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Paying the Price for Professionalism

By sticking together and telling their stories to legislators, Delaware ESP win their largest pay increase in 20 years.

The 10 food service staffers at Middletown High School in Delaware are quite proud of the quality of their baked goods, chicken cheese steaks, and subs--not to mention the fully balanced menus and range of options they offer each day to MHS's 1,200 students.

The meals they serve, these NEA members say, meet recommended dietary guidelines and help develop healthy, lifelong eating habits.

"We're proud that we've reduced total fat consumption to 30 percent of calories in all of our meals," says assistant cook Lynn Lenker. "We provide a wholesome breakfast and lunch."

Hungry children, Lenker adds, are lethargic, irritable, and have shorter attention spans.

"Studies show that children who eat a nutritious breakfast," she explains, "improve their reading skills and test scores."

But MHS's quality cuisine comes at a human price. Middletown district food service employees unionized last year to tackle issues like staffing cutbacks--in the face of booming student enrollment--and working conditions that cause rapid turnover.

"You're constantly moving on this job," says Lenker, president of the 29-member Appoquinimink Food Service Workers Association. "We're always cooking, even during the last lunch, to keep food fresh. After that, we clean trays and utensils, sterilize the serving line, and sweep and mop.

"Even three hours on this job can feel like 10," groans Lenker, a five-hour employee. "Not many people want to do this amount of work for so little pay, plus shell out money up front for a uniform and a $50 state background check."

If anyone needs to hear this message, it's Delaware legislators. Educational support staff are technically employed as a class of state workers, but they get second-class treatment.

Last year, in fact, support staff got lower raises than state employees in comparable civil service job titles.

But legislators are starting to listen, thanks to a two-year grassroots lobbying campaign waged by 2,300 ESP members of the Delaware State Education Association.

In the last legislative session, the Republican-dominated House and Senate approved a new budget, signed into law by Democratic Governor Thomas Carper, that gives many Delaware ESP their largest pay increase in 20 years.

The budget adds $1,000 to the full-time pay scales of secretarial, paraprofessional, custodial, and food service employees, plus another step at the top of each salary lane. The law also mandates a new ESP salary study due in by December 1.

Moreover, the budget increases the state share of funding for local food service salaries, including a boost from 41 to 50 percent for cooks and general workers. Aside from locally bargained pay supplements, that'll mean a raise from $9.72 to $10.61 an hour for a cook/baker at the top of the scale and a boost for a starting general worker from $6.88 to $7.67.

"Delaware ESP clearly still have a long way to go," stresses DSEA Treasurer Julie Coleman, a paraeducator from the Caesar Rodney school district in Camden. "But this raise has increased morale and assured our members that they're not 'forgotten personnel.'"

It's hard to be forgotten when you make so much noise.

In the last session, Delaware's 62 legislators constantly heard from their underpaid ESP constituents--on supermarket lines, via E-mails and phone calls, through a 5,000-signature petition initiated by paraeducators, and through ESP visits to Dover, the state capital.

"Personal contact made a real difference," says Coleman. "During one trip to Dover, four of us showed Joint Finance Committee members our broad job descriptions and introduced them to a teacher, Ginger Pledgi, who described how paras make things run more smoothly in her classroom."

To educate legislators on the growing complexity of educational support jobs, last winter DSEA's eight-member ESP Committee invited legislators to two regional social events to hear support staffers from all job categories describe their work in detail.

"What struck these lawmakers," notes DSEA President Mary Ann Pry, "was the enormous responsibility ESP have, the passion they articulate for children and their jobs, and the disparity between these factors and their compensation."

Count on Diamond State NEA members to keep on telling their stories--with a passion--as they help legislators compile the new ESP compensation report this fall. Above all, these support staffers will be stressing the need to:

• Recognize increased ESP responsibilities. Delaware custodians, say DSEA leaders, must know how to handle hazardous chemicals, operate sophisticated computer controls, and serve as ambassadors to community groups that meet in their buildings after hours. And, because of a substitute teacher shortage, the state's paraeducators are being assigned ever more instructional duties, in both classrooms and Title 1 reading labs.

  "In the last five years," notes DSEA Para Issues Committee Chair Barbara Morris, "more students have come to inclusion classrooms with more disabilities than ever before."

  Teachers, she adds, require discipline and translation assistance from paras on a constant basis.

  "Paras are making more decisions on their own," says Morris, "either while taking students into the community or coming up with materials or programs to help kids reach their IEPs."

• Recruit and retain qualified support professionals. "I could walk out of my job today and make $5,000 more working in Delaware's banking industry," declares Pat Downes, a 15-year secretary in the Christina school district. "We stay here because we love being with the children. But because we don't get tuition reimbursement, the banks are taking a lot of younger secretaries who want to get credits or complete college."

  Severe understaffing, in the face of a growing workload, is making bank jobs even more attractive.

  School office tasks in Christina , says Downes, include completing "accountability" paperwork, recording student moves, composing detailed reports with charts and graphs, and interacting with a broad range of visitors, from social workers to probation officers--many of whom require more paperwork.

• Value ESP's contribution to student achievement. "I love seeing the kids every day and making them happy and healthy," says assistant cook Lynn Lenker. "We all feel we're their substitute moms while they're in school. We feed them, listen to problems, give them encouragement in making healthy decisions, wipe tears, clean up messes, and love them all!"

For more on ESP developments in Delaware, go to the DSEA Web page at www.dsea.org. To contact Lynn Lenker, send an E-mail to lynnlenk1@cs.com.

More to the Story
Delaware Paras Push for Training

Helping make Delaware's $1,000 ESP raise possible last spring was the NEA state affiliate's 12-member Para Issues Committee, which initiated a successful community petition recognizing paraeducators' link to student achievement.

But winning that raise was only half the battle for paras.

"Last year, the state added two extra days for teacher professional development, but nothing for us," says para committee chair Barbara Morris. "Districts aren't providing training programs for paras, yet paras need to know how to set up disciplinary programs, manage classrooms, deal with technology, and work with students with special needs."

The committee has been meeting for over a year with state education department officials to hammer out a statewide para licensure program. But there's still more work to do.

Not content to wait around for professional recognition, the 110-member Colonial Paraprofessional Association in New Castle recently negotiated Delaware's first para professional development program, with extra pay for successfully completed training, along with two new para salary lanes.

Upon completion of training, Colonial's Level I paras receive a $750 salary adjustment, while Level IIs receive a $1,000 adjustment, for a total of $1,750 after both courses.

Morris, the CPA president, says the Level I training course, planned in cooperation with the district, was "wonderful," with lots of detailed presentations.

"We learned," she notes, "lots about communications skills, special education terminology, classroom management, and student behavioral goals."

For more, contact Barbara Morris at colpara@prodigy.net.

The Steadiest Folks Around
On average, NEA's K-12 ESP members have nearly 11 years of experience with their current employer. This employment stability means that education support personnel really know their schools.

(Source: NEA National K-12 Educational Support Personnel Membership Study, 1997.)

When they say: "Food service workers don't need a union."

Think about this: "The first place a school district looks to cut money is the path of least resistance, which is non-union employees," stresses Lynn Lenker, president of the Appoquinimink Food Service Workers Association in Delaware. "Without a union supporting us, we would never have the respect, a voice in decision making, or benefits or pay increases we deserve."

AFSWA members, who organized last year, "now have representation, a binding contract--no more changing district policy--and, most importantly for me," Lenker points out, "liability insurance."

You never know when an accident might happen and you seriously burn a child with a hot pan," she explains. "If parents were to sue you for injuring their child, do you think your school district would pay for the legal fees and settlement?"