Ethan Allen Teachers Share Ideas with WEAC President Johnson

WEAC President Stan Johnson meets with staff at the Ethan Allen School for Boys in Wales.

Teachers at the Ethan Allen School for Boys in Wales shared ideas and frustrations Thursday (March 7, 2002) with WEAC President Stan Johnson.

In a meeting at the school library, Johnson urged Ethan Allen teachers to become more active in the union at the state level, work to increase awareness of their issues within the union, and help shape union policies.

"What are your needs as a union member?" Johnson asked. "If you don't voice them, they aren't going to be heard."

The teachers indicated they sometimes feel like a forgotten stepchild in a union made up primarily of K-12 public school teachers. As employees of the state, Ethan Allen teachers are members of WEAC Council #1, which represents about 720 education and information professionals who work in the Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Technical College System, State Historical Society, at other state schools and libraries, and in state prisons and other institutions, including the Centers for the Developmentally Disabled.

Johnson said WEAC is always conscious of the need to address the issues of all its members, including teachers in state correctional institutions. In fact, he said WEAC is working at the Capitol right now to try to protect state-employed members from the impact of cuts in the budget adjustment legislation.

Johnson said WEAC is a political organization internally and members need to be involved in the union at all levels to ensure representation and action on their issues. He encouraged Council #1 members to seek more appointments to union committees and boards and to attend more meetings and conferences to ensure that their issues receive the attention they deserve.

"You need to be visible," he said.

Using himself as an example, he said it was his active involvement in the union for many years that got him elected as president.

Mary Turnbull makes (right) makes a point.

Mary Turnbull, who is Council #1 secretary, asked for WEAC's help in raising awareness about the need to protect teaching jobs at Ethan Allen. Overtime expenses for youth counselors is eating into the budget and resulting in the hiring of fewer teachers, she said.

"I tell you, we really need help," Turnbull said. "We really need to have the teachers - and a variety of teachers. ... I think we have some of the very best teachers in the state right here at Ethan Allen."

Turnbull and others pointed out that Ethan Allen teachers are required to work at least 40 hours a week (and they work much more than that), don't get time off during the summer and have the most challenging group of students of any school in the state.

"It's difficult enough when you have three or four kids like this in a class," Turnbull said, referring to the challenges many K-12 public school teachers face. "But all of our kids are like that.

"We have unbounded amounts of patience to work with these kids. ... It's a hard job, and the kids we have to work with are hard kids to work with, but it's very satisfying work," Turnbull said.

Teachers at Ethan Allen – which is in Waukesha County and houses many Milwaukee youth – believe their influence can help some of these young men turn their lives around, and that is what keeps them going.

Mary Joas

English teacher Jean Butterfield said she and her colleagues also want Ethan Allen to be a Great School, "but there are so many handicapping conditions," including the fact that there is no academic continuity, given the rapid turnover of students.

"I want to see my students read better and write better because that will make a difference in their lives," she said.

Mary Joas said she and her colleagues support WEAC's Great Schools campaign and the union's efforts to improve K-12 public school education through such programs as SAGE. However, she said, those programs don't directly benefit Council #1 members or the students at Ethan Allen. That's fine, she said, but addressing her union brothers and sisters in K-12 public education, she said:

"We would like your support when we need it."

State budget impacts Council #1 members

Posted March 8, 2002