Trenton school security guards attend board meeting to demand fair pay
Trenton NJ July 4 2019
A group of about 20 Trenton Public Schools security guards and union representatives attended Friday’s Trenton Board of Education to petition for fair pay, benefits and back pay.
The guards, accompanied by members of the Service Employees International Union, said they are being paid between $11 and $12.50 an hour with no benefits or paid time off.
The Board of Education, in 2016, put a standard wage policy in place that union representatives say would raise their wages to $15 and include health benefits and paid leave. They are also requesting back pay for workers dating back to 2017 when vendor Motivated Security took over the contract to provide security at city schools.
Board member Gene Bouie said during the meeting he had not seen the policy and asked it be presented to the board so it could be discussed by fellow board members. The district did not respond to further requests for comment.
Mayor Reed Gusciora in May wrote a letter to the board in support of better wages and benefits for the guards.
“I am supportive of this personnel team, as these men and women are the first line of defense in our schools, and their work is imperative to the well being of our children,” Gusciora wrote. “We need to make sure the policy is followed so that these workers can be compensated with livable wages and benefits that they are entitled to.”
Velissa Austell, who has worked in security since 2004, has been employed with the district for five months. During that time, she said, a student got a gun into the school by using a side door that had been propped open by another student. “When I went home, I thought to myself, ‘They don’t pay me enough for this s—,” she said.
Austell said security guards working in the district should be treated with the same dignity as others in the same profession. “We should be able to get compensated the right way for what we do, because what we do is serious,” she said.
The current pay has had an impact on the guards’ families as well. Austell said without scholarships, her oldest daughter would not have been able to go to college.
“But what if she didn’t (get any),” she asked. “Then I would have to pay. With what? The $11 an hour that they’re paying us? No, I don’t think so.”
Security Officer Imani Fleming-Blackwell, who is in her fifth year working for the district, said “it has been a trying experience.”
Fleming-Blackwell sees her job as much more than a paycheck.
“I work hard at my job to make sure that everyone is safe and taken care of. I’m a parent as well and think of students here as my own children,” she said.
Fleming-Blackwell said the policy put in place almost three years ago states the district’s building service workers be paid the industry minimum wage, stating Motivated Security continues to be given contract extensions despite not making any changes to what it pays employees.
nj.com
