Paraprofessionals: What is Their Role and Can Education in Vernon Succeed Without Them?

When Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway presented the 2012-2013 education budget in January, she recommended the district cut its roster of general education paraprofessionals, citing that the district was using paraprofessionals in assignments that teachers ought to be and are capable of doing.

One budget workshop meeting brought more than 200 community members – paraprofessionals, teachers, parents, and students – to speak against the proposed measure to decrease the district’s general education paraprofessionals.

Federal No Child Left Behind mandates have brought more stringent expectations on educators. Education has changed over the years on many levels. It is often stated by teachers from across the country that teachers are no longer just teaching. Rather, teachers also fill roles of parent, nurse, psychologist, counselor, etc.

So how would classrooms in Vernon operate without general education paraprofessionals?

“For the year-and-a-half I have been here, I have been looking at the utilization of our resources. I thought we could do better. Everything we do should be systemic. Looking at staffing should be systemic,” Conway explained.  She admits however that “administrators at first questioned her request of decreasing paraprofessional staff, but they agreed theoretically. Administrators guarded their door. No one wants to lose staff. But now administrators see that there are positions that can be absorbed because students can work independently.”

An example of what Conway is talking about is having a general education paraprofessional who might work in a fifth-grade classroom, assisting with reading. Conway’s view is that the majority of students in fifth grade should be working independently, leaving the teacher to focus on the students who might need additional support.

Conway shared a priority list of how paraprofessionals will be placed in the future.

• One-to-one paraprofessionals for students with individualized education plans (IEP) or because a student has a need.
• Small groups of children who are special education identified who need support in reading and/or math.
• Duties – lunch or recess. Conway said, “If we want teachers to be looking at data, working collaboratively and improving practices they need common time to do that. It’s a no-brainer.”
• Reading and Math intervention supports – pre-kindergarten through second grade. “By third grade, we hope students will be reading on grade level,” Conway said, “By law, paraprofessionals may not teach, place, or assess. Paraprofessionals can reteach students who may still be struggling.”
• Support for students under Title I supports – reading, math, English as Second Language.
• In-School Suspension.
• Office coverage.

“I want the use of resources to be consistent throughout the system,” Conway said. “We absolutely want quality teachers.”

Conway agreed that classrooms have changed over the last half century where now classrooms consist of all children. In the past children would have been removed or sent to resource rooms that were centered on students' educational challenges. Today’s classroom contains students with special education needs, learning disabilities, and behavior struggles.

“We now have all children in our school that’s why we have valuable paraprofessionals in the classroom,” Conway said. “We have a much more diverse population of students.”  

Conway further explained that general education students who struggle to focus or who have behavior struggles will still be provided with support, including services of a paraprofessional if that is what is deemed the bet support.

“From the very beginning I have said we will have paraprofessionals where they are needed. That is not to say all students will receive paraprofessional support, but specific children who are either unable to attend to their own learning or student’s behaviors that are distracting to themselves and the rest of the class, paraprofessional support could be offered,” Conway said. “Pre-kindergarten through second grade, those years are so key to learning. Students need to learn to self regulate, learn to read, socialize. It is so important to the rest of their education.”

Conway wanted to be clear that paraprofessional support will be available to students who need intervention even if they are not in special education. She said the hope is to provide the necessary intervention to keep students out of the special education system.

The School Board Response

Board members discussed the recommendation of reducing general education paraprofessionals. During the discussion at budget workshop meetings it appeared that the board was split on the measure. The board eventually voted to add $100,000 back into the paraprofessional account before sending its budget to Mayor George Apel.

Board of Education Chairman Dean Houle gave a e-mailed response.

“The superintendent has been talking about and taking action to re-deploy paraprofessional support to better meet the district's needs this school year, so I was not surprised by the budget recommendation. The superintendent must make tough decisions when formulating budget recommendations for the board which cover all of the district's needs and these decisions are not made without due consideration.

"The superintendent and administration are very focused on the board’s goals when making decisions and recommendations for the district. High quality teachers and high achieving students are very important to the district and they are committed to ensuring proper supports are in place to achieve these goals and the superintendent’s budget recommendations reflected this.

"The Vernon Public Schools have an extremely knowledgeable and highly qualified superintendent, who along with her administration is focused on student achievement in Vernon. As a board member, I am confident that the superintendent and all of her administration will be monitoring the changes in paraprofessional deployments to ensure there is no negative effect on classroom learning and if any adjustment is needed they will take appropriate actions.”

The Paraprofessional Perspective

Paraprofessionals across the district said they have great concerns about the direction the district is going. Although not all general education paraprofessionals were cut, there was still a reduction. Most do not want to be identified, but do want to talk about what impact reducing paraprofessionals in classrooms will have to all students.

Several paraprofessionals listed what they do throughout any given school day:

• Work with small groups of students on letter recognition.
• Word identification.
• Number recognition.
• Word segmenting.
• Smart spelling.
• Reading groups.
• Unit assessments.
• Report card testing.
• Math testing.
• Build reading skills.
• Phonics.
• Comprehension.
• Accuracy.
• Fluency.
• Writing skills.
• Encore reading groups.
• Universal Screenings.
• Re-teaching reading/math.
• Progress monitoring.
• Teaching reading and math skills to students who were absent.
• Nurture.
• Build confidence.
• Behavior.
• Keep students safe.
• Change their clothing.
• Lunch.
• Recess.
• Cover for secretaries.
• Discipline.
• Work with children identified as special education in various roles.

“My job has been instructional for some time now. The teachers plan my time to fit the needs of those children who are falling behind, or need re-teaching of particular skills,” paraprofessional B said.  “A great number of regular education students do not ‘get it’ the first time, and with the help of a paraprofessional, they are able to keep up, and move on.”  

Question: What impact do you think will occur if paraprofessionals were decreased?

“I feel that when the paraprofessionals are reduced, the effect will be that there will be students that don't get the attention that they need. When I worked in fourth and fifth grades, I would assist a small group, or a one-on-one with a student,” said Dot Tedeschi, paraprofessional union representative and a paraprofessional at the elementary level. “Reading has always been a large part of my day. Maybe with a group of students that needed more help reading than others. Sometimes with math they needed just a few more times being shown how it is done to get it even though the rest of the class had got it already.”

“It is difficult for even a highly qualified teacher to teach 20-25 students while addressing the needs of ESL students, challenging the gifted student, trying to catch up the student who comes in academically behind the rest, assisting the special needs student and at the same time controlling a student that has a behavior problem, that disrupts the learning of others, all in one classroom,” Tedeschi continued.

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“The classrooms that I work in are busy, academically speaking, and require a regular education teacher, special educational teacher, and myself.  There are students with learning difficulties and some with behavior issues, as well as students without learning difficulties or behavior problems. Teachers can only spread themselves so far, and this is exactly where a paraprofessional steps into the classroom picture,” said Joanne Palica, a paraprofessional who started at the elementary level, but now works in the middle school. "We assist the teacher(s) with getting the day's academics done. I work with the students who have great difficulties understanding what's required of them academically. This frees the teacher(s) up to continue with the day's academic work. I am not unique in the classroom because what I do is probably what dozens of other paraprofessionals do. A reduction in paraprofessional staff would mean that those paraprofessionals remaining would be spread pretty thin, while the academic needs of students wouldn't diminish. There wouldn't be enough time to adequately help all who need help.”

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“I cannot even imagine what impact it will have on these grade levels not to have extra qualified support in the classroom. The work that I did was to support children who need that extra help. I have seen the progress that many struggling students have made over the years that would not have been possible without support from paraprofessionals. One teacher in the classroom cannot meet the needs of every student. I feel that the students who will suffer the most are the ones who really need small group attention,” one paraprofessional stated.

“Decreasing the paraprofessional population impacts all areas. (Paraprofessionals assist with) things the teacher just can’t get to because of the ever  increasing class sizes. In schools now there is so much testing going on teachers do not have time to teach what they are supposed to. The impact, I think will affect test scores as well as  behaviors of the students,” another paraprofessional said.

Question: If you felt your voice was heard, what would you say to the superintendent about her paradigm shift in reducing general education paraprofessionals?

“I would ask the superintendent if she could do her job without her assistant 
to pick up the slack, if she would be as efficient without an assistant, could 
she get all her paperwork written and typed without the help of an assistant? I 
bet not. Why then is she saying that the teachers should be skilled enough to 
handle a class without paras when she herself needs an assistant, is she not 
skilled?  The mayor has an assistant, the police chief has an assistant, are 
these all luxuries the tax payer is paying for?” another paraprofessional who requested anonymity said.

Tedeschi attended and spoke during public comment segments of the board's budgetary workshop meetings. She added these comments for this story:

“I have to say that my voice wasn't heard or the outcome would have been different. When it comes to education we should never cut back on anything that has a positive effect on our students learning,” Tedeschi said. “I believe that our voices were heard but not listened to. Had our voices been truly heard we would have one less painter and six more paraprofessionals. Though our board and superintendent felt a painter to maintain our buildings was more important. I thought it was always about what was for the good of the children.”

“In regards to moving paraprofessionals form general education to IEP'd students, as in any job knowing what you excel at or what experience you have are key factors to success of any kind. This is also true in education. To move a key para in one grade and put them in another, maybe where they have no experience or training, certainly is not the best fit for the para and most importantly not best for the student. Special needs students need consistency, not change,” Tedeschi continued. “If all of employees were interchangeable, imagine janitors switching schools on a regular basis? In fact, the janitor who does this, is paid more, because he is a floater. How well received would the concept of switching all the secretaries of the administrators and the superintendent be?”

“Governor Malloy’s Education Reform is putting emphasis on pre-k programs, as to enhance access to a high quality early childhood education opportunity for all children. Dr. Conway wants our students at grade level reading or beyond by second grade. How do we propose to do that after having pulled paraprofessionals from kindergarten through grade 3, and placing those paraprofessionals with IEP'd students?, Tedeschi questioned.

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Palica also spoke at a budget workshop meeting.

“Let me begin by saying that I respect her and the position she holds. When I left the board of education meeting earlier this month I walked away with, not anger, but sadness. All the years that I've been a paraprofessional it's been because (plain and simple) I've wanted to make a difference in a child's academic life and I think I have ... many times ... I want to make a difference in a child's life, I care, and I want to show those who don't believe in paraprofessionals that we really are important to the classroom," Palica said. "We're educated, and want to know what gives anyone the right to decide our importance and necessity when they haven't walked the walk through a paraprofessional’s eyes, mind, and heart when we work with Vernon's children in the classroom.  We can, and do, make a difference ... continue to give us that chance.”  

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“The IEP students should not be affected because it is a state mandate that they will have so many hours of para help during the course of a day. My concern is that the greater impact will be on the general education population of the school. The students who may need the extra help from a para will not be getting the help. A para used to be able to take a small group of students who are weak in a skill area (doesn’t matter the grade) and work on the skill.  The skills could be anything from finding the main idea to multiplying fractions. They just needed extra time and practice to understand. I am afraid those students will be left behind. Time is a precious commodity in school and teachers do not have time to do it all before they have to go onto the next skill.  The paraprofessionals are their ‘extra time’ to reach those students,” one paraprofessional said.

Question: Please share anything else you feel would be pertinent for the voting public to know about paraprofessionals. 

“We (paraprofessionals) are a group of very intelligent people who nurture and educate your children.  Teachers are most capable, but in this day and age, obstacles are flying at them. We must assist the teachers who are testing, dealing with behaviors, time constraints, and a need for a little assistance to help the general population of students. We are putting all the dollars into the special needs, with few objections. They deserve so much. Yet, we are forgetting those regular education kids who don't get the attention they used to get from the teachers who were not so burdened with pressure to meet standards and data requirements,” a paraprofessional in the school system said.

“The removal of regular education paraprofessionals to cover these special education positions is not only taking an individual out of their field of expertise, but depriving the majority of students their right to extra help. Teachers are supposed to pick up the slack, yet, they’ve been given countless obstacles to conquer while trying to teach a heterogeneous group of children,” the paraprofessional continued.

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“As paraprofessionals at the elementary level, we look upon the students as an extended family. We know the majority of the students since they first came to school in kindergarten. Just like with our own children we want them to do well in school. We want to help them in every way we can. We have worked with students with special needs to students who just may need the extra help. We take pride in our job as paraprofessionals because we feel we make a difference,” another paraprofessional said.

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“Children can relate to paraprofessionals. They are not threatening and they may have a  chance to give some individual time to a child that is having a bad day for one reason or other. Paraprofessionals have longevity. They don't jump from one job to another  to another they work as paraprofessionals because they love what they do, despite the low pay. Paraprofessionals have respect for each other and help each other out in times of need.  Paraprofessionals work very hard!”  another paraprofessional said.

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“A lot has changed in the last two years.  Change can be good, but change just for the sake of making a statement is wrong when you are playing with students' education and people's lives. This is not about education it is about the almighty dollar. Being a superintendent and a board member is not an easy job. However, when the quality of education for our students is sacrificed because Dr. Conway and some on the board see paraprofessionals (many who have degrees and/or years of personal experience) as luxuries or at the bottom of the educational food chain, something is horribly wrong in our school system. The make and model of your car. Dr. Conway, may be a luxury. The fact that you need a car to get you where you need to be in order to do your job well is a necessity. Paraprofessionals are a necessity to help all students achieve a quality education and yet we are the lowest paid of all school personnel,” a paraprofessional said.

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“I always say. 'I don't make money ... I make a difference,'” Tedeschi said.

The Community Perspective

At the Jan. 24 budget workshop meeting, Valarie Sexton spoke to the board during community forum.

“In life we have three types of people – opportunity makers, opportunity takers, and opportunity breakers," she said.

She further explained that in education, like teachers, people are opportunity makers and that taking away regular education paraprofessionals would fall into the opportunity takers category.

“We want to put their (students) needs first,” Sexton said. “I see the benefit of paraprofessionals who work with regular education students. Breakers take away necessary services like paraprofessionals.”

At the January 31 budget workshop meeting, over 200 people filled the conference room. Everyone who spoke was against the board cutting general education paraprofessionals.

Sarah Harrigan, a parent, said paraprofessionals helped with lessons and disruptive behavior. She asked the board to “do the right thing” and not cut general education paraprofessionals.

Vernon teachers Janice Bickford, Mary Maturano and Phyllis Winkler expressed their concern of loosing paraprofessionals. They explained that often teachers need additional support paraprofessionals provide in order to have effective teaching happen in the classroom. The teachers also explained that the diversity of student abilities in classrooms is another reason for paraprofessionals to remain.

Monica Bardon, a parent, questioned how the board expected teachers to really address the ability of all students in their classrooms. She said paraprofessionals are important and that she felt her daughter would have “fallen through the cracks” if paraprofessionals were not available.

Ronald Apinis explained to the board that he opposed the elimination of paraprofessionals. He felt that removing paraprofessionals would impact the success of Vernon schools. “Students should be given equal opportunities,” he said. "Paraprofessionals provide the support teachers and students need.”

Dan Wine, a parent, asked board members when was the last time they were in a classroom. He said paraprofessionals are a need and parents are the “luxury.” He said “Paraprofessionals are needed and cutting them will do a lot of damage.”

Former school board member Paul Stansel said he was reminding the board of its mission statement.

“The Vernon Public Schools, in partnership with family and community, is committed to provide a quality education, with high expectations, in a safe environment where all students become independent learners and productive contributors to society,” he said. Stansel said cutting students would not help students.

The Connecticut State Department of Education (http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&q=321752) showed these requirements for paraprofessionals per No Child Left Behind legislation.

As of January 8, 2002, newly hired paraprofessionals must have:

• Completed at least two years of study at an institution of higher education;
• Obtained an associate’s degree or higher degree; or
• Met a rigorous standard of quality that demonstrates, through a formal State or local academic assessment: 
• Knowledge of and the ability to assist in instructing, reading, writing and mathematics; or
• Knowledge of and the ability to assist in instructing, reading readiness, writing readiness, and math readiness.  (This applies to those primarily working with early childhood.)

The district currently employs approximately 150 paraprofessionals – 97 at the elementary level, 18 at the middle school and 27 at the high school. The district employs 41 general education paraprofessionals. Conway expects the total number of paraprofessionals to be similar next year.

A step one paraprofessional is paid $10.51 per hour, according to Conway. A higher step one paraprofessional makes $14.49 per hour.

If no changes are made to the proposed budget and voters give it their stamp of approval, the paraprofessional budget will increase $15,000 over this year’s budget, according to Conway. The board sent a budget to the mayor on Feb. 6 that included the reinstatement of $100,000 to the paraprofessional line item of the budget bringing the proposed budget to $48,521,897, an increase of 2.2 percent.