At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Rockford Public Schools support staff are urging the district to increase pay to keep pace with inflation and encourage hiring to fill staff shortages.
Catina Barnett is the nutrition services and school bus driver union president. She says support staff can make as little as $14-per-hour and some workers have taken on second and third jobs to support their families.
“That scares me to think that being the second largest employer of this city, that a percentage of their employees are living in poverty,” she said.
Barnett says support staff also no longer receive perfect attendance bonuses installed during the pandemic. It was an extra $250 per pay period.
Last year, school bus routes were canceled because of bus driver shortages. Barnett says support staff shortages remain. She has a nutrition service worker at one school who serves 180 breakfasts by herself, which makes lines very long for students.
Sandra Patlan is a Rockford Public Schools paraprofessional & president of the Local 692 paraprofessionals union. She says paraprofessionals provide a breadth of teaching services that some people may not realize.
“Our paraprofessionals are being used as teachers [while] making less,” said the paraprofessional, just starting her 20th school year with the district. “They don't value the work.”
Patlan says low pay is also driving increasingly dire paraprofessional shortages. She says that hurts students. They don’t receive one-on-one services. And paraprofessionals can’t modify lessons for Individualized Education Programs.
Barnett says those challenges won’t be solved without wage increases. They hope the board will agree to open up their contract and she's confident they’ll come to an agreement.
