District approves raises for classified employees

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- After more than eight months of negotiating, nearly 800

school district employees will get $1.1 million in raises.

This will bring salaries for classified employees -- which do not include

teachers and administrators -- up to par with the other school districts

in Orange County.

Last year, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District agreed to conduct a

study of the job titles, responsibilities and salaries of all classified

employees in the district. It is a process that is supposed to be

conducted every three to five years, but hasn’t been done in the

Newport-Mesa district in more than 20 years, said Lori McCune, the

district’s assistant superintendent of human resources.

“A number of the salaries were way out of whack,” said McCune, who

negotiates for the district.

The district hired Ewing & Co., a human resource consulting firm, to

review every classified employee position and then adjust job titles,

responsibilities and salaries where they were needed.

“We cleaned up a lot of job descriptions, because things change,” said

Cindy Means, president of the Newport-Mesa chapter of the California

Classified Employee Assn. “Some of the job descriptions referred to a

ditto machine -- something we don’t even use anymore.”

Only 126 of the 900 classified employees did not get a raise, McCune

said. The district’s consultants determined that the workers who did not

get a pay increase were earning competitive salaries.

Of the $1.1 million in salary increases, 2% of that, or $350,000, will go

toward back pay for employees for April, May and June. The remaining

$700,000 will provide employees with raises for the upcoming year, McCune

said.

When talks began last year, McCune said, district officials knew they

could not afford to bring all the salaries up to the average at one time.

But that changed this spring, when Gov. Gray Davis announced his plan to

give school districts the money owed to them by the state.

So now Newport-Mesa’s classified employees will get their raises,

although the amounts will vary.

“The board made a commitment to do the study and when it came down to it,

they honored their commitment to classified employees,” Means said. “So

we’re all very happy -- some are just happier than others.”