School-Related Professionals from across the state gathered last weekend to learn how to reverse runaway inequality and win stronger, more equitable contracts at the bargaining table.
The annual School-Related Professionals Leadership Conference in Albany has become a professional development mainstay for busy SRPs who enjoy access to dozens of workshops on issues vital to their profession, including workplace violence, compassion fatigue, employee safety, and contract negotiation.
“This conference always has this high level of energy, enthusiasm and engagement, which is really remarkable because SRPs face some of the biggest challenges that exist in public education, and they’re often severely undercompensated,” said NYSUT Second Vice President Ron Gross. “But even amidst all those issues, they still bring energy and dedication to their professions.”
This year’s conference theme was “One Job Should Be Enough,” and in session after session, members shared what it’s like to earn wages that don’t cover today’s high cost of living.
“How do you focus on work when you're worried about how to keep the electricity on or how you're going to buy groceries? And how do we show up and be our best selves for students when we're exhausted from working two and three jobs, when we're burnt out, stressed out?” asked Melissa Sorensen, president of the Union Endicott School District Office Personnel Association and SRP Advisory Committee chair.
“As far as the current economy is concerned, it is hard for SRPs to keep their heads above water,” said Kim Orzell, Syracuse Teachers Association. “It would be nice to go home before dark and not put in 12 hours a day.” Orzell is president of Syracuse TA Unit 8, representing a range of titles including teaching assistants, aides, bus monitors, sentries, lifeguards, and behavior specialists.
“I have many paras working two and three jobs to make ends meet,” said United Federation of Teachers member Edgar Irizarry, Bronx borough coordinator for paraprofessionals. Recently, three of Irizarry’s members lost their Medicaid benefits, and he is scrambling to find temporary health insurance for them until the city’s health plan kicks in next year. “They just got to hope and pray they don’t get sick before then,” Irizarry said.
But members also shared stories of victories, along with tactical advice for how to shift the power dynamic and secure meaningful change in their own districts.
This year, Sorensen helped her local win a new four-year contract that brings members to an hourly wage of $21.75 by 2030. Sorensen leaned into the One Job Should Be Enough Toolkit, using data, member stories, and the Living Wage Calculator, a tool developed by MIT to estimate the wage that a worker would need to cover the basic needs of their family, to arrive at that target rate.
Sorensen said the board deliberated just two hours before accepting the majority of the local’s proposal. “They came back and they said, ‘We hear you, we agree with you, and we're gonna do what we can to get you there.’”
In the North Country, the Brushton-Moira Support Staff Association’s recently negotiated contract includes unparalleled percentage increases over the next four years. “They’re the best numbers I’ve ever seen,” said Cheryl Rockhill, president of the Brushton-Moira SSA. “Eight percent in the first year, and five in the last three.”
Unfortunately, Rockhill concedes, for some members in her unit making an hourly rate of just $16.85, even competitive increases don’t amount to much.
“Eight percent of nothing is still nothing. So, although it was a phenomenal contract, it just doesn’t go far enough,” said Rockhill.
It was a sentiment NYSUT President Melinda Person echoed in her address Saturday. “We talk about the ‘One Job Should Be Enough’ campaign, and I've seen the success of this effort already in just the first year,” said Person. “You are negotiating amazing contracts, amazing benefits, but it's not enough.”
Person said that the solution to the ongoing affordability crisis is changing the tax policy, so that the wealthy pay their fair share. “We need to tax the rich,” she said, adding that this is a natural extension of the One Job campaign because the country’s lowest wage workers pay a disproportionate share of their income in taxes. Under the current tax policies, a typical nurse in the U.S. pays 20-25 percent of her earnings in taxes, whereas the 400 richest billionaire families pay just 8.2 percent, Person said.
A slight increase in taxes for people and companies who make over $5 million annually would help schools and towns close their budget gaps and ensure that people have access to healthcare and other basic services, Person said.
“We need big investments in salaries for our hourly and lowest wage workers, and we’re not going to stop until we get it,” said Person.
NYSUT's affordability agenda is a great component to the One Job Should Be Enough Campaign, Gross said. “Because we're not foolish enough to think that in our current economy, we're going to just be able to redirect more money to these areas. We need to have a new revenue stream, and we know where that revenue stream should come from.”
This year, the SRP conference welcomed 214 participants from 56 locals, including more than 40 first-timers.
Conference workshops tackled practical topics including safe cleaning chemicals, active violence response, toileting regulations and spotting misinformation, and included numerous opportunities to earn Continuing Teacher and Leader Education hours. The agenda also included topics like “Confident Speaking for SRP Activists,” “Bargaining Better with a Budget Analysis,” and a two-part contract campaign primer to help local leaders launch effective campaigns around their contract proposals.
During lunch, the group honored NYSUT SRPs of the Year, UFT Chapter Leader of Teachers Assigned Naomi Rodriguez and Karen McLean, treasurer for the Herricks Teachers Association.
SRPs raised $3,500 for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer NYSUT team, and participants also donated nearly 300 books to the Hempstead Union Free School District.
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