a report on communications and the timeline of messages sent during the outage and discussed forming subcommittees or ad hoc groups after the new year to address emergencies and preparedness at the policy or site level.
