The primary teachers' union, the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), is holding meetings throughout the country to update support staff on the current state of negotiations with the ministry. Negotiations began in October 2016.
At a meeting at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Tupoho this week, NZEI field officer Kaareen Hotereni said one of the main issues for support staff was pay. The union is asking for a 2 per cent increase, which the ministry has rejected.
"At the last round of negotiations, support staff got a pay increase of 8 cents per hour - it wasn't enough to make a ripple," she said.
Part of the problem is that support staff are not centrally funded, Ms Hotereni said. Schools must pay their support staff out of the operations budget, which means support staff are competing against things like the power bill, grounds maintenance and toilet paper for pay.
The government has frozen the operations budget for schools in order to pay for targeted funding towards children who are deemed to be the most at risk of disadvantage.
Ms Hotereni said an increase in school operations grants was non-negotiable in order to cover a much-needed pay rise for 9000 support staff in primary and secondary schools throughout the country. Otherwise, many principals will simply be forced to reduce staff hours or cut jobs to compensate for the cost of any pay rise.
"This is the first time in two decades that the operations budget has been frozen," Ms Hotereni said. "It's effectively a cut of 3 per cent."
She said support staff also struggled because many of them were paid just over the minimum wage and were employed for only 40 weeks per year. Some positions were so insecure that the schools could only employ them term-by-term.
The union is also asking for a special allowance for staff fluent in te reo Maori - staff at kura such as Tupoho must be fluent in te reo - and an increase in the allowance for staff with special qualifications.
Ms Hotereni said the union was hoping to bring public awareness to the issue through a petition and a national day of action.
The national day of action will happen on April 11, although details of what will happen in Whanganui haven't yet been finalised.
The union hopes to begin negotiatons again on April 20. And on May 1 a petition calling for the government to unfreeze the operations grant will be presented to parliament. You can sign the online petition here.
Support staff at Tupoho told the Wanganui Chronicle they just want their work to be appreciated.
"We work just as hard as the teachers, and we want to be recognised for that," they said.