As District Forges New Paraprofessional Contract With Greater Oversight, Special Ed Parents Ask That Paras Be …

The South Orange-Maplewood School District is looking to improve the quality of paraprofessional services with a new vendor, increased oversight, improved screening, better training, and increased hours and scheduling flexibility.

However, parents representing the interests of special needs students are asking that the district go further and bring paraprofessionals back in district as direct employees.

During a report at the July 16, 2018 Board of Education meeting, Acting Executive Director of Special Services and Youth Services Dr. Laura C. Morano reported that the district would be moving to a new vendor — the Delta-T Group. Morano described the selection of Delta-T as a “win-win” that would allow existing paras to apply but that would provide better service overall.

The outsourcing of paraprofessionals — who provide in-class support to students with special needs — generated an enormous outcry back in 2010. At that time, district leadership and the Board of Education, under then-Superintendent Brian Osborne, made the move to outsource due to a $4.4 million budget gap caused by the sudden announcement of “unprecedented” cuts in state aid. (The state cut the district’s share for 2010-2011 by 80.9 percent compared to 2009-2010 numbers.)

The issue of paras recently jumped to the forefront of conversation in the district again when a former para was charged with lewd conduct, some of which took place at Jefferson School.

Speaking on behalf of SEPAC — the Special Education Parents Advisory Committee — at the July 16 BOE meeting, Reesa Salomon and Ann Leeb said that they were “grateful the issue of paraprofessionals is finally being given the seriousness it is due” and were happy to hear that “the Board and the administration is making paraprofessionals a priority with a vendor and “contract [that] will be more robust than previously with new provisions to safeguard our children’s well being. There will be stipulations for training, supervision, evaluation, and pay scale. The Special Services department will have a more direct role in monitoring paraprofessionals as will building principals.”

However, Salomon and Leeb noted: “While what we have been told sounds like an improvement over the current situation, a step in the right direction, it really is not enough. It is time for this district to plan to bring paraprofessional services back in house and take full responsibility for the people who work so directly with our children.” (See the full statement below.)

Later Morana discussed the shortcomings of the former contract and extolled the benefits that she said the district would realize under the new contract with Delta-T Group.

Morana said that, in negotiating the new contract, SOMSD wanted “to hit the reset button.”

She reported that the new contract would allow current paras who qualify to register with Delta-T.

The new contract would provide more stringent background checks. Morana spoke of “a very rigorous hiring process” that would include “a conversation with aids” and “soliciting feedback from building administrators,” plus “key requirements with criminal history searches, professional references and more.”

This is “something we will be working closely with,” said Morana.

In addition, she reported, “Paras can provide services without any cap in hours.” Before, Morana stated, paras could only work up to 29 hours per week, but now they would be able to work 40 hours per week. Morana said this was a benefit for classroom teachers and students: “They can plan to work with teachers prior to the start of day.” The increased limit would also allow for training.

Morana also said that Delta-T provided better electronic scheduling, including a daily report to building administrators on “who is absent, who is covering” — something that did not exist under the old contract. There would also be 24-hour access to the vendor.

Also improved: the way paras are evaluated. (“This is critical for us,” said Morana.) She said there would be in-person observations and opportunities for feedback from principals. “There will be supervisors as well,” said Morana.

Regarding increased training for paras, Morana said that the district was “not only looking at training that every educator in state of New Jersey is required to undergo, but looking at what are the needs of the particular program.” She listed training around autism, behavior disabilities, and more. “We’re looking at individual needs of children,” said Morana.

She also said the district was looking at having the “right number of paras for the right number of children.” She talked about the sharing of paras, but said that the number of paras should not change significantly, though it could decrease through “efficiencies.” She said, “We could have a total of up 115 paras … not the 150 we have now.”

Board member Robin Baker asked if parents could meet with paras, noting that children can be “closely bonded” with their paras. Morana replied that they could meet and added, “We would like to see more.”

Robin Baker also asked if evaluations had been completed on all existing paras. Morana replied, “We have those and the input from principals.”

Board member Annemarie Maini was blunt in her assessment of the previous contract and oversight: “Before Dr. Morana we did not have a tally of where the paras were working. We did not have a handbook. There was no time to coordinate with teachers and we not quite certain how robust the evaluation process was.”

Board member Johanna Wright wanted to know if teachers would get training “on how to use paras.” Morana responded that “one of the things that has been lacking has been the training on how to utilize your para. … That is a key component.”

Finally, Board of Education President Elizabeth Baker called the new contract a “really important step.” Noting that the district could hold onto good paras, she said that the previous “model was flawed and premised on low wage part-time employment.” She said that that model became more flawed when the district and vendor tried to manipulate the hours in an effort to try to avoid paying health insurance. Baker called this “deeply troubling” as the paras “were trying to care for our children.”

“Turning these jobs into better jobs not only rewards the talented paras … but also bodes better for recruitment and retention,” said Elizabeth Baker.

Baker said that the Board was interested in having the conversation about bringing the paras in house but right now would “take the steps we can.”

Statement read at the 7/16 BOE meeting by Reesa Salomon, of Maplewood, and Ann Leeb, of South Orange, representing SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Committee), the advocacy and support group for families of children with special needs, in the South Orange Maplewood School District:

At the outset, we want to acknowledge the extraordinary challenges this Board of Education, administration and the whole community face in this district and the enormous amount of work being done by the Board, the Interim Superintendent and the administration to correct issues decades in the making.

While many recent discussions in the district have centered around health and safety, a critical matter of health and safety that affects our children, at the most basic level, across the district has not been discussed with the public and we feel it must be brought out into the open. The issue is the subcontracting of people who work in our schools, all day, every day, with our children, namely, paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals are not currently employees of the South Orange Maplewood School District. For more than half a decade, the district has contracted with the Essex County Commission to provide paraprofessional services to our schools. And this arrangement has proven highly problematic.

Just about a month ago, a story broke in the public press that gave the details of a male paraprofessional, working at Jefferson School, who had been arrested for lewd acts, some taking place at Jefferson. Without going into further detail, we are sure the Board and the administration are fully aware of what we are referencing and the subsequent communication the district provided to Jefferson families. The public unfamiliar with this incident can research it themselves.

We are simply outraged. This policy of using an outside vendor, the lowest bidder, to provide paraprofessional services must change.

We are not suggesting for a moment that all paraprofessionals are bad — there are certainly some very fine ones, and whatever happens, we encourage you to retain the best of them. But many do not have the specific skill set needed to work with the challenges, often quite significant, with which our children present. For many children, there has been very little consistency or continuity in the person they often depend upon the most during school hours. Practically, every year SEPAC comes before the board to say that the overall quality of paraprofessionals is not what it was when they were district employees.

Since the details of these inappropriate incidents have come to light, the SEPAC leadership has reached out to one of our BOE liaisons and Dr. Laura Morana, [Acting] Executive Director of Special Services. From our discussions, we know and are grateful the issue of paraprofessionals is finally being given the seriousness it is due. We have been informed that the Board and the administration is making paraprofessionals a priority. It is our understanding, subject to change when Dr. Morana presents the details, that the district will once again contract out for paraprofessional services but with a new vendor for 2018-2019. The contract will be more robust than previously with new provisions to safeguard our children’s well being. There will be stipulations for training, supervision, evaluation, and pay scale. The Special Services department will have a more direct role in monitoring paraprofessionals as will building principals.

While what we have been told sounds like an improvement over the current situation, a step in the right direction, it really is not enough. It is time for this district to plan to bring paraprofessional services back in house and take full responsibility for the people who work so directly with our children.

We are parents of children with special needs and we represent hundreds and hundreds of families of children with special needs in this school district. These parents have many other important concerns to voice, including the outsourcing of transportation and lunchroom aides, and the unending amount of administrative change in the department of Special Services we have faced in the last four years. We have chosen to focus our comments this evening on paraprofessionals. By controlling the hiring, training, supervision and evaluation of paraprofessionals, the district can return paraprofessionals to their rightful role, as valuable members of a unified team that makes sure students are not only safe but are progressing academically and working to function independently to the best of their ability.

For anyone listening in this room or streaming this broadcast online, just know this isn’t simply a special needs issue. Paraprofessionals interact with all children, special education and general education. They walk the halls, they are on the playground, they are in the classroom, they are in the lunchrooms. This isn’t just a Jefferson issue because the events referenced above took place there. The paraprofessional charged was assigned to Jefferson but he could easily have been assigned to basically any of the other schools in SOMA.

This issue belongs to all of us. We are your friends, we are your neighbors. Board, we believe you care. With Dr. Morana’s experience, enthusiasm and energy, we sense Special Education in SOMA may finally move forward. Together, we must fix this paraprofessional issue for the benefit of all of our kids. Thank you.