Carolina Galvan nears the outer edge of her dream each time she steps into her classroom at Valdez Elementary School in Denver. She wants to be a teacher with her own classroom of students, but since she was unable to finish the schooling required to earn a teacher’s license, her role as a paraprofessional sets her inches away from it.
“Being a paraprofessional is kind of achieving my dream,” said Galvan, 34, who assists a teacher with classroom lessons and provides extra help to students.
But she’s thought about walking away from her job, which sometimes feels like more of a sacrifice than a way to fulfill her career goals. Pocketing $15.87 per hour, Galvan can’t even pay her rent for her Woodridge apartment and depends on her husband’s income to keep their family afloat. Like many educators, the students are the reason Galvan returns to school day after day.
“Touching lives and making a positive influence in some of the kids” motivates her, she said, “but sometimes it doesn’t pay the bills.”
Galvan is part of a group of Denver Public Schools paras and other support staff members, including bus assistants, food service workers and campus safety officers, asking board leadership to raise wages to $20 per hour. She and other district employees have an option to be part of a union, the Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals and Nutrition Service Employees, but their counterparts in some metro districts don’t and are seeking union recognition from their school boards.
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