WHS kitchen workers say temperatures were hitting 100 degrees

The kitchen staff at a local high school says they've been working in terrible conditions, with temperatures rising to 100 degrees. After eight weeks, they are finally experiencing some relief from Mother Nature—not from the district that they say should be helping.

Until it cooled down last week, said kitchen staff member Karen Cabelli, the Westlake High School kitchen was, on average, between 92 and 98 degrees inside—even more than 100 degrees some days.

"It's horrible to work that way," Cabelli said. "I don't know what the laws are, but I can't imagine working at 90 degrees and above is okay. We want to come to work and do our job well, but it's difficult."

Wendy Freeman has worked in the kitchen for five years. Although the conditions have been better recently, she said, it wasn't very long ago that they were dire.

"It's okay now because the weather is cooler and the day is shorter," Freeman said. "But for those of us in the kitchen, it's been extremely hot this year. And that's just the temperature. When you're moving and working and exerting yourself, your body temperature is even more affected."

Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad said a solution is in the works. He's signed off on a $50,000 project that includes installing a swamp cooler, which kitchens at both Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks high schools have.

"There's no way we can have a system like that at two of the high schools and not three—that's an equity issue," Baarstad said. "We wouldn't do it any other way. There's no way we are going to let those (kind of conditions) stand."

Ten women, ages 35 to 65 years old, work 3½-hour shifts five days a week in a kitchen with six working stations, two sinks and four ovens.

Cabelli said the women have symptoms of heat exhaustion, like swelling and headaches, but it's not severe enough to file workers' compensation claims.

"We were trying to give them the benefit of the doubt," she said. "We tried talking to our union rep, but unless we file the forms, nothing can be done. No one is that ill, and I think people don't want to jeopardize their jobs."

Cabelli said they were promised air conditioning or a swamp cooler last year, but when they returned to school Aug. 29, they learned the kitchen addition had been skipped. Last summer, an airconditioning system was updated in the building that houses the kitchen. The system cools all components of the building except for the kitchen.

Baarstad said the district hadn't had complaints in the past about the heat, and an air-conditioning system isn't ideal for cooling a kitchen, which requires a lot of ventilation.

To make matters worse, when the system was being updated, errors were made and there was no ventilation in the kitchen. The lack of air movement, combined with some of the warmest days of the year, made for conditions distinctively hotter than in past years.

Cabelli said they have complained weekly over the last couple of months to Baarstad; to their supervisor, director of nutrition Joe Cook; and to others. The women said they've even tried e-mailing Conejo Valley Unified School District board members.

Freeman said the most troubling part of the situation is that the women don't feel they've been heard.

"Nobody has actually said anything to us," Freeman said. "Nobody from the district sat down with us or told us, 'This is what we are planning on doing.' That probably would've been nice."

Baarstad said Cook has fought hard for the group, and Baarstad has spoken with Cook and the group's union representative.

"The 90 degrees is totally true, but the ignoring them is totally untrue," Baarstad said.

The women did say they were told they would at least get a fan or a freestanding unit, but the temporary relief never arrived.

Baarstad said the unit is part of the plan, but it must be designed for the space.

"They said they will maybe work on it over winter break, but most of us don't put any stock in that," Freeman said. "If they weren't willing to do anything temporarily, we aren't thinking they'll do anything.

"We're sure a lot of it is the budget, and I'm sympathetic to that. But on the same hand, we have to have decent working conditions. It's not like we aren't expecting to have a warm kitchen. When you're cooking at home, it's warm. But not like this. Something has to change."

Baarstad said he will ask Cook to communicate to the group that the cooling units have been ordered and should be installed by the end of the year.