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Reg change helped thousands of SRPs PERB rulings, negotiations boost teaching assistants
Feburary 3, 2005 Kingston teaching assistant Laurie Rosen works with a student. One year since increased certification requirements for paraprofessionals took effect in New York state, union action has resulted in thousands more teaching assistants gaining the job title they are due. In some cases, local unions have gone through the state Public Employment Relations Board. The locals have filed unit clarification petitions insisting that, when districts use the teaching assistant title for those providing instructional support for teachers, they should be placed in the teachers union. Another trend is that aides are becoming teaching assistants through negotiations between New York State United Teachers locals and district administrators. Positive PERB rulings Fresh on the heels of a successful case bringing teaching assistants into the Newburgh Teachers Association, the Cortland United Teachers — with assistance from NYSUT — brought more than 30 teaching assistants into their union. PERB ruled Jan. 18 that the employees, who previously had "aide" titles and were represented by another union, should be with the teachers union once the Cortland district clarified the teaching assistant title. "The jobs of teachers and teaching assistants are so closely aligned," said Lori Megivern, president of the Cortland local. "Our union is clearly the right placement." In the North Country , the Canton Central Teachers Association did not have to go to PERB. The district agreed with the local union, led by Tony Fiacco, that 30 assistants there should be represented by the teachers. In a number of districts, negotiations are producing changes in titles. In those cases, the lack of accurate information about new requirements in the past few years has been a study in frustration. "First, it was hard to find the accurate information, and then it would change," said Laurie Rosen, a teaching assistant and member of the Kingston Teachers Federation. Joan White, who leads the 185 teaching assistants who are members of the Education Support Professionals chapter, appointed her the point person to work with the Ulster County district on complying with the changes in state certification. The assistance from the statewide union was crucial, Rosen said. "If you want information, you go to your NYSUT office. They really have their finger on the pulse of what's happening in our schools and with our jobs." An hour south, the Mount Vernon Federation of Teachers was going through its own growing pains, trying to get about 200 teacher aides certified as teaching assistants. "We started working on it three years ago," said Dominick Ciccone, first vice president of the MVFT. As in Kingston , the local put the information in union newsletters and called meetings to make sure aides knew what the changes were and what they needed to do to keep their jobs. The collaboration of NYSUT's Education and Learning Trust with area colleges helped aides get the college courses they needed, said Denise Crawford, vice president for the 160 teaching assistants of the MVFT. Then budget cuts came, and 38 aides were laid off. And then, as the deadline for applications neared, the union found out all the aides needed to be fingerprinted. "The union took the lead to help get it done," said Crawford. The union set up sites and even paid for the cost. Title I It's been a year since the state requirements have changed. Adding to the change have been new requirements from the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, including certification rules for those who provide instructional support services in programs or schools that receive federal Title I funds. Kingston and Mount Vernon are two of many districts across New York state that receive a large portion of the Title I funds for disadvantaged students. NCLB requires that anyone who provides instructional support services must be certified as a teaching assistant. They must have a high school diploma or equivalent, pass the New York state's Assessment of Teaching Assistant Skills, and have relevant college courses. "This was long overdue for so many of our members who were doing the work of teaching assistants but were given the title of teacher aide or other titles by their districts," said Fran Wolf, the NYSUT labor relations specialist for the Kingston local. "Now New York state has finally said that if you are doing the work, you must have the title. This has given our locals the teeth to enforce the regulations with districts that resist correcting the titles of employees." Wolf noted that Kingston was not one of the districts that resisted — "The Kingston administration was great to work with, as both sides were trying to get the correct information." New York state's changes mean that to stay certified, teaching assistants must go through a series of different certificate levels. To be continuously certified, a teaching assistant must eventually complete 18 hours of college courses if they applied for certification after Feb. 2, 2004. — Betsy Sandberg |
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