Support staff at Crystal Lake D47 file unfair labor practice charge after district hires staffing firm

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/support-staff-at-crystal-lake-d47-file-unfair-labor-practice-charge-after-district-hires-staffing-firm/ar-BB1htT5D

For $17.88 an hour, Janelle Chaix changes diapers, helps with homework, provides both practical and emotional support — and gets scratched and spit on every so often.

“That’s part of my job,” said Chaix, a paraprofessional, or aide, at Crystal Lake District 47 who works with some students who have autism and are nonverbal. “They can lash out in different ways and as a ‘para’ with these kids, you have to understand them. We don’t have the help. We don’t have the resources to give them the one-on-one they need or the consistency.”

Crystal Lake Association of Support Staff, or CLASS, the union representing Chaix and more than 100 paraprofessionals across 12 schools in District 47, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in October after district administrators retained a recruiting firm to hire temporary employees. The union said the move was made illegally and without giving them notice.

“It’s a slap in the face and goes to show how much they don’t value the current employees they already have,” said Stephanie Lierance, union president and a learning resource paraprofessional at South Elementary. “Instead of coming up with thoughtful, long-term solutions to address these issues, the district waited until the last minute to bring in temporary help who aren’t committed to our students and our community — apparently they don’t have money to pay us, but they do have money to pay a contracted company.”

FULL story at link above.