HART BOARD, WORKERS CLASH STAFFERS OBJECT TO CRITICISM OF HIRING PANEL.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Administrative staff, janitors and other Hart district workers on Tuesday confronted school board members who are pushing to eliminate a panel that regulates hiring and promotion for more than 630 classified employees.

William S. Hart Union High School District board member Dennis King called the personnel commission and merit system ``cumbersome'' and likened it to another union when he spoke at a meeting Tuesday of the California School Employees Association Chapter 349.

``The nature of the process excludes some people who are well qualified,'' he said. ``From the administrative standpoint it's a cumbersome situation.''

The commission oversees hiring and promotion of all non-teaching ``classified'' staff at the Hart district through a merit system.

A panel of three members, appointed by the school board and classified employees union, makes personnel recommendations to the board after considering exams and interviews which are given once every six months.

But the commission controls the reclassification of employees, which could raise salaries.

This year the Hart District school board gave classified employees a 1.2 percent raise. The board was also hit with $150,000 in pay increases due to promotions.

King said it was a ``double whammy'' for the district in a time of fiscal uncertainty.

``To tell you the truth, I feel like we have two unions,'' he said.

King triggered a storm of protest from dozens of district employees while discussing the issue at a school board meeting last month. Union representatives lashed out at the panel, calling any attempts to dissolve the system ``a slap in the face of every one of us.''

Created in the 1930s to counter alleged cronyism and nepotism in public education hiring in Los Angeles, the Personnel Commission system became widely adopted in California in the 1960s - a time before collective bargaining help secured employment and benefits for classified workers.

Currently, about 97 California school districts, most with at least 3,000 students, operate a personnel commission and merit system. Since the 1980s, Only eight school districts have opted into the scheme.

School employees rushed to defend the system, which they believe is fair in hiring and promoting.

``We want to keep it,'' said Jeanne Sisson, the CSEA chapter president. ``If you say you want to build a better mouse trap, you show us,'' she told King.

A school district has two ways to dissolve the commission and the merit system. If the school board or local voters succeed in petitioning the Los Angele County Office of Education to include a motion on the ballot of the next election, voters would decide by majority vote whether to retain the system.

The classified employees union can also terminate the panel by asking the school board to hold an election among the staff to decide the issue.

Robert Lee, head of the California School Personnel Commissioners Association, said that without these panels school districts are still subject to the same wrongful termination law.

He said that the personnel commission provides checks and balances.