September - Tennessee Education Association
September - Tennessee Education Association
September - Tennessee Education Association
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Masters of the Game<br />
Bob and Karen Holder boost morale and expertise among<br />
colleagues, garner a statewide membership award<br />
Virginia McCoy, TEA Attorney:<br />
“Don’t Wait to Ask Questions”<br />
In other areas of specialization, attorneys<br />
often change firms and clients. What<br />
motivates you to remain in your position as a<br />
“I spy, I see. I see Delaney<br />
looking at me. Can you line up<br />
for me so we can go outside?”<br />
Sitting on the floor in<br />
Karen Holder’s classroom<br />
at LaFollette Elementary<br />
School in Campbell County<br />
makes us wish we were five<br />
years old, singing about Mr.<br />
Alligator and the apple tree,<br />
climbing a wooden ship and<br />
learning about new animals,<br />
pronouncing new words and<br />
busting out new dance moves,<br />
excited about playtime<br />
outdoors.<br />
told me it wasn’t necessary, that they were members of TEA and<br />
they were fine.”<br />
And so it went on, with a handful of dedicated TEA members<br />
keeping the tradition alive in the county where collective<br />
bargaining and payroll deduction were the exclusive rights of a<br />
competing organization.<br />
“There was a small group of us who saw TEA as a teachers’<br />
group. TEA is what we believe in, so we just hung together and<br />
tried to keep going,” Karen says. “Last year we started moving<br />
up because of the legislative changes. People saw that we had<br />
a lot more to offer. We were on top of things. We have a UniServ<br />
coordinator we can call on, while other organizations don’t have<br />
a person who can connect them with the state. It’s always great<br />
to have somebody you can turn to, and to know that somebody is<br />
going to be here for you.”<br />
Following the 2011 legislative changes, exclusive collective<br />
Karen Holder, CCEA member Chris Honeycutt, who teaches math and<br />
coaches football, and Bob Holder attend the system-wide in-service<br />
day. CCEA set up a “welcome back” table filled with information and<br />
giveaway opportunities.<br />
where education policy is often set in impenetrable school board<br />
workshops. Most of the school board members know him as the keeper<br />
of the scoreboard for high school football and basketball games, and<br />
they usually get an earful whenever Bob gets their attention.<br />
“We’ve been ignored, and we think we’ve had enough,” he says.<br />
“I’ve called the director several times to address our issues. I made<br />
TEA staff attorney for 23 years?<br />
I believe in public education as an essential<br />
democratic institution and in teaching as a<br />
valued profession. To my mind, TEA is the only<br />
organization in <strong>Tennessee</strong> that is committed<br />
both to preserving public education for all of<br />
<strong>Tennessee</strong>’s children and to uplifting teachers<br />
as respected professionals.<br />
What caused you to become an advocate for<br />
Virginia McCoy in her office<br />
the rights of public education employees?<br />
by the poster of her favorite film.<br />
Fortuitous circumstances. I was working<br />
as an attorney at the <strong>Tennessee</strong> Department<br />
of Revenue, and a colleague suggested that I apply for an opening at TEA. My father<br />
worked for Knoxville City and Knox County Schools. My mother’s family is full of<br />
educators, including my great-grandmother, who was the first woman to sit on<br />
Before we enter the bargaining rights were taken away from AFT, and teachers in the<br />
eight to ten phone calls. I left voicemails. On Friday at lunchtime,<br />
the Monroe County Board of <strong>Education</strong> and my aunt, Jean Black, who is a retired<br />
playground, Karen checks area became more interested in joining TEA.<br />
I told him, ‘Please don’t ignore me. I’m not going away.’ Still, no<br />
teacher and principal from Monroe County who once served as president of her local<br />
under every object in sight to With Bob serving as president and Karen as co-president and<br />
answer. I think I’m going to have to go there one morning and just sit association. When I enrolled in college, I had initially intended to pursue a career as<br />
make sure there are no bees secretary-treasurer, CCEA has stepped up its local communications<br />
on the doorstep.”<br />
a teacher, but was side-tracked by the law. When I was offered a position with TEA,<br />
or other undesirable insects efforts, positioning themselves as experts in teacher and principal<br />
The CTE issue is not the only one being ignored by the local school it seemed like my professional life was coming full circle with the opportunity to<br />
that could upset her crew of<br />
pre-K students. As the kids<br />
frolic, Holder and her teaching<br />
aide make sure that every<br />
child is courteous during play,<br />
managing to keep almost<br />
everyone happy. Then we line<br />
up, go back inside to wash<br />
hands, sing a couple more<br />
songs and, all of a sudden, it’s<br />
Karen Holder (left), Campbell Co. EA secretary-treasurer and<br />
lunchtime.<br />
teacher at LaFollette Elementary School, and Assistant Principal<br />
A few miles up the<br />
Heather Smith, also a CCEA member, talk with Holder’s pre-K<br />
road, Karen’s husband Bob<br />
students in late August. On the cover: Karen Holder shows her<br />
holds court in his wellness<br />
youthful spirit on the playground; Bob Holder teaches health and<br />
health class at LaFollette<br />
wellness at LaFollette Comprehensive High School.<br />
Comprehensive High School.<br />
His students have just received<br />
the folders with an assignment to be completed by Friday.<br />
“If you don’t do it, you get a zero,” says Bob in a no-nonsense<br />
tone he has perfected over decades of teaching, coaching and<br />
stints in management at Frito Lay and Burger King.<br />
Witnessing Bob and Karen in their teaching roles, it’s no<br />
evaluation, grievance process and collaborative conferencing<br />
efforts.<br />
As of this writing, Bob is the only teacher in the county who<br />
has grieved his evaluation results. He tells his colleagues that he’s<br />
not afraid of being a turtle without a shell, with his neck sticking<br />
out.<br />
“In our school we haven’t had any training in evaluation. I filed<br />
the grievance because I knew what to do, and that’s what I share<br />
with our members.”<br />
Bob is also doing battle with central office on behalf of area<br />
career and technical education teachers, who have been recognized<br />
as such at the state level but have not received classroom supplies<br />
or compensation for their CTE workload.<br />
“There’s been some harassment and denial of representation,”<br />
Bob says. “We have CTE teachers who have retired and have not<br />
been compensated for teaching CTE.”<br />
One of CCEA’s new members who joined last spring has taught<br />
CTE for 18 years, but was never paid as a CTE teacher. According to<br />
CCEA’s estimate, these teachers are due between $1,000 and $1,500<br />
a year in additional salary.<br />
“When you take into account their retirement, Social Security<br />
wages, that makes a big difference. We know 15 former teachers<br />
authorities. Bob says the grievance he had filed on July 15, 2012, was<br />
accepted and signed by his evaluator, yet he has received no response<br />
from central office. With a few days left to file with the school board,<br />
Bob is considering<br />
submitting a copy to the<br />
“We’ve been ignored, and we state board of education.<br />
think we’ve had enough... I’m<br />
Having raised three<br />
children and innumerable<br />
going to go there one morning students who learned in<br />
and just sit on the doorstep.”<br />
their classrooms, Bob and<br />
Karen say they have their<br />
work cut out for them to<br />
further solidify CCEA.<br />
Recently, they worked on the <strong>Association</strong>’s constitution, and<br />
sought members who will work on the local’s Facebook and newsletter<br />
outlets to help push information about the coming evaluation<br />
changes and collaborative conferencing updates.<br />
TEA District 5 UniServ Coordinator Jason White says the lack of<br />
information about evaluation and grievance is partially due to the<br />
fact that the state made last-minute changes in July, when many<br />
school officials were on vacation.<br />
“It’s hard to fault the local school system because the state is<br />
represent public school teachers and employees.<br />
Why should one join TEA today?<br />
TEA supports public education, public school teachers and employees, and is one of<br />
the few education organizations in <strong>Tennessee</strong> that is willing to speak truth to power on<br />
Capitol Hill.<br />
Why should one not be afraid or ashamed of joining TEA?<br />
If you aren’t afraid or ashamed to be part of your profession, you shouldn’t be afraid<br />
or ashamed to be part of the pre-eminent organization in the state that represents and<br />
supports the members of your profession.<br />
What are the flaws in comparing public schools in the United States to schools in<br />
China, Finland or other countries?<br />
I would be very happy if <strong>Tennessee</strong> was comparable to Finland and what the Finns<br />
have accomplished in public education. But <strong>Tennessee</strong> and Finland aren’t comparable,<br />
because the characteristics of the populations, the public support for a social safety<br />
net, and the approach to producing a trained teaching force are very dissimilar. Plus,<br />
<strong>Tennessee</strong>’s current leadership simply isn’t committed to providing <strong>Tennessee</strong> with the<br />
kind of education system to which the Finns have committed for their children.<br />
What’s wrong with trying to run public schools like a business?<br />
You can’t send a bad batch of blueberries back to the supplier. You have to make<br />
blueberry ice cream with whatever blueberries you happen to have on hand.<br />
Among the many things you wish your clients did differently, what are the most<br />
wonder that the Campbell County <strong>Education</strong> <strong>Association</strong> had a who will be involved. Last spring we brought it all to the director.<br />
fixing the plane in mid-air,” he says.<br />
common mistakes or oversights?<br />
stellar year, garnering a 30-percent increase in membership, the He promised that something would be done, but it hasn’t. The<br />
With a new, three-step grievance process in place, Bob and Karen<br />
1. Not keeping good documentation.<br />
highest in the state, in spite of the fact that their county is the paychecks still don’t reflect any changes.”<br />
are hard at work helping members realize that they have options that<br />
2. Not seeking assistance early enough in the process.<br />
only one in <strong>Tennessee</strong> dominated by the American Federation of<br />
At one point last year, Bob says he and a fellow teacher<br />
could positively impact their evaluation results.<br />
3. Not observing professional boundaries with students and colleagues.<br />
Teachers.<br />
accidentally witnessed grades being changed live on a school<br />
“I’d say 50 percent of teachers in our system have never even<br />
What is your advice to TEA members for this school year?<br />
Karen, who has been a TEA member for 38 years, recalls<br />
arriving in Campbell County two decades ago and being asked to<br />
join AFT.<br />
“I’d been told it would be a good thing to do because they were<br />
the main bargaining unit,” says Karen. “I was encouraged to join<br />
system’s website. The officials denied it, yet at the end of the last<br />
school year one teacher’s paycheck was withheld for 15 minutes,<br />
presumably due to grade discrepancies. “It was an embarrassing<br />
situation,” Bob says.<br />
A 13-year member of TEA who began his teaching career in<br />
looked at their scores,” says Bob. “Because it was sent out in an email,<br />
there are two passwords. Some teachers don’t understand the impact<br />
that evaluations can have.”<br />
In a county where many teachers and students don’t carry cell<br />
phones or have Internet access at home, one-on-one communication<br />
Don’t wait to ask questions if you are having issues or concerns. Knowledge is<br />
power, and TEA members have access to incredible amounts of information, resources<br />
and guidance, particularly through the TEA website, the UniServ coordinators, and<br />
legal services.<br />
AFT, but a couple of friends of mine with whom I’d gone to school 1976 in Coffee County, Bob sets an example of bravery in a county<br />
is king, and Karen and Bob Holder appear to be the masters of it.<br />
4 <strong>September</strong> 2012 5<br />
www.teateachers.org