Twin Rivers Unified School District's use of AmeriCorps volunteers has pleased parents and angered the California School Employees Association, which has filed an unfair practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board.

It is the second charge the CSEA and its Twin Rivers chapter have filed with PERB since April. Both charges are in the initial review stage, a PERB official said.

Parents are countering the first charge with a petition to keep the youthful AmeriCorps volunteers, who tutor kids, hold after-school activities and assist in school cleanup events.

Officials at the CSEA and its Twin Rivers chapter say the district is replacing trained teacher aides with "college kids with no training," said Carlo Tarantola, CSEA labor relations representative.

Twin Rivers spokeswoman Trinette Marquis said the district stands by its use of AmeriCorps volunteers, who are in seven of the district's elementary schools. The district serves the Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento areas.

"If AmeriCorps volunteers are removed, that's going to be devastating to the children at Woodlake," said Joe Guerrero, whose grandson attends Woodlake Elementary School in Sacramento. "Hundreds of kids have been directly affected by AmeriCorps. They are role models."

Guerrero said his fifth-grade grandson wrote a story about AmeriCorps volunteers being superheroes.

Tarantola said he sees the district's reliance on volunteers over teacher aides as detrimental to students.

"We have highly qualified people who have been laid off," he said. "We are concerned about our members, but the greater concern is that children are being instructed by people without any training."

Twin Rivers teachers union President John Ennis said he has not seen evidence that teacher aides are being supplanted by AmeriCorps.

"Teachers like AmeriCorps," Ennis said. "Any additional adult in the classroom is good."

CSEA filed a second complaint with PERB last week alleging that Twin Rivers unlawfully contracted out maintenance services when relocating Harmon Johnson Elementary School.

The school was closed in November because of trustees' concerns about its proximity to a natural gas storage facility.

Students were relocated to a nearby school, which needed significant cleaning and modernization. The district has approved $879,000 in contract work related to the decision to close the school, move those students to the former Las Palmas school and relocate other programs, according to data provided by Twin Rivers.

Marquis said the contracts were funded by state-matching funds, lease income on other properties and Emergency Repair Program Funds, not general fund money that would affect staff layoffs or program cuts.

Marquis said the district is hopeful it will recoup some of those costs from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. While she said the district is negotiating with PG&E, a gas company spokesman denied talks.

Marquis said the move was done quickly over winter break in order to protect students and staff.

"We met with our local employee representatives in the trade professions, discussed the potential scope of work, required timeline and their skill sets," Marquis said. "After consulting with them, we contracted the remaining work out."

Twin Rivers CSEA labor relations representative Moe Kang said that's not the case. Kang said Twin Rivers has not followed state Education Code for contracting work out, and the district refuses to provide information on the contracts awarded.

"Work was not offered to district employees first," Kang said.

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