Waterford ― The school board on Thursday approved a new contract for paraprofessionals that will raise their starting pay by more than $3 an hour.

“I’m very happy for the people that are (now) making $16 an hour,” said Linda Laudone, who represents 53 local paraprofessionals as president of AFSCME Local 1303-209.

“Let’s put it that way,” she added. “Because now they’re going to be making $19.50. And that’s a huge jump.”

Paraprofessionals, also called paraeducators or instructional assistants, are employed by school districts to provide support to students with educational or emotional needs.

The raises come as school districts in the region struggle to hire paraprofessionals because of low pay and shortages of interested candidates.

Under the previous contract, which expired in June, starting paraprofessionals with the lowest amount of qualifications made $16.18, while their top pay had been $19.48. Some current, long-serving paraprofessionals earned a maximum of $21.79 an hour.

Laudone was among 19 Waterford and six Stonington paraprofessionals who picketed outside Waterford Town Hall in April. They had waved signs at passing cars asking drivers to honk in support of better wages.

Laudone said the new contract, which is retroactively effective to July 1, will raise the starting wage to $19.52 for the current fiscal year. It also pays the most qualified paraprofessionals $22.23. Those wages will then increase each year over the three-year life of the contract.

The highest that any paraprofessional can make, with the highest level of qualifications in the 2026-27 fiscal year, will be $23.12 an hour.

The old contract had been criticized by paraprofessionals for not providing a livable wage, which they said discouraged paraprofessionals from wanting to do the job here.

Laudone and Giard agreed that the new contract would help keep the paraprofessionals the town already has, and help attract new ones.

“It’s a good place to work,” Laudone said. “We’re going to get some really good paras. And we’ll get happy paras, because now the people that are making that unlivable wage, $16.18 an hour, will be moved up to that $19.50.”

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Giard, who thanked the paraprofessionals and applauded their tenacity during the negotiation process, said the contract increases the town’s “competitiveness in the region, and puts our para wages, both starting step and top step within the top third of New London County.”

Laudone said the new contract also revised the way the wage schedule is structured. Under the new contract, instead of nine steps determined by the level of experience and amount of schooling of the paraprofessional, there are now five. She said Giard will determine where a paraprofessional is placed in that schedule.

She added that because the contract was approved several months after the previous one expired, current paraprofessionals will be paid retroactively based on the new pay schedule.

Laudone said the new contract increases holiday pay, keeps insurance premiums down and expands the definition of “family” to beyond immediate family members when considering whom paraprofessionals can get time off to care for.

The school board vote of 7-0, with one abstention, ends months of negotiations between the board and paraprofessionals.

Before the vote, board chair and former principal Pat Fedor told Laudone how vital the paraprofessionals are to the district, and how seriously the board took the negotiation process.

“Knowing firsthand in a classroom or in a building how so important paraprofessionals are to the workings of the school, the success of the students, the comfort level of the families and for the teachers and certainly as an administrator a few years ago ― huge comfort level for me. And they’re such a vital part of the team, so please express our thanks to them. And hopefully they see the thanks in the contract.”

Laudone said the negotiations went “pretty smoothly.”

“You know, it didn’t happen overnight. But our main goal was to raise our starting pay in Waterford, and we did just that. So I’m happy about that,” she said. “I feel good for all of us. However, I feel the most good for the people at the bottom.”

Editor’s note: This version corrects the vote by the Board of Education.

d.drainville@theday.com