Sleep deprivation:Today’s teenagers lose valuable hours of sleep each night because of overscheduling. (7)

ken dorSey:Former Miramonte football star quarterback reflects on his past, present, and future. (19)

redheadS on campuS:Miramonte’s own redheads reveal the in’s and out’s of being a ginger. (12)

Non-Profit Organization US Postage Paid, Orinda,Ca Permit #301

Miramonte High School750 Moraga WayOrinda, CA 94563

The MiradorVolume 52, Issue 3 December 17, 2009

OpiniOn SpOrtSFeature

by Mackenzie Lee

On Monday, Dec. 7, Mira-monte students awoke to a white winter wonderland. With the most snow Orinda has seen in decades and re-cord low temperatures, resi-dents pulled out their snow sleds that are usually stored away until a trip to Tahoe.

“When I picked up my car-pool I said, ‘Guys I brought my sled and we are going to go sledding on MCC!’” said senior and snow enthusiast Eric Sassano.

KRON 4 News reported that this was the most snow this area has seen in 20 years.

“I have lived in Orinda since 1977,” said Tech Coordi-nator Cheryl Davis. “I remember one other time when it snowed in Orinda. I think it was early 1980s, but I don’t

remember there being this much snow and I’ve never seen Miramonte covered with a blanket of snow like this. That’s why I had my camera out!”

District and Union Clash Over Healthcare

Photo: C. DavisPhoto: E. Sassano

Record Snow Level Sticks in OrindaMiramonte students celebrated the most snow the East Bay has seen in 20 years

Left: A sheet of snow covered the Miramonte campus and the neighboring Moraga Country Club golf course.Right: Students on campus enjoyed the snow cover with snowmen and snowball fights.

by Elizabeth Lenczowski and Sophia Bollag

This year, the district and the teachers’ union failed to reach a compromise about contract is-sues. At this point, the district will not cover the increase in healthcare costs for current teachers, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

In response to a 2008 lawsuit filed by a former teacher against AUHSD and the Acalanes Edu-cation Association (AEA) alleging age discrimi-nation on a contract provision covering retirees, the district has filed a cross complaint against the AEA, 22 retirees, and two widows. According to a Dec. 8 press release from the district, the origi-nal lawsuit and cross complaint argue that “the retiree health benefits section of the negotiated teachers’ contract is illegal in that it violates state law as it discriminates against certain retirees based on age.” The lawsuit argues that the con-tract provision of paying retirement benefits for teachers who are under 65 (and do not qualify for Medicare) is illegal because it does not also pay the healthcare benefits of retirees once they qualify for Medicare.

The cross complaint may result in the com-plete elimination of benefits for current and fu-ture retirees and might actually take money from retired teachers—money that the district has al-ready paid them in the form of benefits. In addi-tion to retirees, this lawsuit might cut healthcare benefits for widows of former teachers, including the wife of the late Paul Yriberry.

Usually, the teachers and the district negotiate about financial issues (such as salaries and healthcare benefits) and come to a compromise over the amount of money the district will pay or not pay. The yearly increase in health-care costs is typically one of the things the district ends up covering.

“For years, we have made the decision to take lower pay raises because we thought getting benefits for teachers

with families is very important,” said psychology teacher Paul Fitzgerald.

This year, however, negotiations have not been completed and the district has failed to make the deci-sions which are usually made about benefits. Nego-tiations have been scheduled for Jan. 6, 2010, which automatically ensures that the increase in healthcare rates for teachers, effective Jan. 1, 2010, will not be covered by the district. Teachers will have to pay for this increase themselves, which, for teachers on the Kaiser Permanente family plan, amounts to $750 a year.

“We just feel that $750 is a lot for our teachers with families to pay out of pocket,” said Fitzgerald. As he pointed out, “a lot of the teachers who have [young] families are not at the top of the pay scale.”

With little income and new family members to pro-vide for, not having full healthcare coverage will be a problem for teachers with young families.

“This will be a financial disaster for my family,” said an anonymous teacher.

On Wednesday, Nov. 18, teachers held a protest out-side the district office just before the district held its board meeting. Many teachers brought their children along and held signs with slogans such as: “API goes up! Healthcare goes down?” and “Cutting health ben-efits hurts families.”

Teachers are worried that if the district does not cover the healthcare increase for 2010, the district will continue not to do so in future years. The cost of healthcare escalates every year and if the district refus-es to cover the increase in future years, it will become a great financial burden for teachers.

As AEA Lead Negotiator and science and Latin teacher Nick Carpenter explained: “We [the teachers] feel it’s part of the proverbial slippery slope and if you start eating [them] away it’s not long until the benefits are almost completely eroded away.”

Current and retired teachers face the possibility of losing their healthcare benefits

Photo: S. Bollag

Teachers protest healthcare cuts outside of Board meeting. Continued on page 5