Vote Set on Raise for Nonteaching Staff

Like their teaching counterparts who recently received the same raise, Conejo Valley school district’s custodians, secretaries, gardeners and other nonteaching personnel stand to fatten their pay checks Tuesday night.

Trustees will vote on whether to give the local chapter of the California School Employees Assn. members a 6% raise and a one-time 2% refund from the Conejo Valley Unified School District’s health and welfare pool.

The teachers were awarded the same raise at the end of January.

“Typically, whatever is negotiated with one group, every attempt is made to put the same package together for the other,” said Assistant Supt. Jody Dunlap.

Last year, both union groups received a 4.2% raise and the same 2% refund.

Teachers will begin negotiating a new three-year contract this spring or in the fall; the nonteaching union’s three-year contract expires Dec. 31, 1999.

In a separate vote, trustees will decide whether to increase the hourly salaries of student helpers by a nickel. California’s minimum wage is now $5.15 an hour, but Conejo Valley students earn $5.70 an hour. On March 1, the new minimum wage will be $5.75 and district officials are recommending that their student employees make the new, higher amount.