Classified workers push for living wages for classified workers, work to preempt a strike amid ongoing bargaining negotiations

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

More than half of classified workers in Ashland schools surveyed are not able to make ends meet on their current salaries alone, union representatives said last week, with 52% surveyed saying they’ve had to take a second or third job to make ends meet.

With the median pay for an Ashland School District classified worker tagged at $24,841 a year or $2,070 per month, many could be categorized as below the poverty line for a family of three. 

Those are bus drivers, IT workers, educational assistants, and janitors, and many can’t afford the average rent in Ashland, which Zillow says is $1,375 per month. One-third live outside of Ashland.

About 15 classified workers attended the Ashland School Board meeting Thursday, May 9, to share these concerns and more about low pay and inability for some to afford to pay their bills even while holding the job. Union reps are calling for a living wage for the 200 classified staff members as bargaining negotiations continue into next month.

According to Steven Essig, president-elect of the Ashland chapter of OSEA (Oregon School Employees Association), the classified union, “6.7% of classified staff (surveyed) can afford a place with a third of their gross income.” Essig cited a fact sheet union organizers distributed to school board members during the school board’s regular meeting on Thursday, May 9.

“Clearly we aren’t paid enough … That’s pretty sad,” Essig said.

Lisa March serves as the head custodian at Walker Elementary and has been with the district almost 20 years. She is serving her last term as president of the OSEA classified union chapter.  

“We’re not making a living wage,” March told school board members last Thursday. “We really want to stay here and live in Ashland and work here and continue to be a part of your children’s lives. I just want you to know that because when we come to the bargaining table, that’s what we’re going to be asking for.”

She was joined later during the public comment portion of the meeting by fellow classified workers like Marla Sommers, 66, who works with special needs students in the skills classroom at Ashland High School (AHS).

Sommers has worked seven days a week for three years so her son could attend AHS, after relocating from Eagle Point. 

“That was the only way I could afford to live in Ashland and have my son go and graduate at Ashland High School,” Sommers said.

She works with students with high levels of needs in the skills classroom at Ashland High School and describes an atmosphere in the classroom as what some would not have the training to handle. 

“I am dealing with poop, pee, vomit — all kinds of trauma — every day, all day long,” she said. “Pushing a wheeled chair up and down hills in the heat, bathrooming, toileting; just being there for the kids. And ever since COVID, it’s gotten a lot worse.”

She sometimes has to push students in wheeled chairs up and down hills in the heat as well.

“I love my job, I love what I do, but it’s just not sustainable,” Sommers added.

Sommers would be retiring this month if she could, but at 66, still cannot afford to. 

Another Ashland classified worker, whose name was not available, told school board members she had to choose between buying a pair of eyeglasses over food this month.

“Bus drivers on average make $1,500 a month,” she said, noting they can make $3 to $5 less an hour while they wait on the bus for students in between pickups. “$1,500’s not a living wage.”

Classified workers hope to avoid a strike

On Friday, March told Ashland.news that her intention in speaking at the school board meeting is to avoid a strike.

“A few years ago, our bargaining failed and we went to mediation and we were picketing and it was really rough,” March said.

“This year I want to get ahead of it because … the district has already expressed the trouble with the budget,” she added, noting that members are nervous they’ll be offered a “really low wage” by the district. “They need to know what’s going on with us, so it’s sort of like giving them a heads up.”

March was unable to share the desired percentage increase that she and classified personnel would ask for as she believes it would be unfair to district partners, since bargaining has been underway since late March. 

Compensation has yet to come up at bargaining sessions, but likely will in June. 

Though not directly specified, classified representatives would likely be asking for more than the 2.5% classified employees received in 2022 if they desire a living wage. Administrators received a 3% cost of living increase that year.

“A 2.5% (cost of living allowance) to someone who earns $24,000 a year or a (2.5-3%) COLA for someone who’s making $150,000 a year — That’s entirely different,” March said.

“And if they didn’t get their COLA (cost of living allowance), they’d still be able to pay their mortgage and go on vacation this summer. They can still afford their lifestyle. I’m not saying they don’t deserve a cost of living allowance — of course they do — but that’s not the same as people who are already having to make choices about which bill am I not going to pay because I still need to buy food and payday’s not for another week.

“That’s not being melodramatic — that’s the way it is,” he added.

She also said personnel are desiring a wage increase that could support a single person or an individual with a family.

“Seventy-eight percent of classified staff have to rely on other resources to make ends meet,” March said. “We have people in poverty. We now have a classified staff member that’s homeless.”

She noted that classified workers a lot of times go above and beyond their duties simply because the need arises to do so.

“When a child sees me, they don’t see my job duties,” she said. “They see Miss Lisa, a trusted adult. They come to me and tell me about their owie, their lost tooth, their spilled lunch. They ask me for help, whether or not it’s my job to help them.”

Employees are present for kids who are at various stages and going through various things in their own lives.

“Oh my gosh, those bus drivers, I don’t know how they do it.That’s a job I would never do. You’ve got 40 or 50 kids on a bus and you are the only adult. You have to transport them safely and be the adult in the room, you know?” March said.

“Any bus driver, they say they love their job,” March said.

March loves her job, too.

She loves seeing the pictures that students draw for her and how they include the details down to her curls and her scrubbing machine, or when they get excited to see her at the grocery store.

“Children decide who their people are, who they can trust, and I know that because I’ve been chosen,” he added.

Can classified workers like March afford to live in Ashland? Most cannot, according to statistics presented by OSEA.

When asked about the likelihood of a strike, March said she hopes the chances for that are “low.”

Currently, anxieties surrounding wages among classified employees are high, though, as expressed Thursday evening by several employees during public comment.

“Two and a half years ago when we were picketing, we put out a vote for a strike back then and we had 70% of our members say, ‘Yeah, we’re willing to do it … and I think we would have the numbers again if it comes to that’ …  really don’t want to do that.”

“We really do everything we can to not have to do that,” she added.

March noted that bargaining negotiations have been going “really well” and that there is a “collaborative relationship at the table.”

“We’ve gone in together with the district to have a wage study done to help us with the compensation pieces so we can see competitively where our wages are standing in the valley, and in similar demographics of other school districts.”

The wage study is still underway and it is unclear when it will be done.

The goal to reach an agreement remains June 30, which, March noted, is outgoing Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove’s last day with the district.

Bogdanove shared comments with Ashland.news on Monday regarding the presentations made to him and school board members.

“All of our employees are aware that we are facing budget challenges heading into the coming school year due to loss of enrollment,” Bogdanove told Ashland.news in an email on Monday. “We are extremely grateful for our classified employees. Classified staff do jobs from IT to bus driving and classroom support to accounting. We are currently working collaboratively with the classified union on a wage and benefit comparison study so that we remain competitive. We are locally insured and our benefits for half-time and above staff are exceptional. We have been successful in hiring in most areas but do have open positions in custodial that we are working to fill.” 

The sample size for the union survey, conducted between Feb. 12 and 19, is 78, according to organizers.

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].

May 15: Lisa March’s name corrected.

Related stories:

Ashland School District employee starts petition opposing librarian cuts (April 24, 2024)

Ashland School Board cuts at least $1.3 million from budget, including athletic director and up to two dozen classified staffers (Feb. 12, 2024)

School employees, district reach tentative agreement (Feb. 24, 2022)