MAPS approves staff incentives, special ed pay rates questioned
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MARQUETTE -- The Marquette Area Public Schools board approved a revised compensation package for staff on Monday.
The new package includes a $500 signing bonus, free breakfast and lunch for all MAPS employees, one extra sick day and eliminating the $80 police fingerprinting fee.
"These incentives are designed to show our appreciation without infringing on a three-year collective bargaining agreement which does not expire until the end of the 2023-2024 school year," MAPS Superintendent Zack Sedgwick said in an email.
During public comment at Monday's meeting, concerned parents spoke about the lack of training and pay that paraprofessional aides receive while working with students who have special needs.
The parents specifically addressed the pay discrepancy between MAPS and Gwinn Area Community Schools for the same position.
While MAPS is paying paraprofessionals a starting wage of $11.50 per hour, GACS pays a $13.33 starting rate.
Sedgwick said that special education has been underfunded for many years.
"Although progress has been made to address this challenge, years of underfunding have created a significant budget shortfall for school districts," Sedgwick said. "Ultimately, this negatively impacts our school districts' ability to address nonspecial education expenses, such as those related to social and emotional learning, safety, infrastructure, extracurriculars and programming."
Shilpa Jhobalia is one of the parents advocating for change. Jhobalia said her child, who is nonverbal, works with a paraprofessional aide during each school day.
"It appears to me that MAPS administration is in denial of this issue," Jhobalia said. "In order to fix anything, you have to recognize that it's a problem."
Jhobalia said administrators should consider increasing paraprofessional and instructional aides' minimum wage to $15 an hour, while standardizing training requirements across all buildings in the MAPS district and increasing required training for paraprofessional staff.
"I think administration has to acknowledge that the training is not where it needs to be and if they can start there, then we can start to identify ways to improve it," Jhobalia said.
She said increasing wages and training in a timely manner would help more staff to stay in the district. In addition, she said, MAPS will be able to attract more paraprofessionals to work in the district.
Other schools across Michigan have seen similar issues and acted to fix them. In November, Flint Community Schools Board of Education approved a pay increase for the paraprofessionals union in the district.
The downstate district originally offered a minimum wage scale starting at $10.53 per hour with increases up to $15.39 an hour.
After negotiations, FCS now offers a starting wage of $15 an hour with incremental increases. depending on the employees' years of service.
In 2021, Lamphere Schools district in Madison Heights still had a dozen openings for paraprofessionals to work with students with special needs. To attract more employees, the district raised the starting pay from $13.68 an hour to $18.70, including benefits such as health, dental and vision insurance.
These positions play important roles within the school districts. Jhobalia said that with these shortages, MAPS will have to rely on substitutes for teachers and paraprofessional staff.
Sedgwick said that across the 12 public school districts and one public school academy in the region, the annual special education budget shortfall is almost $5 million.
"To address the needs of our roughly 575 special education students, MAPS realizes a deficit in this area of approximately $2.5 million," Sedgwick said.
On May 2, there will be a ballot question that asks voters to approve a 1.5 mill tax increase to address the special education budget shortfall.
"Our community's approval would result in 20 years of more appropriate funding of special education," Sedgwick said.
Bothwell Middle School paraprofessional George Pond addressed increasing the minimum pay for paraprofessionals and instructional aides during a previous meeting.
Pond described the job to board members and what paraprofessionals and instructional aides go through on a daily basis. Pond gave examples of what he has experienced as an aide.
"Have you ever had your hair pulled to the point where chunks of hair came out? Had to run through the woods in no jacket and shoes in the winter chasing a student who ran off into the woods?" Pond said. "Have you ever witnessed a kid biting his hands so hard that detached the skin and had to go into the emergency room?"
Pond said that while the job can be mentally draining, there are many positive and rewarding aspects on a daily basis.
"I think it'll just help these kids to be the best version of themselves they can be depending on their abilities and our abilities," Pond said.
To view Monday's board meeting and previous meetings, visit online at youtube.com/@marquetteareapublicschools8448/videos.