YAKIMA, Wash. -- They didn't stay long, streaming out of the board room shortly after the meeting started, leaving a sea of empty seats.

While they were there, though, they held up their arms, straight and strong, making a statement without saying a word. Carrying bright yellow signs and wearing matching T-shirts, they advocated for an increase.

"We deserve a living wage," their signs read.

For the first six or seven minutes of the October meeting of the board of directors for the Yakima School District, there was standing room only. About 100 paraeducators, or teachers' aides, filled the place.

One of them was Heidi Mann.

The 31-year-old has worked at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School for four years. She makes $12.53 an hour and has three daughters -- a 12-year-old seventh-grader and twin 8-year-old second-graders -- to support.

"It's probably pride," she says. "It just would be nice not to have that stigma, not to have that need, to rely on other services, to live sort of day to day."

Mann gets help each winter with her heating bill. Each month, she receives about $370 in food stamps. And she continually worries about her car, an early 1990s station wagon that is "completely falling apart."

While Mann has medical insurance through her job, she can't afford to add her daughters to the policy; they receive medical coupons. They also qualify for free and reduced lunch in the district for which their mother works.

"At MLK, the teachers treat us like equals," Mann says. "We're not saying we are equal to them. But I'd say we're at least worth half of what they make."

Paraeducators in the Yakima School District have been working under an expired, two-year contract since Sept. 1. Bargaining between the district and the Yakima Association of Paraeducators started in June and went into mediation last week. Additional sessions are scheduled for mid-November.

Both sides say they are hopeful they can reach a timely agreement.

"I won't talk about the specifics of the negotiations. But I know the district is working in good faith to reach a positive settlement with our paraeducators," says Steve Cole, assistant superintendent for human resources at the district.

"Our paraeducators are a valuable part of the educational process," Cole says, then corrects himself, "an invaluable part of the educational process.

"We recognize that. I wouldn't want anyone to think for a minute that we didn't highly value them."

'To get to a living wage'

Yakima paraeducators eventually want to see $16.25 per hour become the baseline for their payscale. Given the tough economic times, though, they're looking now for "any movement," according to Buffy Phillips, president-elect of YAP and a member of the local's bargaining team.

The currently salary range is $11.86 to $15.14 per hour. Custodians earn more -- between $15.75 and $19.91 an hour. So do regular bus drivers, who make $15.23 to $16.50 an hour.

"We realize it's going to take more than two years, more than the contract, to get to a living wage," Phillips says. "What we're asking for is that we make some kind of strides, some kind of progress."

YAP represents about 270 paraeducators. Some are young parents. Some are single. Some are single parents. And some are older, nearing retirement. But many are also members of a class called the working poor.

Financially, Phillips says, "We're not making it."

Some paraeducators work two -- even three -- jobs to make ends meet. And many rely on public assistance.

While they're taking care of other people's children on the playground and in the school cafeteria, many paraeducators struggle to provide for their own children. Many of their children qualify to receive free or reduced lunch in the district for which they work.

"As far as we understand, we are the lowest-paid unit in the district, and we are the ones who are teaching in the classrooms," Phillips says. "We're not asking to be paid like the teachers are paid. We just need enough to live on."

Teachers make more than double. The average teacher's salary, according to district spokeswoman Mary Beth Wright, is about $53,375.

The district maintains its payscale for paraeducators is comparable to other districts.

"I believe that we're competitive with local districts in the community and in eastern Washington," Cole says.

The East Valley School District is advertising for several paraeducator positions, with hourly pay ranging from $13.50 to $14.68, according to its Web site.

Similarly, the West Valley School District is advertising for one such position, starting at $11.91 per hour and bumping up to $13. 24 after completion of a six-month probationary period.

Paraeducators get summers off and other benefits, like medical insurance. But some can't afford to add their children to the plan.

Like teachers' salaries, paraeducators' paychecks are spread throughout the year. While they typically work six and a half hours a day Monday through Friday during the school year -- 182 days a year -- their earnings are stretched across a 12-month period.

Just getting by

"It's not so much our hourly. It's what we take home per month," says Mann, whose monthly take-home pay is just under $1,100.

Rent is $550. She gets a break, she says, because her folks own the two-bedroom duplex she shares with her three girls. But they're in the process of selling, and Mann worries the new landlord will eventually raise the rent and require she pay for water and garbage, utilities that are currently included.

"It's completely month to month," she says of how she lives. "When it's the end of the month, it's pretty much just getting by. It's kind of embarrassing.

"I feel like I work really hard. And it would be nice to have a little bit to show for that."

Her face lights up when she talks about her job.

"I love it. I do. I love my job," she says. "It's the hardest job I've ever had, maybe not physically but mentally and emotionally."

She continually repeats, "I'm blessed." She also admits, "I'm already stressed about Christmas."

Mann used to work as a waitress. With tips, she says, she made more than double what she makes now. One of her twins hears this, and asks, "Why can't you stay being a waitress?"

The school hours allow Mann to be home evenings and summers with her girls. "I have time with my children," she says. "I'm able to be home at night. We're able to do homework.

"I'm a very hands-on mom," she adds. "I think that's why I love being a paraeducator."

Justin Pfliger says he, too, loves working as a paraeducator.

"We feel like we make a difference in these kids' lives," he says. "But everybody's struggling so much; it's not right."

Pfliger works full-time at Adams Elementary School. He also works full-time at Albertsons. And, to cut costs, he lives with three roommates.

"It's not just one or two of us who are having a difficult time," the 29-year-old says. "There are a number of people in my building that are living without heat. They can't afford to pay most of their bills. They have to cut something out of their lives."

Statewide effort

Yakima paraeducators aren't the only ones pushing for a wage increase. They're part of a statewide effort to boost paraeducators' pay as well as the earnings of other classified staff. And they're at the forefront of the movement.

YAP was one of six locals statewide to receive grants from the Washington Education Association to support the living wage campaign. YAP received approximately $10,000 in 2007 and again in 2008.

One of the talking points -- from a promotional flyer from the campaign -- is: "People who work a full-time job in a school district should not have to live in poverty."

Members have been working to raise awareness by showing up for board meetings en masse and producing an informational video that features Mann and Pfliger as well as other Yakima paraeducators.

Paraeducators' responsibilities have changed dramatically since the job was created in the 1950s, evolving in the 60s and 70s with increased duties, according to Janet Beck, who represents the Mid-State UniServ Council, the local office of WEA.

"They still do recess duty, but they're teaching most of the day," Beck says. "This job is much more intensive than it was."

Paraeducators supervise children on the playground, in the lunchroom and classroom, and before and after school. They tutor students in math. They help children learn to read. They lead small groups. And while they don't craft lesson plans, paraeducators do help teach the lessons.

"I just really could not do my job without them," says Joan Kirk, a special education teacher at Gilbert Elementary School. "We're a team."

Kirk spoke on behalf of paraeducators after they walked out of the school board meeting last month. In fact, she's been speaking up for paraeducators at meetings for nearly a year now. And she's not the only one.

At the October meeting, a half-dozen teachers from different Yakima schools urged board members to approve "a fair and equitable" contract for their colleagues.

"They cannot support families on what they make," says Sherry Hallenbeck, a special education teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.

She works closely with a paraeducator in her classroom and points out regular school district bus drivers make more.

"I'm not saying the bus driving job is not important," Hallenbeck says. "But these people are teaching our children, and how come they can't at least make the same?"

Beck maintains paraedu-cators' payscale sets them up to be a burden on the system -- not only in Yakima but in school districts throughout the state.

"The standard is sub-standard," she says. "We can push the issue with local bargaining to bring it to light, which is what we're doing."

But, she says, "It has to be a conversation on a broader level: what work do people do, what are we paying them, and is that antiquated?"

Silent statement

In the Richland School District, the base wage for paraeducators is between $11.54 and $13.61 per hour. But they can earn more -- an additional 25 or 50 cents, or a dollar, per hour -- if they complete additional training or take on specialized duties.

Other districts pay more. In the Spokane School District, for example, instructional assistants start at $10.68 per hour. But their payscale goes up to $19.44 per hour.

Similarly, the payscale for paraeducators in the Tacoma School District starts at $11.58 per hour and tops out at $21.06 per hour.

Phillips, a paraeducator at MLK, is in her eighth year with the Yakima School District. She's 50-something and makes $13-something an hour. Her monthly take-home pay is just over $1,100 per month.

"One of my great fears is that if anything were to happen to my husband, I would lose my home, the home I raised my child in," she says. "I don't make enough to pay the tax on my home. It's very scary when you think about it."

Phillips and YAP president Kristie Maxwell led the walkout during last month's school board
meeting. While paraeduca-tors didn't talk to the elected officials in the front of the room, "I think they got the point," says Maxwell, 59, a paraeducator at MLK.

"We were showing that we were unified," she says. "We packed the place, and then everybody left. We had support, and they saw it."

Yakima school board member Walt Ranta is a retired teacher who still substitutes in nearby districts. He's worked with paraeducators, and says, "I do obviously know the value of the paraeducators.

"The other side of the coin is: do we have the finances? We're facing some major budget issues."

Still, he says, "I'm hoping that we will be able to get to some kind of amicable decision that everybody can live with."

Mann, who participated in the walkout, also attended the September school board business meeting. At that one, she read handwritten words from a lined sheet of paper, telling district officials " ... there is a lot to be proud of being a paraeducator. You are helping teach and mold hundreds of young souls.

"Unfortunately, I end up feeling more shame than pride. I'm forced to get welfare just to feed my family because my paycheck barely gets us a roof over our heads. I feel shame when I stand in a line over three blocks long for energy assistance funds so we can have heat come winter.

"It's frustrating that I work hard and that I'm a valuable asset to this district that won't even acknowledge my job well done with a living wage."

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.