Jun 19, 2022 | Blog
This June, we congratulate one of Pueblo County School District 70’s most treasured teachers, Eileen Lovell, as she retires after 32 years.
She began her teaching career in the district right out of college and for the past five years, she has been teaching the district’s Home Hospital Students who are those students who are too medically fragile to attend regular school. She travels to their homes and teaches them in their home environment so that they can still receive a quality public education without putting themselves at risk.
“I have been blessed to be able to teach these students for the past five years,” said Lovell. “Less than 2 years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and thought I would have to quit my job but my students and their families became my biggest cheerleaders throughout my fight. They were my inspiration to beat this horrific disease and I learned what courage was from them.”
Eileen was an “Army Brat”, born in Germany and growing up in Hawai’i before her family finally put down roots in Pueblo West, Colorado. She wasn’t sure what she was going to major in college but she had taught swim lessons for several years and she also had amazing, patient teachers growing up who were great role models, so teaching seemed the natural choice. She knew during student teaching that she had picked a great career.
She was a member of her union on day one of her teaching career. She knew that the teachers before her fought hard for their contract. After eight years of membership, she became a building association representative. She then served for three years as the president of the Pueblo County Teachers Association, where she helped combine the classified and certified union after the district did not want to recognize the classified union. The two unions became one: the Pueblo County Education Association. She has also been on the union bargaining team for the past 12 years.
After 32 years, she will miss her students but will enjoy “riding into the sunset”, which will include travel, outdoor activities and reading on a beach somewhere in Hawai’i.
Feb 9, 2022 | Blog
Zander Bednall, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, moved to Jefferson County 6 years ago and became a food service worker in Jefferson County School District. Although he wasn’t aware at the beginning, he
soon learned how low a priority healthy food is for students in Jeffco. With a grisly budget and an even grislier lack of nutritious options standing in the way, he made it a personal quest to find a way to provide access to free healthy food for all students. He’s organized many in his community, from teachers, to parents, to fellow ESPs to raise awareness that feeding our students what they deserve to eat is important to their education, and that profits from junk food sales have to stop.
Zander truly is an educator and takes his role as a food service worker very seriously. His first role working with kids was as a cook for a daycare. When he started working for Jeffco, he fell in love with the job and quickly found satisfaction in his work. Zander’s favorite thing in his work is teaching. He spends time teaching his students how to become conscious consumers and how to be sustainable. He believes that sharing the joy of cooking and eating healthy food with students is an important role for food service workers.
Zander decided to run for president of the Jefferson County Support Professionals Association (JESPA) food service local, Jefferson County School Food Services Association (JCSFSA) and became active with Coloradoans for the Common Good (CCG). He has led the effort to make sure healthy food for students is at the top of both JESPA’s and CCG’s list of priorities. He’s been working to organize coworkers to make
change in Jeffco. Zander’s now joined the JESPA bargaining team and plans to make sure food service workers’ voices are elevated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
He is a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast, plays the drums in a metal band called Liontortoise, and is engaged to be married.
Zander Bednall is a food service worker in Jefferson County and a proud member of the Jefferson County Support Professionals Association.
Feb 9, 2022 | Blog
The recent strike by the grocery workers at King Soopers, and the subsequent favorable agreement, has brought to mind the importance of workers’ ability to participate in a union. The truth is that most workers in a union never go on strike, but it is an important tool to have to leverage a genuine partnership in the workplace.
Essentially, the main purpose of a union, in my mind, is to bring democracy to our working environment. I have always found it ironic that people fight so hard to defend democracy in every aspect of their lives, except at work. Organizing a union as representation is the easiest way to bring these democratic processes to the workplace. The idea that workers get a voice on who represents them in workplace decisions through elections mirrors the way we elect representatives for government. The process of collective bargaining brings an orderly process for workers to be heard (and management to be heard as well, by the way). Most importantly, collective bargaining establishes a process for workplace decision-making that is generally trusted by workers and management alike. So that even if the outcome is not particularly what an individual may want, the parties both trust that the decision was fairly discussed and decided, and everyone’s concerns were heard.
Winston Churchill once said that, “Democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all of the others.” Collective bargaining is not a perfect system, but is the only one that gives everyone in a workplace a chance to be heard, just like democracy.
Kevin Vick is a high school social studies teacher and vice president of the CEA.
Dec 10, 2021 | Blog
Growing up in Morrison, Sydney Slifka didn’t always know that she wanted to be a teacher. It wasn’t until she took an “Intro to Teaching” class in college that she knew where she wanted to go with her professional life.
“I knew that I wanted a career that was different every day and involved working with people,” said Slifka. “While figuring out my options, I took that class, which landed me in a first grade classroom and I fell in love with the students. Since then, I’ve found my calling to working with students in highly impacted urban schools.”
Sydney’s favorite part about her job is building a community within my classroom. She relishes in seeing kids’ smiling facing come in the door each day, excited to learn, and creating a safe space for them to be who they are. For Sydney, each and every day is a new adventure, and she’s always looking for ways to spark the excitement/desire for learning within each of her students.
Sydney joined the union to be able to have a voice for herself and her colleagues. Sydney believes the union brings strength in numbers and allows us to better advocate for our rights as educators and fight for the schools that our students deserve.
When she’s not being a superhero to her students and an inspiration to her union colleagues, Sydney loves to travel. She’s been to over 20 countries, usually on solo trips, hostel style. She loves to learn about new cultures, see history and art, and to meet people along the way. She’s also into all of the Colorado things: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, kayaking, in addition to making jewelry and cooking.
Sydney, a product of the Jefferson County Public Schools system herself, is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver and earned a Masters in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Gifted Education from the University of Denver.
Sydney Slifka is an elementary school teacher and high school volleyball coach in Jefferson County and a proud member of the Jefferson County Education Association.
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.
This June, we congratulate one of Pueblo County School District 70’s most treasured teachers, Eileen Lovell, as she retires after 32 years.
Sydney’s favorite part about her job is building a community within my classroom. She relishes in seeing kids’ smiling facing come in the door each day, excited to learn, and creating a safe space for them to be who they are. For Sydney, each and every day is a new adventure, and she’s always looking for ways to spark the excitement/desire for learning within each of her students.