Paras Finally Get A Contract

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) paraprofessionals will get $1.8 million in retroactive pay, raises for extra duty, and step increases under a new four-year contract that recently finished undergoing state arbitration.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Board of Education voted to ensure that the contract’s back pay provision only applies to employees who were active as of June 30 or who had retired by that date. 

That decision boxes out one paraprofessional who resigned from her job on April 25 — two days after the state arbitration panel issued its award.

Such is the latest with the new contract for the city’s paraprofessionals union, AFSCME Local 3429.

The district’s 364 paraprofessionals, who serve as assistants to classroom teachers, had been working without a contract since July 1, 2023. A state arbitration panel held hearings on the disputed contract between April and September 2024, and then issued its decision on April 23 of this year.

Click here to read the full arbitration award.

The new contract covers the time period July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2027.

The award does not include any annual salary increases by percentage; however, it does ensure that every para be advanced one salary step for each year of the contract.

That means that Group I assistant teachers who are currently making $23,524 per year at step 1 will be advanced to step 2, where they’ll make $24,921 per year. And paras who are currently at step 2 will be advanced to step 3, and thereby make $26,318 per year. 

There are six steps in total for this group, with the top step paying $30,508. Paras who are already at the max step will get paid an extra annual lump sum of $2,000.

In addition to affecting current wages, these step increases will be retroactive to July 1, 2023, and will result in additional back pay. So, paras who were at step 1 on July 1, 2023 will receive a payment as if they were at step 2 at that time, and then as if they were at step 3 in July 2024, etc. 

The panel’s ruling notes that paras have testified that they find it ​“difficult to maintain adequate life styles due to low wages,” to afford health care, and to meet the costs of raising children. The ruling also notes the need to balance that concern with the public interest of maintaining a ​“financially stable” city government that can afford to pay its bills.

The arbitration panel reviewed a total of ten issues that were disputed between the city and the union. The main issues concerned retroactive pay, wages, extra duty pay, and employee cost sharing for health insurance. 

• The union argued in favor of having the terms of the contract apply retroactively to when the previous contract expired in 2023. The school district changed its initial tentative agreement offer of providing retroactive payments due to budget pressures. The arbitration panel ruled in favor of the union on this issue, thereby allowing for payments retroactive to July 1, 2023. 

• The school district submitted a last best offer of spending $1,845,293 more for para wages over the next four years. The union’s offer for total wage costs came to $3,019,479. The arbitration panel sided with the school district, meaning the paras will not see percentage salary raises through 2026 – 27 and instead will move up a step annually. 

• Another issue was extra-duty pay for paras who do supplemental work, like summer support. The arbitration panel settled in favor of the union’s request for increasing the hourly wage from $14.50 to $25 for that work. The district had argued for a smaller increase in line with the state’s minimum wage rate. 

• Under the arbitrated contract, paras will continue to contribute 9 percent or 24 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums, depending on the plan. The union’s last best offer was to cut that rate.

• The panel also sided with the district against a union request to establish a sick bank for unused sick time for employees, as well as against a union request to arrange a monthly meeting between the union and superintendent to discuss workplace conditions and concerns.

Union President Hyclis Williams told the Independent that the union was willing to negotiate a middle ground on all issues without the cost of going to state arbitration, but the district refused. (Click here to read about the paras’ request to renegotiate with the district.) 

“It’s a shame the district went this far. A union has a right to turn down a TA [tentative agreement], and we begged to go back to the table for months after,” she said. ​“It cost them more money to go to arbitration than it would’ve cost them to negotiate something better for the paras.” 

Click here to read letters from eight state legislators, including Martin Looney and Toni Walker, calling on the district to avoid arbitration and renegotiate with the paras union. 

The school district has yet to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Independent submitted in May asking how much the district spent on the arbitration process with the paras union. 

In response to a request for comment for this article, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon said, ​“As when we first negotiated the Tentative Agreement, we believe the terms of the Award are fair and reflect the mutual best interest of the City and the bargaining unit. We regret the substantial time lost between the Union membership’s rejection of the Tentative Agreement and the receipt of the Panel Award.”

Board Vote Means No Retro Pay For One Ex-Employee

While the arbitration panel issued the paraprofessional union contract award in April, the Board of Education took a vote on Monday related to the back pay portion of this new contract.

The school board discussed the matter in executive session, and then emerged to vote 5 – 0 in support of a motion to ​“implement the arbitration award and only retroactively compensate active employees who are members of local 3429 and those employees who were retired on or before June 30, 2025.” 

They took that vote after hearing during the meeting from one para, Natalie Ellis, who resigned on April 25, two days after the arbitration award came out on April 23.

Ellis said she resigned due to a lack of job support and because she struggled to support her family while working up to three jobs at once. 

She spoke up during Monday’s meeting about how she had yet to receive any retroactive pay, which was due to paras by July 3.

Ellis started working as a para in 2015. She said she was required to step into a full-time substitute teaching role for English, math, and social studies starting in 2022 until her last day working for NHPS on April 25.

She said while on the job ​“no one helped me do anything.” She struggled to pay bills with the para wages as a single parent. ​“I made no money, but I stayed,” she said. 

After Monday’s meeting, this reporter asked Supt. Madeline Negrón, Board of Education President OrLando Yarborough, and NHPS attorney Elia Alexiades for clarification on the board’s decision to provide back pay only to certain active or retired employees. The arbitration award itself does not appear to include wording to that effect. 

Negrón and Yarborough did not respond to the Independent’s question. Alexiades said that nothing needed to be clarified, so he wouldn’t provide a clarification. 

Hyclis Williams, the paraprofessionals union president, also spoke up Monday in support of Ellis and requested that the district share what legal services cost to bring the union to arbitration.

Ellis said she was advised by Council 4 staff that she is eligible for the payout because of her years of work as the arbitration process occurred. 

As of Tuesday, Ellis said she’s been informed that Council 4 will file a grievance and if that doesn’t resolve the issue, she plans to get a lawyer of her own.