Mattie Wright is on something of a one-woman crusade to improve the professionalism of food service employees in Madison County, Fla. “I think everybody who handles food needs to be certified,” says Wright, a member of the AFT-affiliated Madison County Education Association.

At this point, however, Wright is the only certified food service employee working in the kitchens of the school system, so her goal is an ambitious one. It’s ironic that Wright earned her certification because she needed it for a summer job that involved preparing lunch for dozens of kids at a camp—not exactly the type of setting known for its high cuisine.

The need for certification really boils down to safety. And as some tragic incidents of tainted food in recent years have shown, food safety can virtually be a life-and-death issue. As Wright points out, if a student ends up with some minor stomach or intestinal problem, it might be the result of improperly handled food without anyone ever knowing the cause. “People who work in the kitchen need to be trained, and they need to be educated,” she says. That includes proper use of equipment such as food tables, as well as knowledge about healthy nutrition for students.

Wright’s advocacy of certification for food service employees is not much different from the national AFT’s long-standing push for certification of paraprofessionals. Although progress in paraprofessional certification has been relatively slow, scores of PSRPs have over the years earned certification in a range of fields, sometimes as a job requirement and other times because it’s a means toward improved job skills and professional standing. These PSRPs might be food service workers like Wright, custodial and maintenance staff who deal with pesticides and other hazardous materials, security officers who need some training in law enforcement, or secretaries wanting to upgrade their job status.
 

Safety is key

Because food safety is such an important issue, there are a variety of training and certification programs for employees who work in cafeterias and restaurants. Some, like Wright’s, are not specific to school cafeterias, although the rules for safe handling of food apply anywhere. Across the country in California, Fran Stevens is a food service worker and president of the Menifee Council of Classified Employees, a relatively new AFT local. Her state requires anyone who handles food, even a teenage fast-food employee, to have a food handlers’ card, which requires very little training to acquire. But each facility has to have a certified person on staff, and Stevens is that person at Callie Kirkpatrick Elementary School.

Students in the all-day training went over an extensive set of materials, Stevens recalls. At day’s end, they had to pass an 80-question test to earn their certificates. Most of the participants worked in restaurants, she adds, so the training didn’t deal with some issues specific to schools, such as nutrition. In addition, unlike some restaurant workers, school cafeteria workers are usually required to wear gloves and hairnets and adhere to some stricter rules on hand washing. Like Wright, Stevens would like to see more training and education for all staff members who work with food. Some people even come to work when they’re sick and risk infecting other people, she says, because they don’t know better. The American School Food Service Association offers an extensive certification and credentialing program for school cafeteria employees.

While food safety can affect the health of students and staff alike, other PSRPs earn certificates or licenses that ensure they know how to handle potentially hazardous tasks safely. School bus drivers are an obvious example. They have to earn a commercial driver’s license that is designed to guarantee they can safely operate a large vehicle full of kids and that they know the appropriate regulations. Custodial and maintenance staff handle a wide range of duties, and many of these employees are specially certified in one area, such as pesticides or asbestos or pool chemicals. Larger districts, in particular, also have licensed skilled craftsmen, such as electricians and plumbers.

Ken Crumley, a custodian and president of the Western Sullivan United Teachers in New York state, is certified to deal with asbestos. In a district where some buildings are nearly 70 years old, it’s important to have someone on staff who can safely handle small asbestos removal or control jobs that might come up. Like Wright and Stevens, he wishes all of his members could get more training, if not formal certification. The school administration “will hire just about any live body,” he laments. “I’m all for us getting trained better so they can’t just pick people off the streets.” It makes the employees more valuable, and it makes the union stronger, he adds.

In his local in New Rochelle, N.Y., Glenn Lucas is certified as a swimming pool and spa operator. In his case, he earned a national license, with the two-day training paid for the by the district. His local also has other staff certified to work with pool chemicals, pest control and asbestos, among other things. “The certification is what people need to do the work safely,” says Lucas, longtime PSRP leader of the New Rochelle Federation of United School Employees.
 

Professional connections

School office employees also have a large national association that offers professional certification—the National Association of Educational Office Professionals (NAEOP) has a multilevel “professional standards program.” While many individual AFT office employees are involved with their state or local chapters of the association, only a handful of these AFT affiliates have incorporated the standards into their contracts.

One reason for the lack of connection is that a growing number of affiliates are either working with their districts to provide more training for clerical staff or are actually offering classes themselves. The Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees, for example—one of the AFT’s largest unions of clerical staff—has its own very popular training center, which allows it to offer classes tailored to the specific needs of its members.

Even though her union, the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, offers some professional development, secretary Cathy Eberle pursued NAEOP certification. “I did it for my own personal satisfaction. I figured I’ve earned it, so why not be recognized for it,” says Eberle, who has attended the association’s last two national conferences.

One AFT affiliate that has incorporated NAEOP certification into a broader incentive system for secretaries is the Spencerport (N.Y.) Office Personnel. Their contract has six levels, ranging from basic up through bachelor’s degree, with each successive level earning the employees who meet the criteria an additional $100 on top of their regular salary. “Certified educational office employee” is one of the steps. Other criteria include serving on committees, attending conferences and getting college credits.

Local president Stephanie Pryor, a secretary to the district’s director of transportation, says that one of the program’s shortcomings is the amount of paperwork an employee has to submit to earn the incentive. “It looks overwhelming at first,” she says, “but it’s not that bad when you actually do it.” Pryor has encouraged the roughly 45 members in her unit to apply for the program, even giving them her own paperwork, but she estimates that only about 10 of them have reached at least one level.

Pryor also regularly attends the state educational office employee association conference. The local’s contract includes language that the district will pay for at least part of the cost to send four people, and they don’t have to use any vacation time.

The number of PSRPs who go on to earn certification is further evidence of the strong desire among school staff to improve their skills and do the best job they can. As more school staff earn various professional certificates from outside sources, it helps contribute, in at least a modest way, toward boosting the professional status of jobs that don’t always get the respect—or pay—they deserve.