Volume 1, Issue 7
March, 2008
SCOPE FOR PSRP’S
McAllen AFT, 1500 Dove, McAllen, TX, 78504
Telephone—682-1143, Fax—631-0190, Cell—607-0193
Stories contributed by McAllen AFT PSRP’S
It Takes a Team
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
It is time to pull back the curtains and train a light upon an almost invisible work force dedicated to making sure that students are safe, healthy and ready to learn. At 3.5 million workers and growing, school support staff make up nearly forty percent of the total number of employees working in American schools. Yet data and information about them are scarce.
Who are these workers? Their job titles tell a thousand stories: teacher’s aide, principal’s secretary, interpreter for the hearing impaired, crossing guard, truancy outreach worker, nurse specialist, music accompanist, accounting control clerk, custodian, migrant
mentor, bus route supervisor, and hundreds more.
School support staff are the living infrastructure that makes public education possible. We are honored to represent this group of hard-working public servants, and we encourage readers to look more closely at the wonderful people who do this important work. Their compelling stories are full of everyday miracles, and this reminds us of the vital role they play in educating millions of American children and young adults.
From kindergarten through college, it takes a team to educate America’s students.
While teachers and school administrators play a highly visible role in education, other school team members work hard behind the scenes in often indispensable roles. Food service workers, school nurses and school security keep students healthy, safe, and well nourished. Custodians and maintenance workers keep schools and colleges clean and running smoothly. Classroom instructional assistants provide extra attention and academic help to students who need it. Bus drivers transport students safely and on time between home and school. Secretaries and office employees keep the records that help track student progress and enable the public to hold its schools and colleges fiscally and academically accountable.
These team members are known variously by many titles: school support staff, classified employees, and non-instructional staff. In the AFT, they are called “paraprofessionals and school-related personnel,” or PSRPs. They are a diverse group. With hundreds of job titles, their contributions can be counted in enormous numbers: the millions of students transported and meals served; the acres of corridors, classrooms and grounds maintained; and the many hours spent helping students, teachers and parents negotiate the complex process of getting an education.
Routinely, school support staff go “above and beyond the call of duty” to meet the needs of the students and schools they serve. They are people like:
- Shirley Magden, a school secretary in Detroit. Magden bought alarm clocks for elementary students who were tardy because no one at home got them up on time for school. Figuring out how to use the clocks correctly became a learning experience for the students.
- A school custodian at New Bedford (Massachusetts) High School. The custodian, who prefers to remain anonymous, stumbled upon a threatening note seemingly written by students. After a search of the students’ homes turned up a loose-leaf binder with directions for making bombs, police credited the custodian with helping to thwart what could have been a Columbine-like attack.
- Scott Savage, of San Antonio, Texas. When district administrators failed to provide the district’s paraprofessionals with computer training, Savage enlisted the help of student “computer whizzes” from a district magnet school. The paraprofessionals got training, and the student “teachers” accumulated hours toward their community service requirement for graduation.
- Julia Martinez and Margaret Espinoza, paraprofessionals in New York City. On September 11, 2001, they rescued two wheel chair-bound students at the High School of Leadership and Public Service, two blocks from the World Trade Center, by carrying them on their backs.
- Francisco Venegas, a school custodian in Parker, Colorado. Even before 5th-grader Jordan Humphries suffered a seizure in class, the school custodian had noticed she was acting strangely —falling off benches, talking to herself, running into a tree. Her doctor, prompted by Venegas’ report about the odd behavior, ordered a CT scan, which detected a lime-sized brain tumor. Two weeks after the tumor was removed, Jordan returned to school with a clean bill of health and a heartfelt “thank you” for the custodian.
- Patsy Arnold of Pasco County, Florida. After driving a school bus for nine years, Arnold sought extra training so that she could work as a classroom paraprofessional during the hours she wasn’t driving, providing the continuity of attention and care so crucial to the special education students who attend her school.
- Jimmy Atkinson, custodian at Lamar Elementary School in Woodlands, Texas. Atkinson pays close attention to the children in his school, usually to intervene if a child needs cheering up. Atkinson was on lunch duty one day when a first grader choked on a grape. While a teacher grabbed a radio to call the nurse, Atkinson moved in and applied the Heimlich maneuver, tailored to the small child.
There are 3.5 million paraprofessionals and school–related personnel in American public schools and institutions of higher education. Data and research on these key players are sparse, although the AFT has been working with researchers from various agencies and organizations to include these key staff in studies of school personnel. Over time, the knowledge base about their work will grow, allowing policy makers and the public to better understand their contributions to the education of America’s children.
This is a compilation of information about PSRP’s that sketches a portrait—still incomplete—of these employees, their working conditions, and their concerns. It draws on research done by the AFT, as well as data from other organizations, such as the National Center for Education Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Educational Research Service.
Corned Beef & Cabbage
CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE
Prep Time 15 Min.
Cook Time 8 Hrs.
Ready in 8 Hrs. 15 Min.
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, cut in wedges
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 lb. baby carrots
3 garlic cloves, minced
1bay leaf
2 tbsps sugar
2 tbsps cider vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 (3 lb.) corned beef brisket with spice packet, cut in half
1 small head of cabbage, cut into wedges
Directions:
Place the onion, potatoes and carrots in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine water, garlic bay leaf, sugar, vinegar, pepper and contents of spice packet: pour over vegetables. Top with brisket and cabbage. Cover and cook on low for 8 hrs. or until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.
Suggestion: Serve with Dijon mustard and crusty bread.
Irish Joke
It was Paddy and Seamus giving the motorcycle a ride on a brisk autumn day. After a wee bit, Paddy who was sitt'n behind Seamus on the bike began to holler ..."Seamus ... Seamus ... the wind is cutt'n me chest out!"
"Well, Paddy my lad," said Seamus, "why don't you take your jacket off and turn it from front to back ... that'll block the wind for you."
So Paddy took Seamus' advice and turned his jacket from front to back and got back on the bike and the two of them were off down the road again. After a bit, Seamus turned to talk to Paddy and was horrified to see that Paddy was not there. Seamus immediately turned the bike around and retraced their route. When after a short time he came to a turn and saw a bunch of farmers standing around Paddy who was sitting on the ground.
"T'anks be to heaven, is he alright?" Seamus hailed to the farmers. "Well," said one of the farmers," he was alright when we found him here but since we turned his head back to front .. he hasn't said a word since!"