Ko Lyn Cheang Photo
Paraprofessionals Hyclis Williams and Albert Alston at recent protest.
A new four-year contract for the city’s paraprofessionals union that would see entry-level members get a roughly $1,000 raise by 2023 advanced towards an expected full Board of Alders vote later this month.
The aldermanic Finance Committee took no action on the proposed new labor accord between the city’s Board of Education and the union, known as Local 3429. That no-vote occurred during Thursday night’s virtual committee meeting, held on Zoom and YouTube Live.
Instead, the committee passed the contract back to the full Board of Alders with a recommendation that local legislators discharge the item from committee so that they can take a final vote on the matter at their next bimonthly meeting, to be held on Oct. 19.
Finance Committee Vice-Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand explained that city staff asked the alders to expedite the full board’s vote because of the time-sensitive nature of the contract.
If the committee had issued a formal recommendation on the contract Thursday, then the full board would have to hold two “readings” on the matter before taking a final vote, thereby pushing out that final decision until Nov. 5.
Paraprofessionals include unlicensed assistant teachers, special education and ESL aides, parent liaisons, outreach workers, and Head Start teachers. They are among the city’s lowest-paid employees.
The new contract would see the salary for entry-level paras increase from $22,313 as of the 2019 – 2020 school year to $23,397 by 2022 – 23. Paras who have reached the fourth-step of the union’s salary schedule, the highest such step included in the contract, would see their salaries increase from $28,370 to $30,343 over the course of the four-year deal.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto explained to the committee alders that the new contract would extend from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2023. He said that the Board of Education had started negotiations with the union in May 2019, but that those discussions were subsequently delayed on two separate occasions because of changes in union leadership. The formal negotiations ended in July.
Pinto said that the overall monetary increase over the four years of the contract is $1,199,696, or 10.37 percent. That includes a 2.4 percent raise for the 2020 – 2021 school year, a 2 percent raise for 2021 – 2022, and a 2.4 percent raise in 2021 – 2022, but no retroactive pay increase for the 2019 – 2020 school year. Per the new contract, eligible paras will be able to move a step up in the pay scale in 2021.
He also pointed out that the proposed contract would increase the daily stipend for paras who fill in as substitute teachers to $45 a day on top of their ordinary salary. And he said the new contract includes “educational incentives and reimbursements for taking college semester credits,” though paras are not required to have a college degree.
Marchand noted that the proposed contract would see health premiums increase by 2 percentage points over the life of the labor deal.
The new agreement would also create a Health Incentive Plan (HIP) that would require union members and their dependents to designate a primary care provider with Anthem, the city’s insurance provider, and to visit their doctors at least once per year for basic checkups. If union members do not comply with the preventive health care measures starting July 2020, they will be charged an additional monthly fee of $50 for a single person, $75 for a couple, or $100 for a family.
The city has included such a plan in each of its new labor agreements in recent years as a means of encouraging a preventative approach to health care, with the added financial goal of reducing high expenses that come with major health issues left undiagnosed and untreated until late in their development.
Zoom
Thursday night’s Finance Committee virtual meeting.
The city employs roughly 450 paras in total. Only 87 voted on whether to approve the contract at a session in June, and some paras have criticized the ratification process, which took place over Zoom. Some have also criticized the contract as still underpaying already low-wage workers, who are overwhelmingly Black and Latina women.
At a July 27 Board of Education meeting, board members voted 4 to 3 in support of the proposed contract, with Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, Larry Conaway, and Darnell Goldson voting against, and Yesenia Rivera, Edward Joyner, Matthew Wilcox, and Mayor Justin Elicker voting in support.
“How do we compare with other cities and towns” in terms of pay? asked East Rock Alder Anna Festa Thursday night. “Are we competitive?”
“The wages were somewhat low,” Pinto admitted. “But the addition of an added step increase will bring them competitive with other large urban districts, and some of our reasonable comparable surrounding areas as well.”
He then paused, and took another stab at the response.
“The paras are now at the higher end of the pay scale for comparable jobs in the area,” he said.
I don't agree with forcing people earning less than $24,000/yr to see a doctor once a year or be fined monthly. If you earn that little, you can't afford the copay, deductible, the lab or imaging costs, never mind having no ability to afford the healthy food needed to reduce your health risks. So this is an argument for universal healthcare, with no out of pocket expenses, for all residents in this country, just like most of the rest of the industrialized countries around the world. This would encourage people to follow up on preventative healthcare, and remove the burden of health insurance from employers, and help reduce the costs society currently pays in taking care of uninsured/underinsured patients.
Also, paras should definitely get encouragement and financial assistance and preferential hiring if they choose to pursue a degree in education to become teachers.