School District to Outsource Special Ed Paraprofessionals

The Board of Education of the South Orange Maplewood School District voted unanimously late Monday night to approve the $108 million budget submitted by Superintendent Brian Osborne.

The budget had gone through drastic changes in the last five days due to the announcement of state aid numbers by the New Jersey Department of Education last Wednesday. The state cut the district's share by 80.9 percent compared to 2009-2010 numbers. At the BOE budget workshop meeting on March 2, the draft budget topped $112 million.

The major casualty of cuts was the district's para-professional community. Contracts for the 76 aides who work with special education students and support their teachers will not be renewed. Instead, they will be outsourced to the Essex Regional Special Services Commission. The district is working with the Commission to have all the "paras" rehired through the Commission—albeit at 50% of salary and with no benefits. The move will save the district about $1 million.

The paras will continue as district employees through the remainder of the school year. District staffers Jim Memoli and Pat Barker contacted the paras today to inform them of the decision. The decision spread virally via e-mail throughout the afternoon and evening.

Many parents and personnel attended the meeting to protest the move. [The meeting was also crowded with parents angered by the district's plans for school rezoning.] During public comment, Suzanne Turner, a parent of a Marshall school student, said that outsourcing paraprofessionals is different than outsourcing bus drivers, custodians and lunch aides. "These are our most vulnerable students," she said. Turner warned of possible legal challenges and costly litigation and reminded the BOE that it is not just their legal but their moral obligation to educate special education students.

Paraprofessional Kathleen Robinson spoke movingly of her work over the past 10 years with the "little souls" who are her charges. A resident of South Orange, Robinson was anxious for the public to know that paraprofessionals are members of the South Orange-Maplewood community.

Steve Latz of the Maplewood Citizens Budget Advisory Schools Committee took another tack. He took Governor Christie to task for discontinuing "the so-called millionaires' tax that could raise the $900 million that could completely reverse the school cuts." Latz asked Board members and attendees to look at the bigger picture: "The only chance is significant, large demonstrations in Trenton and other large cities"—plus legal action. Latz noted that the 2008 School Funding Reform Act imposed levels of staffing and funding on school districts and that the "state needs to be held responsible."

Besides outsourcing the paraprofessionals, the district is finding additional savings through:

• the assumption that teachers will agree to a zero percent raise
• a zero percent raise for school administrators
• the assumption that the state assembly will pass legislation requiring all public employees to pay 1.5 percent into their health insurance
• cutting legal services by 43 percent (for $100,000 in savings)
• upping the tax increase percentage to 3.48% whereas the district was aiming for 3% previously (the tax levy would produce $98 million of the $108.6 million budget)

The district had budgeted for cuts in programs such as special education inclusion, full-day pre-school, and 29 teaching jobs to deal with revenue shortfalls and cost increases before the announcement of the state's aid cuts.

During discussion, Board members recognized the pain of the cuts and acknowledged that an increase in the levy would be necessary. Lynne Crawford, who is the Board liaison for special education, said, "The paras are the lifeblood of our special needs students," but she noted, "we just can't afford" them. "It's not easy, it's not fair and it has pained every board member."

"It's been a bad year for public education," said Crawford, "and an especially bad year for special education."

Although many throughout the night said that teachers were not the "enemy" nor were they to be blamed, Board President Mark Gleason singled out the state teachers union for scorn, noting its decision not to sign the state's application for the federal Race to the Top program. "There is a broken relationship between the school districts and unions," said Gleason.

In the end, Board members were hopeful that the savings could be achieved through the proposed measures and that core curriculum and programs would not be cut.