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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.
What are the qualifications of a "Para-educator"? Is there special training, a college degree of some kind required? What would justify the pay-scale difference, either way, up or down, between a full-on teacher and this position?
Report ViolationWith unemployment at 10%, these employees should be thankful they have jobs with health insurance and great benefits. There are plenty of qualified people who would take their jobs in a heartbeat if given the opportunity, and they wouldn't be whining about the pay.
Report Violation(This comment has been removed by a Yakima Herald-Republic moderator)
It's always interesting to see which comments the YHR allows. My account was suspended for referring to a personal injury lawyer as an ambulance chaser.
Report ViolationWas anyone else disgusted by this article's attempt to pull on the heart strings of the reader by highlighting the difficulties of being a single mother raising three kids. I'm sorry, but what does any of that have to do with how much paraeducators should be paid? Should school districts base pay scales on the personal financial situations of each employee? I found the entitlement mentality of the quoted paraeducators to be typical of government employees.
Report ViolationI hate to say this, but for Yakima, $12.53 is a decent wage.
If they could be paid for a full day(while still working the 6 1/2 hours) that would add approximately $94 to a weeks wages, minus taxes. Spreading their salary or wages over a 12 months period makes for a lesser paycheck each month but does enable single mothers to be home with their children.
Question? Where does child support come into this? (for the para educator mentioned in this article) Perhaps the father or fathers should be required to pay support for their children.
While I sympathize with the para educators, they are doing a job they love. And as everyone is probably thinking, the para educators are lucky to have a job in our present economy.
One point to consider is that if a Paraeducator still qualifies for food stamps, welfare health coupons, etc then we are paying them more by shifting the costs to the social services network - the Wal-Mart benefits plan.
While there may be a line waiting for those jobs, how many could clear the background checks, drug screening and then be fit to work with kids - showing up each day?
It is interesting that we value the people that work with the kids at 35-50% less than the janitors and bus drivers.
They do a job I wouldn't do for 10 times what they make.
The irony of the single mother's situation is that a pay raise would likely disqualify her from some of the welfare benefits she is currently receiving, and she'd end up worse off. It is not uncommon for women in her situation to turn down higher paying jobs because of this welfare trap.
Report ViolationParaeducators are important members of a school's staff. However, they do not have the training or education to be teachers. Legally, they cannot teach a class unless directly supervised.
$12 bucks an hour is a decent wage for someone with very little post-secondary education, and who only works 9 months out of the year.
Sure, teachers make more money. We work a lot harder--designing lessons, grading papers, and keeping up our teaching certificate is only part of the picture. There are parent phone calls to make, conferences, open houses, staff development meetings, and clubs we advise to name a few of our duties.
If Ms. Mann wants to make more money, I suggest getting a college diploma, and then finding a job that pays more money than a paraeducator.
Now is not the time to ask for more money, as school districts' budgets are going to be extremely tight in the next few years, for both teacher and paraeducator salaries.
Salary is often commensurate with education and experience.
It's amazing how the district can pay the Superintendent more money than what the Governor of the state makes and not pay paraeducators what they are worth. YSD Administrators on every level should hang their heads in shame. Teachers should be lined up around the block at the Admin building supporting this cause. Pay the paraeducators exactly what the bus drivers, janitors, cooks and other support staff make....period! Follow the money folks....it will lead you straight to the Administrators. It's been like this for as long as I can remember, and it's WRONG!
Report ViolationThe reason I asked about the prior qualifications is: Where do I apply? It isn't a lot of money, but not too bad either, considering.
Report ViolationI think they deserve to make more than the people that clean the toilets! Hello...they work with our kids! Is it because janitors are part of a strong union? Sad that we can't pay the people that work with our kids as much if not more than the people that don't have direct contact and influence of our kids!
Report ViolationThis lady should be receiving child support unless she is a widow. As I recall, she would not have to claim the child support as income - the person paying child support pays the tax on the support money. I agree, $12.53 an hour plus benifits is not bad for Yakima Valley wages, especially considering she receives food stamps and medical coupons for her children that the public (taxpayers) are paying for. Considering the current and forcast economy, I do not understand why people are protesting and striking for higher wages at this time.
Report Violation "I think they deserve to make more than the people that clean the toilets! Hello...they work with our kids! Is it because janitors are part of a strong union? Sad that we can't pay the people that work with our kids as much if not more than the people that don't have direct contact and influence of our kids!"
Is CellarDoorGirl kidding? Custodians and bus drivers do not have a direct impact on or contact with our children?? Custodians have much more responsibility then just cleaning toilets - what a put down of hard working people who work a full 8 hours a day, 12 months of the year in maintaining a clean and safe environment for our children, teachers AND paraeducators.
Here's an idea. Add janitorial duties to the paraeducators' job description in exchange for higher pay. The school district could eliminate some janitorial positions and perhaps come out ahead.
Anybody think the paraeducators would go for that? Me neither.
I agree that these positions should be equivalent in pay to jantorial staff, not because building maintenance is not important, but because educating our children is as important as cleaning and maintaining the facilities where that teaching occurs. I agree with Overfifty - follow the money and you will see a huge disparity between administration and staff - and, there are far too many chiefs in this town.
Report ViolationA case study. A young lady graduates from WSU with a BS degree in Phschology. The next year she again graduates with BA degree in counselling. Two years removed from the educational system the young lady is making $10.50 per hour with benefits. She is happy to be working at all. Maybe she should move back to Yakima where $12.50 is not enough.
Report ViolationOk they want "at least half of what teachers make. Doing the math teachers make 52weeks x 40 hours/week= 2080 hous a year that devided into a $40,000 salary equals $19.30 an hour. I'd say for having no college education they are making a killing at $12.00 bucks an hour. If they want to make more. Then they should go to college.
Report ViolationPs. I myself was unhappy making minimum wage. Instead of crying for a raise, I did 11 years of higher education for a raise. They should do the same.
Report ViolationIt seems to me, a simple man, that there are three issues here; the job that is done by the Paraeducators, the pay, and the funding source. Paras are engaged in helping educate kids and often are called upon to change diapers, toilet kids, and use feeding tube or catheters. They are vital to special ed programs. They are badly underpaid for what they do if they need 2 or 3 jobs to pay their bills. If they were paid fairly some out of work person could work their 2nd or 3rd job, and they also won't then need public assistance, food stamps, etc, which is better for us all. Finally, the are paid w/ TAX PAYER'S Money, and I as a tax payer say pay them fairly. I'd rather my tax money go to take care of the people who take care of our kids. My guess is that even the most fiscally conservative taxpayer would see that this makes sense. We need to take care of our own. We give more money to people in Iraq than we do to people who work in our schools. What's wrong with this picture.
Report ViolationHigher education = higher pay.
Report ViolationI work as a para educator and have done so for the last 18 years. I am outraged at some of the comments posted! Para educators are paid about 1/3 of what teachers are. We usually work with the students that are struggling and need the most help in class. In the district that I work we now have a tiered intervention program which means that the para educators are working with students that are 2 or more years below the grade level for the current year. What is wrong with this picture?
Mentioned in the article was the fact that para educators get insurance. The insurance allocation from the state is prorated according to hours worked, so if a para educator does not work 8 hours they would only get a portion of the state allocation to help offset the cost of the insurance premium. Most para educators in the district I work are not 8 hours and pay out-of-pocket for insurance coverage on themselves. Some para educators are paying $300-400 out-of-pocket(deducted from the paycheck)each month to cover children or a spouse.
I believe the compensation needs to be increased for what we do. I am doing what I love and when I see a child start putting letter sounds together and read, I know I am where I should be.
I'm also amazed at the many negative comments posted here. I've been a paraeducator for years in this district. I'm proud of the progress my students have made over the years in all areas of education. Tell me why, after years of training and education (and yes many of us have degrees), do we not deserve to make what a custodian or bus driver makes? Nobody is knocking the hard work involved maintaining a building or the difficulty of transporting children, but a paraeducator's job responsibilties have greatly increased in the last few years. We are teaching your children folks! And our pay should reflect that increase in responsibility.
I'm also amazed at the many negative comments posted here. I've been a paraeducator for years in this district. I'm proud of the progress my students have made over the years in all areas of education. Tell me why, after years of training and education (and yes many of us have degrees), do we not deserve to make what a custodian or bus driver makes? Nobody is knocking the hard work involved maintaining a building or the difficulty of transporting children, but a paraeducator's job responsibilties have greatly increased in the last few years. We are teaching your children folks! And our pay should reflect that increase in responsibility.
I have read several comments about education = higher pay...
So here it is for you, I may not have a college degree but I am close to an AA. Very little of what I have learned in the AA classes help with my job. The education that helps me be the best Paraeducator I can be are the specialized classes that the district sends me to or the state/district requires me to attend that do not earn college credits. Classes specializing in Autism and Down’s syndrome, Right Response classes, behavior management, how to properly handle an oxygen tanks, Para Core Competencies (I have completed in both CO and WA), trainings on how to be a speech and language, occupational and physical therapist. This list is just over the last 4 years, and some of these I must do yearly to maintain a certification in the area. Others I have to attend yearly because the disabilities, findings and work change and I have to stay up with the changes. I don’t always get paid to go to these classes but I do them because I must to stay on top.
I have been a Para for 13 years now I am smarter and more educated then I was 13 years ago but somehow that doesn’t count because I don’t have a degree. I hate to break it to you but I am pretty sure there are some successful people out there you can name off the top of your head that did not receive a degree.
I deserve more than to live in an RV that doesn’t run. That has leaks and a soft floor and I would love to have running water. I have meds I have to take every day that I can’t afford and because I don’t have children I don’t qualify for food stamps. I do work during the summer attending trainings, summer school, temp jobs but with the down economy I couldn’t get a job this last summer. We deserve a Living Wage and I look forward to a time where I don't cry myself to sleep on a winter night because I am so cold and can't do anything about it.
Base pay should include the Substitutes also as they are usually the low person on the rate of pay scale and they have to buy insurance out of their pockets. As they are also teaching the students in a classroom. In Clark Co District area of Vancouver two districts do not give a substitute a pay raise when the regular staff get a rate of increase in pay.
So to be blunt about the increase in pay give the substitute staff a increase also as their base rate in one district varies according to the position held a day, which comes out to $10 bucks and hour if you have your Para and this district does not recognize college degrees.
But another dist does recognize not only the Para but also AA Degree as they require that to work in their district.
And they will start you out at $12 per hour. As the other district their starting wage depending on the area that you are teach they start you out at $12 hour and then it takes two years for you to advance up in their pay scale..
But they both do take out about $300 a month for medical, one offers full medical, and the other only offers medical and dental but no eye insurance and that to me is very expensive to me and a lot of others.
Now in district #1 they also give you a cost of living raise up until they put a freeze on it a year ago.
District #2 they don't give a cost of living raise they work so much differently then District 1 does when it come to $$ that you earn per month.
But what you should remember is that the poor Substitute does not get the wonderful benefits that the rest of us do, and that they have to find and buy their own medical, and they do not usually get the cost of living raises that we all do.
And as a Para Educator for 18 years with two College Degree's this is not fair in the long run. We all work with students in various levels of Education, be it be Regular Ed, Special Ed, Clerical, Janitorial, Campus Security, Cooks, etc., we all should be created equal when it comes being paid the same amount.
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