Pioneer Recognition: Paraeducators create new opportunities for students to succeed

NOTE: Each month Nooksack Valley Schools is featuring the work of a classified staff department throughout the district. October offers an opportunity to look at paraeducators. This focus comes in two parts, this overview and a post hearing from paraeducators. 

Essential. That’s the word Nooksack Valley High School assistant principal Collin Buckley uses to describe paraeducators at NV Schools. “You can’t hit all the needs, answer all the little questions and handle all the pieces in the classroom with just the teacher,” he says. “Paraeducators are essential to the process.” 

The diversity of paraeducators within NV Schools leads to a crew of nearly 60 people serving the students. They work in specialized LifeSkills positions to ELL support and elementary school supervision to coordinating entire programs at the middle or high school. Paraeducators even support after-school programs. 

“We all have a variety of paraeducators working for us, we have a big crew of people,” Buckley says. “The really do a great job of blurring those lines. They have specific jobs and kids and become experts in their subjects. They are not just another body in the room, they provide that scaffolding the students need most in order to meet standard.” 

Kevin DeVere, Everson Elementary principal, says that not only do paraeducators support the students most in need, but they also support the teachers, allowing teachers to focus on the core of the class and handle tasks that would otherwise be difficult to do. To make that happen, sometimes the paraeducators are working their way through the class answering the extra content-related questions for all students, or even pulling out a small group of kids to focus on something while allowing the classroom teacher to work with the bulk of the class. 

“They see things we don’t see,” Buckley says, which allows paraeducators to help consult with administration or counselors on a variety of subjects. 

DeVere says paraeducators become the first face his students see in the morning when they are getting off the bus. “It starts the day on the right foot with a warm face,” he says.

Paraeducators also have a strong connection to the community, with most of them throughout the district living within the school district, having a student of their own who either recently went through NV Schools or are going through it now or maybe even being a former student themselves. Buckley says this tie to the district allows paraeducators to bring with them a historical knowledge of the community. 

That connection to community can also help paraeducators create powerful relationships with the students. And often working one-on-one or in small groups with students, they get to know students well. “A paraeducator will have a smaller crew of kids they work with,” Buckley says. “They are building a more concentrated connection with students.”

DeVere says that connection really allows for the relational piece of education to come through, showing love to the students. 

“I think paraeducators are key to the instructional core,” Buckley says. “They are part of the teaching relationship. It is not just the certified person, but the paraeducators is there to help students access content and meet standard. That is pretty key. They are one more adult for kids to have a critical relationship with, a meaningful relationship.”