by Maya McFadden The New Haven independent
The city’s school district has agreed to pay a total of $110,479.72 to 76 former paraprofessionals who had previously been excluded by the Board of Education from a back-pay provision in a recently struck union contract.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón signed that settlement agreement on April 23. Hyclis Williams — the president of the city’s paraprofessionals union, AFSCME Local 3429 — signed the agreement on April 27. The Independent obtained a copy of the settlement from the state Department of Labor last week.
The settlement follows the paraprofessionals union’s filing of a Municipal Prohibited Practice (MPP) charge with the State Board of Labor Relations (SBLR) in August 2025. Such charges typically allege that an employer or union has violated state collective-bargaining laws.
Thanks to this settlement — which will see 76 paras receive between $52 and $5,123 each — the paras union has now withdrawn that complaint.
“We are very pleased that this has been resolved and that more than 70 New Haven Paraeducators will receive the wages they rightfully earned,” AFSCME Council 4 Staff Representative Cherlyn Poindexter — a former city union leader — told the Independent. “The President and the members kept pushing to make sure they were paid what they earned.”
The complaint concerned a dispute between the union and the school district over the interpretation of an arbitration award issued by a state arbitration panel on April 23, 2025. At that point, the district’s 360-plus paras — who serve as classroom assistants to teachers — had been working without a contract since July 1, 2023. The arbitration award concerned a new four-year contract that provided $1.8 million in retroactive pay.
The April 2025 arbitration award stated that the back payments were to be retroactive to July 1, 2023 and each subsequent and applicable contract year.
The Board of Education, however, voted in July 2025 to ensure that the new contract’s back-pay provision would apply only to employees who were active as of June 30, 2025, or who had retired by that date.
More than 70 paras resigned from the district between Sept. 22, 2023 and May 30, 2025, even though they worked during the years-long arbitration process. That meant that, per the Board of Education’s July 2025 vote, those 70-plus paras who had worked at some point after July 1, 2023 but who had resigned before June 30, 2025 were not eligible for back pay.
This newly struck settlement between the paraprofessionals union and NHPS ensures that those paras will get back pay after all.
In a Thursday comment provided to the Independent, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon said that “the [April 2025 arbitration] award was silent with respect to whether active or inactive employees should receive retroactive pay, and the Board, as you note, made a decision with respect to its interpretation based on past practice.”
Poindexter, the AFSCME Council 4 staff rep, told the Independent that the MPP that was filed by the paraprofessionals union was eventually withdrawn due to the settlement. That original MPP accused NHPS of refusing to comply with the arbitration award.
Between August 2025 and March 28, 2026, AFSCME Council 4 and NHPS held a series of informal conferences — as encouraged by the SBLR — to try to amicably settle the matter. On March 28, 2026, the Board of Education voted to enter into a settlement agreement with the union to compensate the dozens of now-resigned paras that were not give back pay.
Four of those employees were paid either fully or partially before the parties reached a full agreement and therefore were also included in the settlement.
“They had already moved on from the district and were initially left out, but this makes clear that if you did the work, you’re owed the pay—and those agreements can’t just be changed after the fact,” Poindexter said about the 70-plus paras covered by this settlement. “These are the folks supporting students every day, often without a lot of recognition, and this is about making sure their work is respected and valued. This outcome shows what can happen when workers stand together and ensure agreements are honored. This is a true testament to Union solidarity.”
In a separate comment, Harmon confirmed that a settlement had indeed been reached “with respect to certain employees who were not originally included in the Board vote. We thank Local 3429 for working collaboratively with us to resolve the matter and look forward to our continued work together.”
Yolanda Silva is one of those former city paraprofessionals to receive back pay thanks to this settlement.
Silva resigned from the district on Aug. 15, 2024 after working for five years for the school-readiness program at Troup. She recalled working for the district despite her union having no contract until her classroom was shutdown due to funding cuts. Silva said she was told by a parent in her program that her classroom was shutting down before any official notification came in from NHPS. That was the final straw that led her to leave the district.
When she received a call from Williams on April 29 about the settlement, she said she was thankful that her years of work in New Haven meant something to someone. Silvia is now set to receive $1,803.99 in back pay.
Williams told the Independent Thursday that she hopes the Board of Education takes seriously when paras inform them of concerns. She recalled the union testifying to the school board in July 2025 before its exclusionary vote that it was not fair to not compensate staff for work they’ve already done. “I’m not blaming the board because they were misinformed but I hope they work to hear and investigate all sides before making decisions,” she said. “They have been paying attorneys to underpay us for too long.”
The Independent submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in May 2025 for how much money that the city’s school district spent on legal services related to contract negotiations and the arbitration process for the new paraprofessionals union contract. The Board of Education’s then-attorney, Elia Alexiades, responded in January 2026, stating that, between 2023 and October 2025, NHPS spent a total of $92,335 on legal services in relation to the paraprofessionals union contract.
Angela Walder, who also previously worked as a NHPS paraprofessional, told the Independent she was “appalled” the mayor, who sits on the school board, would allow his colleagues to not pay staff for their years of work. She resigned from NHPS on Dec. 9, 2024 after dedicating eight years to the job.
“We worked during critical times with no raise at all,” she said. “And now they refused to step up to the plate and say let’s pay these people. That’s stealing and offensive especially when we are the backbones of education.”
When Walder’s payment of $5,123.22 didn’t arrive after the arbitration award was handed down, she said she went 10 weeks without a paycheck since she had just started a new job. She said she struggled at the time to cover costs for her car, gas, and good. She said she reached out to the payroll department and school board’s president after resigning and received no responses.
Walder concluded that the district should issue an apology to the paraprofessionals who did not receive their back pay until the settlement.