In budgetary crisis, school paraprofessionals, families left in want

For the last five years, Katina Velikaris of Schwenksville has watched Josh Jefferson act not just as a one-on-one school aide for her now-17-year-old son, Chris, but as his guardian angel.

Jefferson, 31, a paraprofessional with the Perkiomen Valley School District, rings their doorbell every school day at 7:10 a.m. to hop on the bus with Chris, helps him with schoolwork during the day, delivers him home at 2:40, and gives his mother frequent progress reports.

Jefferson even swings by occasionally in the summer to ride bikes or go to the creek as Chris has coped with behavioral issues. "He's come such a long way, and I owe a lot of it to [Josh]," Velikaris said, adding, "He knows him as well as I do."

That's why Velikaris said she was devastated by a district proposal to contract out the work performed by its 110 paraprofessionals - which Jefferson said would likely force him to quit because he'd lose health-care and pension benefits.

Velikaris called the potential impact on her family "heartbreaking" and said, "I don't think the school district gets it."

But Perkiomen Valley is hardly unique. School officials are reporting an unprecedented surge in outsourcing jobs once performed by district employees, and that trend includes classroom workers such as instructional aides and substitute teachers. The reason: to save millions of dollars in health insurance required by the Affordable Care Act and in skyrocketing pension costs.

"Any position that doesn't require a teaching requirement is pretty much up for grabs," said Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, which reported that outsourcing doubled this school year in districts it surveyed.

The Philadelphia School District recently announced it wanted to outsource management of its substitute-teaching services, which the district says will provide better coverage and save money, but will also privatize more than 1,000 union jobs.

A 2009 survey among New Jersey districts identified more than $34 million in annual savings from subcontracting services, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. Only about 40 percent of districts statewide participated in the survey, so association officials believe the actual amount outsourced was higher.

"We don't promote subcontracting per se, but believe that districts need the option," a school boards association spokesman said Friday.

In Pennsylvania, the Kennett Consolidated School District outsourced 73 paraprofessional jobs to a private contractor in 2013 after the district had already contracted out transportation, cafeteria staff, and benefits administration.

In making the transition, aides, who were offered jobs with the new vendor, lost health and pension benefits.

Mark Tracy, assistant to the superintendent of business affairs for the Chester County district, said the move saved $700,000 in the first year and eased the burden on taxpayers. Still, taxes have gone up every year and are expected to increase next year.

"When your tax base is eroding, and with state revenue subsidies held level for four or five years, decisions have to be made that benefit the entire community, not just individuals that work for the district," Tracy said.

Most districts say they work with the vendors to retain as many staffers as possible, but some board members have joined with parents in voicing their angst. Their main worry is that good, experienced employees will be driven away.

"Is it fair to balance [the budget] on those people who are our lowest-paid workers who do great work rather than look at the top and at other areas?" asked Scott Dorsey, a Tredyffrin-Easttown board member who opposed a plan this year to outsource paraprofessionals.

Dorsey noted that paraprofessionals "work with the most sensitive children of our district" - one of the state's most affluent. But officials still felt budgetary pressure to eliminate projected health-care costs - $1.3 million for the paraprofessionals alone - under the Affordable Care Act. Pensions add $179,000 more.

After the measure passed, Dorsey ultimately joined the rest of the board in approving its contract with the private firm CCERS Inc. Even with a maximum tax increase, the district faces a $1.8 million deficit in next year's budget, said business manager Art McDonnell.

Ron Farkas, executive director of CCERS, which also provides aides in Kennett, said he was in talks with multiple districts.

He said his firm, which does not provide health care for its workers, will pay a $2,000-per-employee penalty under the federal law for any uninsured full-time workers, although so far the fines have not been a factor because of the way the measure has been phased in. For some aides, he said, not paying health care and pension benefits cut a district's cost for a position in half, even as salaries remained largely unchanged.

In Perkiomen Valley, the 140-member union that represents paraprofessionals and classroom aides has been given an opportunity to compete with any proposals received from private firms this month.

Union president Kathy Malchitsky, a paraprofessional at Evergreen Elementary School for 23 years, said her workers were unfairly under pressure from a pension crisis not of their making.

"Most of our members live in the community and have had kids who have been through here," Malchitsky said. "We're in it for the long haul." She said that most employees earn between $12.75 and $20 an hour, and that losing benefits would be devastating.

Jefferson, Chris' aide, said that as the sole support for his family of five, it was a struggle now just to put food on the table. But "it would be nearly impossible to pull this off" if he loses his benefits, he said.

Katina Velikaris said she dreaded what would happen if her son has to start with a new aide who doesn't know Chris' favorite sports or understand the triggers that might spark a behavioral outburst.

"Unless you've walked in our shoes, unless you lived it, you don't understand," Velikaris said.

Jefferson said that over five years, he'd come to understand what makes Chris anxious, his sensitivity to certain foods, and he used a system of pictorial icons to keep him on schedule. But he and Chris' mother say that is secondary to the emotional attachment now at risk.

"I'm part of the family now," Jefferson said, recalling how he and Chris even once dressed as cows to get a free meal at Chick-fil-A. "We have a relationship now. I'm sure even if I wasn't officially one on one with him, we would still hang out."

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