“I’m a single mother and I can’t afford to take care of my daughter, because I’m so underpaid,” Nicole Sapienza, a paraprofessional for Cambridge Public Schools, told the Register Forum. Under their current contract, the starting salary for paraprofessionals (paras) in Cambridge Public Schools is $26,000. The contract is set to expire over the summer, and paras are gearing up for negotiations. Their biggest request? Compensation. “More pay. More pay. More pay,” said paraprofessional of 20 years Teresa Walker.
Due to increased responsibilities and an overall lack of staffing, many paras in CPS are stretched thin.
Relative to the salaries of other CPSD professionals, paras get the short end of the stick. “Compare that [the starting para salary] to the fact that the members of the School Committee do part-time work and they get paid $48,000 a year,” CRLS history teacher Chris Montero told the Register Forum.
The job of a paraprofessional can encompass many different roles. Typically, paras are there to provide a lead teacher with additional support in the classroom. Over the past few years, however, the responsibilities of a para have changed significantly. “When I started [working as a paraprofessional] it was more of helping the teacher do the photocopying and being there at recess,” Bobby Travers, a paraprofessional of 28 years, told the Register Forum. “Now, the role has really changed and in some schools, you’re actually co-teaching.”
Due to increased responsibilities and an overall lack of staffing, many paras in CPSD are stretched thin. “We don’t have enough staff,” said Sapienza. “I’m doing the best I can, but how can you fit the needs of all the students with one or two people?”
In the adopted 2024 school year budget, each elementary school lost one paraprofessional, except for Kennedy-Longfellow School. Travers explained that during the pandemic, schools hired an extra paraprofessional to meet the needs of students. Now that school has been back in person for a while, those positions have been cut.
The dedication of paraprofessionals often extends far beyond what is expected of them. Many dip into their paychecks to buy supplies for the classroom. “I actually go out and buy books with my own money for the library, because I know the kids love to read,” Travers told the Register Forum.
Many paras, like Walker, form close relationships with the students they work with. “The best parts are definitely with the kids,” she said. “I really love the light bulb moments when they actually get what you’re teaching.”
Many paras feel that the educational and monetary work they put into the kids they care for is not valued. “I don’t feel that the current administration really respects paraprofessionals,” Travers told the Register Forum. Walker agreed. “Paras are not respected at all,” she said.
With the upcoming negotiations, Sapienza wants the School Committee bargaining team to understand the work paras do in CPSD. “They don’t even come to check on us,” she said. “I guarantee you if the School Committee or the Superintendent came into any one of these classes they would see how understaffed and overworked we really are.”
This article also appears in our December 2023 print edition.