LEXINGTON — Ava Crain sat on her mother’s lap wearing a pink pajama top covered in unicorns.
She fidgeted, occasionally leaning forward to speak to her mother in a quiet tone. Like most 8-year-olds, she had a hard time sitting still.
The Crains were one of five families that attended Wednesday night’s school board meeting at Eastern Elementary to express concerns about pay rates and turnover among one-on-one aides for students.
Ava has a moderate intellectual disability, epilepsy and ADHD. Amber said her daughter is constantly on the go, which poses a safety issue if she doesn’t have a one-on-one aide with her.
“Ava is very social, always making friends and making people laugh and dance,” Amber said.
Ava loves to go to school, but Amber and Joel Crain claim their daughter hasn’t been able to attend for a full day since her one-on-one aide quit on Oct. 3.
“She was supposed to have another aide start last Friday and then she quit before school started,” Amber said.
“Every day I drop off her two siblings to the same school she goes to and she’s not getting out of the car. I pick up her siblings and she’s not getting out of the car. So then we spiral into meltdowns at least twice a day.”
Amber said her daughter attended school for just four hours last week and has had four hours of schooling this week.
The aide for Mallory Westerheide’s son Max quit two weeks ago.
Westerheide said Max, who has autism and a rare genetic abnormality, was already struggling to acclimate to a full school day. It had taken weeks to get him to stay until 2 p.m.
“Last week, they asked me to keep him home,” Westerheide said. “This week he goes one hour a week. So we’re starting all over again.”
Supt. Jeremy Secrist declined to verify whether or not the district had asked parents to keep certain students home due to a lack of aides, citing student privacy concerns. But he said there are currently two positions open in the district for one-on-one aides. One is a full-day position and one is a half-day position.
Nikki Ruhl said her son recently got a new aide after his last one left the district to take a cashier position at Meijer.
Ruhl and other parents said they’d like to see wage increases for one-on-one aides, who are hired through an outside firm and aren’t part of the district’s support staff bargaining unit.
Treasurer Jason Whitsel confirmed the district sets the hourly rate for one-on-one aides, who are hired through staffing agency Renhill Group, a Toledo-based staffing firm.
Aides received a 3-percent pay increase this school year, just like the district’s unionized support staff, bringing their hourly rate to $12.59.
Ruhl and others argue that’s not enough.
“A good aide is worth their weight in gold,” she said. “My son has an amazing aid. But how long is she going to be able to be his aid? Their hearts are in it. They want to stay, but they also have to put food on their table and keep their lights on.”
Supt. Kevin Kimmel, of the Mid Ohio Educational Service Center, said school districts have struggled to stay competitive amid rising wages in the private sector.
He also said Lexington’s starting wage for one-on-one aides is typical, with most districts in the area offering a starting salary around $13 per hour.
Low wages aren’t the only factor that make the job difficult to fill.
According to Kimmel, one-on-one aides typically don’t have the same employment benefits as full-time employees. They rarely receive the same insurance and don’t get paid if the child they are assigned to doesn’t show up to school.
Joel Crain pointed out what appears to be a local exception. Aides in the Mansfield City School district are part of the Mansfield School Employees Association and receive the same benefits as other support staff, MSEA union president Brad Strong confirmed to Richland Source.
According to the union’s negotiated agreement, the starting rate for paraprofessionals at MCS ranged from $11.93 to $13.64 last school year, depending on whether or not an employee has an associates degree.
When asked if there was room in the district budget for increasing the aide salary, Secrist said the district consistently has conversations and those conversations will continue.
He also said the turnover for one-on-one aides isn’t any greater than turnover for other roles within the district.
“Retention of any and all of our employees is a concern for us, as is recruitment,” he said.
Secrist said the district is not considering terminating its relationship with Renhill, the staffing firm that supplies one-on-one aides to Lexington, but declined to say why hiring through Renhill benefits the district.
“We appreciate all the sentiments that were brought forward tonight,” Secrist added. “We consistently talk about how to be better for all of our students.”
Keith Stoner, who led the meeting in the absence of board president Robert Whitney, asked the Crains if they’d met with their building administrator.
Crain told the board he’d reached out to “everybody,” including the assistant superintendent and every board member.
Stoner later told parents that they brought up a number of issues that needed to be discussed further “from a management standpoint, but that the board could not discuss the issue further in open session.
“I appreciate you bringing that forward and I hope that we will find a solution for whatever the needs are for your daughter,” Stoner said.
