October 12, 2022

This month marks the 17th anniversary of our union, CSEA Chapter 845 Torrance Student Support Staff, formally CSEA Chapter 845 Torrance Paraeducators.

Our origins began after a mass cut in hours of paraeducators at our Launch program at Arnold Elementary, after school administrators assured our workers that their hours would not be cut. This incident prompted one of our founding members, Kathy Kelley, to contact local CSEA union leaders. Soon after, another founding member, Terry Furey met with CSEA executives in Sacramento who helped further along our union organizing efforts.

After many months of meeting and planning, a vote was taken to organize as a union. Our classified workers overwhelmingly approved the initiative in 2005 to become part of the California School Employees Association. In doing so we became part of the largest classified school employee union in the United States. CSEA now represents nearly 250,000 school support staff throughout California.

Our original Executive Board:

Roberta Belyea       President

Terry Furey              1st Vice President

Irmigard Lake          2nd Vice President

Mary Tucker             Secretary

Kathy Kelley             Treasurer

Monica Fredericks  Chapter P.R. Officer

The combined years of service of the founding members currently exceeds 80 years! They are owed our thanks and gratitude for all the hard work they have dedicated to our Chapter and on a statewide level, to our Union.

In the past few years our Chapter has grown to include Behavioral Analysts, Occupational Therapists and most recently all Security staff at our middle schools and high schools. Without your help and dedication to our Union we would not thrive. We were gratified to see the healthy turnout at out first Site Representative training last month. If you were unable to attend the training and are still interested in being a site rep for your school please contact one of your officers.

As we begin our 18th year as a Chapter we look forward to welcoming more members at our trainings and CSEA-sponsored workshops and conferences. Thank you again to our founding members. Your commitment to our Union is inspiring !

Marlene Connors