YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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“Your inner voice is the voice of divinity. To hear it, we need to be in solitude, even in crowded places.” A. R. RAHMAN FILM COMPOSER
NHPS paraprofessionals face COVID-19 quarantines without paid leave BY YASH ROY STAFF REPORTER When Alicia Norris, a paraprofessional at the Davis School, received her pay stub for the first two weeks of January, she was shocked: she had not received pay for seven days since the return from break. After testing positive for COVID-19, she was required to quarantine and thus took seven days off from work in the first two weeks of school. But she expected to receive paid time off, as the New Haven Public Schools system had promised staff in August. “It’s heartbreaking because I love these kids, but I need to also provide for my family,” Norris said. “It’s scary to me to think that I might have to make a decision one morning that I have a sore throat, but I have to go to work because I’m not going to get paid but I might just be bringing this to a child who is unvaccinated.” She’s not the only paraprofessional in this situation. Despite reassurances from New Haven Public Schools, paraprofessionals across New Haven Public Schools who have contracted COVID-19 have received no paid leave for their period of quarantine or isolation since the start of the school year. NHPS employs roughly 430 paraprofessionals, or paras, who include “classroom staff, assistant teachers, support staff, head start teachers, retention specialists, parent liaisons and outreach workers.” All paras are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 3249. According to Hyclis Williams, president of local 3249, since the start of the 2021-2022 school year paras across NHPS have been forced to use their personal time off or sick days instead of COVID-19 specific paid leave. Last school year, they were able to receive paid leave. Teachers across NHPS have continued to receive paid leave this year. “The Board of Education refuses to pay,” Williams told the News. “They had stated in their presentation before schools
opened [in August 2021] that they would have supportive paid sick leave and policies and practices that would encourage workers to stay home without fear of retaliation, loss of pay, loss of employment level. Lots of people have been in a situation where they have lost all pay because they could not return to work.” The dispute between paraprofessionals and NHPS centers around an Aug. 23 BOE meeting where city and district leaders provided a presentation detailing the city and district’s policies on paid leave for “workers” in the district. At the meeting, city Public Health Director Maritza Bond presented slides which stated that NHPS will “allow flexible, non-punitive and supportive paid sick leave policies and practices that encourage sick workers to stay home without fear of retaliation, loss of pay or loss of employment level.” But once the school year began, paras who tested positive and took time off did not receive this promised paid leave, and they reached out to Williams. On Nov. 23, Williams emailed NHPS Superintendent Iline Tracey about the issue. Williams was told that since paid time off for COVID-19 was not included in the paraprofessional contract, which was negotiated in 2019, the district could not provide them with the same paid time off that teachers, who had their contracts renewed during the pandemic and had included a provision on the issue, were receiving. Norris and Williams both spoke at Monday evening’s BOE meeting during public comment and were supported by teacher’s union President Leslie Blatteau ’97 GRD ’07, who said that she “stood in solidarity” with the paraprofessionals. After the public comment during the BOE meeting, Tracey said that she “hears the concerns of the paraprofessionals,” but that “this is a broader issue.” “If we talk about equity, we should include workers in the other unions who have to quarantine,” Tracey wrote in an email to the News. “The only union who has such time protection for any pandemic situation
ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Paraprofessionals who test positive or need to quarantine have not been receiving paid time off, despite NHPS promises. is the teachers’ union, since it is in their contract. Last year, under the governor’s executive order, this was not an issue. We are not under such an order for this year. However, it is something I can investigate from the state level.” Williams also asked if NHPS could give some of the city’s COVID-19 relief money to cover paid time off for paras, she said. “I did ask Dr. Tracey to look into the possibility of using some of the COVID relief money to offset any extra costs that they incur because of this,” Williams said. “She said she would look into it, and I asked her again and she said she didn’t have any feedback from it. And, so when the paras make a complaint her response usually is saying she’s sorry, but it is not in the contract.” Tracey told the News that she knew “there were suggestions by the paraprofessionals union leader that we pay from the grant funds we received, but the funds we received were not given for this purpose.”
The paraprofessional, who was granted anonymity due to fear of loss of livelihood, told the News that they had tested positive for COVID-19 before Thanksgiving break and had not received pay for two weeks, and that it had placed a “great strain” on their ability to provide for their family. “I’ve literally had to deplete my savings, and my checking account to make sure that I provide for my children,” they said. “Because you’re not a teacher, you don’t get those extra benefits, you don’t get the respect that you deserve because they think, ‘oh you’re just a para.’” Sadiyya Martinez, a paraprofessional working at King Robinson school, told the News that she could not come into work for the first two days after winter break because she had contracted COVID-19. She attempted to use her sick days to cover those days but said that her school’s secretary informed her that her sick days
would not kick in until the third week of January. “It’s sad because I think I go above and beyond,” Martinez said. “I do more than my contract and try to go above and beyond what’s written into my contract, but I feel like I’m not appreciated. I’m living paycheck to paycheck and this doesn’t seem to make it easier.” Williams estimated that at least 30 paras have already been in similar situations and that there could potentially be more people who she does not know about or who will receive their pay stubs soon. According to Williams, the paraprofessional union is looking to bargain and negotiate with the district so that her union members can get the same protections that teachers receive. New Haven Public Schools employs approximately 4,000 people. Contact YASH ROY at yash.roy@yale.edu
Yale bars students from study abroad programs as cases spike
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Students reflect on cancellations for programs managed by the Center for International and Professional Experience. BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTER Over winter recess, Yale’s Center for International and Professional Experience, or CIPE, announced the cancellation of all spring semester study abroad programs due to the rise of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The decision came as many students were set to take off within weeks and much of course registration was already completed. Although Yale does not run its own study abroad programs during the academic year, CIPE usually coordinates for and grants credit to students who
want to study abroad in external programs. However, this spring, CIPE has barred students from attending such external programs, regardless of if the programs themselves were canceled or not. CIPE makes decisions about study abroad based on Yale’s overarching travel policy, which has evolved throughout the pandemic and was updated due to the rise of the Omicron variant. “Unfortunately, in accordance with the Yale University International Travel Policy for Yale College Students, we were unable to send any students abroad for the spring semester,” CIPE Director of Study Abroad Kelly McLaugh-
lin wrote in an email to the News. Students were notified by their study abroad advisors of the update in December. Luna Garcia ’23 had prepared to study in Madrid this spring, but found out a few days into winter break that she would not have the chance to do so. “I think that the study abroad office themselves did as much as they could given the travel restrictions Yale implemented,” Garcia said. However, she added that the uncertainty of Yale’s travel policy made it stressful to navigate the study abroad process. Garcia noted that the number of students studying abroad
during the school year is relatively low, which allows the study abroad office to provide personal assistance to those who do. The problem, she believes, is that the staff themselves do not have enough information about what students hope to know regarding travel restrictions. “They can’t give kids the information that they need or want … by virtue of it being such an unstable situation with Yale’s travel policy, which they don’t have any control over,” Garcia said. For Marielena Rodas ’23, this spring’s cancellation marks her second failed attempt at studying abroad. She had previously planned to study abroad in 2020, which was ultimately canceled, and then applied again for a spring 2022 program in Paris. Although the program she intended to be part of is still operating as planned, she had to cancel her semester abroad due to Yale’s restrictions. As a comparative literature and French double major, studying abroad to receive credit for language courses has been an important goal, Rodas said. While she acknowledges the unpredictability of the public health situation caused by the Omicron variant, she believes students could have been prepared better for the changes. “There was no real guidance,” Rodas said. “I wish the communication had been a little better up until that point.” By the time study abroad cancellations were announced, Rodas had already purchased a one way ticket to Europe, paid a visa application fee and put down a $500 deposit for her program. Rodas said she wished that Yale had been more transparent about advising students on contingency plans, which she believes were not dealt with properly in the context of Yale’s last-minute study abroad cancellations.
McLaughlin acknowledged students’ concerns about the fast-changing nature of study abroad this academic year, but said that all study abroad officers have worked to be as transparent as possible throughout students’ study abroad planning processes. “From the outset of the Study Abroad application process, and in all of our advising and information sessions, we have been as realistic and transparent as possible that students should have backup plans and not count on study abroad being approved,” McLaughlin said. “Nevertheless, we express a shared frustration with students that these experiences abroad have been so disrupted for so long.” While all study abroad plans for the spring semester have been canceled, Yale students have eagerly anticipated for programs to continue this upcoming summer. CIPE hosted a webinar titled “Planning for Summer 2022” and extensive Q&A session on Jan. 19, which attracted over 100 students, according to McLaughlin. A recording of the webinar is available on CIPE’s website, and one-on-one advisors are available upon request, McLaughlin said. “Everybody within CIPE with whom I have spoken is eagerly hoping that COVID-related disruptions to study/work/research abroad will end at the earliest possible moment,” McLaughlin wrote in an email. “We remain cautiously optimistic that we will be able to resume such activity this summer, at least in some locations, but we are advising all students to have domestic backup plans since, as we know, the course of this pandemic is proving difficult to predict.” The deadline to apply for Yale Summer Session programs abroad is Feb. 15. Contact WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.porayouw@yale.edu
