School Employees

A janitor was found guilty Wednesday in the 1997 rape and murder of a popular high school senior, a crime that prompted California legislators to tighten employee screening and prevent hiring felons convicted of serious crimes. Alex Dale Thomas, a convicted felon and Los Angeles gang member, now faces a Sept. 18 hearing to decide if he will be sentenced to death for the daytime slaying of Michelle Montoya at a rural Sacramento County high school.

The Maryland Mega Millions mystery has been solved. Three public school educators stepped forward Monday to cash in their ticket for a share of a record jackpot that topped $656 million. They wore black gloves and matching red sweatshirts and hid behind one of those giant checks -- preferring to remain anonymous in an attempt to keep at bay all those people who would like to separate the lottery winners from their money. The trio -- two public school teachers and a school administrator -- have relatively modest plans for their winnings.

A Compton Community College printer, who in January pleaded no contest to felony charges of stealing from the school, continues to receive a regular monthly paycheck although he hasn't been on the job for 16 months.

Students who are sexually abused by school employees may sue public districts if their administrators ignored warning signs or failed to monitor the employees, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday. The state high court's ruling revived a lawsuit against the William S. Hart Union High School District by a student who alleged that a counselor repeatedly abused him sexually. The suit said that school administrators knew or should have known that the counselor, Roselyn Hubbell, had a propensity for sexual abuse when they hired her at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita.

Dennis Smith has been chosen 1997 Member of the Year by the California School Employees Assn. for Region 12, which encompasses nine northern Orange County school districts. Smith, a maintenance worker in the Magnolia School District for 13 years, is a four-time president of the district's employees association. He has also served as chairman of the chapter's negotiations committee since 1984 and as chairman of the grievance committee since 1990.

A 51-year-old cafeteria worker at Balboa Middle School in Ventura was hospitalized early Friday morning after being carjacked and kidnapped outside the school and beaten, police said. The woman, usually the first to arrive at school each day, was walking from her pickup truck to the building shortly after 6 a.m. when she was forced back into her vehicle by a white or Latino man in his mid-20s or early 30s, said Lt. Carl Handy of the Ventura Police Department.

Orange Coast College will offer a class on tax breaks for public school employees. Marjorie Stanford, a financial planner, will conduct the seminar, which emphasizes tax laws specifically designed to benefit school administrators, teachers and classified employees. Information: (714) 432-5880.

The Fillmore Unified School District's 385 employees will receive pay increases of about 2% this fiscal year. The school board approved the salary hikes at its meeting Tuesday. The district's 170 teachers get a 2.3% wage increase, which will cost about $170,000 more a year, officials said. Administrators and other personnel will see a 2% increase at an additional cost of about $56,000 annually. The increases are retroactive to July 1, 1995.

Negotiators for about 800 non-teaching employees who are locked in a contract dispute with the Anaheim City School District say they will continue to picket meetings of the Board of Education until a state mediator arrives next month. At issue are this year's pay increases: The district has offered the employees a 6% raise and the employees are holding out for 7%.

Rebecca Tritch, a science teacher for five years, received word that she had lost her job last week, during her second year at Santa Paula High School. Like most educators, Tritch had been well aware of the school budget deficits, she said. But the magnitude of the problem didn't hit home until she received a letter from the Santa Paula Union High School District in March notifying her of a possible layoff, Tritch said. "It was a shock," she said.

The Supreme Court extended the principle of church-state separation Wednesday to shield religious schools nationwide from discrimination suits from teachers and school employees who serve as “ministers” of the faith. In a unanimous ruling, the high court for the first time concluded the Constitution includes a “ministerial exception” that protects churches and their schools from undue interference from the government and its courts. However, lower courts have long recognized that churches are protected from lawsuits involving their internal workings.

Sam Dyck's drama sketch about bullying came from personal experience. The Hale Middle School eighth-grader said he was bullied in elementary school and saw friends being physically intimidated. "My scenes were based on kids bullying because they've been bullied themselves, and sometimes it starts at home with parents," said Sam, 14, after his presentation to classmates. "It's like dominoes that keep falling, and it won't stop until we make it stop. " His account summed up the message of "Stand Tall Day," a series of anti-bullying presentations, videos and discussions and self-defense sessions at the Woodland Hills campus.

Miss G is back at Hamilton High! The beloved office worker for the school's two magnets was laid off by the Los Angeles Unified School District in mid-September. "I felt railroaded," Christina Gutierrez, two gold hoops and a stud sparkling from each ear. "I saw something in the mail, and my heart dropped." Gutierrez, who lost her job because of low seniority, cut her losses and found a job at an elementary school. Students, however, were not so willing to let her go. They staged a 500-strong sit-in protest on her last day and eventually petitioned the Board of Education to let her return.

About 20,000 Los Angeles school district workers have agreed to four unpaid furlough days to help close a large budget gap, officials announced Monday. Two units of Service Employees International Union Local 99 representing cafeteria workers, bus drivers and other employees approved the measure last week by a combined vote of 953 to 234, said Blanca Gallegos, a union spokeswoman. The members will take one furlough day per month from February through May. The move will save about $7.7 million, according to union officials.

Diahanne McKinley stepped off the scale and shook her head in disbelief. She tried again, this time removing a head wrap -- every ounce counts, she said. But again, the number was not good. So she shifted her weight from side to side and stepped on the scale one more time, observing the digital numbers aglow below her. "I'm not happy," said the 53-year-old, fanning her eyes to stop the tears. "I'm working out four to five times a day -- morning, noon and night. I only lost one pound."

Most University of California professors and staff would have to take between 11 and 26 unpaid furlough days a year, cutting their pay by 4% to 10% under a revised budget proposal announced Friday by UC President Mark Yudof. The UC Board of Regents is expected to approve the emergency plan next week in response to deep reductions in anticipated state funding.

For the second time in less than a week, a staff member at a San Fernando Valley elementary school has been accused of molesting female students, the city attorney said. Jesus Fabian Hernandez of Pacoima, a former computer laboratory teacher's assistant at Burton Elementary School in Panorama City, was arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with three counts of child molestation, four counts of sexual battery and 16 counts of battery, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney.

After two decades of giving school officials wide leeway to search students for drugs or weapons, the Supreme Court set a legal limit on Thursday, ruling out of bounds the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl who was suspected of hiding pain relief pills. In an 8-1 decision, the court called this search degrading, unreasonable and unconstitutional. Justice David H.

More than 2,000 UCLA employees, including researchers, custodians, nurses and secretaries, gathered at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday to protest plans for pay cuts and furloughs proposed by the University of California. Because of the state budget crisis, UC leaders are considering three proposals to reduce payroll spending by about $195 million in the next school year.