City council approves pay increases for paraprofessionals

LACONIA — City council unanimously approved a three-year contract that includes salary increases, longevity bonuses and educational stipends for paraprofessionals in the Laconia School District at their regular meeting on Monday night.

The contract was the result of a collective bargaining agreement between the district and the New Hampshire State Teachers Association on behalf of the Educational Assistants of Laconia union.

City councilors learned the school district had up to 30 vacancies in these positions in recent years and district administrators believe salary increases would help make those jobs more attractive.

A paraprofessional works in the classroom under a certified teacher and performs myriad duties to enhance a student's educational experience.

“We started this journey in the fall and it has been a long process filled with ups and downs,” EAL President Kelley Couture said Monday night. “Staffing our schools ... in these last four years has been particularly challenging, with ever growing increase of students that require services and less and less staff to accommodate the need. It’s been clear that we need significant changes to our outdated [collective bargaining agreement].”

The longevity bonus was increased from $0.03 to $0.04 in the new agreement, Couture said. And the agreement included a new salary track for registered behavior technicians and increased wages for speech assistants to be more competitive with surrounding districts.

“I’m confident that this new contract will accomplish our goals of attracting new staff as well as retention within the district,” she said. “We had our member meeting last week to ratify the contract and it was very well received, in fact, it was approved unanimously.”

The overall increase in salaries among EAL staff in the new agreement amounted to an 8.67% change, from $2.3 million to $2.5 million.

The overall school district budget, which was also presented to council at the meeting, included the fiscal impact of the collective bargaining agreement, Superintendent Steven Tucker said.

“We’ve had many vacancies and we’re getting more and more students who require services, so it makes it very difficult for staff to cover more and more children,” Couture said.

The first step on the wage schedule will increase 4% over the previous agreement. An employee who stays with the school district would get a 6% increase in year two.

Councilor Robert Soucy (Ward 2) noted such increases are rare in the private sector.

“I think it’s worthy of noting that when you look at some of the lower steps of the contract, those are some of the people that we try to impact the most. When you look at some of those lower steps, we’re looking at $16 an hour or so,” Tucker said. “The goal was to make the greatest impact on those in year one.”

A new employee under the agreement would now receive $16 an hour.

Soucy said it is important to keep the point of view of a taxpayer in mind when considering wages and benefits to public employees.

“I think that’s what we’re trying to balance — providing those services for those children, and also being conscientious with the taxpayer’s dollars,” Tucker said.

Councilor Steven Bogert (Ward 5) asked if the salary increases would make compensation for positions in Laconia roughly even with compensation in other school districts.

“We did a lot of research going into this process of what new contracts are coming out and what that looked like, and it’s trending all over not just New Hampshire but the nation. It hasn’t changed in a long time and the job itself has changed significantly to be more behavioral,” Couture said.

Bogert, who also represents Laconia as a Republican in the Statehouse, said surrounding districts have had similar problems with retention and asked if the wage increases would help address that problem.

“Anytime we enter a contract negotiation, we typically will look at what other districts are offering and have conversations about that,” Tucker said. “When you look at this budget, one of the priorities was the retention and retainment of staff.”

A new, non-certified paraprofessional will receive $16 an hour during the first step of their employment. A certified paraprofessional will receive $16.50 an hour, a new administrative assistant will receive $17.58 and a new registered behavior technician will receive $18.12 an hour.

Council heard the details of the collective bargaining agreement during Tucker's school budget presentation immediately before the regular meeting.

The school district's proposed budget, which was approved by the school board May 7, includes a potential 5% increase over last year, largely due to salaries and benefits raises. The $43.16 million budget, up $2.01 million over last year, projects lower enrollment levels at the elementary and middle schools but higher enrollment at the high school.

Half of the increase is attributed to salaries and another $628,175 is for increases in benefits, according to the proposed budget.

Each city department will make a presentation of their portion of the proposed city budget to council. The Parks and Recreation and Library departments will present their proposal at 6 p.m. on May 20, the Water and Planning and Code departments will present theirs at 6 p.m. on May 28, the Police, Fire and Public Works departments will present at 6 p.m. on June 3, and the Finance and Administration departments will present at 6 p.m. on June 10.

City council will evaluate and either approve or deny the entirety of the proposed city budget, which was presented by City Manager Kirk Beattie in April, in late June or early July.