Cedar Rapids paraeducators to get a raise of over $3 an hour

Correction: The original article stated Cedar Rapids paraeducators receive an additional $385 a month toward health insurance. The total amount paras receive toward health insurance a month is $685.

The original article also stated that as of June, only 26 paras made over $20 an hour. Currently, 28 paras earn over $20 an hour.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Paraeducators who assist classroom teachers or work one-on-one with students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District will receive over a $3 an hour pay increase starting next month amid worries over staffing shortages.

There are different types of paras: those assigned as classroom or program paras, and those who work one-on-one with a student. Paras assist teachers in reinforcing lessons, keeping students on task, and are an extra pair of eyes in the classroom. Paras also are aides to students with disabilities and behavior problems or with physical or feeding needs.

Wages for current paraeducators in the Cedar Rapids district will be increased to $15.50 an hour or 3 percent — whichever results in a higher hourly rate for the employee — beginning Jan. 8, according to a new contract agreement.

Starting wages also are being increased to $15 an hour from $12.28 an hour. There will be no additional changes to the base wages for the 2022-23 school year.

Superintendent Noreen Bush said there was a “sense of urgency” and workforce needs accelerated the need to increase wages for paraeducators. State Supplemental Aid — the amount of state funding providing school districts based on student enrollment numbers — has posed some barriers to increasing the base pay rate for paras through the negotiations process, she said.

“The board has had a long time vision of finding a pathway to move this forward,” Bush said.

As of Monday, there were 67 job openings in Cedar Rapids schools for paraeducators, she said.

Candy Clark, who has worked as a para in Cedar Rapids schools more than 20 years, said the pay increase may help to curb staff shortages in schools. Speaking as a member of the Cedar Rapids Organization of Teacher Associates, Clark said she is encouraged the district has “finally” increased wages for paraeducators.

“While we have been making a case for increased wages for years, we are frustrated that it has taken a (workforce) crisis to move the needle,” she said in an email. “We remain hopeful district officials will continue to understand the importance of retaining and attracting a quality workforce by evaluating and increasing wages for teachers, custodians, secretaries and maintenance workers as well.”

Paras at Cedar Rapids schools for months have been making their case for an increase in wages at school board meetings during public comment periods.

“We are grateful for all the teachers and other paras who publicly advocated on our behalf at school board meetings and supported our efforts throughout,” Clark said.

The total cost of the increase is $469,987 for salaries and benefits for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year. The total of all salaries and benefits for paraeducators will be more than $10.9 million for the 2021-22 school year.

In the Cedar Rapids district, paras receive an $685 a month toward health insurance. They also receive 14 paid holidays — a negotiation from previous bargaining — as opposed to other groups such as custodians, who get 10 paid holidays.

Bush said she hopes this opens the door to get other employee group wages increases as well, including bus attendants and nutrition services workers.

In collective bargaining this past spring, paras received a 1.1 percent raise — 17 cents an hour — for the 2021-2022 school year, the lowest annual increase in more than a decade.

Currently, only 28 paras in the district earned more than $20 an hour, according to the Iowa State Education Association.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com