Thanking support staff for their vital role in student success

A teaching assistant giving a happy thumbs-up to an elementary student in a classroom

Tuesday is School Related Professionals Day in New York, an opportunity to recognize the members of APSUE, our management confidential staff and our partners at First Student and CDTA for all they do every day to ensure success for our students.

Educational support professionals include our teaching assistants, teacher aides, home school coordinators, information technology support workers, administrative assistants, secretaries, clerks, maintenance staff, food service workers, security staff, bus drivers and aides. Their work is vital to all that we do, and critically important to building and maintaining positive relationships with all of our students and families.

This work continues to be a challenge for all of us due to the persistent presence of COVID-19. Our support staff colleagues are there every day, often the first individuals to welcome our students to school in the morning and the last to see them off in the afternoon or evening.

"We are grateful for all that you do, whether that involves ensuring that all students and employees have a healthy environment in which to work and learn, deploying and maintaining the technology infrastructure so vital to our teaching and learning environments, supporting students in and out of the classroom, feeding them, keeping them safe at school or getting them to school and home again safely," said Superintendent Kaweeda G. Adams.

"Thank you so very much for your commitment. Your work is valued, and we simply could not function without you."