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Resident and union leader urges higher pay for West Windsor-Plainsboro support staff
Summary
At a West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District board meeting, Thea Burke, president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Association, urged the board to provide fair compensation for educational support professionals, warning low wages and rising costs risk turnover and harm student services.
Thea Burke, president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Association, used the board's public comment period to urge the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District to raise compensation for educational support professionals.
"Fair compensation for the educational support professional members who serve our students, families, and community," Burke said, listing instructional assistants, secretaries, bus drivers and cafeteria aides as examples of staff whose work is essential but often unseen. She told the board many members are working multiple jobs or taking on extra responsibilities to make ends meet and warned that turnover could hurt students: "Stable, experienced employees create stronger schools."
Burke said instructional assistants in the district remain "among the lowest paid in the county" and asked the board to consider pay changes as an investment in student success. She acknowledged the board must "balance many competing priorities and steward taxpayers' resources responsibly," and repeatedly framed the request as not asking for special treatment but for wages that reflect employees' contributions.
Board policy 0167 governed the public comment period; speakers were limited to three minutes and comments were directed to the presiding officer. The board acknowledged Burke's remarks with applause but did not take immediate action on compensation during the meeting.
After the comment period closed, the board moved on to consent votes and personnel items and later recessed into a closed executive session that the presiding officer said would address personnel matters and WWPSA negotiations. The public meeting concluded without a vote on compensation measures.
The district's personnel changes and the board's next steps on the WWPSA negotiations update and superintendent evaluation were listed on the agenda and scheduled for the executive session; the board said any discussion that need not remain confidential would be made public when feasible.
