We are not just employees, but the backbone of our schools’ daily operations. Reducing our hours to just 3.5 a day is not only disappointing but deeply disrespectful to the hard-working individuals who show up every day to ensure our schools are safe, structured, and functional. Individuals who play ALL roles like covering teachers when absent, playing teacher assistant roles, cleaning up after the children, etc. yet not getting paid like others whom sub positions and get paid for those days.
Let us be absolutely clear: a school cannot run without supervision. Cutting our hours without any compensation or solutions is not a cost-saving strategy—it’s a crisis in the making.
This is more than just a scheduling issue. It is a matter of dignity, equity, and justice. We monitor transitions, keep students safe during unstructured times, and step in wherever we’re needed which is every moment of the day. Yet we continue to be denied holiday pay, PTO, and compensation during school closures. Do you know what it feels like not getting paid on for a whole week or more? No one can survive on 4 hours a day. Rent, food, gas, bills — they don’t shrink just because our hours were cut on paper.
Now our hours are being cut. We are treated as expendable labor while doing the essential work others won’t. What message are we sending our children when their safety and supervision are treated as optional?
The superintendent made top-down decisions about schools and teams he doesn’t fully understand. Each building runs on the efforts of hourly staff like us—people who are juggling full-time responsibilities on paper-thin wages and zero benefits. To then cut our hours is not only unjust, it’s dangerous.
You can’t balance a budget on the backs of your most vulnerable employees.
We are demanding:
Immediate reconsideration of the 3.5-hour reduction
Holiday pay and PTO in line with other district employees
A path to salaried status with equitable benefits for all full-time hourly workers
We are not lucky to have our jobs—you are lucky to have workers this dedicated, under these conditions. But our patience has run out.