PITTSFIELD — The salaries of paraprofessionals in the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees union will increase over the next two years thanks to a settlement between the union and district.
The settlement was accepted by the Pittsfield School Committee on Wednesday night.
Raises are just one part of an essentially three-part agreement between the union and district. The district has also agreed to stop use of any staffing agencies it had been using to fill para jobs in the district and to bargain with the district before contracting with a staffing agency in the future.
In return, the union has promised to drop its unfair labor practice complaint with the state’s Department of Labor Relations.
The deal comes just three months after union officials came before the City Council to disavow what it called “union busting” by the district.
Union representatives did not return a request for comment.
Paras work alongside teachers to help educate special education students in substantially separate programs and integrated classrooms.
The district used a contract that dated back to 2019 with a company called BlazerWorks, a Georgia-based hiring agency, to fill open para positions in the district starting in August 2022.
District officials paid BlazerWorks to advertise and hire for open paraprofessional positions. The district then paid BlazerWorks between $50 and $55 an hour to have the new BlazerWorks employee work in the open position in Pittsfield schools.
BlazerWorks was in charge of dividing the…
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