Monday, May 31, 2010

Will Paras Be Laid Off?

...a question came in from a para and I put out the call for answers. Below are the responses: so far. If you have something to add leave a comment or email me and I'll put it in the comment section.
norm

Nothing has been mentioned about Para lay-offs at any of the meetings I've attended. It seems that they are focused more so on teachers. As a chapter leader I did receive a district seniority list last year, but I'm not sure if there was one for this school year.

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No mention of paras - it is all about teachers and school aides right now. The UFT is "carefully"reviewing seniority lists. They will send to Chapter Leaders when they are sure everything is correct. Seems DOE sent Principals lists that were way, way off!
However, when I had paras in my school they had a list also. She/he can call the UFT District Rep and get this information.
Hope all is well...

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While it's impossible to know for sure what's going to happen, the best guess is that Bloomberg and Co. won't go for para layoffs, because so many of the para positions in the DOE are IEP-mandated.

This para's payroll secretary or UFT borough office can provide a para seniority list. Paras now have seniority citywide, no longer by district. If the seniority on the list is not correct, the borough office has an inquiry form she/he can fill out along with documentation of service

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from a para
there is a district wide list. it is given out once a year, usually it is compiled as of january / february.
it is given out about now.

when i was chapter leader, the district rep would give out the list at the monthly meeting.
each para is to get one at the school level. it is seniority based -years, terms, months, days

however, some principals have been known to try an end run around the list. so it is up to the para to be vigilant.

bi-lingual and special talents paras can and do skip the seniority list legally.

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I know the para seniority list city-wide is seriously innacurate; as
told to me by the UFT and my own school experience; had a para shorted
7 years.


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To the extent the layoff threat is real I don't see how paras would

exempt unless federal mandates for their services would protect them.

i certainly would tell the para to call the district rep and uft's para office at 52 broadway for clarification.

most likely the layoffs will be with dc 37 people

hope it helps
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course there would be para layoffs. This was widely discussed by DRs two months ago. Has something changed?

Anonymous said...

Hi Norm, I was told by my DR to use the latest seniority list. I told him mine was at least a year old and my newly hired paras weren't even listed.I am also worried that this is going to be a mess should people get laid off. It has to go by city seniority not building senority.

Anonymous said...

Educational Paras (Ed. Assistants , Ed. Associates) are in UFT and generally work in classrooms or with the kids. Family paras are family workers or aides, do clerical tasks and are in DC 37.

Anonymous said...

In District 75, we consider school aids, which are members of DC 37, as office workers, family workers, ect. Paraprofessionals are assigned to the classroom, only, and are members of the UFT.