'I shouldn't be struggling:' Brockton paraprofessionals rally for higher wages
BROCKTON – With more than 100 people outside chanting and holding signs reading "it's time you support us," Stacy MacDonald, president of the Brockton Education Support Professionals Association, entered the office of the Brockton Public Schools headquarters.
"When we first walked in, we felt like tensions were very high," she said.
MacDonald and her team met with BPS officials Monday evening to negotiate higher starting wages for educational support professionals in the school district.
It was the third meeting since June 13 where members of Brockton Education Support Professionals Association (BESPA) tried to negotiate wages with the administration, and a crowd of people stood outside the building to express their support for the paraprofessionals.
"We work hard," said Maria Serrano, a paraprofessional in a special education classroom at Brockton High School.
"Even the teachers say that they don't know what they'd do without us."
According to BESPA, educational support professionals in the district currently make $16.90 per hour as a starting wage, working 6.25 hours each day, or 31.25 hours each week, an approximate annual salary of $20,808. The wages are capped at $24.48 per hour after 20 years.
BESPA is negotiating to bump that to $25 per hour to start.
Top 10: South Shore High School Boys Lacrosse Power Rankings
"I have members that have to work three or four jobs just to get by. They're not surviving on a wage of $16.90," said MacDonald, a paraprofessional in an English classroom at Edgar B. Davis School, a job she's had for 11 years.
A BPS spokesperson said that the district is "committed to negotiating a fair contract with the union," and did not provide details of the ongoing negotiations.
In January 2022, the district announced it was creating new positions called community allies, employees who monitor the hallways on a daily basis, after a student was stabbed in an fight with another student.
Community allies' starting pay was $25 per hour working 7.5 hours a day. Those positions did not receive benefits and were terminated at the end of this school year.
"The district realized that it takes a starting wage of $25 to get people to apply," MacDonald said.
Paraprofessionals in other areas across the state have recently received an increase in wages. In Northampton, the local school committee agreed to a $2 hourly wage increase for paraprofessionals this past week. In Shrewsbury, a smaller school district than BPS, district officials agreed to increase wages for paraprofessionals in January.
Why are there so many nips in Brockton?: Here's why Brockton woman is on a mission to clean up nip bottles
For Serrano, who has worked in educational support at the school district for 10 years, she has to work four jobs just to make ends meet, often having to travel by bus to and from work because she can't afford gas. With school ending this week, she will receive one more paycheck before summer break.
"I get to the classroom and I do a lot of work, and I shouldn't be struggling," she said.
BESPA has more than 420 members – all paraprofessionals who work in BPS. Many of them work in special needs classrooms like Serrano.
"Some are hit and kicked and punched ... daily, but they love their job. They go back every single day because they love their job," MacDonald said.
But when MacDonald exited the BPS offices Monday night, she said she felt "a glimmer of hope" that the district officials might agree to their demands. BESPA members won't know the district's decision until their next meeting on July 7.
"They tell us that we're important," Serrano said.
"If we're that important, and we mean a lot to the district, why can't they find it in their hearts to just give us what we're asking for."
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Public Schools: paraprofessionals rally for higher wages
