ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Four Allentown School District paraprofessionals will get $5,000 scholarships from the American Federation of Teachers to pursue teaching certifications, officials announced Thursday.
“We’re proud to be able to support this critical work,” AFT Pennsylvania President Wendy Coleman said during a Thursday news conference at Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy in Allentown.
“I honor and respect the paraprofessionals because you do a lot of the heavy lifting.”ASD Superintendent Carol Birks
AFTPA’s ParaProud Scholarship supports union paraprofessionals who are working toward becoming certified teachers in one of the state’s high-need subject areas.
AFTPA will choose the ASD paraprofessionals who will be awarded the scholarships by mid-February.
“This is another incredible pathway to make sure that we’re continuing to have engaged folks from our community to become educators in the communities where they live,” said state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh, who chairs the House Education Committee.
ASD Superintendent Carol Birks praised the district’s paraprofessionals for their work. Birks was a paraprofessional early on in her education career.
“I honor and respect the paraprofessionals because you do a lot of the heavy lifting,” Birks said.
'What we make is not enough'
Linda Kay Groves, president of the Allentown Federation of Paraprofessionals Local 1716, said her work covers tasks as broad as helping students use scissors and feeding them to de-escalating situations when students are upset.
Groves, who has been an ASD paraprofessional for 28 years, currently works in an autistic support classroom at Dieruff High School.
“My favorite part is when you see that light bulb go on, when you know the child is truly getting what you’re teaching them,” she said.
Groves said opportunities such as the ParaProud Scholarships are essential for paraprofessionals to continue their education.
“What we make is not enough for them to cover schooling, raise their families and living,” Groves said.
AFP Local 1716 agreed to a five-year contract with Allentown School District in 2024.
Under the contract, starting hourly pay for full-time, special education paraprofessionals currently is $19.57.
Instructional paraprofessionals start at an hourly pay of $18.03, and non-instructional paraprofessionals at $17.51.
The most senior paraprofessionals in the district currently receive a base hourly rate of $20.30 to $23.20, depending on their classification.
“What we make is not enough for them to cover schooling, raise their families and living."Linda Kay Groves, president of the Allentown Federation of Paraprofessionals Local 1716
There are more than 300 paraprofessionals in ASD and 243 of them are unionized.
Under their contract, ASD paraprofessionals enrolled in a teacher preparation program can get tuition reimbursement each fiscal year for $300 per credit up to a maximum of six credits.
The district’s Elevar Emerging Educators program, started in 2023, also pays for paraprofessionals to get their bachelor’s degree and teaching certification in exchange for five years spent teaching in the district upon completion of their studies.
That program lets paraprofessionals complete their field service hours and student teaching experiences in ASD so they can continue getting paid during that time.
Elevar Emerging Educators program is exclusive to those paraprofessionals who want to teach special education and elementary students.
Promoting learning languages
Also Thursday, AFT leaders and elected officials talked about the importance of multilingual education.
“That’s an asset, that’s not a deficit,” said AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus, who also is president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
AFT donated 500 bilingual books to Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy “to give children access to diverse [books], where they can see their lived experiences on the page,” DeJesus said.
Officials toured the dual language immersion academy, where students rotate between classes in which they learn either exclusively in Spanish or English. Students experience immersion into both languages.
The school opened for the 2024-25 academic year. It currently serves students in pre-kindergarten through second grade. The school will add third grade next school year.
The district is considering construction of a new school on the existing site of the dual immersion academy to accommodate the expansion.
