ESP Battling for Respect, Too

While most of the attention during the 2001-03 bargaining crisis in Wisconsin’s schools has focused on the plight of teachers, Wisconsin’s Education Support Professionals (ESP) are also suffering from the impact of a poor bargaining climate and school district revenue caps.

Like teachers, ESP – who include paraprofessionals, food service workers, custodians, bus drivers, school secretaries, security staff, and other categories of school employees – have a large number of unsettled contracts this year, and are often struggling to achieve fair contracts.

WEAC’s May figures showed that 85 of the 306 ESP bargaining units affiliated with WEAC were unsettled. ESP contracts vary in length, usually from two to three years, so direct comparisons cannot be made with teacher contracts. But as of May, 276 teacher contracts were unsettled for the uniform contract period of July 2001 through June 2003, meaning that at least 361 teacher and ESP contracts are currently unsettled.

A lot of uncertainty
“There is just a lot of stalling,” said Mike McNett, WEAC’s director of collective bargaining. Increasing insurance rates and the still-pending state budget (as of early June) have districts worried.

“There is a lot of uncertainty, games of brinkmanship ... I think districts are putting off making the choices.”

Many support staff negotiations statewide are in a holding pattern as teacher contract talks continue and legislators grapple with the state budget deficit.

“Nobody knows what is going to happen,” said Ray Heideman, of Kenosha, chair of WEAC’s ESP Statewide Bargaining Committee.

ESP locals affiliated with WEAC have adopted statewide bargaining goals that parallel those of teachers. They include 3.4% pay increases per cell per year, no take-backs and discussion at the bargaining table of long-term care. Many districts have reserve funds – called Fund 10 balances – that they can tap into to provide fair pay raises. In addition, support staff argue that because their salaries are relatively low, it is not very costly for the district to provide fair pay increases. Also, support staff, unlike teachers in Wisconsin, have access to binding arbitration as a means to resolve disputes.

Targeted for layoffs
Overall, ESP salaries have not lagged as much as teacher salaries, McNett said, but he fears the effect of dramatic increases in insurance rates.

Also in an era of budget shortfalls and staff cutbacks, school support staff are feeling especially vulnerable because school boards often seem more readily inclined to lay off support staff than teachers.

Teacher contracts require school districts to issue preliminary layoff notices several months in advance, usually in February, March or April. An unprecedented number of preliminary layoff notices have been issued to Wisconsin teachers this spring, although some already have been rescinded.

ESP contracts vary, but many don’t require such an advance notice.

Heideman said word is just starting to circulate about potential layoffs among districts’ support staffers.

“Districts sometimes can wait until the last second,” he said.
“When the dust settles with a budget, the district will come in and say they need to eliminate 15 education assistants and lay you off,” Heideman said.

That is why layoff language in a contract is very important, Heideman said.

McNett agreed there are fears of layoffs among ESP workers.
“There have been support staff layoffs, and the threat of more on the way has some school districts watching the state budget drama unfold and trying to predict how much” money is expected, he said.

For example, the Onalaska School Board in April was looking at cutting 21 employees – including 12 teachers, five assistants and three custodians. The cuts are among $1 million or so that are believed necessary following the April defeat of a referendum asking voters’ approval to bypass the revenue limit by $1.5 million per year during the next five years. Staff cuts are likely to make up most of the reductions for the 2002-03 school year.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported on a meeting at which the Kettle Moraine School Board was considering laying off 16 teaching assistants next year. It quoted Jeannie Race, a high school teaching assistant:

“Today I’m angry and I’m hurt,” she said. “We affect countless students and, obviously, they affect us. If we’re not here to care, who will?”

A key part of great schools
You cannot overlook the importance of support staff to the smooth operation of schools and the effective education of students, McNett and Heideman said.

“If you want something done,” Heideman said, “these are the people.”

If support staff are laid off, McNett said, “a lot of things just don’t happen.”

“If we take any of our paraprofessionals out of the classroom, it hurts students,” he said. “It’s a reduction of educational services, and it also puts a great load on other people in the school, making it more difficult for them to meet the needs of their students.

“When support staff are laid off, a lot of things happen late or not at all. If you cut down on the number of custodians, schools are not as clean or as safe,” he said. “There is a slow and gradual erosion of services. And the students are the ones who ultimately suffer the most.”

McNett and Heideman said there are a lot of parallels between the plight of teachers and support staff – low pay, lack of respect, and an uncertain future. Both groups are essential to the operation of great schools, they said, and both must work together in solidarity through their union to improve working conditions and the quality of education in Wisconsin’s schools.

“We are a union. We are one,” Heideman said.

Posted May 31, 2002