After pushback from staff and parents, the South Orange-Maplewood School District will request that its vendor pay some of its paraprofessionals — educational specialists who provide in-classroom support focused on students with special needs — at a higher rate.
On September 25, BOE member and Special Education Committee Chair Liz Callahan said that the district “plans to request that all of our ABA program paraprofessionals receive the Para 2 rate” — the higher of two hourly rates for paras.
ABA stands for “Applied Behavior Analysis”. The paraprofessionals who work in self-contained ABA classrooms, where there are students with autism who need a greater level of support, are specifically trained to work with this group of students. The district is also discussing raising the paraprofessionals to Level 2 pay for those who work in the Language and Learning Disabilities (LLD) self-contained classrooms.
A parent attending the September 25 meeting signaled that the request is not enough.
In August, paraprofessionals and their union reps came to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting in force to protest what they characterized as demotions, with paras who were formerly paid at the Para 2 rate reporting that they were being demoted to Para 1 and receiving a corresponding decrease in hourly pay.
A paraprofessional holds a sign at the August 28, 2025 South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting. Photo by Laura Griffin.
Paraprofessional Janice Thomas Ferreira told the Board, “It’s a shame that we exert all of our energy into our job, but don’t receive recognition. To add more insult to injury, … we are all demoted. All pay is decreased. How can we maintain our families? And the economic situation is rising. Many paraprofessionals have been here multiple years and pay rates should move every year.”
According to the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), Local 68, the school district’s paraprofessional vendor, ESS, has mandated that all paraprofessionals in SOMSD receive the same rate of $24.79/hour; whereas last year, there were paras who received $26.05/hour due to their Level 2 designation. The cut comes on top of a reduction in paras’ daily hours by the school district last winter that already reduced their pay, according to Marie-Paul Florestal of Local 68.
At the September BOE meeting, Board member Callahan began her Special Education Committee update on the topic by stating, “I deeply understand the impact that these staff have, and I’m very sensitive to the work that they do and the impact that they have on students and families, and appreciate the advocacy and concerns that have been expressed by parents by the folks that showed up last month and by our community.”
Paraprofessionals protest at the August 28, 2025 South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting. Photo by Laura Griffin.
Callahan continued, “We know that ESS and Local 68 are addressing two grievances that are related to compensating paraprofessionals who qualify as Para 2, but are currently being paid at a Para 1 rate. An arbitration hearing was scheduled for September 30. ESS also resumed bargaining for the new term of their collective bargaining agreement on September 16. The union has confirmed that members have accepted their employment and will not strike, though ESS indicated that they would secure substitutes if needed.”
“The district also plans to request that all of our ABA program paraprofessionals receive the Para 2 rate. Additionally, we had continued exploratory conversations that continued about how we might bring paraprofessionals in house. So thus far, that planning has discussed what we previewed last month in terms of potentially bringing our ABA paraprofessionals in-house, which would be about 34 paraprofessionals, and then expanding to LLD positions if that was successful,” said Callahan.
“As this is explored and considered, it’s important to note that it would require bringing negotiations within the SOMEA contract,” Callahan concluded. SOMEA is the union that represents teachers and district staff other than administrators.
Prior to Callahan’s update, a parent questioned what action was being taken to address pay cuts to paraprofessionals by ESS. The parent, Beth Cosentino, is the past president of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee for the South Orange Maplewood School District – or SEPAC SOMA; she currently serves as an Ex Officio member of the SEPAC executive board. However, Cosentino stressed that she was not speaking on behalf of SEPAC, but as a parent of two children in the district.
Cosentino urged the district to ask the “hard question,” as to why all level 2 paras reported being demoted to level 1, and asserted that the district was “obviously” financially advantaged with this change, “at least in the short term.”
“If students need to leave the district due to lack of appropriate support by a well-trained and educated paraprofessional, then this advantage will end,” said Cosentino.
Cosentino said she took issue with the district Senior Leadership Team saying that they do not get involved with vendors’ contracts, saying that “doesn’t take into consideration the level of expertise of the level 2 paras who have been demoted to level 1, and that there are students with disabilities who have it in their IEPs [Individualized Education Programs] as a requirement that school personnel be trained appropriately for the student’s disability.”
She also took issue with “the response that the paras signed their contract, so they were okay with it.”
“The fact that so many turned up to the meeting last month obviously meant that they weren’t okay with it,” said Cosentino. “I heard from someone today who’s a paraprofessional, and she wrote, ‘No, we haven’t gotten any information from anyone. All we know is that the school is short staffed with paras because everyone is leaving and going to other districts.'”
“The difference between a level 1 and level 2 para is delineated by the college credits and the education a person has,” added Cosentino. “It is no different than a teacher in our district who has a master’s degree being paid more than a teacher who has a bachelor’s degree. I ask you, would anyone here expect that they would receive a contract letter from their employer that said that they were being demoted and getting less pay with no explanation?”
“At the last Board of Ed meeting, nobody here acknowledged the people sitting in the room and said to them, ‘We understand. We feel for you. We are sorry that this is happening,'” Cosentino concluded. “It’s shameful, and I think that someone should be doing something about it.”
