CA EDD help? (live, earnings, money)

[Morgfunk]

Hello there,
I've noticed this forum is a great resource for EDD questions, and there are some experts on their inane rules in California. Ok, heres my question: Is this scenario legal?

My claim year ended 11.01.10., I got an award letter from EDD for $85 per week from base earnings (waiting tables) in the summer of 09. They also requested earnings statements from the past 18 months, which I sent them with a letter saying they didn't count all my earnings. Big mistake! First of all, my job student teaching doesn't count toward base earnings (of course! neither do tips; they must constitute 90% of earnings, but they still want you to report them so they can pay you less weekly).
They shut down my benefits for 2 months over the holidays, it sucked, and conducted an "investigation." When they finally got around to asking me if I was a student teacher during an interview in January, I said yes; I didn't realize it didn't count. Since I had a live person on the phone, I asked why I couldn't just file an extension, as I was eligible, and brought up the fact that I work part time, so I wouldn't be able to collect the $93 each week because I make that. She agreed, and they filed an extension.
I was approved for an extension retroactively in January for my claim in November, and I was to get about $300 per week and there was $4000 in my claim. Everything was going well for about 3 weeks, then they started sending me all my claim forms back, saying they were filled out wrong. which they weren't. I was especially mad because I was just trying to get caught up from the 3 months they were turned off. Then, I got a letter saying they wanted to interview me on 02.03.11. I was puzzled, but I thought maybe they can't read my handwriting or something. They didn't call me; they missed their own appointment.
Finally, the climax of this tale of woe: I got an award letter today stating I have a new claim starting 01.02.11 with a weekly benefit amount of $61 from my base earnings in July-September of 2010. How can they just open a new claim for me and change my base period? If they would have kept the old one, I would have at least gotten $93 weekly. I'm mad, upset, and stressed out. Anyone have any ideas on what is going on or what I can do to rectify this situation? How can they open a new claim when I was on an extension, my benefit year was not up, and I had money in my claim?