Paras Get ​“Raises”

This year, the lowest-paid paraprofessionals in New Haven’s schools will make $22,849. That’s a $536 raise over last year — and still thousands of dollars lower than survival budgets calculated for the area.

The raise is the result of a split vote among the New Haven Public Schools Board of Education members this week. The board voted 4 – 3 to approve the controversial contract with the paraprofessionals’ union, Local 3429.

“We come before you, like we do every three to four years, penniless and broke,” longtime paraprofessional Albert Alston said on Monday.

“I ask you to reconsider [the contract] and make the proper adjustments, so when we take our hands out of pockets [at the end of our career], we have something to show that we did an amazing job.”

Alston was one of several who experienced technical difficulties and said that they were unable to vote on the contract. Around 55 paras, out of the roughly 450 total, voted for the contract and another 32 voted against it.

A Fair Process?

Monday’s vote concluded a year of negotiations between the union and school representatives, as well as months of public debate urging higher wages for the people who serve as assistant teachers, special education aides and outreach workers for the district.

The side of the Board of Education that voted for the contract said they were following a democratic process. This side included Board President Yesenia Rivera, Mayor Justin Elicker, Matt Wilcox and Ed Joyner.

“I asked, ​‘Was it a fair process?’ The evidence was yes, it was fair. I asked, ​‘Did the union sign off on this?’ Yes, the union signed off on it,” Joyner said.

Joyner said that the union has had low voting rates for a while and that a few anecdotes of technical difficulties is not enough to throw out a year-long process.

The board members opposed to the contract said that its context and the low percentage of paras who ratified the contract spoke for themselves. This side included Darnell Goldson, Tamiko Jackson-McArthur and Larry Conaway.

“I think we’re in some unprecedented times with recent protests and Covid-19. Real truths are coming out,” Conaway said. ​“I think the administration and the lawyers did their job and I commend them on that. Morally, I can’t support the contract in this world. These people — their lives matter.”

All In Favor Of Living Wages

The contract will last through the summer of 2023. At that point, the lowest-paid paras will make $23,397 and the highest-paid paras will make $45,055.

This highest level, which includes teachers in the Head Start early education program, would make just enough to support a school-aged child but not enough to support an infant. Being the single parent of a baby requires an almost $48,000 annual income in New Haven, according to the United Way’s ALICE Project (meaning Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed).

New Haven’s paraprofessionals are largely women of color, a fact pointed out by some of the 10 paras, teachers and parent activists who spoke against the group’s low pay during the meeting.

In testimonies over the past months, paras have described working multiple jobs and worrying about being able to afford food and medicine.

The union president, Hyclis Williams, said that she had been pushing for higher raises each year, reconfiguring the salary scale to eliminate the lowest salary steps and create higher ones, providing more incentive to get a bachelor’s degree and more.

After the board officially approved the contract, Elicker proposed they create a committee to look at wages across school employees. He said that Conaway raised important points that may be better addressed at a policy level than within an individual contract.

“We need to do a lot to address inequities. I don’t think voting no on a contract does this. I think it complicates it,” Elicker said. ​“I would like to look at the public policy behind pay adjustments and make sure they are at an appropriate level.”

The only board member to vote against forming the committee was Goldson, who recounted his efforts to introduce raises for paras and called the committee a ​“stall tactic.” Afterwards, he asked to be a member of the committee alongside Conaway.

Enough Money For Whom

Several of the public commenters affiliated with New Haven Public Schools Advocates contrasted the paras’ contract with raises given to administrators in recent months.

Iline Tracey jumped from making $225,000 as interim superintendent to making $250,000 in the full role. Her assistant superintendents, Paul Whyte and Keisha Redd-Hannans, got raises from $168,300 last year to $171,666 this year. Both made $165,000 in 2018.

Tracey, Whyte and Redd-Hannans are some of the highest-paid public employees in the city, above the police chief and the city’s chief legal officer, according to reporting by the New Haven Register’s Brian Zahn this spring.

Tracey also pushed the board this summer to hire a new superintendent to fill her old role. The board eventually voted in Ivelise Velazquez at $165,000 a year. This is down $10,000 from her previous turn as deputy superintendent in 2018.

Joyner responded to NHPS Advocates’ criticism during the meeting by saying that the limited amount of funding the district gets is the real problem.

“The sad thing is it pits people against each other when the real moral issue is the funding stream. We fight about crumbs when we need changes at higher levels of government to get the funding for education that has not in my estimation ever been there,” Joyner said.

NHPS Advocates parent and activist Sarah Miller said that the fact that the district can find thousands of dollars for raises for administrators but not more for its lowest-paid workers makes it harder for her to advocate for better funding for the district. Miller has been involved in two protests on the subject in the past week.

“We want to work with the board and staff and beat down the doors at Yale and in Hartford until we have the money we need to serve all our kids well. But we need you to do your part to earn the public’s confidence and trust,” Miller told the board.

After the vote, Williams said that she was not available to provide much comment as the union president except one.

“It’s a good thing that the BOE wants to form a wage equity committee,” Williams said. ​“They obviously realize there is a problem with wages.”