Around 100 people gathered at the Berkeley school board meeting Wednesday evening to show solidarity with a union currently in negotiations with the board to renew contracts for 450 classified, or non-teaching, employees.

The Berkeley Council of Classified Employees, the union that represents non-teaching employees in Berkeley schools, has been in negotiations with the school board since December 2007 to renew a contract that expired June 2007.

The district has not decided on a contract because they have yet to be given a budget by the state assembly. The state legislature is 74 days past a deadline to approve a state budget.

Tim Donnelly, president of the union, said the school board has been delaying a study by the district that would provide fiscal information to let the union know what demands they can appropriately make for a contract.

Last week the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school board, hoping that state intervention will help accelerate the negotiation process.

But Mark Coplan, spokesperson for the district, said members of the school board were also concerned about the negotiation process.

"They'd like to see negotiations finalized," Coplan said. "The difficulty is with the state budget, and the district's negotiation team and board are working to be as fair as possible."

Donnelly said the union first presented a proposed contract to the board in October 2007. Since then, he said, union and school officials have had 12 meetings and 40 hours of negotiations, along with two interventions by state mediators.

Union officials said they are seeking increased wages in the new contract because the cost of living has increased dramatically.

"Nothing has stood still for a year except our wages, so we're essentially making less," Donnelly said. "We need this yesterday."

However, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett, as well as school board member Joaquin J. Rivera said that the contract that was in place when it expired in 2007 is still in place, in that it is still being followed.

"They are under a contract and we continue as a school district to abide by that," Huyett said. "That is protection and work that is there."

Also, he said that the school district had projected an increase of 135 children in the schools, but the growth rate was only around 60 children. This means that the school district is short $350-700,000.

"Clearly these are tough economic times for everybody," Huyett said. "There is no budget, there's no additional money coming in."

After having heard multiple comments from the union members and their supporters at the meeting, Huyett said he was appreciative of the union members.

"I learned a lot tonight," Huyett said at the meeting. "They are passionate about their work for the school district and I really appreciate that."

Tags: BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT