Many feel they have no option but to cut back on learning resources, or cut the hours of teacher aides, so they can afford to pay higher salaries.
Education Minister Nikki Kaye says support staff are already well funded, but in addition, the ministry is reviewing the way schools are funded, it is in negotiations with the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) about pay increases, and there are ongoing discussions about pay equity.
NZEI Principals' Council member and Abbotsford School principal Stephanie Madden said teacher aides, librarians, office administrators and other support staff did essential and highly valued work to support children's learning, and schools could not run without them.
``Principals in Otago are enormously worried about the impact that low wages and low job security are having on our staff and the follow-on effect this has on our students.
``Many of our children rely on teacher aides to learn, and other support staff like librarians and administration staff are absolutely vital to the effective running of our schools.
``We want to pay support staff more but we've been put in an impossible situation as the Government has frozen our core school funding this year, and failed to provide us with the funding to cover any pay increases for our staff.''
Mrs Madden said support staff were in pay negotiations with the Ministry of Education at present, and unless schools were funded to cover any pay rise, many principals would feel they had no option but to cut back on learning resources, or cut the hours of teacher aides to afford their higher pay rates.
``Principals have taken this step of publicly backing our staff in the hope that the Government will agree to a pay rise for support staff that's backed up by funding, so we can afford to pay it.''
During an Otago Primary Principals' Association meeting last Thursday, the issue was raised as a ``major concern'' for the region's schools.
Association president and Musselburgh School principal Debbie Smith said it was becoming increasingly difficult to attract skilled support staff, and many schools across the region found it difficult to retain those staff members because they were not well paid.
``If you've got a skilled teacher aide, you hang on to them as best you can.''
Otago Secondary Principals' Association secretary Gordon Wilson said the association supported the open letter to Government because support staff were ``a key component of schools, particularly for those students who have special needs and other needs''.
``Our real concern is, the funding schools are getting for teacher aides is not keeping up with the costs of teacher aides - those costs being salary increases.
``Teacher aides are entitled to increments as they progress through the profession.
``We're concerned that the operations grant is not keeping pace with that, and neither are some of the other funding areas where the ministry delivers funding for teacher aide support.''
Last week, the Budget brought $1.1billion in new operating funding, $63.3million of which would be spent supporting pupils with additional learning needs.
But Ms Kaye said it was important the public did not look at the issue purely in terms of Budget 2017. She said since 2008-9, Vote Education had increased by around 41% to a record $11.6billion.
Operations grants had also increased significantly over time.
``From 2010 to 2016, the cumulative increase in Government expenditure on operational grant funding was over 16% - that's almost a third more than actual CPI inflation for these years which was 11.1%.
``This means that boards of trustees have been resourced to be able to support pay increases.''
Ms Kaye said pay increases were wider than just operational grants.
``For example, we have the funding review currently taking place which is looking at potential changes to the way schools are funded.
``Separately to this, the Ministry of Education and NZEI are currently in negotiation through collective bargaining around pay increases.
``Over recent years, this process has led to increases of up to 1.5% each year.
