News
'We're All Together Now'

In one Colorado district, teachers and ESP unite in the same NEA local affiliate. The payoffs: added respect and even better work with kids.

Election-day rain and snow didn't dampen the enthusiasm of these union supporters in Westminster, Colorado. ESP voted overwhelmingly to bargain alongside teachers.

Jackie Brungardt and Candi Epperson have worked in the same small elementary school in Westminster, Colorado, for 12 years, helping handicapped children get a good education.

Brungardt, a paraprofessional who works with severely disabled students, and Epperson, a special education teacher, have become great friends over the years. Now they're in the same union, thanks to a support staff organizing drive in this Denver suburb by the Westminster Education Association.

Brungardt reports that support staffers, from custodians to bus drivers, are already enjoying more job security and respect. Epperson stresses that the teachers benefit, too. They now have a stronger union, with deeper roots in the community.

Educational support personnel are joining NEA affiliates at a rapid pace.

NEA's ESP membership is now more than 325,000, and growing 20 percent per year. In most cases, however, support staffers and teachers are in separate NEA local affiliates, notes Karen Mahurin, the Alaska school secretary who chairs NEA's National Council for Educational Support Professionals.

Westminster went a different route. A single union for all public education employees made better sense to WEA leaders like Epperson and local President Cherylin Peniston, a middle school social studies teacher.

"ESP were being asked to do more and more with students," says Peniston. "We work shoulder to shoulder with them, and we see how hard they work."

Brungardt has one of the toughest assignments in the Westminster school system, working with children who have severe physical disabilities, many in wheelchairs because of cerebral palsy. One of her students is on oxygen. Others require tube feeding.

Brungardt loves her work. "I see them happy in school, which could never have happened before. I see them included in classrooms. They come to school smiling, and I'm part of their day," she says.

"But it's definitely challenging. It can be hard just to communicate, trying to find out what's wrong.

"When I started 12 years ago," Brungardt recalls, "we had something like 200 percent turnover per year. I'm the only one left. We were the underdogs, pretty much. There was nobody to push for us. It's great to have a union."

Epperson wanted WEA to include ESP because she feels support staff have not been treated fairly.

"They do huge amounts of overtime with no help and very little compensation," says Epperson. "They are frustrated and exhausted. Most of them have second jobs because they can't afford to live on what the district pays them.

"Because of that, we can't get people to fill these jobs," she says. "I've always had excellent aides, but some teachers have waited months without one."

The move to expand the WEA began more than a year ago. The local surveyed its members and found that more than 90 percent wanted to invite ESP to join.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the support staff showed overwhelming preference for WEA over an independent Colorado union of school support staff.

Rather than wait for a formal representation election, the teachers decided to open their organization to ESP right away. They expanded WEA's governing board from 11 to 16, adding an ESP vice president and four other ESP members. The new board then set about recruiting ESP building reps.

Barbara Schmidt, a bus driver who became the new WEA vice president, says those moves convinced ESP that the teachers wanted them in the organization as equals. Jackie Brungardt acted on that signal by volunteering to be the building rep for her school.

In September, WEA launched a full-scale organizing drive, with leaflets and small, personal meetings. There was no real opposition, but Association leaders were concerned about turnout because the union needed at least 30 percent support to represent the support staff.

The weather refused to cooperate on election day, last Halloween. It rained and snowed, a disincentive to come out and vote at one central polling site.

One very sick bus driver insisted on voting before heading for her doctor's office. When the votes were counted that night, WEA had won by 255-10, out of 485 eligible to vote.

The new ESP members of the Westminster Education Association don't have their first contract yet, but change is already happening.

The superintendent is putting support staff on district planning committees. And he invited ESP to the annual beginning-of-the-year staff meeting, where he referred to teachers and support staff alike as "educators."

Now, a new all-staff contract is being hammered out by a unified teacher-ESP bargaining team.

Epperson notes that while teachers all over the district supported the ESP organizing drive, those from small schools like hers were the most enthusiastic. "In big schools, teachers don't see other teachers, much less aides," she said. "They don't have the personal connection that we have. Here, we're family. And we're all together now."

Peniston says the whole school system will benefit from having ESP in the Association because support staffers often have strong community roots, which can translate into political support for funding.

Schmidt began working as a driver after being an active parent in the district for many years, and says she's typical. "Most people I know here are parents and taxpayers. They started off as volunteers."

Jackie Brungardt's priorities for the first contract include raises and getting the district to pay tuition for courses so she can learn more about how to help her students.

"We're all here for the same thing: taking care of the kids," says Schmidt.

She believes children are already benefiting from ESP organization. "We're happier," she explains, "and when adults are happier with their jobs, they work even better with kids."

--Alain Jehlen

For more information, call Westminster Education Association President Cherylin Peniston at 303/427-1734 or E-mail her at WEACEANEA@aol.com.

Your Dues Did It

• A new NEA handbook, Making Low-Performing Schools a Priority: An Association Resource Guide, is now available on NEA's Web site. This guide, drawn from the work of an NEA task force on low-performing schools, offers practical tips for identifying a school in crisis, turning it around, and sustaining ongoing improvement. Go to www.nea.org/issues/lowperf/priorityschools/.

• Got tax questions but can't find answers? Point your Web browser to the NEA Educators' Tax Guide 2000, produced for folks just like you. The guide gives clear explanations of federal and state income tax law and offers advice on itemized deductions, tax-sheltered investments, and the best tax forms to use. Go to www.nea.org/00taxguide/.

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