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Date: 3/29/2023
LONGMEADOW — The most controversial issue at the March 20 Longmeadow School Committee meeting was the ongoing negotiation between the district and Unit F of the Longmeadow Education Association, which covers paraprofessionals and other educational assistants. A few people addressed the committee during the public comment period.
LEA President Robert O’Connell said the negotiation “has been the most challenging” in his time in Longmeadow, but both sides had negotiated “in good faith.” Compensation is the “sticking point,” he said, and called the amount requested by the union “a living wage.”
Shirley Barnhart, a Longmeadow resident and Blueberry Hill School kindergarten assistant, said she makes $27,000, despite holding a bachelor’s degree and having been at the school for 16 years.
Barnhart said her duties include providing one-on-one instruction with students “to develop independence and self-reliance,” keeping students on track, managing small groups, preparing and modifying classroom materials, completing assessments, recording student social-emotional behavior and growth, and covering teacher absences while still attending to assigned students. She remarked that this last function saves the district in substitute costs.
The administration has hired new staff at a higher than entry-level step because it has had difficulty finding qualified candidates at the entry-level pay. While Barnhart is a step 16 and makes $20.81 per hour, she said that in 2022, the district started paraprofessionals as high as $22.71 per hour. This has been “discouraging” to staff with years of experience in the district, she said.
Barnhart said paraprofessionals are living paycheck to paycheck, working second jobs and dipping into retirement money to survive. The pay scale must be increased to a living wage if the district is to retain quality educators, she said.
A Longmeadow educator read a letter on behalf of Williams Middle School teachers. The letter said paraprofessionals are “leaving their jobs due to poverty pay wages.” The administration may feel it cannot afford to pay them more but, the letter read, it cannot afford to lose the educators, as they are “a key liaison between students and classroom teachers.”
School Committee Chair Nicole Choiniere assured the educators that the district intended to continue working on a contract “that ensures that our paraeducators are among the highest paid paraeducators in the wider geographic area while remaining fiscally responsible.” However, she added that the fiscal year 2024 budget is $1.7 million higher than it was in FY23, “the highest proposed budget increase in years.” Choiniere also recognized that the role of paraprofessionals has “evolved in recent years.”
School Choice and METCO
Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea presented a proposal for the 2023-24 year but would add two School Choice seats at grade 1 and two at grade 9. The School Choice program allows families to request a student be sent to another school district and in exchange, the destination district receives $5,000 to educate that student for the year. For the Metropolitan Educational Council for Opportunity program, commonly known as METCO, which buses students from a city, in this case Springfield, to surrounding suburban districts to be educated. O’Shea requested two seats to be added to the kindergarten level and two seats to grade 9. METCO participants are chosen by lottery.
O’Shea explained that this would allow the district to participate in the programs without having to increase staff. He said three School Choice students are graduating this school year and there are no METCO students enrolled in grade 12. He said other grades and cohorts are large enough that new openings might require more teachers.
The topic will be taken up by the Budget and Finance Subcommittee before receiving a vote from the full School Committee.