Martha Walter was fed up. Every year, during "training" sessions at the start of school or on conference days, she and other bus drivers would sit through talks by people who had never driven a bus and had little idea of what the job was like.

Most PSRPs can relate to Walter's experience--if they get any training at all, that is. But most sit and bear it and forget what they just heard by the time they hit the parking lot. But not Walter. "I was so frustrated. I didn't know what it would take, but I was tired of hearing someone else tell me how to do my job," says Walter, a member of the Cardinal (N.Y.) Bus Drivers and School-Related Personnel.

When local president Linda Tarbox asked Walter to attend a training session run by the New York State United Teachers in Albany, Walter jumped at the chance--without even asking what the topic was. It turned out to be ergonomics--the science of workplace design--something she knew little about at the time. Since then, Walter and Tarbox have together trained more than three-quarters of their bus drivers on health and safety issues, in addition to presenting workshops at the AFT national PSRP conference, nearby districts and even Norfolk, Va., in Walter's case.

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive to their first session, presented during a union meeting. "It went over really well," Walter says. "It was something that was offered by a driver to other drivers, so they could relate. Also, they liked that the union had trained people from their own job to speak to them."

That simple concept--training PSRPs in some topic, whether it's health and safety or student discipline, and then having them teach their colleagues what they've learned--has proved to be a powerful way to address the vast need to provide school support staff with job-related professional development. The AFT nationally, as well as Walter's state federation in New York and other AFT state and local affiliates, has used this train-the-trainer approach with the same kind of success that it has enjoyed in Cardinal.

The AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination program, or ER&D, is the national union's longest-running and best-known train-the-trainer program. ER&D focuses primarily on classroom issues for teachers, but it has always attracted a few paraprofessionals, and recent initiatives have provided training for PSRPs who work outside the classroom, such as custodians, bus drivers, food service workers and secretaries.

Judy Fell, a paraprofessional and vice president of the Lake County (Ill.) Federation of Teachers, has been involved in the ER&D program for about five years and with other training for years before that. She has conducted sessions at every level, from the local school up to national conferences. "It's very exciting" to train your colleagues, says Fell, who has worked with teachers as well as PSRPs. "There have been a lot of opportunities, and when they've been offered, I've taken them and they've been a big benefit."

She echoes Walter's sentiments about the value of PSRPs training each other rather than listening to outside experts. "It has taken a while for AFT and other unions to get stronger in their programs for paras, but we're there now," she comments. "It was like a little trickle at first, but I see it getting bigger and bigger."

In addition to providing training through ER&D, which is highly structured and based around training manuals on the various topics, Fell also took part in a recent AFT PSRP department pilot program that gave participants more general presentation skills on a range of topics. "The AFT training is a really good base, then you learn your own style on how to present your topic." At the national PSRP conference this past spring, for example, Fell led a workshop on the warning signs of violent behavior among students.

As a veteran trainer and someone who has also sat through her share of training sessions, Fell advises PSRPs to make the best of whatever training is available. "You hear people complain that nothing is geared toward them, but with anything that is given, there's always something you can use," she says. "When things are offered, make sure you attend because it can be beneficial," especially if you ask questions that get at your specific issues or concerns.
 

Focus on health and safety

Health and safety training, like what Martha Walter has conducted, has been a huge hit among those involved with a relatively new AFT project, funded in part by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to reach a whole range of AFT members by using the train-the-trainer approach.

In addition to working with groups in a number of states--including Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and New Mexico--AFT health and safety staff conducted a two-day session in conjunction with the PSRP conference in April. Some of those participants returned to their home districts and aggressively pursued setting up local sessions for their colleagues and fellow union members. They leave the AFT training with portable easels to display flip charts, along with presentation notes that accompany the charts.

In Victoria, Texas, Pamela Babineaux developed ambitious plans to train virtually every custodian, transportation employee and food service worker in the district in July and August. A member of the Victoria Federation of Teachers, Babineaux started her career with the district as a secretary and is now an environmental specialist. Her district has provided some health and safety training in the past, but it usually involved watching a film and maybe a brief talk. The AFT training, on the other hand, requires at least a couple of hours--and possibly much more--with its detailed, hands-on approach.

"I think people really need this training, especially for their own well-being," Babineaux says. "We have a lot of people who don't realize that if you stand on a chair instead of using a ladder, you can hurt yourself. Or if you don't mix chemicals properly, that can be a hazard." Many PSRPs in her district, especially custodians, are hired and sent out on the job without any training. "We're trying to change that and get people 100 percent trained from day one," she adds.

In Babineaux's case, the training is not presented as a union program since she conducts health and safety training as part of her job with the district. But she does make it clear to the audience that the program was put together by the AFT, with assistance from OSHA.

Four members of the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO)--two paraprofessionals and two clerical staff--also attended the health and safety training during the PSRP conference. They returned and presented the material to their respective groups of building representatives. "Initially when I thought about doing the training, I was nervous," recalls Peggy Lindsay, a paraprofessional who had never led any training before. "But I enjoyed doing the workshop, and people said we did a great job." Lindsay plans to ask her principal if she can present the workshop to paraprofessionals at her school sometime this year.

Charlene Coleman-Smith, UTNO's vice president for clerical staff, said the AFT training prepared her well to teach her colleagues back home. "The people were very impressed with the presentation," she says. "One thing they realized is how much their physical ailments are the result of workplace issues" rather than just general aches and pains. She hopes to present an even more detailed version to more UTNO members.

Union-provided training also can enhance the union's image and help extend its reach to more members. New York bus driver Martha Walter saw this firsthand when she was invited to Virginia to conduct a health and safety workshop for the Norfolk Federation of Teachers earlier this year. Walter assumed that all the people at the session were members, as they would have been in a place like New York, but that wasn't the case in the right-to-work commonwealth of Virginia. She was pleased to learn that four people who attended her workshop joined the union afterward because they found the information so useful.