Verona School Paraprofessionals Get 1st Union Contract: Raises, Paid Days Off

VERONA, NJ — Paraprofessionals working in Verona’s public schools have reached an important milestone: their first union contract.

On Friday, the Verona Board of Education and Verona Education Association (VEA) announced the terms of the first collective bargaining agreement for the district’s paraprofessionals, staff members who work in the district’s schools as one-to-one student aides and teacher assistants.

According to a joint statement from the two groups, the negotiations process commenced in the fall of 2016 and was resolved in June of 2017 with the counsel of a mediator from the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.

The VEA’s paraprofessional unit ratified the agreement on Sept. 5, and the Board of Education approved it on Sept. 12. The term of the new agreement is retroactive from July 1, 2016, and will be in effect until June 30, 2021.

Both the BOE and the VEA expressed optimism about the historic work agreement.

“This agreement respects the essential role that Verona paraprofessionals have in the education of our students,” VEA President Christopher Tamburro said. “The fair contract will result in increased retention rates and consistency in our classrooms.”

Board President John Quattrocchi said that the agreement “mutually satisfies the concerns and objectives” of both sides of the bargaining table.

“For the board, the main objectives were to assure the paraprofessionals of their compensation structure for five years to give certainty and commitment to the staff,” Quattrocchi said. “In addition, the allocation of settlement pool is skewed to those lowest compensated staff. This structural concept is important to the board so that we can fairly compensate more staff more quickly over the five-year term."

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TERMS OF AGREEMENT

According to the BOE and VEA, here are the details about the contract’s compensation structure:

• The agreement provides compensation increases to the total unit salary of 2.35%, 2.30%, 3.38%, 3.03%, and 2.89% in each respective year of the contract. (These are the increases to the salary pool. The pool is distributed throughout the levels of the pay scale in order to meet board and association objectives).
• Paraprofessionals will continue to be compensated on an hourly basis. Paraprofessionals are hired as 29.5 hour per week employees with unpaid lunch. (Health insurance coverage for paraprofessionals working fewer than 30 hours per week was not addressed in the agreement.)
• A higher minimum salary is established each year.
• Salary adjustments will be made retroactively to July 1, 2016.
• Rates for 2017­-18 range from $13.50/hour to $17.10/hour, and increase to $15.40/hour to $18.05/hour in 2020-­2021.

Other significant items in the contract include:

• Paraprofessionals will be compensated for sick days in accordance with state requirements, and will have "modest" paid time off for urgent matters.
• Paraprofessionals are entitled to due process protections similar to those of other non-­tenured staff.
• A clear work year is established that includes professional development and training sessions before students start school and throughout the year.
• A "fair" evaluation procedure was created in order to provide staff performance feedback for professional growth.
• The five-­year agreement aligns the paraprofessional unit to the negotiation schedule of the remaining four groups covered by the VEA agreement.

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File Photo: Verona Public Schools