Dec 10, 2021 | Blog
Autumn Rivera, a sixth-grade science teacher at Glenwood Springs Middle School in the Roaring Fork School District was named 2022 Colorado Teacher of the year on Oct. 22. The surprise announcement came at a limited capacity, COVID-19-counscious ceremony in Glenwood Springs.
Amie Baca-Oehlert, high school counselor and president of the Colorado Education Association, attended the ceremony to congratulate Rivera, who is a member of the Roaring Fork Community Education Association.
“Autumn’s selection as the 2022 Colorado Teacher of the Year is a reflection of who she is and what she means to her students and her community,” said Baca-Oehlert. “She is a passionate educator who helps her students realize their self-worth and potential. Autumn wants to ensure that her students, no matter where they come from, realize that change begins with them.”
Rivera believes that there are many issues in public education that need addressing but one, in particular, is something that we need to tackle in order to make public education exceptional for all students.
“Providing adequate funding, increasing social and emotional support, and supporting teachers are all big issues that need to be solved before we can fully move forward,” said Rivera. “However, the major issue I see that needs to be addressed as soon as possible is equity in education. The past year my school’s Instructional Leadership Team, of which I am a member, tasked our staff to reflect on how we, as teachers, address unconscious bias in our school.”
It was a very difficult year to begin these conversations, but we felt it was crucial, now more than ever, to push forward,” said Rivera. “Of course our work is not complete and, as a leadership team, we decided to continue with this goal for the upcoming school year.”
During her more than sixteen years as an educator, she has worked with students from elementary to postgraduate levels. She is an adjunct professor at Colorado Mountain College in the Education Department. She holds both a Bachelors of Arts in Biology and a Masters of Arts in Teaching Secondary Science from Colorado College; and a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.In her very limited free time, she enjoys hiking, traveling, reading, volunteering, and spending quality time with people she loves.
Rivera, the seventh consecutive CEA member to be named Colorado Teacher of the Year, will compete for the National Teacher of the Year Award and will be honored with other state Teachers of the Year at a White House ceremony next year.
The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is a longtime sponsor of the Colorado Teacher of the Year Award, and will provide Rivera with a stipend to travel in her new role and to engage in networking opportunities with past Colorado Teachers of the Year.
Oct 20, 2021 | Blog
When we fight, we win!! And that is just what Education Support Professionals (ESPs) from around Colorado did at the bargaining table this year! From substantial increases in hourly pay rates to adding security guards and preschool staff to bargaining units, ESPs flexed their collective muscle to achieve these gains.
Boulder Valley Paraeducators Association negotiated a $15 minimum hourly rate, a 16.9% increase over the previous minimum, along with additional safety protocols and a district commitment to begin hiring resource paraeducators for the first time in 10 years.
ESPs in Westminster continue to be paid the highest in the state, with a 2-year financial settlement that grants steps plus 3% each year, meaning that bus drivers and special needs paraeducators will top out at over $33 an hour. ESP and certified staff benefit from the wall-to-wall structure of the Westminster Education Association.
Pueblo County Education Association, a wall-to-wall local that includes ESPs, completely restructured their ESP salary schedule. “All ESP received a very good increase and are getting paid extra for their educational hours and degrees,” said Donna Raught, Spanish Peaks UniServ director. Their new base pay is based on the positions they hold and allows them to move on the schedule with steps and longevity.
Pueblo Education Support Professionals Association, the Pueblo School District 60 local that represents clerical and early childhood educators, was able to bargain security guards into their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). All employees are getting a 5.2% increase this year and a 4.8% increase for the 2022-2023 school year. There are 14 security guards and 13 have already joined PESPA.
The Association of Custodial and Maintenance Employees – Pueblo D60 bargained a step equal to 2.75% and a 3% COLA for a 5.75% increase for 2021-2022; and for 2022-2023 they will be getting a step and the equivalent of a 4.8% increase.
Pueblo Paraprofessional Education Association also bargained a step equal to 2.5% and a 3% COLA for the 2021-2022 school year.
The Trinidad Education Association that represents ESP staff are still in negotiation with the district, but they have agreed on compensation, Raught reports. The ESP are getting a new schedule that has a great base pay for each category of employee along with a step increase, Raught said. Their increases range from $700 on up to $5000, depending on the position. They also are getting longevity bonuses for years of service. ESPs were able to fight to keep their agreement and union when the board of education challenged the agreement. The employees organized and had support from the community and other labor unions to keep their agreements.
The Jeffco Education Support Professionals Association (JESPA) welcomed a new school year with no employee making less than $15/hour, preschool workers enjoying union protection under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and increased access to information about their rights as workers.
JESPA won a $15 minimum wage for all bargaining unit employees, an increase of $2.50/hour for the starting wage for the lowest paid workers (parapros, food service), with all other job categories increasing all cells by $0.75/hour. Combined with winning two steps, the lowest paid JESPA workers will see $3.70 more per hour, which is a 30% increase to their hourly wages.
The new Preschool Article for the JESPA CBA includes contract language related to classroom supplies, professional development specific to preschool, pay for required PD, better communication to all ESP job titles from the Early Learning Office, and a collaborative committee made up of preschool teachers from JESPA and JCEA with administration. The agreement includes compensation of a new schedule starting at $15 per hour, 2 step increases and COLA of $0.75 per hour.
ESPs in the East Grand County Education Association won a 16% pay increase for ESPs, with increases ranging from $2.20/hour to as much as $4.85/hour. The lowest minimum hourly rate is now $15.60/hour.
As we begin a new school year, ESPs continue to power up and forge ahead at the bargaining table and beyond, supporting students, staff, schools and public education!
Jennifer Latham is a paraeducator and member of the Durango ESPA and the CEA.
Oct 20, 2021 | Blog
Born and raised where the chile is the best, Katie Brown grew up in Pueblo where it made her the person she is. When she was in the first grade, she told her Mom that she wanted to be a teacher so that she could grade papers. While teaching Italian to second graders at Sunset Park Elementary (the school she would eventually return to as a staff member), she again told her Mom that she wanted to teach. Her Mom was a teacher, her Grandmother taught school in rural Nebraska before her. It felt like the family tradition and a natural fit. When she said, “Please don’t,” Katie listened.
After graduating college, she worked a variety of jobs including labor and community organizer, Katie jumped at the chance to work at Freed Middle School in Pueblo, right next door to where she grew up. She found the work profoundly meaningful but it paid just $19,000 a year. She knew she had to speak up.
And this is how she became involved with the union. She knew the only way to improve her and her co-workers’ situations would be to come together and organize to fight for a contract. “In the same spirit of the working people of Pueblo who came before us, after less than a year my coworkers and I did just that,” said Brown.
Katie’s precious moments outside of board and school work are with her favorite guys – husband Zach, a brilliant listener and strike chant shouter, their oldest son Elliot, an excellent dancer and first-class reader, their younger son, Samuel who always has them laughing. They also have two furry guys, Chewy and Mando, the best border collies around. Together they like to hike around the Pueblo Reservoir, ride their bikes along the Arkansas River, paddle board at Lake Beckwith, and admire the beauty and community of their hometown, Pueblo.
Katie Brown is an elementary school counselor, the president-elect of the Colorado School Counselors Association, and proud member of the Pueblo County Education Association.
Oct 20, 2021 | Blog
The Colorado Education Association’s Growth, Leadership, & Union Engagement (GLUE) program is a year-round, three phase program that teaches rank and file members and emerging leaders foundational organizing skills. When members utilize organizing skills in order to solve issues in their school district and state, they will win better public schools and create a stronger CEA in which members see themselves as the union. The program focuses on training, practice, coaching, and check-in’s with CEA Zone Organizers. GLUE participants engage in one-on-one conversations with members and potential members about specific issues that affect their school, students, and districts in order to achieve a win that builds the union and its members.
This year, CEA hosted 19 members from five locals across the state for phase one of the GLUE program Jun. 14 – Aug. 13. Phase one of the program focused on foundational organizing skills in order to build power and strength for their local union, such as solidifying one-on-one conversational skills, how to identify leaders, how to identify issues, and new member recruitment. Local staff and leaders helped their members in the program acquire potential member and new hire lists, worked with local teams on planning, and provided membership materials in order for member organizers in Ed Summer to successfully recruit new members and host successful new employee events.
The ongoing pandemic once again required us to use a combination of virtual and in-person training in order to keep our members safe. While virtual training helped make training easier to access for members across the metro area, it also made it difficult to build relationships with the members in the program. Training sessions were held twice a week, allowing members time to practice new skills in between sessions. This allowed us to go into more depth and cover more content since we broke a week of training into smaller parts. Additionally it created more frequent and regular times from members across locals to come together, building more relationships across local unions.
GLUE members were on committees in their locals to help or lead the organizing effort for their local union’s new employee events and they spent the summer phone banking other members and potential members. Due to the ease of accessibility, members were able to phone bank on their own schedule, regardless of if they were at home or traveling. Phone banking has been proven to be one of the easiest tools to do member outreach, especially during the summer, allowing members to make and receive calls regardless of their schedule.
Finally, GLUE members were able to engage with more of their colleagues across the state through CEA’s Professional Practice Program Speaker Series. Members attended “Creating a Place to Thrive: The BIPOC Experience” hosted by Denver Classroom Teachers Association members Kevin Adams and Gerardo Munoz from “Too Dope Teachers and a Mic” podcast.
Christine Wiggins is a Director of Organizing and Capacity Building in CEA’s Center for Organizing.
Oct 20, 2021 | Blog
When I applied to work in Jeffco School District’s Preschool, I intended to immerse myself in the classroom to see if I would enjoy teaching. I never would have envisioned that within my second year, I would be fighting to join the union. There wasn’t really one thing that made me feel like I wanted representation, instead the reason behind my motivation was more due to an ongoing build-up of unacceptable working conditions for both myself and the kids in my classroom. It was the lack of direction, organization and communication from the Early Learning Office; our inadequate class budgets and the expectation for teachers to pay for supplies out of our own pockets; my kids eating off copy paper on the dirty floor during the height of COVID-19; and after being ignored by the Early Learning Office for months, being told indirectly that I would be called on to sub in any classroom around the district during the most dangerous point of the pandemic.
The disrespect, isolation, and suppression that I felt, along with watching my students endure conditions that could’ve been avoided, pushed me to reach out to the teachers’ union. I knew that they did not represent classified staff, but I pled with them to let me in anyway. While I waited for a response and debated quitting my job, I sent out an email over the district’s preschool distribution list, hoping to find anyone else in preschool who felt as fed up and frustrated as I did. The responses that I received shocked me. There were preschool educators all over the district who shared their stories with me. Many of these stories felt familiar, but many of them were much worse than my experience. I started by fighting for myself and my students, but by this point I was fighting for the preschool educators across the district.
Alizay Furtado, an organizer from the Jefferson County Education Support Professionals Association (JESPA), reached out and told me that they wanted to create a new chapter for preschool, but first a majority of support from our work group was needed. JESPA staff and I canvassed schools and through that process, I came to meet six of the strongest women I’ve ever known: Nikki Wilson, Tonya Toller, Morgan Canjar, Sarah Smith, Carrol Barreras, and Kathleen Mess. Each represented countless other educators who felt unheard, bullied, scared, fed up, and angry at the state of their work environments. Together we created an unstoppable organizing team of delegates that we jokingly named “The Pre-K 7”. With JESPA’s help, we stuffed envelopes, met with preschool teachers, and made phone calls seeking others who wanted to join our fight. Within a few months we had enough signed union cards to present majority support to our new superintendent.
Getting recognized was a much more complicated task than any of us had imagined and to top it off, we only had a few weeks left in the school year to get it done. We were met with one roadblock after another, but each time we encountered resistance, Alizay and our delegate team would power through by marching, rallying, and teaming up with Coloradans for the Common Good who helped us connect to educators, parents, community leaders, and school board members. The most common thing we heard from preschool educators was that they felt unheard and neglected by the district so you can imagine how powerful it felt to find out that our supporters were flooding voicemails and sending hundreds of emails to district officials demanding that they recognize preschool educators. In the end, we were forced into an election that was held over the last days of the school year. Within the first six hours of the election, we gained majority support of our work group and by the end of the election, we had a supermajority. On Jun. 6, the Jefferson County Public Schools school board voted to recognize preschool educators.
Sitting on the brink of watching preschool educators written into the JESPA contract, I find myself feeling hopeful. The fight for fair working conditions and good learning environments for our students is never-ending and my biggest hope is that more educators and support staff join a fight of their own. Of course, the more people that join the union, the stronger we become, but I hope every person that feels devalued working in a school district starts to speak up. I can’t fully explain the transformation I have experienced by standing up and saying enough is enough, but I can say that I no longer feel unheard. I have found an entire community of influential people who care about improving the school district for both the employees and the students. I would love for more people to experience this reality. As far as preschool goes, those educators can achieve anything they put their minds to and I have no doubt that with the power of our union, they will continue to move mountains for years to come.
Hannah Mauro is an Early Childhood Instructional Partner in Jefferson County and proud member of JESPA.
Oct 20, 2021 | Blog
In her first novel, “EduCate”, middle school teacher, Englewood Educators member and CEA Ambassador Fellowship alumni Julie White blurs the lines between fact and fiction. “EduCate” follows Cate Reed, who is battling apathetic students, middle school antics and all the extra duties a teacher must manage at Lilacwood Middle School.
Cate tries her best but is finding it harder and harder to find her footing as a teacher. She finds solace with her partner Brad and cat, Magpie. Her life turns upside down when the coronavirus changes everything in 2020. Through a fellowship in her educators’ union, Cate begins to develop her voice. She tries to adapt to online teaching as debates rage around schools opening safely, masks and eventually, vaccinations. George Floyd’s murder brings social justice and racial equity to the forefront as America navigates the pandemic of systemic racism. A controversial shirt worn to school creates a firestorm. During a school year like no other, Cate has to decide where she stands.
Author Julie White was born in Columbia, Missouri and grew up in Sweet Springs, Missouri. After graduating high school, she Seattle Pacific University for her undergraduate degree, studying journalism and communication. She married her husband Nathan in 2005. While in Seattle, she taught summer camps, environmental education and at the Pacific Science Center, where discovered she loved working with kids. She and Nathan moved to Colorado in 2008 and went back to school for her Masters in Education at Regis University, completing it in December of 2009. She has been teaching high school and middle school language arts ever since, currently at Englewood Middle School, just south of Denver.
Julie joined her local association, Englewood Educators, immediately after getting hired. She was especially energized by the CEA Day of Action in April 2018. Englewood Educators organized a Day of Action first when PERA was threatened and it felt great to have over 500 educators and supporters join in to let lawmakers know that we need to protect PERA and to fund public education. This was the moment she became an activist. That summer, she participated in Ed Summer as an intern with CEA and learned how to connect with members and further spread activism (see the GLUE story on page 4). She continued her leadership journey as a CEA Ambassador Fellow during this past school year.
Since she was teaching from home for the 20-21 school year with eLearning, she decided an appropriate project could be documenting this crazy time in a novel. As the world shut down, she turned inward to create characters and poured her free time into writing. Julie loves how storytelling can connect us. She has talked to so many union members in one-on-ones over the years that helped her craft her plot. The Fellowship gave her an accountability group, support and encouragement to complete this novel. She also joined a Lighthouse Writing Group and found the entire project to be very cathartic and fulfilling. Julie wrote “EduCate” on weekends and when she isn’t writing, she is walking in her neighborhood in Englewood or exploring a mountain trail. She loves being an aunt, playing board games, snorkeling, and discussing books.
“EduCate” is available now on Amazon in ebook, print paperback or large print formats. One reviewer wrote, “Take a trip down the 2020-2021 lane with a character that is capable, passionate, and a fierce defender of her friends and community.”
