Putting Support on the Line : Labor: Students, teachers picket alongside non-teaching employees of Orange Unified in eighth day of a strike.

About 400 students at Canyon High School and 30 teachers at El Modena High School joined striking Orange Unified School District workers on picket lines at the two campuses Wednesday, throwing their support behind hundreds of non-teaching employees who walked off their jobs eight days ago.

At least three students at Canyon High were suspended for organizing Wednesday’s two-hour demonstration, school officials said. But a majority of students returned to class under pressure from school administrators who threatened the protesters with an hour of detention for every hour they were out of class.

“We think the classified workers are being dumped on by the board,” said Geoffrey Anderson, 16, one of the students suspended for organizing the walkout.

At El Modena High, teachers agreed to picket alongside striking workers before and after school and during their lunch breaks for as long as the strike continues. Teachers also collected $200 cash in five minutes for the union local’s strike fund.

“We went through the same thing,” said El Modena history teacher Jim Schultz , referring to a six-day walkout by teachers in 1988. “We can’t understand why other districts seem to run OK, but this district just can’t seem to function.”

The striking classified workers are seeking to renegotiate a contract imposed by the school board that cuts health benefits, requires three furlough days for all classified workers and empowers the district to unilaterally lay off workers or reduce their hours. The workers have not had a pay increase since 1988, and took a 2.59% pay cut last year.

There has been little progress toward settling the strike.

The job action has crippled the district’s ability to bus nearly 7,000 students to school, forcing parents to fight traffic jams as they drop off and pick up their children. Six of the district’s 24 child-care centers have been closed as well, and the remaining centers continue to operate with skeleton staffs. The district serves about 26,000 students.

Schools throughout the district continue to rely on parent volunteers, teachers and administrators to clean campuses, maintain attendance records, answer phones and perform other clerical duties.

Canyon High students contended Wednesday that volunteer efforts to plug holes in basic school services have not been successful.

“We had to cancel a fashion show and baseball games,” said Rhi Haugseth, a 17-year-old senior. “It’s directly affecting us every day. I’m out here to protest that.”

“There’s no toilet paper in any of the bathrooms here,” said Canyon High senior Leah Bianchino, 17.

Canyon High Principal Ralph Jameson said, “We realize that we may be shorthanded in some areas because of the strike, but the district had to address its financial shortcoming. We miss the workers out here. They were valuable members of the school society.”

District officials have said they regretted imposing the new contract, which took effect April 10, but needed to save $484,000 to help close a $2.2-million budget deficit.

El Modena teachers picketing Wednesday on their lunch breaks said their school has also suffered since the strike began.

“Without classified employees, this district can’t run,” said Mark Rona, a special-education teacher at El Modena High School. “We just want to show our support for them.”

Though teachers have been bringing meals to picketers since the walkout began, strikers said the increased show of support bolstered morale.

“It’s very heartwarming,” said secretary Mary Ellen Manning, 50, who has worked for the district for 17 years. “It really helps us because it’s demeaning to be out here (picketing), but it’s more demeaning to work under the conditions the school board wants us to.”

School board members may get an earful of the level of dissatisfaction caused by the strike at their meeting tonight. Board members are also scheduled to review the situation in closed session.

Board members said Wednesday that they may discuss issuing an ultimatum to the strikers--return to work or be fired. But Board President Maureen Aschoff said use of that tactic is not imminent.

“It’s one of our options,” said Aschoff, who noted that the strike violates the employees’ contract. “The board is really agitated by this strike.”

But union officials said the district can’t legally fire the workers. And, they added, it’s unlikely the district could finance the individual hearings that would be necessary to dismiss the estimated 400 striking workers.

“If they send us an ultimatum, we’ll take it under consideration,” said Becky Mayers, the union president. “But right now, that’s just a rumor.”