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Helping CTA Members Build Power

CSO members work to support coalitions of educators unions

By Mindy Bartlett

Local leaders around the state are expanding power, finding mutual support and strengthening their relationships through Coalition Building.

Riverside County Coalition of Presidents

This is a place where good ideas are shared, such as best practices for site visits and fresh ways to have social events, as well as being able to run bargaining/contractual issues by each other, allowing for brainstorming and finding creative solutions.

The Riverside County Coalition of Presidents (RCCP) has been meeting regularly for years (since at least 2009), previously in person. Now, they come together at one meeting per month, generally by zoom, sharing common challenges and positive experiences. 

Throughout the year, they alternate between president report-outs/idea-sharing and strategic trainings/guest speakers, such as community schools, budget, member benefits, or special education issues. The coalition members say their local CSO has been supporting them from the inception, facilitating guest speakers and providing important trainings as needed. Their support network continues to be flexible as necessary, including pivoting to meeting weekly at times during shelter-in-place orders.

Trina Gonzales-Alesi – President, Desert Sands Teachers Association and RCCP Chair

“The value of our group is to be able to network with other presidents and hold our districts accountable when we can verify the facts with other chapters.” At the most recent meeting, “several of our presidents were on Spring Break (myself and Karen Johnson included) and yet many attended the meeting anyway. I think this speaks to how valuable we find these meetings. One really big reason behind our success is our amazing note taker, Karen. She takes such very thorough notes that presidents who have to miss rely on them to be up-to-speed on what was shared.”

Karen Johnson – President Palm Springs Teachers Association

“When I started as a new President, Trina reached out and invited me to a meeting (and drove me there). I saw the value of this group. I appreciate the camaraderie and information that comes from these meetings.”

Wendy Eccles – CTA Board Member, District K, and former president, NEA-Jurupa local

“It’s really given us a place to support one another, in being able to share out what’s going on, find commonalities and discover how we can work together to find solutions for the issues we’re facing. “

David O’Rafferty – President, NEA-Jurupa

“Being a new president this year, I’ve noticed a benefit in having constant touchpoints.” As things happen, he doesn’t have to continue to catch coalition presidents up, because they’ve been checking in regularly with each other throughout the year.

Mike Kolonics – President, Alvord Educators Association

“Anytime I’m having a difficult problem, I can check in with the group and find someone else who’s probably gone through it at some point.” Recently, Mike spent the weekend at a CTA conference, with bargaining scheduled the following Monday. While visiting with Coalition Presidents at the conference, a conversation around leaves came up. “We were discussing bereavement leave and someone mentioned miscarriage. We took that idea to the table and got that into our contract language the very next day.”

Hesperia RRC Presidents Meeting

At times, being a president can be a challenging, isolating experience, especially for new presidents. In response, the Hesperia RRC presidents meeting, managed by over a dozen presidents coordinated out of the Hesperia RRC with two CTA staff support, makes it a point to prioritize mentoring new presidents.

Naomi Gansky – President, Helendale Professional Teachers’ Association

“It’s my first year as president and these meetings have been so valuable to me. We’re a small district and our voice as a collective in the High Desert is so much greater than we are individually. In a recent monthly meeting with my district, a question came up about sub pay in the area that they didn’t know the answer to. I sent a text to the group and had an answer within 10 minutes from half the High Desert Presidents. For me, that was such a feeling of power; to show that our chapters are connected, talking regularly, and to show the district they’re not just talking to our small local, they’re dealing with a whole cluster that has all of this backing.

Long-term Presidents credit former CSO members Dawn Murray and Bill Riblett with organizing the regular presidents meeting many years ago.  

East Bay Coalition for Student Success (EBCSS)

The EBCSS is one of the (if not the) largest leader Coalitions in the state, with around 20 local chapters committed, including all presidents and several executive board members and bargaining/organizing chairs). They meet about once a month during the school year, sometimes in person, sometimes via zoom, and maintain regular communication throughout the year via email and text.

Vitally, they meet at least once before each school year to plan strategically for coordinated bargaining and shared negotiation goals that they can collaboratively stand behind.

The powerful coalition is coordinated across the East San Francisco Bay Area, and growing, in conjunction with the Concord RRC, Eden RRC, United Teachers of Richmond and Cordelia RRC, and seven CSO staff support. CTA leaders say their CSO support helps facilitate themes, provides essential resources and trainings.

CSO PCS staff that cover the coalition chapters meet monthly to prepare for meetings and training for the East Bay Coalition partners. The staff works with the members to ensure that the goals for the bargaining year are all in agreement with their local leaders, including executive boards and rep councils. Staff recognizes that the locals gain strength from each other and build power together!

Celia Medina-Owens – President, Pittsburg Education Association

“Because of our geographic proximity, we’re able to build relationships based on common goals to improve working conditions for teachers and learning conditions for our students, regardless of where our coalition chapters are in the zip code.

When we’re collaborating during bargaining – such as on COLA, medical benefits, improved working conditions – it’s for the betterment of our communities to work together to ensure all our students have equal access to public education.

Before the coalition, we discussed that local superintendents often meet regularly and collaborate with each other around bargaining. An a-ha moment was when we then asked ourselves: Why aren’t we doing that?”

Bob Carson – President, Antioch Education Association

For Bob, there’s no doubt that partnering with the Coalition has helped build local power in bargaining and added that their CSO PCS staff should be commended for the support they’ve provided.

In our coalition, “we have solidarity and support each other at rallies. It’s a cool thing to see members from neighboring chapters with their signs to support you. It’s empowering!”

“We went years trying to get service credit [for all years of experience]. Our first year in the coalition, we made that one of our goals. Then, once one chapter got it, the other districts had to compete with it, and then most of them followed suit shortly thereafter.”

Charles Shannon – President, Orinda Educators Association

“We’ve always known that our local superintendents get together. As a result, we understood that we needed to have coordinated bargaining in our entire region.  We needed to meet with regional chapter leaders on a regular basis and be guided by CSO staff to help us in negotiations and to gather data that was not easy to obtain. We come to our meetings with information to share.”

They share pertinent data, such as contracts, salary schedules, and progress on negotiations. They often ask each other, “What is your district saying to you?”

As part of the coalition, leaders coordinated a plan for engaging parents and other community partners, including funding from CTA grants to write an organizing plan, provide release time to visit all of their sites and the money needed for supplies for public actions. Part of their effort was to clarify what COLA is and how that is factored into funding for schools, including teacher salaries.

“We began to meet with parent clubs and had virtual townhall meetings open to the community. We prepared slides with facts on our why, our asks and how things were going. What we wanted was what’s best for kids. We ask them what questions they have to help guide what we share with them. Parents understood – if you can’t retain quality teachers, and have continuity for your students, then the quality of education is going to suffer.”

The cost of living in the region (as in many regions throughout the state) is very expensive and only increasing. Once the parents understood that teacher salaries were not keeping pace with COLA, it really helped. They made it easy, providing a QR code for parents leading to their website, providing a Q&A, the district’s own budget and a petition for community members to sign up to support the teachers – so they always knew how many community members were there to support them.

Highlighting the importance of sharing how districts are funded and message framing, Charles explains, “We helped parents understand and say ‘COLA,’ not just ‘teacher raises.’”

“We wanted to keep Orinda strong, keep our good teachers, attract the best, and we let parents know that we needed their support in order to do that.”

An unexpected, but positive opportunity was that by reaching out to parents, community organizations and by joining other coalitions outside of the education profession (including service workers of all types), they’ve also been able to give back and support those workers in their negotiations when they’ve needed it.

According to Charles, the road to where they are now took some time, but it’s absolutely worth it. “The [CSO] staff really demystified the bargaining process (including letter writing to the school board, mediation and fact finding), so that we could successfully educate and organize our members. That helped us have leverage to begin to call out the district when they put out misinformation or violated our rights.

We’ve been working with our CTA staff for years and have loved working with them. It’s just incredible what they offer. Their trainings are exceptional.  When they plan for a training, they give you what is essential and catered specifically for what we need and considering all of our limited time. “

To any other chapters considering building a coalition, Charles encourages you to, “take a leap of faith”

“It can be scary when you’re asking [the district] for big things. It really adds validity and builds trust when you’re working with and hearing from all of the other chapters. These are hard things, especially when your district attacks you. Before, when we were negotiating alone (without the East Bay Coalition) we were always doing it on our own. It’s different now.”

CSO and teachers “Stand Up For Students” around state

The Bay Area may be one of the most developed places on Earth, yet there is still an undiscovered frontier in California.

Real justice in education for all students as yet to be discovered here, yet some CSO staff are working hard to help Region 1 CTA members and residents decide what it looks like and, ultimately, find it.

About 40 CTA members and CSO staff met at Westlake Middle School in Oakland Feb. 27 to become Partners in Advocacy in the form of a movement they call “Stand Up For All Students.”

CSO staff Katherine Clarke, Dawn Cova, Larry Spotts, Kathlene Beebe and Becky Flanigan developed and are leading the plan to put the people at the forefront to educational decision-making. They prepared a grant application and a plan to empower CTA members to protect their students’ rights.

And CTA members and the community are rising to the challenge.

“Members came to discuss their ideas for ensuring quality public education for all students and they worked together to develop strategies to help meet their goal ,” said Katherine Clarke, Primary Contact Staff in the Salinas Regional Resource Center. She said that many of the CTA member activists at the meeting have been working for years for educational justice, they simply needed a forum to come together and the coaching required to develop a well-organized “plan to win.”

Their goal is lofty: To Create a Movement to Build a Stronger Union to strengthen Free, Safe, and Quality Public Education for all Students based on Social, Economic and Political Justice. One of the first steps is reaching out to other organizations to build effective alliances in the community.

“Our attitude is “Si Se Puede,’” said Larry Spotts, PCS at the Concord RRC. “Our job as organizers is to empower our members to make change based on their values and priorities. It’s fabulous working with like-minded colleagues who want the same thing, because it made for a fantastic kickoff.”

Another next step are two forums for educators to learn about their rights and how to protect their immigrant students.

In southern California, CSO staff Helen Farias and Lian Shoemake, CSO Retired staff Steve Pulkinnen, and  Region 4 Organizer David Partida are working on a project in South County Teachers United.

South County Teachers United Social Justice Corps, also funded by a CTA Community Engagement Grant, kicked off this past Martin Luther King Holiday. That event brought together about 200 teachers and community partner organizations, ranging from immigrant rights groups to those supporting LGBTQ+ students.

“Several teachers have since partnered with these groups to host workshops on their campuses,” Farias said. “We are currently planning another forum focusing exclusively on immigrant rights, as well as developing an action plan for the May 1 Day of Action.”

Farias, in her first year as CSO staff at the South County UniServ, is leading the project. The goal is to engage members and to increase capacity and parent support, to increase the capacity of the union and involve members who are not typically involved in other union functions.

“There are a lot of new teachers who are passionate about improving public schools, but there is no vacancy for them to get involved in their union,” Partida said. “This is a place for them to get involved.”

There is also some excitement in Orange County – last year they formed a countywide PAC to run a countywide campaign for two County Office of Education Board members. They won one, and they lost one.

“That was ground-breaking and that progressed into what we are doing right now,” Partida said. He said the Orange County Service Center’s Organizing Committee has launched a promising organizing project. The goal is to identify new leaders. Partida conducted a training with about 40 organizing team members from several chapters who role-played one-on-one dialogues and built local plans for organizing.

“They have never been connected in this way,” Partida said. “They usually focus on their chapter’s issues and have not worked together. It’s a new opportunity with potential.”

 

 

Music strikes chord with CSO staff

Chuck making joyful noise with some friends.

Chuck making joyful noise with some friends.

Creativity is an integral part of the job as staff for CTA and its affiliates. CSO members have unique talents that are on display every day. Whether primary contact staff, regional organizers, or department staff our members spend a good portion of their waking hours using their skills to help CTA members be the best they can be while securing fair wages and benefits. Outside of work, many CSO staffers hit just the right note making music with friends and family while reducing stress and staying connected with their communities.
On any given Sunday when CSO president, Chuck King isn’t on CSO or CTA business, you can hear him making joyful noises with his church band where he plays drums and hand percussion. Having taught music throughout his 12-year teaching career, Chuck also proudly exclaims that he learned to play from California public school teachers. A ringing endorsement for the restoration of music programs throughout the State.

CTA organizer and CSO brother, Bobby Yates has played the fiddle for the last 12 years. He and his wife, a guitarist, enjoy taking lessons and playing together. Bobby has also played Irish tenor banjo for 4 years. His daughter, Shawna plays the mandolin and the trio often play traditional and Irish music together.

While a Hawkeye at the University of Iowa, Kim Mina was a saxophone and piano major. She’s played piano for nearly 46 years and the saxophone for almost as long. Kim remembers her mom, a pianist, getting all five of her children started on piano lessons while they were very young. Sister Kim started lessons as a 3rd grader in an Iowa public school. She also sang in the church choir for many years.

Kim taught music in California for 14 years. She taught band and choir at the secondary level and can still hear when notes are wrong or when instruments are out of tune.

San Jose staffer, Brother Bruce Berg doesn’t just play the bass, guitar, keyboards, arrange music, and sing, he co-founded “ShaBoom,” a 50s cover band. He has performed onstage with Chuck Berry, Jan and Dean, The Righteous Brothers and many others. He was even a passing acquaintance of 60s icon, Janis Joplin.
In addition to his work on stage, Bruce was a recording engineer on a few CDs. Bruce says, “I have played or performed since high school. I took lessons and classes in college, but was mostly self-taught.”

CSO brother and CTA staff attorney, Michael Hersh says his first banjo lesson was from a Philadelphia mummer and while he has taken lessons on occasion over the last 45 years, he is largely self-taught. In addition to the banjo, he plays guitar, trumpet and autoharp. His trumpet skills being the most recently acquired over the last five years.

Brother Michael plays Klezmer music with a small group. They’ve performed at the LA Central Public Library, Grand Performances, and a few weddings and bar mitzvahs. Michael says, “In my youth I played old time Southern, blues, Irish, union, country and jug band music. Currently I’m working on jazz to fend off dementia, with mixed results.” Michael sometimes does open mic nights to keep active and from time to time he practices in front of mirrors. He also occasionally makes recordings for sharing on social media. He explains, “I find more pleasure in music than law”.

Elisa finds making music a great stress relief.

Elisa finds making music a great stress relief.

The youngest of four musically-inclined siblings, CTA staffer, Sister Elisa Gusdal took her first piano lesson at age five. “That was the rule in our family, when you are five you can have lessons” Elisa recalls. Her older brothers did not always appreciate their lessons, since lessons meant practice, but she couldn’t wait to learn to play.

Classically trained, Elisa picked up her studies again as an adult to learn music theory; playing by ear; and the creative end of making music. She says, “I was in a band for half a second, but was terribly shy” Nowadays, she prefers banging away on the keyboards with her headphones on and nobody listening, but her. “I could do it for hours”, she exclaims. “It’s great stress relief.”

As Primary Contact Staff working out of the San Bernardino RRC, Elisa’s work is varied and often fast-paced. She thinks there’s a place for creativity—whether musical or creativity in other forms—in advocacy work and the two can be a powerful mix. She is interested in sharing ideas with other CSO members on how to integrate them .

Frank Wells has been a member of “The Vaccines” for over twenty-five years. Our CSO brother and CTA Communications Specialist has played piano, guitar and sang since he was a kid. Frank took a couple of years of piano lessons starting at the age of nine then as a pre-teen, he started teaching himself the guitar. Brother Frank says, “I learned by mimicking acoustic singer songwriters like James Taylor, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens. I don’t really read music well so most of what I do is by ear.”

While students at a Long Beach junior high school, Frank, together with some classmates and friends formed The Vaccines. They were the house band at a bar in Venice for many years, but their drummer moved out of state.

Frank injured his hand and voice a year ago which has interfered with his playing, but he’s looking forward to getting back to making music soon.

Sister Cyndi Menzel picked up the hammered dulcimer mostly on her own. She doodles around on the guitar, mountain dulcimer and piano as well. A communications consultant for CTA, Cyndi took piano lessons and sang in choirs as a kid. Later on she was in a band called, “Driving Keith Crazy.” About that time Cyndi admits, “It was usually me driving the guitar player (Keith) crazy changing keys and tempo.” Since that time, she’s played in a few bands, singing and playing dulcimer. Cyndi says, “I like to get hammered, musically of course.” She enjoys jams with other musicians locally and regionally. She says she may join a band again if she can find the time.

Not too long ago Cyndi played for two ballet dancers from the San Jose Metropolitan Ballet for a concert series downtown. “I’ve never played for dancers before and, after our performance, the audience threw flowers. At first I ducked because I’ve never had anyone throw things at me after a performance! It was a lovely evening and the dancers were amazing.”

If you enjoy musical theater, CSO brother Bruce Saathoff would love for you to come see him in a performance of Anything Goes. The show runs through the end of July and tickets are available at www.bmtstars.com.
Bruce’s day job is to serve as staff in the Bakersfield RRC, but after work he sings, acts and directs—even serving as artistic director for the Bakersfield Music Theatre. Bruce got his start with a solo in school. Recalling fondly, Brother Bruce says, “I had my first solo in Kindergarten when my fellow clown freaked out with major stage fright and wouldn’t go on.” A “triple threat,” Bruce also plays a little piano.

Describing his involvement in the arts, Bruce asserts, “I consider my involvement in musical theatre like free therapy. It totally helps me to separate from the stresses and worries of our work.”