In her letter, Lacy discusses educational assistant’s “undervalued” and encourages the district to focus on reducing expenses elsewhere.
Dear Haddonfield parents,
Your children’s academic experience is enriched every day by a dedicated group of support staff educators known as Educational Assistants (EAs). From pre-K through twelfth grade, EAs assist with student instruction and support the classroom teacher. The support staff supervises your children when they are most at-risk — in the lunchroom and on the playground — monitoring children with allergies, ensuring that no student is without a lunch or eating alone and mediating and helping students resolve conflicts.
Many of your EAs are certified teachers and have been with the district for several years. Did you know that an EA’s starting salary is roughly $10/hr even if they are a certified teacher? Regarded as “part-time” despite working 29 hrs/week, many EAs hold one or two additional jobs to support their families. Support staff are not eligible for benefits, and their hours were intentionally reduced by the district when the Affordable Care Act was enacted.
So why do EAs do it? They value your children’s education and recognize their significant role in it.
Despite the incredible cost-benefit ratio of these educators, the school district has again set their budgetary crosshairs on the EAs, eliminating their instruction in science, library and computer classes. These undervalued employees have also suffered from a recent botched rollout of a new payroll procedure which denies them their first full paycheck until October. Unfortunately, their mortgage and car payments can’t wait until then.
The Haddonfield community should demand that their school administrators focus on reducing expenses which don’t impact academic instruction and demean the staff they profess to value. Please show your support and appreciation for the EAs by voicing your concerns in writing or attending an upcoming BOE meeting. Thank you.
Heather Lacy
