10 minute read
O2B Conference Preps Members for the Table
VEA-Retired Spotlight Walton Looks Back in Gratitude
by Kathy Davis
Dot Walton learned the importance of Union membership as a beginning teacher in North Dakota when her local went into binding arbitration over salary issues. She ended up with a nice raise which, she notes, was not equaled when she moved back to Virginia despite having two years of experience.
Back in the commonwealth, she became a member of the Fluvanna Education Association, later moving to Charlottesville and eventually becoming CEA’s president and a VEA Board of Directors member, working with five different VEA presidents. Along the way, she met and became fast friends with Princess Moss, then a Louisa County Education Association member, now NEA’s vice president, with whom she’s pictured here.
As a retiree, Dot now serves not only as chair of C-PACE (Charlottesville Political Action Committee for Education) and as a VEA Fund PAC Director, but also as the administrative assistant in the Blue Ridge UniServ office, a position she’s held since 2017.
“I cannot begin to tell you what belonging to the VEA has meant to me,” Dot says. “I have been so fortunate and blessed to have been mentored, supported and surrounded by VEA leadership, who gave me the opportunity to serve in roles I never imagined I would hold.”l
Bookin’ It in Henry County
Thanks to savvy and committed local association members, kindergartners in Southside Virginia are getting a reading jumpstart. The Henry County Education Association sought and received a NEA Community Partnership Grant for $7,500, applying jointly with Henry County Public Schools, and used the money to purchase a book for every kindergarten student in the county. In this photo, Heather Byrd, HCEA Co-President (r), and Judy Edmonds, principal of Meadow View Elementary School, show off some of the new reading material.l
Fairfax Leaders Speak Out
“We must compensate those who continue to drive our county forward…The word ‘pivot’ is used often with nonchalance about what it takes to make that pivot possible. I submit that your public school employees have pivoted more than most, upending our own lives to meet the needs of so many others.” — Fairfax Education Association President Kimberly Adams, to the county’s board of supervisors
“Stand shoulder to shoulder with us on ordinance and resolution language needed for the return of collective bargaining. With additional funds from the federal government, invest in our education workforce, broadband, and work to address our overcrowded facilities.”l — FEA Vice President Carla Okouchi, testifying at the same meeting
Mahendrakar Joins VEA Staff
Shweta Mahendrakar has joined VEA as a data analyst and comes to our headquarters staff from the Education Advisory Board. Prior to that, she worked for the Virginia Employment Commission and Virginia Community College Services performing data collection, data management, and visual representation of data for better decision-making.l
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Negotiating Contracts is Best Way to Have a Voice
by Dr. James J. Fedderman
There’s a long list of reasons that VEA members have fought so long to regain the right to negotiate our contracts. The one I want to talk about here, though, is first and foremost among them: Being at the table with school division leaders is our best way to have an effective voice and help create the vision we have for the kind of great public schools Virginia is capable of having.
The kind of schools our students and educators both deserve.
You know all too well that decisions about how our young people will be taught and how our schools will be run are made, far too often, without sufficient input from the professionals who know best, the educators who are in the school buildings, with children, every day.
Contract negotiations will change that—and that’s why I’m so excited about making them happen.
One of the best ways to get us closer to being at the table, if you’re a local president or in another leadership position, is to make it a priority to listen to your members and find out what their top issues are. Learn what they most want to see happen, and share with them how contract negotiations can help turn wishes into reality.
You don’t have to be a lone wolf in these efforts, either. Your UniServ Director stands ready to help support your local’s efforts in a variety of ways— training, pulling together resources, information-gathering, and serving as a sounding board, to name a few. Everyone can help spread the word that contract negotiations are a win for all of us. A contract isn’t just a binding legal document, it’s a shared set of values that guides us in creating the best learning environment we can for our students and the best working environment we can for our educators. We haven’t had a defined process for that in many years.
Negotiations, because they take place locally, are also our best way to address issues that may be unique to your community and your schools.
For example, before the Virginia Supreme Court decision in 1977 that took away our contract negotiation rights, Virginia educators had used them to accomplish goals such as additional reading, art, and music teachers, the setting of school calendars, fairer discipline policies, and more.
Let’s get back to that kind of bargaining. We’ll all be better for it.l
KUD S
Two VEA members are finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the nation’s highest honor for math and science teachers. Tracy Cabacoy, a Fairfax Education Association member and math resource teacher at Providence Elementary School and Cathleen McGarvey, a Pittsylvania Education Association member and science teacher at Stony Mill Elementary School, are finalists, based on their excellence in the classroom.
The Presidential Awards, which alternates each year between K-6 teachers and 7-12 teachers, are overseen by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House.
Governor Northam has appointed these three Union members to statewide positions: • Anthony Swann of the Franklin County
Education Association, Virginia’s 2021
Teacher of the Year, to the Virginia Board of Education. • Anita James Price of Roanoke, a VEA-
Retired member and former Roanoke vice mayor, to the Virginia Board of
Juvenile Justice. • Former VEA president and current
NEA vice president Princess Moss, to the Board of Visitors at the University of
Mary Washington.
Kristen Thrower, a high school librarian, and Lisa Signorelli, a middle school reading specialist, both Chesterfield Education Association members, were featured on a Richmond television station for their efforts to keep their students out of a “book desert” during COVID. They collect books through donations and places like Goodwill and then deliver them to students studying virtually.
Prince William Education Association member Bobby Donaldson received the Excellence in the Diploma Programme Award from the Mid-Atlantic Association of IB World Schools. Honored for his work as an anthropology teacher, he was chosen from IB teachers in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.l
Talking About Race in School
The time is long past when educators could sidestep classroom discussions of race issues. Racial justice is front and center in our national consciousness and very much on the radar of our youth. The topic is going to come up. For healthy and constructive ways to handle race-related conversation in class, the National Education Association offers these 10 principles:
Create a welcoming classroom and school
Each class has its own culture and learning climate. When you make equity and inclusion prominent priorities in your classroom norms, routines and environment, your students will feel a greater sense of belonging, safety and openness. Balance participation and learning opportunities.
Root out biases and barriers
Be willing to examine your own biases. Reflect upon all aspects of your teaching practice. Could your curriculum, pedagogy, grading, classroom management, or disciplinary practices be giving preference to some students while putting others at a disadvantage? Are there any barriers to learning and success that some students may be experiencing? What are the racial impacts of different policies and practices at your school and school division?
Encourage self-expression
Give your students the ability and validation to bring their full racial and cultural identities into your classroom so they can be themselves and speak their truths. Trust their wisdom and show deep respect. Discussions can begin by giving students an opportunity to share their experiences, perspectives, or stories. Identify and appreciate points of connection, as well as differences.
Be open yourself
Be willing to share different dimensions of your own racial identity and cultural background. Be open about your experience with racial inequities and/or racial privilege and any efforts you’ve participated in to advance racial justice. How has your racial identity been both a strength and a challenge in your life? What have you learned along the way, what were your mistakes, and what are you still learning?
Engage, don’t avoid
Racism is perpetuated by silence. Being “colorblind” often serves as a pretense to downplay the significance of race, deny the existence of racism, and erase the experience of students of color. Be willing to lead the uncomfortable conversations and turn them into teachable moments. Learn to break through your own discomfort to embrace the tensions and unknowns.
Create opportunities for discussion
Use current events, cultural happenings and local angles to spark relevant and meaningful discussions among your students. Pop culture (e.g. music, movies, sports, celebrities) is particularly engaging for young people, supplying continuous fodder for important race conversations. Keep abreast of race-related news sites or social media by people of color to get ideas for hot topics.
Talk about racism and racial equity
If you want to get real about race, you have to also be willing to talk about racism and racial equity. To do so effectively, it helps to establish definitions for the terms you’ll be using. For example, racial equity is not just the absence of discrimination but also the presence of values and systems that ensure fairness and justice. (More definitions are available in NEA’s Racial Justice in Education Resource Guide, available for download at nea.org.)
Establish and enforce group norms
Since conversations about race can be difficult and divisive, establish some agreements before you begin the conversation. Allow your students to generate, agree to, and hold each other accountable to their own norms. Display these agreements and refer back to them, as needed. Decide upfront on the goals and parameters of the conversation — what you are and are not going to address.
Process is as important as content
If you expect a challenging conversation, take time to get centered and take some deep breaths together. Try to be fully present with each other, without any distractions. Pay attention not only to what is being said (or not being said), but also to how it is being said, and who is saying it (or who is not speaking). Expect to do more facilitating and process management, with the content of the conversation mostly generated in real time by your students.
Model your values and vision
Practice equity, inclusion, empathy and respect in your own classroom. Your actions, more than your words, will have the greatest impact on your students. They are looking to you for leadership and allyship. You can play a formative role in helping them build critical skills for navigating the complexities of race.l
If We’ve Ever Needed to Help Grieving Students…
The National Education Association is one of the 12 organizations that founded the Coalition to Support Grieving Students, which is now 29 organizations strong plus another more than 100 who promote it. The Coalition has created resources for teachers and school support staff, like paraeducators, custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers, who want more information on learning to be there for grieving students, families and colleagues—especially in a time where social distancing has often prevented the human connection and healing power of a hug, a reassuring hand on a shoulder, or even a shared cup of coffee.
Visit the Coalition’s website at grievingstudents.org. l
