Aug. 22—ROCHESTER — Between salaries and benefits, education support professionals working at Rochester Public Schools will receive an increase of 13.6% over the next two years.
The district’s school board approved the contract with the district’s bargaining unit on Tuesday, Aug. 20. The board approved the contract as part of its consent agenda, meaning it was approved as a batch with a number of other items and wasn’t discussed individually.
“I am pleased with how it went,” said Laura Denney, lead negotiator for the union Education Minnesota — RESP. “There’s still a long way to go.”
Formerly known as paraprofessionals, education support professionals work with teachers and students in various settings — whether it’s the classroom, the lunch room or during transportation.
Although it doesn’t include all the ESPs working in the school district, there are roughly 250 members of the union. The union is connected to Education Minnesota, which is the same umbrella union that Rochester teachers belong to.
The contract will cover the time of 2024-26. The district had been negotiating the contract with the union since the end of April.
According to the new contract, all returning ESPs will receive a dollar raise for each year of the contract. There are four different categories of ESP, but their pay in 2024-25 will range from $20 an hour for general ESPs up to $28.35 an hour for the upper end of interpreter ESPs.
The increase means that ESPs will begin this new school year making 33% more per hour than they were two years ago. In September 2022, education support professionals were starting at $15 an hour. The district increased that hourly amount for all ESPs by $3 for 2022-23, which was followed by an additional $1 increase for 2023-24.
Another important change, Denney said, is that the language referring to insurance has been changed from a dollar amount to a percentage. That, she said, will help buffer employees from increases at the beginning of the year.
“As a union, it’s always our goal to bring our wages to a livable wage,” Denney said. “We’re not there yet, but that is what we keep working toward.”