Paraprofessionals by definition are individuals to whom a particular aspect of a professional task is delegated but who is not licensed to practice as a fully qualified professional. Here at the high school we have 19 paras: Crystal Marzolf, Donna Becker, Lisa Daniels, Josh McAllister, Monica Ringering,, Reagan Parr, Sarah Hammeke, Teri Newman, Virjean Scheurman, Julia Fryberger, Traci Maneth, Doris Flores, Kelly Maneth, Teresa Mawhirter, Willie Reed, Dianna Glaze, Marie Clark, Marlene Hammit, and Candace Jones. Since interviewing each individual would be difficult as there’s so many, I turned to one of their advisors, Dawn Galusha.

After asking how our paras make differences in our school, Ms. Galusha responded with “Paras make a huge difference in the school. They are an invaluable resource for our students and teachers in assisting our students to be successful in their classes. A paras job includes a variety of jobs, depending on the type of classroom they are in, from reading material or tests to a student, writing for a student, encouraging and prompting a student to complete their work, and offering help if a student has question about their work and this is a very small list of what a para may need to do on a daily basis.”

In response to being asked how do you think the school might struggle if we didn’t have our paras, she said “We would be lost without our paras, because they are our right hands. Without our paras our students would struggle without having that support in their classes and could possibly fail. There are only a certain number of teachers and we simply can’t assist each student. We couldn’t do our jobs without them.”

So next time you see an adult in your classroom offering help, walking through the halls helping someone, or just going along their way, say hi! It doesn’t take a lot to make someone’s day, and they definitely deserve it for all they do for our school.