Christopher Peak File Photo
Paras union leader Hyclis Williams: Double standard seen.
Classroom aides say they’re getting the raw end of the stick — being told to quarantine at home but not necessarily getting paid for the time, unlike teachers.
Union leader Hyclis Williams and a preschool paraprofessional brought up that point during Monday night’s Board of Education meeting. They asked for guranteed paid time off for support staff when required to quarantine.
Williams, president of the paras’ union, AFSCME Local 3429, pleaded for the board to “ensure that all staff are paid when they’re required by the health department to be quarantined due to Covid.”
Williams recalled that last year the Family First Coronavirus Response Act covered employees’ pay while quarantined. The act has since expired. She called the lack of support for paraprofessionals unfair.
“If we’re trying to make schools safe for all stakeholders, we need to pay for the time off due to this Covid,” Williams said.
She cited a presentation from Aug 23 by the board outlining protocols for the return to school five days a week. “The NHPS and the city should hold to its integrity on this portion of the presentation,” she said before reading from the presentation slide that read that the district would: Allow flexible, non punitive, and supportive paid sick leave policies and practices that encourage sick workers to stay home without fear of retaliation, loss of pay, or loss of employment level.
Williams argued that all school staff should be allowed protected time to avoid requiring them to use sick days or receive no pay when they are out on quarantine.
“It is injustice for those who have little or no accrued time to lose pay or contemplate whether or not they should report to school if they have a positive case or if they’re in contact with a positive case,” she said.
Teachers, by contrast, continued to receive their pay in quarantine. This protected time was negotiated in their most recent contract.
Article VI, Absences and Leaves of Absences, Section 6 of the Local 933 contract states: (d) Quarantine — There shall be no loss of salary of or sick leave allowance when a teacher is subject to quarantine by order of the Health Department for reasons other than a personal illness of the teacher.
“This should not take contractual language to pay for the time off of these staff members. It’s not in their control whether they get Covid or don’t get Covid,” Williams said.
Teachers union President Leslie Blatteau followed up William’s comments by expressing solidarity with the paras.
Blatteau offered to work with the board and district to get support staff protected sick days “in the name of our school community’s public health.”
Monday's board of ed meeting.
Alicia Norris, a paraprofessional at Davis Street Arts and Academics School, also made a plea for protected time for her and her colleagues.
This month she had to spend a week out of work due to testing positive for Covid. When she returned from quarantining, she said, she became hyperaware of the risks of teaching preschoolers without protected time.
“We are in the same classroom with the same children and exposed to the same germs, but if we as paras get sick with Covid symptoms or are positive, we have to use our sick time,” Norris said.
She said she’s “willing to take the risk” as a preschool aide in the classroom with students who can’t be vaccinated. But she would like the security of protected quarantined leave.
“Because we love our jobs, if we do catch the virus, we are penalized without pay while dealing with it,” Norris said.
Due to being hired in October, Norris said, she has not yet accumulated any sick time, so when quarantining she must go without pay.
She said she recently was sneezed on by a 4‑year-old student while helping them to replace a mask. “Mid-putting it on, he sneezed right in my face,” she said.
Days after, Norris said, she felt ill, and her co-worker tested positive for Covid.
She raised concerns similar to Williams’ that the lack of protected time will put paras in an uncomfortable place when it comes to either “let[ting] the officials know and risk[ing] not being able to afford food or sacrifice my family’s wellbeing by not being paid. Or will I take that chance that it’s not Covid and go to work?”
“The reality of the situation is that I’m forced to think differently,” Norris added.
In a statement released through her spokesperson, Superintendent Iline Tracey responded:
“While I hear the concerns of the paraprofessionals, this is a broader issue. If we talk about equity, we should include workers in the other unions who have to quarantine. The only union who has such time protected for any pandemic situation is the teachers’ union, since it is in their contract. Last year, under the governor’s executive order, this was not an issue. We are not under such an order for this year. However, it is something I can investigate from the state level. I know there were suggestions by the paraprofessionals union leader that we pay from the grant funds we received, but the funds we received were not given for this purpose.”
Later in the meeting Tracey updated the board with a report that for the first time this school year, all bus routes were covered Monday.
She also updated students that water filters for the schools have arrived early, and installation is in the works. (Read more about students water concerns here.)
Tracey said staff attendance is back to a “normal” daily absence rate making schools “manageable” and “able to function.”
Watch the full board meeting below.