Alarm is spreading through San Francisco school communities about the likelihood that the secretaries who are invaluable to school offices are threatened with being bumped from their jobs by outsiders with no experience or interest in schools.
The situation is that higher-seniority secretaries whose jobs are eliminated in cutbacks may choose other jobs, bumping lower-seniority secretaries. The pool in which this may happen is overly broad, including City of San Francisco jobs (even though SFUSD is technically a state, not city, agency). The Department of Public Health is cutting jobs, and those staffers are threatening to bump school secretaries.
School offices are already thinly staffed, and the secretaries become an integral part of the school. It's just wrong to treat them like faceless cogs when it's children who will suffer from the disruption. The memo below from SFUSD Superintendent Carlos Garcia explains how the district has fought to keep this from happening. Word is that there are various efforts going on to stop this harmful disruption. (Sorry; I know people's jobs are at stake, but the needs of kids must outweigh the needs of adults.) Updates to come. Meanwhile, Mayor Newsom needs to show some leadership on this issue -- it's urgent.
From: Garcia, Carlos
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:04 PM
To: DistrictEmails
Subject: Message About District Employees Getting Displaced by City
October 27, 2009
Dear SFUSD Colleague:
As many of you may know, the San Francisco Unified District (the “District”) has historically been subject to the City and County of San Francisco’s (collectively “the City”) bumping and displacement process. Earlier this year the District filed a lawsuit asking the Superior Court to direct the City not to bump or displace District employees. IFPTE Local 21 and SEIU Local 1021 intervened on behalf of the City. On October 19, 2009 the Court rejected the District’s request and ruled in favor of the City, IFPTE Local 21 and SEIU Local 1021.
There are more than 50 people currently at risk of being bumped and this number is expected to increase. We deeply regret that the City bumping is forcing many of our colleagues to leave their current District positions.
Sincerely,
Carlos A. Garcia, Superintendent
Comments
Good school secretaries are like gold. They handle the bulk of the massive paperwork the district throws at schools. They know all the students by name and act as surrogate mom during the school day, putting ice on boo-boos, helping sick kids call a parent or find a quiet place to lie down if no parent can be reached. I have known secretaries who pay out of their own pocket for food for hungry kids, or little gifts for those who need a morale boost. They are the heart and soul of our schools and it is not an exaggeration to say that the schools could not run without them. This is not a position that anyone should be allowed to "bump" into. It is a specialized line of work and can't be performed by just anyone with a pulse.
A good school secretary, and I have seen few who are not, truly runs the school and mothers the children and is the eyes and ears and heart and soul of the entire organization...how tragic this is. What about CSEA?
I agree that good secretaries are the eyes and heart of our schools. But, but ones make everyone's life miserable including the kids. I'm very sorry for all the good secretaries that could loose their job. However, I'm glad to see several bad, heartless, mean ones go. Unfortunately schools get stocked with bad personnel because of union issues, leaving principals and parents with their hands tight. The system needs to be changed. Principals should be able to keep the good staff and let go bad ones. To work in a school you need to be a patient, loving, caring person. You need to choose that job because you want to make a difference. Not only thing about all the union's benefits, paid summer vacations, etc.
I agree that problem employees need to go, if the problems can't be corrected. I disagree that it's hard for principals to put that into action, though -- I just recently saw it happen effectively and swiftly, as needed (twice). Their job security is clearly nowhere near as intense as teachers'. Take a good look at your principal's management skills.
But the fact that there are occasional problem secretaries does not warrant the mass disruption threatened by city workers' bumping them out of their jobs. In my opinion it's immoral of any higher-seniority secretaries to do that. "But I really need the work" has been the excuse of scabs throughout labor history, and this is no more morally justifiable.
(By the way, they don't get PAID summer vacations.)
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