Learning: ESP on the Team
Measuring Their Worth

Vermont instructional assistants get support from teachers and community to earn a 'respectable living wage.'

Cindy Bubrouski has her master's degree in counseling. But up until January, the speech and language instructional assistant at Vermont's Montpelier High School was earning less than $8,000 a year.

"It's barely enough to get by," says Bubrouski of her $12,000 annual salary less $4,500 for insurance premiums. "And it's definitely a challenge to raise a child on."

The Vermont legislature agrees. According to its 1999 cost of living report, a single person with employer-paid benefits would need to earn at least $10.40 per hour just to afford the very basic necessities of life in Vermont -- nearly $2 per hour more than the starting salary for Montpelier's college-educated instructional assistants.

"It was a real slap in the face for us," says Bubrouski, president of the Montpelier Educational Support Staff Association (MESSA), which represents the district's instructional assistants and teacher aides.

Armed with the study, MESSA members began contract negotiations with district administrators in November 2000 with one goal in mind: to earn a respectable living wage.

"It's not just that we were being paid almost poverty wages for very important work," says Bubrouski. "It was also about equity. For years, Montpelier's custodians and secretaries have earned more than us and had better benefits. We just wanted our new contract to be more equal to our education peers."

For one entire year, MESSA leaders and Montpelier administrators tried to find a middle ground during negotiations. But by the start of this school year, they were still without a contract and morale was sinking fast.

So the Association members launched an aggressive campaign to reach out to the community and their education colleagues to garner support for the important work they do and their need to earn a respectable living.

To do so, they held press conferences, picketed school board meetings, wrote letters to parents, published articles in the local newspaper, appeared on local television and radio talk programs, and voted overwhelmingly to strike--scheduled for the last week in January.

Their comprehensive campaign quickly caught the attention of other local union members, including Montpelier's teachers, who organized a petition drive in support of the instructional assistants and wrote letters of their own to parents and local media.

Carolyn Kiniry, president of the Montpelier Education Association, says there was no question that the teachers would become involved: "In order to deliver quality education to kids, teamwork is vital," says the health teacher at Main Street Middle School. "We wouldn't want to do our jobs without the instructional assistants and aides."

In early January, with their strike-date looming, the instructional assistants received a two-year contract they were comfortable with. It includes a 60-cent-an-hour retroactive raise this year and a nearly 6 percent salary increase by next January. It also cuts their out-of-pocket health insurance costs by 25 percent. They also secured a one-time bonus for instructional assistants and aides employed for three or more years.

"We proved that earning a livable wage isn't just a slogan," says Bubrouski. "With the help of the teachers and the support of our community, we're closer to actually achieving a livable wage and getting the respect we deserve."

--Dina S. Gómez

Team player
Educating Through Interpretation

Name:
Wanda Newman

Job Title:
Education interpreter for hearing-impaired students, Friendly High School, Ft. Washington, Maryland

On ESP and Teachers:
I don't like the idea of splitting into teachers and paras. We all play a vital role and are part of the school team. In the classroom, I'm not just communicating with the deaf child, but with the teacher and hearing students as well.

I try to help teachers one-on-one to give them information on how to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing students. I tell them that they should try to work with the students using different resources such as overheads or videos with captions.

These students need their eyes to listen to the class, so I'm educating the educator.

Going One Step Further:
There are few professional development opportunities for hearing interpreters, so even though I've worked as an interpreter for 20 years, I used an NEA grant to enroll in a distance learning program to further my skills.

I had the opportunity to learn about new methodologies and strategies. We also learned how people go about learning a first language, and then how they use their skills to learn a second language. This was especially fascinating to me, as American Sign Language is my second language.

There are only five full-time interpreters for the county, so we get some people from outside agencies. Many don't have experience in interpreting for education and some have just begun their careers.

By mentoring them, I am able to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and to help them do their job better. I lead by example, so I constantly attend workshops to stay on top of changes in the profession.

After hours:
I'm a member of the National Association of the Deaf, Inc., the National Black Deaf Advocates, and the National Alliance of Black Interpreters.

Going the Extra Mile

Alaska's Mary Woodbury sees and helps children every day who stay after school to pursue private goals and dreams. She also sees those who struggle to be in extracurricular activities, often without enough money or parental support. She doesn't just stand around and watch, though. Woodbury is a dedicated staffer who lends a helping hand when she can. That can mean anything from providing emotional support to helping sew prom dresses after school.

It's no wonder that Woodbury, a night custodian with the Delta Greely School District, is making news in Alaska. She has continually committed herself to the students. Through Woodbury's help, one student won state and national design competitions and is now on full scholarship at the Seattle Fine Arts Institute. Because of her hard work and dedication to students, Woodbury was named Alaska's ESP of the Year.

"Mary has always been thorough and conscientious on the job, going the extra mile to train her co-workers, and is always selected to work with the new employees," says Delta Greely ESPA President Jackie Nelson. "She's respected by her supervisors and peers alike and is sought out repeatedly for her expertise."

Weekends are usually dedicated to relaxing, but ESP members in Richmond were hard at work on a quiet Saturday morning recently. Sitting in the Richmond Education Association office, the members were receiving training on several computer programs and learning how technology can help them do their jobs better.

The training came about as a result of the ESP caucus, who had asked its members in the fall what they needed most, and computer training had come out on top.

ESP caucus chair Muriel Wimberly arranged for the computer courses and said that the two sessions would be repeated as long as it took to accommodate everyone.

ESP members in Richmond were eager to learn about how they could do their jobs better through technology.

The REA office also got a computer designated for ESP members to use through a $3,000 NEA technology grant. ESP members will also have ready access to the Internet so they can communicate with others around the state.

The REA believes that learning to use computers not only enables ESP to reach out to more people, but it gives them a whole new set of skills. Through training and with the help of the technology grant, ESP members in Richmond were able to do both successfully.

Resources

Effective Communication Through Technology
At the ESP Professional Development Summit in October, support professionals in Washing-ton state got firsthand experience with Group Interactive Feedback Technology (GIFT), a new technology that allows instant responses from a whole group of people and gives them feedback on what the response was.

Questions were displayed and people responded on a wireless touch pad. The responses were electronically compiled and then displayed graphically back on the screen.

Through this, the ESP ACT team was able to find out what ESP members want and need.

Call the Technology Leadership Group at 800/621-9785 or go to their Web site, www.theltgroup.com, to find out more about Group Interactive Feedback Technology and how you can use it in your area.

NEA's Link to Support Professionals
An effective resource for ESP members across the country is actually on the NEA's Web site.

The site, www.nea.org/esp, has an E-mail discussion list that you can join to find out the latest in ESP news from fellow members.

You'll also find both news and resources sections that relate information about current events and publications released regarding ESP news.