Bonita Morin speaks Wednesday night at the Auburn School Committee meeting in support of negotiating a new contract. Morin was an Ed Tech for 20 years and, after some time off, is now back at Auburn Middle School as a substitute, filling her previous position, which has been left unfilled. Morin suspects the vacancy is due to low pay and says she has always needed a second full-time job to make ends meet. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

AUBURN — Dozens of educational technicians, secretaries and other school staff, all clad in the district’s signature red, shared their struggles Wednesday night with the School Committee regarding stagnating wages, limited health insurance coverage and overall lack of support.

Since September, about 100 ed techs and secretaries have been working with an expired contract. Efforts to find a common ground came to a halt Sept. 10 when the district and the workers could not settle on a wage increase. The district was offering increases of 2%, 2% and 1% for each year in a three-year contract. To make up for inflation, workers sought raises of 3%, 5% and 5% for each year.

“I am currently (substituting) for myself as an ed tech,” Bonita Morin, a longtime ed tech at the district, said. “I’ve been gone for two years. I need to recertify, but my position wasn’t filled in the two years. I can speculate that it’s about pay and working with special education kids that have challenges. For this amount of pay, people don’t want to do that,” she said.

To make ends meet, Morin said she had to work two jobs like many of her ed tech peers. “When I left after 20 years, I was making about $20 an hour. I was working two full-time jobs before I left, working until 8 o’clock at night.”

“The unfortunate truth is that our school department has lost dedicated, hardworking individuals to neighboring districts due to one primary issue, inadequate wages,” Nikki LeRay, an ed tech at Fairview Elementary School, said.

“Shockingly, a substitute filling the same role as an ed tech currently earns more per day than a full-time ed tech at Auburn School Department’s entry-level pay,” LeRay said. “Let that sink in. We have employees working full-time who are earning less per day than their substitute counterparts.”

LeRay drew attention to higher wages in neighboring districts. “How can we expect employees to choose Auburn when they can simply drive across the bridge and earn so much more?” she asked. “Not only are our wages inadequate, but ongoing budget cuts and staffing shortages have led to increased responsibilities for current employees. Many are taking on additional tasks without any extra compensation or acknowledgement. This situation is a recipe for underappreciation and burnout.”

Cara Murray, another ed tech at Fairview Elementary, said, “This offer is simply unacceptable and insulting. Many of our ed techs qualify for heating assistance, MaineCare, and even food stamps. You do realize why that is, right? It’s because the wages we are being paid force us to live below the poverty line, despite the fact that many of us hold college degrees.”

“My job is to support (multi-lingual) students,” Jill Steinman, an ed tech at Park Avenue Elementary School, said. “Immigrant people. It’s a political hot seat, (but) it doesn’t make any difference. These children are here, and they deserve a chance.”

“My job is when they’re in classes, I’m trying to keep them translated along with their classes,” she said. “Trying to get them to become Americans. They love this country. I love this job. When I first took this job, I took a pay cut. I had to go on welfare. And I was more embarrassed for the Auburn School Department than I was myself. I said, ‘you know, I work for the Auburn School Department, but I need help.'”

John St. Pierre, a bus driver for the district, attended the meeting to show support for the work ed techs and secretaries do.

With help from secretaries, St. Pierre said he has been able to create bus routes to get kids to school on time. “This is just one example of the above and beyond that these people are doing to the Auburn School Department,” he said. “We have to pay our ed techs and our secretaries. They are the glue that holds everything together. If we don’t pay them, they’re going to leave. How much does it cost to recruit, hire, train? It costs more to do that than to pay them. Give them their due.”

Responding for the School Committee, Chairperson Pamela Albert said the district is bargaining in good faith.

“We have already agreed to several of the unit’s requests and we are eager to have a settled contract,” she said.

Albert assured that the Nov. 7 date for returning to the bargaining table was due to scheduling conflicts. “There is no purposeful delay on either party’s part. It is merely due to scheduling conflicts and the mediator’s availability,” she said.

In another motion, the committee approved Edward Little High School Principal Scott Annear’s appointment as interim assistant superintendent.