Looking Back, Looking Ahead - A Reflection on Paraprofessionals and the AFT

Oct 15, 2026

An AFT leader recounts decades of experience as a paraprofessional, describing how early union skepticism gave way to activism after a severe blizzard left staff supervising students long into the afternoon without pay. She explains how affiliation with the Baltimore Teachers Union secured full voting rights, unified paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, and addressed tensions between federally defined aides and nonfederal assistants. The narrative details organizing efforts, early contract negotiations, and leadership roles shaping policy and representation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Early work as a paraprofessional

The blizzard and unpaid extra time

Affiliating with the Baltimore Teachers Union

Looking Back, Looking Ahead A Reflection on Paraprofessionals and the AFT PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OFF ICE OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER By Lorretta Johnson A lmost 50 years have passed since the day that first sparked my union activism, butI remember it clearly. It was 1966, and I was a teacher’s assistant—a paraprofessional—at Grove Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, I had been a volunteer in the school’s library. Because my own children were attending the school, I wanted to help out. I enjoyed the work, so the principal recommended that I become a paraprofessional. The job seemed like a good fit, and I decided to pursue it since it would allow me to be home in time to pickup my children from school. Lorretta Johnson is the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers. From 2008 to 2011, she was the AFT’s executive vice president. Previously, she was anAFT vicepresident for 30 years and the president of the Baltimore Teachers Union’s paraprofessional chapter for 35 years. A former president of AFT-Maryland, she chaired the AFT Paraprofessionalsand School-Related Personnel program and policy councilfrom 1979 to 2011. I was assigned to Liberty Elementary School, which enrolled many low-income students. I started out splitting my time between kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The paraprofessionals in our school worked well with teachers and the principal, so I didn’t really see a need for a union at first. That changed thanks to something as mundane asthe weather. Right after I started at Liberty, there was a blizzard. School district officials notified our school around 11 a.m. that schools were closing. Since the paraprofessionals were already supervising the students at that point because it was lunchtime, our school’s administrators sent the teachers home, and we paraprofessionals were left to dismiss the kids. Because of the weather, parents were late picking up their children, and we ended up staying at school throughout the afternoon. The last student didn’t leave until 4 p.m., which meant that my colleagues and I didn’t leave until after that—and then we had to fight the blizzard to get home. Some people had to take a bus; Iwas driving, which was miserable, and I had two or three colleagues with me who needed to be dropped off. I made it home close to 8 p.m. 22 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2016 Our principal promised we would be paid for the extra time. He did try to make that happen, but the truth is we were never paid. School district officials justified their decision by saying that since schools were officially closed at 11 a.m. that day, we couldn’t get paid for work beyond that time. For me, that was a slapin the face to working people who were doing their job to keep children safe and in school. The district’s position made me so angry that I turned to the union. When I tell that story now, Ilike to say that school officials in Baltimore didn’t know what they set loose atthe time, butI think they learned over the next 50 years. Affiliating with the Baltimore Teachers Union After the blizzard, my colleagues and I started talking with representatives from the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU), an AFT affiliate. The union’s representatives made it clear they wanted us paraprofessionals to join and to have full voting rights, whereas we didn’t feel as welcome with the National Education Association (NEA) affiliate, which only seemed to want paraprofessional members with high school diplomas. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the federal education law) created a new category of paraprofessionals called children’s aides. Aides were not required to have a highschool diploma and didn’t have to take a test to become a paraprofessional. The NEA saw itself as a professional organization and didn’t want the federally funded children’s aides without diplomas to be part ofits membership. Well, my colleagues and I didn’t want to be sepa

FAQs

Why did the narrator initially hesitate to support a union?

She worked closely with teachers and the principal and initially saw no strong need for a union.

What role did the blizzard play in her decision to turn toward the union?

Administrators left paraprofessionals to dismiss students while schools closed, parents were late, and staff stayed until 4 p.m.; they were later denied pay for the extra time.

What did joining the Baltimore Teachers Union change for paraprofessionals?

It enabled them to have full voting rights and to organize together in one unit, including children’s aides and other school-related personnel.

Oct 15, 2026

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