School-Related Professionals from across the state gathered in early November to demand a living wage and learn how to win victories at the negotiating table and the ballot box.
"One Job Should Be Enough” was the theme of this year’s NYSUT School-Related Professionals Leadership Conference and speaker after speaker underscored the fundamental problem: our members’ paychecks don’t cover New York’s cost of living.
“We recognize how serious this moment is for us to seize upon,” said Second Vice President Ron Gross. “We have kicked off our new One Job Should Be Enough campaign and everyone is all in.” The conference welcomed 250 participants from 57 different locals, including 61 first timers, and Gross said the energy around the campaign was unmistakable. “All of our members are really excited.”
During the opening session, Gross and the room full of attendees called for change, chanting “One job should be enough,” their voices thundering through the Albany Hilton.
“One job should be enough, yet we know the reality facing too many of our members across this nation, workers who dedicate 40, 50 and more hours a week, still cannot afford to make ends meet,” said Karen McLean, NYSUT SRP Advisory Committee chair and treasurer of the Herricks Teachers Association.
Workers are forced to take on second and third jobs, rely on public assistance and live in temporary housing — even as they do this country’s most important work: raise America’s children.
“The system has tilted so far out of balance that a full-time job may no longer guarantee stability, much less dignity,” McLean said.
Members agreed.
“The salary issue is even bigger now than it was a year and a half ago because the cost of living has risen so much. So now, our members who were already underpaid are feeling it even more because the dollar doesn’t go as far,” said Melissa Sorensen, president of the Union-Endicott School District Office Personnel Association and a member of NYSUT’s SRP Advisory Committee.
Union-Endicott has a community school. Sorensen said several of her members are visiting the school’s food pantry to feed their families, and at least a third of her members work second jobs to make ends meet.
“They have no downtime, and if they have a family, who is taking care of their children? People are just being stretched too thin, and when you're not sleeping, when you're not resting, then you cannot come back and support students appropriately,” Sorensen said.
Lisa Bender, an aide at Frontier Middle School and member of Frontier Central Employees Association, said that many of her colleagues work more than one job, herself included. “I have three jobs,” Bender said. “I think for everyone having more than one job has become the norm.” Many of the aides at Frontier Central schools have second jobs as waitresses and home health aides, she said.
In addition to the loss of dignity and the lack of family time, inadequate compensation also leads to retention issues, Bender said. “We need help to make them stronger and able to stay. We don’t want them to leave because of money when we know they love what they do,” she said.
“SRPs are probably some of the hardest working employees in education, but they are also some of the lowest paid employees,” said Mark Warner, a teaching assistant and president of the Syracuse Teachers Association – Unit 8, Assistants, Monitors, Attendants.
Warner said he has many members who work second jobs, and several who go into third shifts as Uber drivers. “What we really need to do is fund education at the federal and state level. We need the billionaires to pay their fair share,” Warner said. “It costs money to educate people, and we need that support.”
Kim McEvoy, treasurer for Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers and SRPs and SRP At-large director on the NYSUT Board, first introduced the One Job Should Be Enough resolution at last year’s Representative Assembly, explaining at the time that SRPs deserve a wage that affords dignity and the necessities of life.
“School-Related Professionals and healthcare workers, we work hard. We love what we do and we’re the backbone of our schools, and we need to be recognized for our value,” McEvoy said. She added that seeing the resolution become the centerpiece of this year’s SRP conference was intensely rewarding. “It feels pretty amazing to see all of us come together across the state and unite on this issue.”
During her address at the SRP conference, NYSUT President Melinda Person honored the struggles of SRPs and their contribution to our democracy. “Every time you fight for a contract, a living wage, for people to pay their fair share of taxes, for inclusive education and fight to make sure that people keep saying D-E-I ... Every time we fight for these things, we're fighting for the kind of country that we want to be, the kind of country we want to leave to our children and grandchildren,” Person said.
James Chaney, a teaching assistant and member of the Albany Public School United Employees and finalist for this year’s national Recognizing Inspiring School Employees Award, was the keynote speaker.
“When you get home and you look at that paycheck ... you realize it's not where it needs to be,” Chaney said, noting that educators are chronically underpaid and undervalued, despite their enduring legacy.
Conference workshops tackled practical topics from school safety to toileting and blended AED and CPR certification and included numerous opportunities to earn Continuing Teacher and Leader Education hours. The agenda also included topics like “Reversing Runaway Inequality,” “Why School Board Elections Matter” and a two-part “Contract Campaign Primer” to help local leaders launch effective campaigns around their contract proposals and build support among members and administration.
SRPs were also given the new “One Job Should Be Enough” toolkit, which shows locals how to use the latest data, personal stories and organizing strategies to successfully negotiate a stronger contract for their members. The toolkit is complete with success stories from other locals who have won significant wage increases and other important gains.
As the toolkit lays out, the crisis is real, but so is the path to victory. At Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, the OCM BOCES Federation of Teachers scored flat-dollar raises for teaching assistants, amounting to a $10,000 salary increase and added a new tier for longevity payments resulting in another $3,000 jump. To do this, negotiators were able to show salaries at regional competitors and demonstrate the high cost of staff turnover. “We could be brutally honest and say, ‘This is why people are leaving. These are the problems. What can we fix?’” said Tracie Clark, OCM BOCES Federation of Teachers president.
At North Babylon, the North Babylon Teachers Organization: Paraprofessional/Cafeteria Aide Chapter successfully made the case that previous percentage raises weren’t cutting it when it came to recruiting and retaining staff. The unit was able to secure flat pay increases for staff over five years, increase the starting salary by almost $3 an hour, the top salary by $5 an hour, and add new thresholds for longevity payments at 10 and 20 years.
North Babylon Teachers Organization President Lois Emerick emphasized the value of having members that work and live in the community they serve. “I have a long history here, so I can explain why these changes are necessary. I went into negotiations knowing full well what my members needed. I could answer any question that came up and I had the data to back it up,” said Emerick.
Holly Tierney, president of the West Irondequoit Maintenance Employees and Security Employees Organization said she is looking forward to using the toolkit to support her push for a better contract in 2027.
“I actually very much appreciate the toolkit, because I know I'm preaching to my members that one job is enough, but it's not going to come to us without organizing,” said Tierney.
During lunch, the group honored Sandie Carner-Shafran as this year’s recipient of the Not For Ourselves Alone Award and NYSUT SRPs of the Year, United Federation of Teachers Chapter Leader Raul Garcia and Angie Rivera, member of Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals.
As part of the conference, SRPs also raised $3,034 for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer fundraiser and donated more than 400 books to District 21 in Brooklyn.