Classroom aides will be paid $18 per hour under a contract approved by the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education early Tuesday morning, April 20. Aides previously earned about $35,000 a year plus benefits, according to the union contract. The new contract drops pay to $20,000 a year with no benefits.

The aides will be outsourced with Essex County Educational Services Commission under the $108 million school spending plan adopted by the board after midnight. The contract was approved after midnight since a large portion of the meeting had been devoted the the subject of school rezoning.

The final approval for the paraprofessionals' contract capped a contentious budget season. Just under 100 jobs will be cut from district rolls and teachers and administrative salaries frozen. Unlike other municipalities, South Orange and Maplewood do not vote on the school budget. Spending decisions rest with the Board of Education and Board of School Estimates, which approved a 3.48% increase in the school tax levy in late March.

Special education was particularly hard hit in the budget process, spurring protests over the outsourcing of 76 paraprofessionals who work with general education teachers in the classrooms and support individual students with learning and physical disabilities.

Outsourcing the aides saves the district $1.5 million in the coming budget year. While the district will pay for the services, $23 per hour for the aids, the "sustained" savings in future years is estimated at $1 million annually because the district will no longer be paying benefits.

With approval of the contract, Superintendent of Schools Brian Osborne said the district can begin the process of getting pertinent information to the paras. The teaching aides will be offered the opportunity to apply for jobs with the agency. They will be paid $18 an hour with a 29-hour per week maximum limit. They receive no benefits, although funds will be contributed to their pensions.

The paras hired will be required to have a minimum of two years of college, with one-year experience in special education.  

The first wave of paraprofessionals will be hired this summer for the Extended School Year program.