HUNTSVILLE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION INCREASES COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
TRACEY PRINCE DIDN’T TAKE A TRADITIONAL PATH TO TEACHING THE 6TH GRADE. “It’s our district. It’s our kids. We live here. We work here, so we need to have people in place who have that same mentality where everything they do is about the kids, instead of about the political side of it.” – Tracey Prince
“At first I wanted to be a lawyer,” she said. “That was my original plan. I didn’t go back to college until I was 26, so I was already married, had 2 kids. My oldest child’s first year of kindergarten was my first year of teaching.” Teaching elementary school was her goal, but having a child the same age at home made teaching younger kids challenging. After teaching every grade but first, she found a natural fit at Huntsville Middle School. “Teaching was always kind of there, you know I had a big craft box for the kids and the whole deal, so I thought elementary was it,” she said. “Then I found out I like 6th grade better. They just get it. You can tell a joke and they get it.” While Prince found her groove in the classroom, her local association had stalled. Membership in the Huntsville Education Association had fallen to just 16 educators. “It was just, you paid your dues and hoped nothing happened,” she said. “I think everyone knew they were part of AEA, but because the local was inactive, they didn’t really look to AEA.” Prince says Madison County has a huge sense of community pride, but that community was disconnected from its schools. School Board meetings seemed to be a rubber stamp for the superintendent’s requests, and educators were afraid of retaliation if they asked questions. She knew Huntsville needed a change, and along with fellow teacher Jennifer Seigal asked AEA UniServ Director Chris Pearson to meet secretly at a park on the back side of a hill in town. “I was nervous, turning, turning, and like ‘Where am I going?’” Pearson said, laughing. “I was actually on vacation, but I knew Huntsville needed help and I was so excited I said, ‘I’ll be there!” After explaining the situation at a picnic table, Prince asked Pearson what could be done. The response was brief, but wouldn’t be simple. “Y’all need to organize,” Pearson said.
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ARKANSAS EDUCATOR
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