Para-Professional Contract
New Paraprofessional Contract
Summary
of New Provisions
September 2006
-
After long delays by the DOE and hard negotiations, we finally have worked out all the language of the paraprofessional contract (2003-7).
-
This language is a big step in our drive to expand paras’ job rights and protections and to bring them into line with those that teachers have. For the first time ever we have a meaningful, long-term job security clause for paras, systemwide seniority and the right to transfer.
-
Here are the 3 long-sought new rights for you that we secured:
1. Permanent job security – except in the case of a fiscal crisis, paras cannot be laid off. If you are excessed, you will have the right to be placed in a vacancy (with the same right of return as teachers have) or to serve as an Absent Para Reserve in your school or a school in your district.
2. Citywide seniority – you will accrue seniority wherever in the city you work, and take it with you if you change districts. And you will receive seniority credit for your prior work as a paraprofessional anywhere in the school system. (See below* for further info on credit for prior work.)
3. Ability to transfer – Each year you will be able to apply for a para vacancy anywhere in the school system. If you move or are excessed, in fact, for any reason at all, you will have this right.
The Old Contract
-
As you know, since we began in 1969, paras have had job rights only in their district. If there had to be job cutbacks in a district (because of budget or enrollment declines), the most recently hired paras in that district were laid off.
-
Often hundreds of paras lost their jobs across the city, sometimes even when there were vacancies in other parts of the city. But paras had no rights to vacancies outside their districts. And if they applied for them and were hired, they started from zero seniority again in the new district, so they would be the first to be excessed or laid off again.
-
The union would fight layoffs every year, including filing a discrimination suit one year. If you were laid off, the union would help you to be recalled later in the year. Even so, you lost a lot of pay in the meantime. Many laid-off paras took jobs in District 75 (which usually had vacancies) even if they didn’t want to, because they couldn’t afford to be out of a job.
The New Contract
-
The Memorandum of Agreement that we signed last year sought to create substantial new rights for paras that were much like those that teachers have. In fighting over the actual language of the contract, we were able to make that effort come to fruition.
-
First, under the new contract, paras, like teachers, will have citywide seniority. (See p. 36, Art. 37C) That means that, if there are job cutbacks in a school and a para is excessed, her options are not limited, as they were before, to: a) a position in the district, if there’s one available, or b) layoff,.
-
Here’s the change: Now if you are excessed, there will be 3 options open to you, and layoff is not one of them!
-
First option: a placement. If there are no vacancies in the district, you will have a right to be placed in a vacancy anywhere in the region, and if there are no vacancies there, then anywhere in the borough, and then anywhere in the city. (p. 19, Art. 12 D)
-
That must be a real vacancy; there will be no more bumping of junior paras. But it is much more likely that you will get a placement if you can go borough or citywide. And remember, you take your seniority with you!
-
The only reason you might not get one of those vacancies is if the principal, after interviewing you, does not want to hire you. That, too, is just like the teachers contract. Nobody anymore has an absolute right to a particular position; the principal has to want you.
-
And here’s another new right, the Right of Return. If you are excessed to another school, and a vacancy opens up in your old school any time within the next year, you can go back to your old school. (Art. 12 D, last paragraph)
-
What if you don’t want to travel to another region or borough? Or maybe, if there are no vacancies in the region, they want to place you at a District 75 site, and you don’t want to work with disabled children? (You are eligible for a District 75 placement once you move beyond your region. But keep in mind, the D75 site may be in your neighborhood, or even right in your school.)
-
If you don’t want a DOE placement, you have choice #2 – a transfer.
-
Just like teachers, if you don’t want the DOE to place you in a position, you can look for a position on your own and, if you get it, transfer to that school.
-
In fact, the right to transfer from one school to another is a new right for all paraprofessionals, whether you are excessed or just want to change schools. (p. 21, Art. 14) And with citywide seniority, you don’t have to stay in your district just to maintain your seniority.
-
Every spring and summer, when vacancies are posted, you can apply for any job. All new schools will post vacancies, too. You can even apply to a school that has no posted vacancies but you want the school to keep you in mind if a vacancy should occur.
-
You’ll probably have to go for an interview or a job fair, but if the principal wants to hire you, you are free to go. (If you are hired after August 7th, you have to get your current principal’s permission.)
-
So that’s two ways to get a job: accept a placement, or get a transfer.
-
But even in the unlikely case that there are no vacancies in the city, or no principal wants you, you will still be guaranteed a job! (Remember, no layoffs.)
-
That’s option #3. If nothing else is available, you will be placed in an Absent Paraprofessional Reserve in your home school or in another school in the same district or superintendency. That means you are on the staff of that school and will fill in for an absent para or do other paraprofessional work. (You cannot be sent to another school as a substitute para.) You will also have priority for a placement as they open up.
-
So that’s what the new contract is all about: More rights and protections for paras. Now I’ll take your questions.
*Citywide seniority credit - Paras will automatically be credited with service after July 1, 1994 (because the DOE has that information). Service prior to that date will be credited if paras provide proof of that service by February 15, 2007 . A list of acceptable proof is being developed.
