By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Hays school board approved a $2 per hour raise for paraprofessionals in the special education co-op at its meeting Monday night.

The superintendents for the four participating districts — Hays, Ellis, Victoria and La Crosse — all supported the recommendation as a means of increasing retention. Hays is the sponsoring district for the Hays West Central Kansas Special Education Cooperative.

The raise would increase pay for most paras from $9.35 per hour to $11.35 per hour. Most of the paras work 20 hours per week and have no benefits.

The cost will be $180,000 and will come from the special education cooperative budget.

Hays Superintendent John Thissen said the pay was so low, paras could leave for fast foods jobs for better pay and in some cases receive benefits.

Thissen said three-fourths of the district’s new hires this year were paras. Some classrooms have had three paras in one year. This can be disruptive to special needs students who generally do better with consistency, he said.

The administration asked the increase be approved Monday night even though it was new business so the wage increase could be included in work agreements for the next school year. The hope was to retain more paras over the summer. The increase will not take effect until July.

The districts said they were not ready to reinstate benefits at this time, but it has been considered as a long-term option. The co-op estimates it will cost about $600,000 to reinstate benefits for the paras.

“We felt in the coop that was just not possible,” Thissen said of reinstating benefits at this time.