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A new way of doing business
Great schools is not a project; it is a fundamental change in the way the association conducts its business, WEAC President Terry Craney and Executive Director Michael Butera said Sunday in kicking off the 2000 Summer Conference.
Terry Craney 
Michael Butera |
“Great Schools defined and shaped everything we’ve done in the last year,” Craney said at the opening session and picnic in the tent outside Carlson Hall. “Great Schools has provided a frame of reference for our work.”
Butera said Great Schools is “a journey, not for a set period of time, but for a decade or so as we reconnect with ourselves and the public.”
Great Schools is interwoven throughout the Summer Conference agenda, just as it is interwoven into every association program and activity.
“This year’s theme – “Unionism and Great Schools” – contains the essence of what we’re doing,” Craney said. “It’s our members – you and all your colleagues – working collectively toward our goal of a great school for every child in Wisconsin.”
Craney said this is the second year the Summer Conference has a major focus on Great Schools. Last year, participants were introduced to the details of the plan and were given assistance in getting it started. This year, he said, “we’ll help you expand and build upon what you’ve already done.”
Great Schools has made significant progress over the last year, he said, with more than 30,000 one-to-one member interviews recorded. In addition, 15 School-Community Visions meetings have been held, with another 30 already scheduled.
“We are hearing reports from members about the positive impact Great Schools is having in their district or local,” he said. “People are finding the one-to-one interviews refocused and reconnected them with other members. They see everyone’s on the same page ... we all have the same goals and concerns.”
Butera said the people at this conference are essential to building union solidarity and strength.
“There’s nobody more important in this union than you, and we need you desperately,” he said.
All members, he said, must be “evangelists” for public education and the education profession.
“Fundamentally,” he added, “we too must change both as a union and as a protector of the institution we call public education.”
Craney and Government Relations Director John Stocks emphasized the importance of working to elect pro-education candidates in the fall elections.
If a pro-education president is not elected, Stocks said, we could face nationwide vouchers, unregulated charter schools and, ultimately, corporate takeovers of public education.
A state Legislature that is not pro-education, he said, could repeal our licensure law, weaken the collective bargaining law, expand vouchers, reduce special education funding, and worsen revenue controls.
One of the brightest spots at Summer Conference the last few years has been the active participation of students and young members. One of the nine special sessions Sunday focused on the Student WEA. Nancy Clark, coordinator of WEAC's Project SPRING, discussed the many benefits of membership and explained how young members can work through the association to improve public education and their future profession.
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