Lowest paid workers in Croton-Harmon schools hope for a better deal as negotiations for a new contract begin
Teacher Aides and Food Service workers get just over minimum wage and no benefits even after many years of service. Superintendent Walker promises a “fair” agreement.
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Jean Giordano has worked for the Croton-Harmon school district for 18 years. She is also president of the Aides of Croton United (ACU), the collective bargaining unit for Teacher Aides, Lunch Monitors, and Food Service Helpers in the district’s three schools. She and others organized the ACU eight years ago to represent the lowest paid workers in Croton’s school system, a group of nearly 60 employees. The current contract with the district went into effect July 1, 2021. It expires this coming June 30.
Last year, Giordano went to the district three times asking for financial help for the ACU’s members, “because we were all struggling.” She says the district said no, telling the union that it would have to wait for the next contract negotiations. At times, members of the union, along with supportive teachers and other colleagues, had to take up collections for employees who were financially strapped and were often working other jobs to make ends meet.
Croton is a relatively well-off community, but its Teacher Aides and food service workers are among the lowest paid in Westchester County. Over the past three years about 60 members of the bargaining unit have left for other jobs, a very high turnover that could hardly be good for the students nor the teachers who rely heavily on Teacher Aides for help in the classroom.
Now those contract negotiations have begun. Neither side is allowed to talk about them, but the school workers seem determined to negotiate a better deal. As for the district, we received the following statement from Superintendent Stephen Walker, in response to a number of questions we put to him and other administrators:
“The district is not in a position to comment on ongoing negotiations. As always, our goal is to arrive at an agreement which is fair, financially sustainable, and provides for high-quality working conditions for our team members.”
Under the current contract, none of the members of the bargaining unit receive health insurance or other benefits, even though most Teacher Aides work the equivalent of a full-time schedule. As indicated in the compensation schedule above, a Teacher Aide who manages to work for slightly over the minimum wage of $16/hour for six or more years receives a raise of 20 cents. Members of the bargaining unit who stay for 10 years then receive, on top of their hourly pay, a longevity payment of $300/year, $400/year for 15 years of service, and $500/year after 20 years of service.
But most employees end up leaving long before any of these longevity markers are reached.
“A large portion of our aides live in Croton and pay Croton taxes,” Giordano says. As for those who stick it out, “One may ask, ‘Why do you stay?’ she adds.
The answer: “Love,” Giordano says. “Love for our students. Love for our jobs. Love for our school district.”
We spoke with another Teacher’s Aide who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job. She has worked for the district for a number of years. The aide says that she feels personally supported by the teachers, as well as some of the administrators. “But I don’t feel recognized as an asset to the district,” she says.
The failure of the district to provide medical benefits is a sore point for her and many other low-paid school workers. “We were one of the first districts with Covid but we had no medical coverage,” the aide says. On top of that, these low paid workers cannot collect unemployment during the summer when there is no school and they are not working. That’s because, ACU members say, the district requires them to sign an agreement that they plan to come back in the fall before the summer begins.
To make matters worse, while aides work between 6.25 and 7 hours each day (depending on which of the district’s three schools they work in), five days a week, they only get a half-hour for lunch—unpaid.
“We are financially struggling and it’s ignored,” the aide told us. Although she works a second job, like the majority of workers, “there are lots of things my family can’t afford to do. We have to be very careful at the supermarket. We make less money than some of the students do when they babysit.”
[Note: The salaries of government workers in New York state are public information]
While most districts in our region are as top-heavy in paying administrator salaries as Croton-Harmon, the district is one of the lowest payers for Teacher Aides and monitors. For example, the collective bargaining agreement with the neighboring Hendrick Hudson School District, which covers the same span of time as the ACU’s contract, currently starts Teacher Aides and monitors at $17.55/hour. But after five years of service that goes up to $19/hour, with top pay at $23.25/hour after 12 years of service. Workers at some other Westchester County schools do even better.
Giordano and her colleagues maintain that by compensating them so poorly, they are not only cheating loyal workers but also the students.
Giordano says: “While people in administrative positions look at school as a business, our people look at it as an opportunity to help children be successful on a daily basis and to make them feel safe.”
The Chronicle will update this story as events require.
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I’m friends with one of the hardworking cafeteria workers. She is lovely, works so hard as all these people do and are paid so little. She told me what her raise was once. It was literally almost nothing. The kitchen staff work in the heat and cold and are constantly in action. I hope all these people get healthy raises now thanks to this article shedding light on this. Thank you Mr. Balter!
Great awareness article and something that should open eyes and shame Croton CSD Administration. Croton is in the lower to mid-tier as far as Westchester school salaries, but this really has to be looked at as being grossly underpaid for that group (aides in particular).
I don’t see the rate alone as criminal if it was the year one step rate and they had a salary schedule with yearly steps that increased to the $20-30 range (as many other Districts in the area has, or contractual amounts that correlate with that range to get someone to 30-40k). The 20 cent increase after 6 years is insulting. The longevity levels are very cheap too. At best, someone will top out at 20-25k with these figures. In neighboring Districts, 30-40k range is more common after 15 or so years.
Most schools in the region hire third-party school lunch agencies which pay their personnel right above minimum wage, so I can’t comment or fault Croton too much for those rates (still too low by all). My comments are more directed at the aides.
By also offering no benefits, it’s clear Admin sees the aides as either a stepping stone job or a job for a stay at home person (not bread winner) or perhaps retiree. That’s really unfortunate. Teacher aides are the backbone of the classroom and most teachers or classrooms cannot function without them. They do toileting duties for students who need assistance from grades k-12 and it is a very grueling and thankless job at times.
Lastly, a district in good health and conscience can always open up negotiations and create an MOA at any time. For example, I’ve seen districts, especially the past few years with uncontrollable inflation, create an MOA to set up a one-time payment of $500-1,000 for their aides or assistants. It’s not life changing money, but at least a good will gesture to show some appreciation. For a District to simply say that they aren’t opening anything up until contract renewal is very toxic.