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Special Ed Paras Fired

by marcia chambers | Jul 7, 2011 11:20 am

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Posted to: Schools

Marcia Chambers Photo Shortly after the Branford school system’s paraprofessionals voted to unionize last month, three special education paraprofessionals, two with long seniority, were abruptly fired from their jobs at the Mary Murphy Elementary School.

“There is no just cause here for these firings,” said. Annie MacDonald, a field organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Local 222 of the Independent Labor and Police Union. The Branford paraprofessionals and teachers aides joined the local after a campaign this year to achieve a more secure workplace.

MacDonald spoke at a meeting at the home of Pam Van Winkle, one of the union organizers and a literacy paraprofessional at Murphy. Van Winkle, a veteran volunteer in the school system, was inducted into the Branford Educational Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of her volunteer work. She said the paraprofessionals were the last of the school employees to unionize and acted with great speed to do so.

MacDonald said the union formed in two months, a record time, because the circumstances the paraprofessionals faced were serious. She told the group she plans to meet with schools superintendent Hamlet Hernandez about the process used in the recent firings.

The three women who were fired, along with MacDonald and several others, attended a recent meeting at Van Winkle’s Branford home. Sitting around the kitchen table, one of the women said: “You can come to work today and you can be gone at 2 p.m. Even if you have worked for the school system for 26 years, you are gone. That’s it.”

The union election was held before the three women were fired. In all the contract will cover 139 employees—once a contract is reached. MacDonald said she hopes negotiations with the school system will start this fall and that a contract will be in hand by June, 2012.

Frank Carrano, the chair of the Board of Education, told the Eagle “a number of reductions were embedded into the original budget proposal and those reductions were not changed in any way when we finalized our 2011-2012 budget.” He speculated that one of the reasons the group joined a union was because they heard positions were to be cut. Most in the school system had heard of cuts for months. The prime concern for this group, they said, was that cuts be based on seniority and evaluations.

None of the women said openly that their firing resulted from union activity. Only one was a direct and overt union organizer. But all of them said they viewed the formation of the union, its vote and the subsequent firings as a related series of events.

The paraprofessionals’ principal said the pink slips had to do with a decline in special ed students, not union activity. He said he didn’t know of the one fired para’s union activities.

MacDonald’s immediate concern, she told the group assembled in the Van Winkle kitchen, is the lay-off process used by Mary Murphy Principal Anthony Buono. MacDonald said she is also gathering information about potential layoffs at Mary Tisko Elementary School and the John B. Sliney Elementary School. Early information indicated the situation at these elementary schools was less serious than at Murphy. Cindy Ewing, a paraprofessional from Walsh Intermediate School, also attended the meeting.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Eagle, the three women recently fired said seniority counted for nothing and performance evaluations did not take place. Principal Buono confirmed in a later telephone interview that seniority was not necessarily a factor and that performance evaluations had not occurred for the past three years.

“There have not been any formal evaluations,” he confirmed. “That is accurate.”

Asked how he makes a decision about who stays and who goes without formal evaluations, Buono told the Eagle: “It is a difficult situation, unfortunately. And we would keep all of the people, to be quite frank. It’s just that we don’t have the positions so we had to make some difficult decisions.” He said fewer special education students will attend the school in the fall; more will move on to the intermediate school.

He said the decision on who stays and who goes is made by his special education team. The team discusses “who we thought would be the best fit” with the student as well “as other factors.”

One of the senior paraprofessionals, a woman who has worked at Murphy for 26 years and did not want her name published, said she had received “no warning.” She said she would take any job because she needs her medical benefits. None was offered. She noted that other paraprofessionals hired only recently were kept on the job while longer serving aides were not. Union contracts typically protect seniority with the last hired to be the first fired.

Betsy R., who has worked as a paraprofessional at Murphy for the last 12 years, was a key and vocal union organizer, a fact that Buono said he knew nothing about.

“Seniority meant nothing,” she said. “An evaluation meant nothing since we didn’t have them.” She said the decision on who was staying was “his and his alone,” she said of Buono, Buono told the Eagle that he worked with a team in making these decisions. The team included the special education teachers and others he did not identify.

Betsy R. says she earns $13.99 an hour. She said that “there were people with less seniority than those laid off who have been kept on the job.”

The youngest teacher laid off was Melissa F., who lives in Milford and has been a special education paraprofessional for six years. She said Buono told her he has no job for her next year. She said the child she took care of had one more year at Murphy and his mother was distressed to hear she was leaving.

“When you leave in June you don’t know if you are going to have a job or what your pay is going to be,” Melissa said.

Her grandmother, Barbara L. Lambert, a former state representative from Milford, attended the meeting. She said she felt the longest serving paraprofessionals who were fired were “discriminated against. They were targeted. There is no basis for the firing because there is no evaluation. I think there is an age discrimination issue here too. We want the public to realize that someone has devoted 26 of their lives to their children and now is being turned out to pasture on the whim of a principal. That is exactly what happened. This is horrible.”

Buono told the Eagle that the special education paras were reduced because there was a decrease in the number of special education children coming to Murphy next fall. “Yes, we have a decrease. We have a lot of students that have left us because they moved out of district or they moved on to the middle school.”

As for seniority, and the decision to keep younger paraprofessionals, Buono said that seniority is only one of several considerations. “But we consider a number of things. The main consideration is that we look to see who will be the best fit for some of the students or for people who are willing to do some of the duties required for that position. For the special needs students it does vary quite a bit.”

Job security is a major issue. Most paraprofessionals do not know when the school term ends if they will have a job next year, they said.

A “Para Survey” became another hot topic at the Mary Murphy school. Buono had the survey sent to all special education paraprofessionals to be filled out but MacDonald told them not to do so. One question that the paras said was ambiguous asked: “Are you able/willing to lift a student that requires lifting in the course of the day?” Another question asked: “Are you willing to toilet a child that requires toileting assistance (also may involve lifting?)” How heavy the students might be was not stated.

The three special education paraprofessionals who were fired did not fill out the survey. But some who were told their jobs were safe did not answer the survey’s questions either.

Buono said he sent out the para survey because “in the past people said they didn’t want to work at certain grade levels or they didn’t want to work with students with certain disabilities. I just wanted to clarify that.”

What most special education paraprofessionals have come to understand is that nothing is written in stone. Come September, when school re-opens, there may be ten new special education students waiting to get in. Not all special education students require paraprofessional support, Buono said. But if some do, “we would hire people for those positions.” He did not say he would rehire those just fired.

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Comments

posted by: Hmmm on July 7, 2011 12:45pm

Can New Haven hire them? They are already trained and experienced…seems like a reasonable swap for the trained experienced cops that we laid off and other towns got the benefit of. How about KIDS FIRST for real this time?

posted by: Cindy Ewing on July 7, 2011 3:15pm

The way that the school district treats the paraprofessional is absolutely deplorable. We are all very dedicated and well educated. We are the people who are with the children all day. We know the children well and we make a huge difference in the educational process. We are always there for support. We are eager for professional development and any opportunities to advance our understanding of our students.
I have also been a para at Walsh for 13 years and I am still making less than $14.00 an hour. We were given no increase in salary this year as opposed to all other Branford school employees. This is truly shameful. The firing of three long term paras defies logic and understanding.
Thank you Marcia!

posted by: brutus2011 on July 7, 2011 4:29pm

This story should be noted by everyone concerned with public education as to what really ails our schools—whether in Branford or in our New Haven. Administrators have all the power and bear none of the accountability; unless someone above them wants to get rid of them. Paraprofessionals are very important to the day-to-day regimen of encouraging and educating our children. Teachers are equally as important. Quite frankly, our kids would be far less impacted by the absence of administrative staff than they are going to be by the loss of these dedicated paraprofessionals. When are we going to get wise and stop paying for abusive education executives that we really don’t need? When you factor in their fantastic pensions, then you really get an insight into why our municipality’s budgets are almost bankrupt.

posted by: Teachergal on July 7, 2011 4:30pm

Can someone tell me how much substitutes in Branford make? New Haven subs make $50 a day. Is it any wonder we can’t get anyone of quality? I have been told that NH subs can make $70 a day if they work 40 consecutive days but they are regularly released on day 39 and then hired back at the cheaper salary. Not surprising!

posted by: Moshe Gai on July 7, 2011 4:35pm

It is well known that when a fish stinks it starts from the head. The situation in the Branford School system is a shame for our town. It is handled by an incompetent Board of Education. As long as we will have this board (with the current chair), we will keep running into such great misfortunes and attrition of the school system in Branford.

Thus Spake Moshe Gai

posted by: Brandon on July 8, 2011 12:51am

I just read your extremely biased story on the paras of Branford and its completely one sided and lacking in facts…. first of all is was about budget cuts.Second there was a meeting that the principal had with the staff prior to the firing. explaining that hours were going to be cut and people were going to be let go. He told the special ed paras that between 3 and 4 positions were going to have to be cut and that all the schools in branford were going to have to have cuts. This was not his call but from the higher ups.. As for the survey the reason they ask about the lifting is because we have children in wheel chairs, itis dead weight, if u can’t lift that child then they are going to put you with one who needs that kind of attention. ...

posted by: Bill on July 8, 2011 7:39am

If these women were “at will” employees the can be fired at any time with out a reason. It’s Connecticut state law and most workers are “at will” employees. You should read the forms you sign when you are hired.

posted by: Moshe Gai on July 8, 2011 10:26am

Brandon, indeed the mess we are in the Branford School system is all about the budget cut (depending how one counts it is approximately a one million dollar cut). But that is indeed the problem we need to address. The Branford Board of Education lacked the moral compass and leadership and did not consider re-evaluation of a three year contract signed with the teacher’s union that includes a 3% salary raise.

In sharp contrast at the state level the governor and the unions have been in negotiations (called SEBAC) to re-evaluate union contracts and relinquish salary raises. While some unions rejected the SEBAC agreement (not my union of the American Association of University Professors, the AAUP), the SEBAC agreement still stands and will most likely be implemented.

It took moral leadership to force the unions of state workers to reconsider legal agreement. On the state level it was either that or 7,500 employees to be fired. In Branford the BOE lacks such a moral leadership and we now have to let go some of our most precious employees while other enjoy a 3% raise of their salary.

Thus Spake Moshe Gai

posted by: brandon glass on July 8, 2011 11:33am

Thats fine and all but they also keep going on and on about seniority. To be frank I dont care if you have been there for 2yrs or 20yrs it doesnt been that you are a good teacher or good with children. I could care less about these womens hurt egos. I want the best for my kids and just because you have seniority doesnt mean that makes you the best at all. Also these women are not teachers they are Paras. A para does not need a teaching degree to work with in the school.Most only have their BAs,if that.So the teachers union that you are apart of does not apply to them. They formed a union to fit their needs, which is great. However the undertone of this article is that they were fired because of this. Which is not the case, if that were the case the union could then fight it. But instead they are making a public scene because they dont seem to have a case.

posted by: brandina on July 8, 2011 6:53pm

Brandon, if that is your real name, where were you sitting at the meeting? You seem to have a
lot of inside information. .... you seem to feel that a BA is insignificant? I feel that is “BS”. It’s not about egos… or senority but about the ethical treatment of ones dedicated employees. To taint a person’s unblemished record with wrongful termination is unjust to say the least.
Happy trails,
Brandina

posted by: Concerned on July 10, 2011 11:29am

Let’s put sentiment aside and state some real facts.

Fact #1: The principal “did know” who the key union people were. There was a discussion in his office about the union and our concerns about the non specifics of the survey (that was not district wide) on 6/16, layoffs began on 6/20.

Fact#2; Although the decision for cuts may have come from “Higher Ups”, the principal of MTM said he had the final say (convenient when you want certain people). No para who was let go, was told at any time during the year that their performance was less than satisfactory, in fact just the opposite.

Fact #3; No public scene is being made (pretty sure I haven’t seen people holding signs on a street corner).

Fact#4; MTM does not evaluate Paras while other schools do. It’s not hard to figure out why.

Fact#5; Newly hired people, even those on probation are still employed.

Fact#6; Any experienced Para has “fit” into a childs needs. That’s what Paras do, they adapt and fit all day. They adapt not only to children, but to different teachers and their styles, as well as host of other duties. They do it all with no training and little money. They are (by some) treated without due respect. No one really knows the amount of work that Paras accomplish.

Fact#9; MTM has lost 6 senior Paras in the past year or so, no one wanted to leave.

Fact #10; We were encouraged by some teachers to get a Union in quickly as we could, for the reasons that have now become obvious.

Sadly the members of this “team” did not have the character or courage to say I’m sorry,thank you or goodbye.

One of the goals at MTM is to treat people with value and respect. Now might be a good time to start..

posted by: fed up on July 12, 2011 12:49pm

it is way over due that Mr Buono be fired from HIS job! who’s evaluating HIM?!?!

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