The Reading School Board has approved a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with the union representing the district\u2019s educational support professionals.<\/p>\n
The agreement with the Reading Education Support Professionals Association, or RESPA, effective July 1, was approved Wednesday night at the board\u2019s regular meeting.<\/p>\n
The union represents paraeducators, classroom assistants, personal care assistants and parent outreach assistants.<\/p>\n
Officials said the contract will help recruit and retain employees while strengthening student support services. A key component is a substantial increase in starting pay for new hires.<\/p>\n
Under the contract, the starting hourly wage will rise to $23.27 from $15 per hour, increasing estimated annual full-time compensation from about $20,685 to nearly $33,000.<\/p>\n
Existing employees also will receive annual wage increases throughout the life of the agreement.<\/p>\n
The contract also includes expanded personal leave benefits, improved longevity stipends for veteran employees and the creation of a new employee mentor program designed to support new hires.<\/p>\n
The longevity enhancements include a new annual stipend of $1,500 for employees with more than 25 years of service.<\/p>\n
The mentor program will pair incoming employees with experienced staff members who can provide guidance, job shadowing opportunities and ongoing support.<\/p>\n
Dr. Khalid N. Mumin, superintendent, said the agreement reflects the district\u2019s commitment to the employees who support students and schools each day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis agreement reflects our shared commitment to investing in the people who help make our schools run every single day,\u201d Mumin said in a statement. \u201cOur educational support professionals are essential to the success of our students and schools. These updates will help us continue attracting and retaining dedicated employees while strengthening the support systems available to our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimberly Jones, RESPA president, said the agreement benefits employees and the broader Reading community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than half of RESPA\u2019s members are residents of the Reading School District,\u201d Jones said in a statement. \u201cThis agreement reflects not only an investment in the staff, but in the RSD community as well. As local president, I\u2019d like to thank the board for recognizing the important work RESPA members do each and every day for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones said she hopes the improved contract will help attract additional employees to the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis contract shows our union members the respect they deserve,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are hopeful it will entice new employees to come to work in Reading and become members of RESPA, which will allow us to provide the best support for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many provisions of the previous contract remain unchanged, including work-day structure, work-year schedules, overtime protections and sick leave benefits. However, district officials said the new agreement introduces several enhancements aimed at modernizing employee support and improving workplace quality.<\/p>\n
The contract comes as the district prepares to add more than 40 new positions within the RESPA bargaining unit as part of its 2026-27 budget.<\/p>\n
District administrators said the additional positions, combined with the new contract provisions, will strengthen student support services, improve district operations and make Reading a more competitive employer for educational support professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reading School Board has approved a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with the union representing the district\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,227,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-207485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-education","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}