Non-certified Regional School District #8 employees working at RHAM Middle and High Schools urge the school board to reverse Monday's decision to reject their recently ratified tentative agreement

HARTFORD—Paraeducators, custodians, maintenance workers, and administrative personnel are deeply disappointed by the RHAM Board of Education's decision Monday to vote down a tentative agreement reached in recent contract negotiations. Despite the school board's decision, these employees are committed to providing a quality education experience for Regional School District #8's students and to speaking out for smarter use of scare local resources.

On September 15, members of the CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 chapter that represents the seventy-five non-certified personnel in RHAM Middle and High Schools ratified the agreement for a successor to their previous contract, which expired in June of 2008. The RHAM school board's rejection forces both parties into interest arbitration, marking the second time in less than a year that they have been unwilling or unable to reach a voluntary agreement with district employees.

"Our members have been working under the old contract for more than a year, and had been working hard to reach agreement with the school board's representatives in negotiations" said Michael Schlehofer, a maintenance worker at both schools and the Union's local chapter president. "We understood from the beginning that we needed to address the economic issues for both sides. At the same time, balancing the school board's budget on the backs of hard-working, middle-class families like ours will actually hurt the local economy" Schlehofer continued.

After the Board rejected the proposals of the union representing the district's teachers last year, the dispute went to a neutral arbitration panel, which rendered its decision in February. The tentative agreement the Board's representatives reached with the schools' non-certified employees -- and then rejected at Monday night's meeting -- contained the same core economic settlement awarded in the earlier teachers' arbitration decision.

"Our vote to accept this agreement was made in good faith and in the spirit of cooperation during what we know are difficult times" Schlehofer added. "The school board should reconsider its decision and approve our agreement, which would save the district thousands of dollars that would be spent on lawyers arbitrating this matter" he concluded.

CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 represents 25,000 active and retired public sector workers serving in state and municipal agencies, as well as local school districts across Connecticut. Visit www.seiu2001.org online for more information about how its members are working to deliver quality services to students in our state's K-12 public education settings.