Experience
Time spent in Oregon’s classrooms
As a student ~ I am a product of Oregon’s public education system. In 1986, I graduated from McMinnville High School in Yamhill County.
As a secondary educator ~ After 3 years as a paid, graduate- teaching-assistant at Portland State University, I started my unlicensed first job in secondary education at an alternative middle school in Portland in the fall of 1998. Since 2001, I’ve worked in the North Clackamas School District—at 4 high schools, and 2 middle schools.
As an adult facilitator ~ Beginning with my time at PSU, where I taught WR 323, I’ve facilitated adult communication, professional development, and conflict resolution for more than 20 years.
As a new teacher mentor ~ I hosted my first aspiring educator in 2005, and my most recent, Mags, is in my classroom currently. The experience of being and becoming a licensed educator in the state of Oregon has changed a great deal in the last two decades. We need to be an informed and assertive voice at the table over the next decade in order to ensure all parts of Oregon have access to quality teacher-education programs through state universities.
Time spent in Union Leadership
• As a building representative
• As a grievance chair
• As a bargaining team member
• As an NEA grant manager
• As a local president
• As a delegate to state and national representative assemblies
• As a statewide committee chair
• As the presiding officer relying on Robert’s Rules
(w/flexibility & humor) to run innumerable meetings
• As an interest-based strategies co-facilitator for complex challenges
• As an objective, interest-oriented conflict mediator
As a local President (2015 – 2019)
After winning a tightly-contested election for president with the incumbent, I advocated for and successfully brought forward key amendments to local bylaws. Most importantly, no longer would the president have the authority to sign a memorandum of understanding with the district without prior consultation with the executive council. And then we expanded the executive council to include guaranteed representation across levels and programs.
Sustainable change requires the bureaucratic policy shifts that enshrine intended outcomes into the future. It’s why the statewide OEA committee I agreed to chair while still serving as local president was the Bylaws & Policies committee supported by OEA legal counsel.
Other accomplishments of which I’m proud from my time as president of the North Clackamas Education Association were the more than million dollars brought in through multiple grants from NEA, ODE, and the Chalkboard Project in service of vital local initiatives.
While the North Clackamas superintendent won national recognition during my tenure as president, it was our remarkable collaborative relationship that was highlighted across the state when we co-presented at events put on by both OEA and COSA (Coalition of Oregon School Administrators).
June 2018 Janus Decision—3 years into service as president of the North Clackamas EA
Our Executive Council prepared months in advance, recognizing the potential impacts on membership and operational funding. As a large local, we are reliant on consistent funding to provide consistent services to our ~1000 members. We saw signing up folks hired after the start of the contract year as our biggest challenge and set out to be ready for the fall.
Spring 2019 Red for Ed
Handing off leadership of NCEA to an energized new team, I was excited. The Red for Ed campaign had demonstrated what grass-roots, local-based organizing could do. John Larson understood the campaign would look different across the state, and let us lead from where we were. North Clackamas members had shown up to hold banners on overpasses, staged “walk-ins” to school together with parents, and a Milwaukie High School colleague and Oregon Counselor of the Year spoke at our rally on the waterfront, with me standing discreetly behind him in support.
As an OEA board director (2019 – 2022)
Metro SE Board District #20
August 2019 — Joining the OEA Board of Directors, I heard lectures about fiduciary responsibility, signed a commitment to it, and then learned while local leaders were working toward Red for Ed efforts and adjusting to the fallout of the Janus decision, OEA’s leadership team hadn’t successfully managed to do both.
Spring 2021 — Once elected vice president, Enrique Farrera undertook a close examination of OEA finances with a new Chief Financial Officer and a new Comptroller. As a result, OEA Board Directors learned many details about the budget which the previous Budget Committee Chair had either neglected to communicate or to notice. We learned that OEA’s only audits were being conducted by a firm connected with the (former) comptroller. We heard about failures to pay large bills on time, resulting in late fees in the thousands of dollars. And that was only the beginning of what our new vice president uncovered and shared with the Board of Directors.
I learned that while OEA membership numbers dwindled, OEA’s Budget Committee failed to adjust programs and brought forward proposals to expand professional staff in budgets submitted for the board’s approval.
Spring 2022 — Last spring, as my 3-year term on the OEA Board of Directors ended, we learned about the substantial and critical gap between OEA revenues and OEA expenditures. A gap allowed to grow while membership declined and OEA’s Budget Chair failed to notice the growing crisis in the wake of the Janus Decision. This is why I’m here now asking OEA to consider an alternative to the catastrophic and reactive slope down which we’ve headed under the legacy leadership at the wheel.
The Pandemic Experience
March 2020 — The Spring Break That Never Ended
After first attempting to keep in touch with my seniors, I was briefly left at loose ends when the Governor declared a “wrap” on the academic year. Then I went back to pack up my portable classroom for the move to a brand-new high school that would sit vacant of students for another year.
By the end of April, I was part of a team building interdisciplinary, proficiency-based credit-recovery courses for students trying to finish high school in the middle of a rapidly expanding crisis.
Summer 2020 — Collaborative Planning for Comprehensive Distance Learning
I worked with other colleagues, including district administrators, to build the CDL schedule for high school—working out the best possibilities for using “synchronous” and “asynchronous” mandated minutes. Like many district teams, we landed on solutions that built into the schedule social-emotional check-in & individualized instruction opportunities.
June 18, 2021
I live in a small space. My available “room” for pandemic teaching was this corner at the foot of my bed. A pulled-down projection screen blocked the view to the attached bathroom area behind me. But I’ve had a great view of the birds & squirrels out the window to the right of my screen, incense & art all around me. Coffee & snacks within reach, and frequent dog company on the bed behind me.
As I finish my last CDL session this morning. I feel gratitude for my students, my colleagues, and the resources I have all around me.
September 2020 — February 2021: The Pandemic Polka
I don’t know how to describe the experience of building kitchen-chemistry science kits for teaching sheltered chemistry as a non-science teacher. But I can tell you, it was more hands-on than what I managed for the other two science classes I taught during the year of Comprehensive Distance Learning—Ecology and Environmental Science.
At least I never had more than 2 preps at a time, and 2 of my 3 sections were always senior English, so I shouldn’t complain. Still, every weekend, often into early Monday morning, was spent setting up and photographing visual lab instructions for English-language learners. All designed to be replicated with materials I sent home.
Spring 2021 — Limited-In-Person-Instruction & Hybrid
I returned to in-person instruction as one of the first two Limited-in-Person-Instruction teachers (gen ed) in my building—the few, the brave, the vaccinated and masked. My focus was math support, and getting seniors through required English credits. I’ve always thought of myself as a utility infielder, and COVID surely tested my range.
Fall 2021-Spring 2022 — The Return
After serving on the collaborative team establishing guidelines for high school return to in-person instruction, I was a stickler for masking and maintaining distance in my classroom. Another year of pinch-hitting and wide-ranging misassignment— this time teaching Sheltered Physics alongside American Literature and Senior English. It’s been hard to hire, support, and sustain staff throughout this crisis, and that means we all do a bit more until we reach enough for the students.
Or until we burn out.
2022-2023 — Pretending It’s All Back to Normal
This year I’ve been able to return to teaching full time in the English department which has helped me, but I’ve watched burnout take its toll all around. Staff who survived the worst of COVID can’t cope with the public rejection we’re experiencing today. It’s hard to have brought work into our homes, only to have our work denigrated by antagonists and instigators with little knowledge of what we do. I’m currently mentoring an aspiring educator and observing closely as our profession and classroom culture continue to evolve.
