By Cristian Vasquez Some members of the California Professional Employees, Local Union # 2345, the Union for the classified employees in the Inglewood Unified School District, spoke out during a recent District School Board meeting against the replacement of the current campus supervisors. One of the grievances of the classified employees was that the district has approached hiring campus security through a more rigorous process, one, which would qualify a person who clears the process to carry a gun. “We are upgrading the security at school to ensure we get a top employees,” Inglewood School District State Trustee Dr. Don Branns aid. “We will have employees with guard cards and background checks. Not that we want anyone to carry a gun, but we want a higher caliber qualification.” In addition, the classified employees field representative Christopher Graeber voiced the employees’ disagreement with the district’s approval to increase the amount of fees paid to the California Highway Patrol for a security detail for State Trustee Dr. Brann. “This is security detail that was set with La Tanya Kirk-Carter so this is for security that is no longer needed,” Graeber said. “What we would like is to see that dropped down and to see more campus supervisors.” The initial agreement for the CHP security detail was set in the amount of $200,000 back in April of 2013. For Dr. Brann, who walked into the agreement, he was unsure how much of those services would be exhausted within any given time frame. After making a few calculations, it was determined that the initial amount of money would not be enough to cover expenses into April of 2015. So it was agreed to extend the contract by $135,000, for a total expenditure of $335,000 until April of next year. The money pays for a member of the CHP who is part of the dignitary protection unit, which guards the state constitutionally elected officers, such as the governor or secretary of state. Dr. Brann is under the program because he is under State Superintendent Tom Torlakson. “That keeps coming up and it is an extension of an existing contract that started before I got here; it was nothing that I asked for,” Dr. Brann said. “I came over here to help people and not to get hurt. I am listed on the phone book: I have lived my whole life out in open public. On the other hand, I won’t deny it because I might need it. I came here to help. I am not sure about this protection level but I will let the CHP and state figure it out.” Still, the lack of campus security is a major concern for Graeber and other classified school employees, who are still not fully recovered from the cuts that have occurred since the district began facing financial woes even prior to the state take over. Furthermore, for the safety of the student population Graeber believes that the schools need to be fully staffed with campus security since having the Inglewood Police Department and Inglewood School Police is not enough to ensure student safety. There was no problem with the Campus Supervisors. IUSD needs these workers today for the safety of the students,” Graeber said. “We want the campus security that we had before. No other department is being cut like this. We see administration having more and more people getting hired but when it comes to the people on the front line they want to be cheap and not do the right thing. We need campus security.” Dr. Brann indicates that of the initial 23 employees laid off, there have been at least six rehires and that once the budget allows more employees will come back. However, the district wants to ensure that every new or rehire is fully qualified and will use an enhanced background check system to make sure. “We have already brought some of them back, especially to the secondary schools,” Dr. Brann said. “We are bringing people in at the same time that we run the selection process through which we are trying to get a better grade of employees at those post.” “To attract families you have to have the expectation that everything is going to be okay when the families drop off their child,” Dr. Brann said. “If people do not have that confidence, they will find another place for their children to go to school.”