Is Your Job Beyond Description?

Ohio ESPs develop job descriptions that clarify their roles—and contributions to public education.

Photo: Mark Bealer

Too often, individual education support professionals (ESPs) are given few details of the job duties expected of them. Many work without job descriptions, or with descriptions so vague or outdated that they are useless—leaving ESPs without guidance and vulnerable to discipline .

Last year, the 560-member Lakota School Support Association (LSSA) in southwestern Ohio began working in partnership with the Lakota School District to develop specific, workable job descriptions for every ESP in the district.

In undertaking this project, the NEA local affiliate chose to develop "results-oriented" job descriptions (ROJDs). The ROJD concept—developed by human resources experts Roger and Sandra Plachy and adapted by NEA for ESP members—moves one step beyond the listing of an employee's job tasks to a recognition of what he or she accomplishes towards the overall mission of a school.

"Accomplishment is very important to ESPs," says LSSA President Mark Chance, who performs maintenance work at 22 buildings throughout the district. "ESPs are the community. We go into our lines of work because we want to be school employees. Most of us would be doing something else if it weren't for the students we serve."

Look at a typical ESP job description, and you'll find it's totally different from that of a teacher, Chase points out. "You might not know where we work. That's one reason why this effort has been so successful so far."

What's making a difference? The Lakota district is interviewing every ESP to develop meaningful job descriptions, "and part of that is acknowledging that we help education," notes the local president. "An electrician's job description may have said 'fixes wiring,' but now it will also say 'contributes to the safety of the school and its students by fixing wiring.'"

This local leader says the most critical part of the Lakota ROJD project is simply getting detailed job descriptions written.

"LSSA needs to represent its members as effectively as possible, and the old job descriptions were an obstacle," Chance notes. "Sometimes in my area, they were no more specific than saying 'maintenance employee.' So throughout the district, you'd have administrators calling plumbers for an electrical problem!"

Ohio Education Association Labor Relations Consultant Rodney Bird agrees that the new job descriptions will untangle lots of old problems.

"LSSA and the school district are not only confronting a situation in which existing job descriptions are inadequate, but one in which many jobs are changing dramatically," says Bird. "We've just finished work on new maintenance job descriptions, and now we're moving on to paraprofessionals and ESPs who work in special ed classrooms."

"These people are taking on changing duties, and more duties, every year," Bird adds. "They're excited that they'll finally have job descriptions that reflect their activities and support their contribution to the schools."

Chance says he and other maintenance employees "love" their new job write-ups. "The district is going to work better because of them," he stresses.

LSSA has worked with NEA's ESP Quality Department throughout this project. "Lakota is making terrific progress on behalf of support professionals," says NEA staffer Rafael Rivera. "Our national ROJD program is structured so that we can provide education and resources that enable an NEA local affiliate to take off on its own and work to tailor job descriptions to its own needs. LSSA has shown how effectively it can be done."

And none of it can happen without lots of labor-management cooperation. "I have an intense belief in the power of the collaborative process," says Lakota district personnel director David Greenburg. "We as a district have learned a great deal from the ROJD process, which begins with the important stage of the employee stating everything he or she does on the job."

—Matt Simon

For more: E-mail Rafael Rivera at rrivera@nea.org; phone: 202- 822-7774.

More ESP news in this issue:

• How states are pushing back on ESEA
• Michigan ESP local bargains first NEA contract
• Delaware ESPs win snow day arbitration case
• Colorado local builds numbers, earns respect