We have been making steady progress as a local union.  My goal as president is to keep moving forward toward our vision of an ideal union: an active, engaged membership; successful negotiations that lead to professional compensation; and the kind of work environment that allows our members to be the creative, effective, world class educators we all can be.  I believe our next steps in that journey include the following issues:

Improving Our Workload

This may be the one issue that every AHEM member understands all too well.  Inability to manage the ever increasing demands of our work is demoralizing our members, cutting into our effectiveness, and driving good educators out of the profession.  Together, we can:

• Use our new labor-management committee and workload task forces to create lasting improvements in our work structure and requirements
• Support sites as they collaborate to find solutions to specific building issues
• Create a culture where it is okay for educators to say no to excessive demands on their time and energy
• Continue to negotiate for increased prep time, additional compensation for additional work, and limits on items like elementary specialist sections, class sizes, and large caseloads

Professional Compensation

One of the benefits a union offers to people who are by nature nurturing and self-sacrificing is a place to stand up for what they deserve.  Fair compensation is not only what we need to thrive, but also a sign of respect for our work. Together, we can:

• Protect career earnings by pursuing creative, while fair, compensation strategies; shoring up mid-career salaries; and continue to move toward a fairly indexed salary schedule
• Work to get ABE/ECFE educators the same level of compensation as K-12 personnel
• Pursue alternative sources of compensation that are fair, sustainable, and promote effective education practices

Protecting the Profession and a Well-Rounded Education

When we stand up for our profession, we are also standing up for our students.  Our students deserve to be taught by effective, professional educators and have access to the full range of educational opportunities.  Together, we can:

• Protect the idea of a well-rounded education for our students by ensuring “non-tested” areas are taught by licensed professionals and are given the same level of attention and support given to subjects tested under NCLB.
• Ensure that building level professional development committees maintain their autonomy and authority to control their portion of staff development funds
• Advocate for a reasonable educational reforms by fighting for an end to excessive testing, monitoring new initiatives, and ensuring our members’ rights are protected in the event their site does not make"adequate yearly progress"

Increasing Member Involvement

We are as strong as we act.  By increasing member involvement, we will increase our creativity and relevance as an organization.  Together, we can:

• Develop new leaders by offering real opportunities for members to create and implement programs
• United We Bargain, Divided We Beg: We need to continue our recent progress in organizing for settlements by starting our planning early, developing several options for action, and reviewing ways to keep our members updated as we go through negotiations
• Provide the kind of risk-supportive environment and structures to manage conflict in our professional lives.  Our members are not, on average, confrontive people – but with support, we can be tremendous advocates for ourselves and our colleagues.
• Pursue new media and new modes of communication to connect with busy people in an efficient and compelling way
• Study those sites who best organize their members and pass that knowledge around the district

To do all of this, we need you! 
No matter who is elected president, if you are reading this, you are a person we need on the team.  Please contact me at julieblaha@aol.com or 763.438.3527 with your ideas for our next steps.