Don't let city workers bump vital school secretaries from their jobs

October 29, 11:39 AMSF Education ExaminerCaroline Grannan

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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