Support Staff Demand Raises at Pittsfield School Budget Hearing
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools budget hearing Wednesday was short but had a clear message: support staff want an increase in pay.
The proposed fiscal 2023 budget of $72,398,262 is a 7.56 percent, or $5,086,562, increase from this year. Most of the increase is in contractual obligations.
"The Pittsfield Federation of School Employees are the support staff of the Pittsfield Public Schools, we are the bus drivers and monitors, the cafeteria workers, the custodians, the paraprofessionals, and the educational secretaries that do the hard work behind the scenes to make our school run," Pittsfield High School employee Marcus DuRant said to the School Committee.
"Some 54 years ago, an impoverished group of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee demanded a living wage and better working conditions from their employer, the city of Memphis, these demands were the culmination of years of suffering under an oppressive and uncaring city administration who viewed their employees and their families through a lens of disdain and disrespect."
"I stand before you this evening and state that the Pittsfield Public Schools are viewing the support staff through this same lens."
DuRant requested that support staff be allocated more than $600,000 over the next three years for wage increases, saying this would not get the employees to a livable wage but would move the needle in the right direction.
He said many support staff work multiple jobs to pay bills and provide their families with the most basic needs and that staffing shortages have made working conditions both unfavorable and unsafe.
"I am certain you understand me when I say the conditions under which we work are the same conditions under which our children learn," DuRant said. "Staffing shortages caused by low pay have led students in our schools being warehoused in auditoriums without teachers or lesson plans with no learning taking place, the current lack of staff dramatically increases the possibility that teachers, support staff, our students, our children will be victims of harassment, intimidation, threats, and physical violence."
He asserted that the School Committee has the money to meet their request.
Capeless Elementary School cook manager Corinne Keegan said she works multiple jobs amounting to 70 hours a week just to pay her bills.
According to the cafeteria staff's 2018-2021 contract, in 2020-2021 cook managers for elementary school started at $15.57 an hour, cook managers for high/middle school at $16.32, bakers at $13.59, and cafeteria helpers at $12.81.
Keegan said her union asked if federal funds could be used to offset losses in pay on two occasions and were told that the monies "can't be used for that."
"The U.S. secretary of education says what you are telling us about the use of the ESSER funds is not true ... it is our families who are already suffering and who have been made to suffer even more," Keegan said.
"Other school districts across the state and our area have used stimulus money to provide bonuses to all their support staff as a sign of appreciation for the difficult work they did keeping your schools open during the pandemic, but not Pittsfield."
The contracts for bus drivers and attendants, cafeteria workers, custodians, and paraprofessionals are in negotiation. Superintendent Joseph Curtis said afterward that because of the negotiations, he could not comment without notifying the union and making a formal statement.
Councilor at Large Karen Kalinowsky, a former student resource officer, called for a decrease in school administrators.
"You have six administrators in every middle and high school, your population has decreased in students in those four schools, I was at [Reid Middle School] when we had over 800 students, you're down to a little over 500 at that same school, that means you have an administrator for less than 100 students," she said.
"Really? How can you give these people a raise? How about getting rid of at least three administrators in each high school and middle school? That will definitely be way over $600,000."
Kalinowsky asserted that the school budget should not be increasing when population is decreasing.
"We have to do something, half of our schools are underperforming," she said. "You have to put the money where? To help these students."
The councilor also highlighted the work of support staff, pointing out that she had to get on a couple of buses as an SRO because of the bad behavior that was occurring.
"You guys really have to think about what we are investing money in," Kalinowsky said. "You're asking a lot this year and I just don't see where that growth is being used wisely."
Tags: fiscal 2023, public unions, school budget,
