Waterloo, Cedar Falls faculties take a look at worker incentives as they grapple with staffing shortages | Schooling Information
WATERLOO — Human resources issues and how to reward current employees using federal relief funds were topics of discussion Monday in Cedar Valley’s two largest school districts.
“It’s not looking good,” Kingsley Botchway, chief officer of human resources and equity, told the Board of Education about shortages at Waterloo Community Schools and across the country.
“We’re lobbying our legislators, we’ve spoken to the (Department of Education), we’ve tried to do as much as we can to have that conversation,” he said. “I think we’re dealing with some significant staffing challenges right now. Here, too, there are simply not enough staff that we could cover.”
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While the district isn’t a solution to shortages, it is considering a “comprehensive incentive package” for staff who would take advantage of the federal primary and secondary school emergency aid funding, he previously told The Courier. These funds, which will be distributed in three rounds in 2020 and 2021, are intended to help districts recover from the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Waterloo Schools has received $52.31 million through these federal funds, some of which has already been spent or allocated.
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Superintendent Andy Pattee said that Cedar Falls Community Schools is also looking at ways to incentivize employees using ESSER funds after Board of Education member Nate Gruber asked about the possibilities. The district received $6.24 million from the federal government and also spent some of the funds.
“Anything that we could pay out by the end of the school year I’d like to see in motion,” Gruber said.
“Well, the wheels were set in motion,” Pattee replied. The district is “just considering different components when we look at how that might be termed. Our intention is to do something.”
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The district has already used ESSER funds to provide a $1,000 incentive to teachers who early announced plans to retire at the end of the school year. These had to be completed by January 4th.
“We had 13 people taking advantage of that,” Pattee said, so they’re getting paid $13,000. “That just gave us the opportunity to hire in advance.”
Notifications are usually made in March or early April, and interviews take place in April or May. But with these early notifications, “we are now conducting interviews for these positions,” he noted.
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Discussion at the Waterloo board meeting was fueled by concerns raised by a special needs paraeducator during the meeting’s public comment period.
Amber Megivern told the board there are 40 vacancies for auxiliary staff in the district, a shortage that is further strained when qualified paraeducators replace an absent class teacher.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that public school teachers are returning to their schools on Tuesday (January 11) after reaching an agreement with the district on COVID-19 protective measures, ending a walkout that had canceled classes in the third largest school system in the United States for a week.
“Auxiliary staff who are subs often do the work of two people because there is no sub working in the classroom due to staff shortages,” she said. “And they do it without being adequately compensated.”
Megivern found that the additional pay a paraeducator working as a replacement receives is the difference between their daily salary and the replacement rate. “In my case, it was $25 for a full day or $12 for half a day,” she said.
The working conditions that paraeducators can encounter make the positions not easy to sell.
“Longtime support professionals deal with an increase in challenging behaviors on a daily basis,” she said. “We take care of behavior so the teacher can continue teaching with minimal distractions.”
Megivern added: “Many of us have been kicked, punched, bitten or called various colorful names. Nevertheless, we come back day after day, year after year. For some students, we are the most dependable and enduring adults in their lives.”
Botchway commended her and other district staff for their efforts and discussed how ESSER funds could be used to increase compensation. The district currently has a bonus funded by the money available for paraeducators who recommend someone for the position. If the individual is hired and stays in a job through the end of the school year, the referrer will receive a $500 bonus.
“We’re looking at a comprehensive stimulus package that we hope to move forward with shortly,” he added. “In addition, we are also looking at what we can do with longevity (employee pay).
“We’re not only looking at what we can do in the short term, but also what we can do in the long term,” he said. “At the moment, our employees are pulling together, and that is their credit. They are amazing.”
Botchway noted that paraeducators were bearing the brunt of the staff shortage.
“That’s why we’re working as quickly as possible to address these areas – but from a sustainable perspective, not just from a future perspective,” he explained.
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