Educators are my family. In the narrowest sense, members of my immediate family
have been educators – I will talk about one in a moment. But my family also includes all the educators
I have worked beside throughout my career and yes, many
of you in the hall today are my family as well.
We are a family
of educators.
And throughout
my life, educators have taught me so many invaluable life lessons.
Take my late
grandfather who was a school custodian. He taught me that all work has dignity.
I have vivid childhood memories of playing on a gleaming boiler room floor at
the school where he worked. Everything that man did he did to the very best of
his ability whether he was a school custodian or driving a school bus. He took
pride in all he did. He passed that work ethic down to his family. And that
work ethic impacted how those who worked with him saw him. School was closed on
the day he took me, as a little girl, to work with him, but as we circled the building
there were several elementary teachers working in their rooms. He stopped by
each teacher’s room where a light was on and every teacher
we met that day spoke glowingly about my grandfather as their secret weapon.
They saw my grandfather as an integral part of their success as teachers. He
kept their rooms safe, clean, and well-stocked, as he always collected school
supplies left behind by kids, saved them, and shared them with the teachers. As
they spoke about him, their school custodian, there was a twinkle in their eyes
and a profound respect in their voices. I have carried that lesson with me
always, that all work has dignity.
Educators
like my grandfather, an SRP, and his colleagues,
the teachers, taught me that.
When I
entered high school as a painfully shy young student in New Hartford, a suburb
in the Mohawk Valley, it was
my business teacher, the late Mrs. Jan Barile, who first saw me for who I was:
A serious, hardworking but reserved young woman. She regularly acknowledged
traits in me that others never even saw and later nominated me for several student
awards. Never in my short life as a student had I been recognized by any
teacher so publicly or so genuinely. The words Mrs. Barile shared about me at
the awards dinner sounded like she was describing someone else entirely. She
changed the way I saw myself and my future with that one small act of genuine recognition.
Mrs. Barile let me see that I did not need to change. Staying true to myself
was the lesson I carried with me. I did not need to be louder than the others
or stand out in some desperate way. Keeping my head down and letting my work do
the talking was what I took away as a teacher and later as a union leader.
A teacher, Jan Barile, taught me that.
Fast forward
to my days entering Mohawk Valley Community College. My professors,
the late Mr. Giametti and Mr. Lattuca, helped shape
me as a college student by teaching me perseverance and resilience. I had not
struggled academically while at New Hartford. My first real
academic struggle didn’t hit until I went to
college and took a couple of courses where I needed skills, I simply did not
possess...yet...in order to achieve my best. Their
lessons, delivered during office hours, where they gave me the gift of their time,
helped mold me into a confident college student. Their lessons taught me about
grit, about trying new things and how to get back up when I fall. They let me
see that I learned even more from failure than I did through success. They
began to help me see that community college was just a beginning for me not an
ending. They spent time with me, talked with me, inspired me, and encouraged me
to continue my education. They wouldn't give up on me, and they helped me to
never give up on myself or, one day when I became a teacher, on my students. They
helped me see a bigger world for myself and my family; one I would have never
dreamed of without them.
Educators, my community college professors, taught me that.
Immediately
after graduating from MVCC, I was working as an SRP.
I was the secretary to the principal at Oneida County BOCES. A teacher shortage at the time
propelled me into classrooms where I found my passion for teaching. I stood in
the gap until qualified substitute teachers could arrive. The students at that
BOCES inspired me and gave me high marks as a substitute teacher, and the
teachers in those classrooms began to believe in me and my abilities as a
future educator. They helped me find college programs that would allow me to
work during the day as a secretary and go to school at night to obtain my
teaching degree. Because of them I became a teacher. A teacher like the ones who
adored my grandfather. A teacher like the ones who nurtured me as a young woman
in the Utica area.
You see, it
was another educator, one from the Pittsford Central School District outside of
Rochester, where I spent most of my teaching career, who saw leadership capacity
in me beyond what I was demonstrating in the classroom as a teacher. I had been
an educator for nine years when she knocked on my door and said, “Have you ever
thought about being a union rep?” Granted she didn’t want to do it anymore
herself and saw me as her way out, but I took the
opportunity and ran with it, throwing myself into my union work. Then, after I
had served my union for several years as an assistant building rep, and then building
rep in two different buildings, our iconic local president, Barb Shapiro who
served several years on the NYSUT Board of Directors, said to me, I think you
would make a great local president one day. She taught me how to represent our
members-- “We don’t protect negligence or incompetence,” she would say. “We
ensure due process.” And the membership of the Pittsford District Teachers
Association eventually elected me their president, supported me, and stood arm
and arm with me through tough negotiations, challenging opt out conversations,
APPR and the tax cap. Together we made transformative changes to our local
union. The educators of the PDTA pushed me, many times
challenged me and made me tougher. PDTA educators taught me how to be a
better, stronger, service leader.
Yet again,
educators were teaching me valuable lessons.
Now, I did
some teaching of my own, and not just in the classroom. One lesson my husband
learned over these past 30+ years, having been married to an educator and union
leader all this time, was how much work educators must do after work hours. My
husband and best friend, Joe, has asked me one question each day--once my day was done: How much work do you have to do tonight?
Well today, after waiting for over 30 years for a different answer, I can say
to you, for right now anyway, the answer to your question on how much work I
must do tonight...is none. That may change as I take my time to be intentional
about how I spend my days and who I spend the remainder of my professional life
with but for now I cannot wait to start this next chapter of my life with you.
Thank you for the love, support, and patience you have shared with me through
the years.
NYSUT
delegates, I hope that during my time as your Executive Vice President, you
have felt that I listened, advocated, and fought for you with everything I had.
I have been so honored to represent your interests in the halls of the State
Education Department whether you were an SRP, teacher, or college professor – I
was never alone. I worked alongside our talented, dedicated, and skilled
Research & Educational Services staff led first by Dan Kinley and now by Peter Applebee and we’ve
tried to move mountains -- whether it was calling out invalid standardized
testing; getting rid of the edTPA, or fighting to put APPR on hold during the
pandemic.
We crafted,
through our Education and Learning Trust team, professional learning that we hope
transformed your schools and your campuses and supported you during the
pandemic and beyond. And, along with Greg McCrea and the dedicated staff on the
Research and Ed Services team and with incredible support from James Morrison
and his creative Communications team, we tackled critical issues like the
educator shortage and lack of workforce diversity with creative solutions like
our Take a Look at Teaching Initiative and our Grow Your Own grants. And, if
you were a female member of this union, a NYSUT woman, know that I saw you, I valued your leadership, your strength, and
your voice and I worked diligently with every fiber of my being to raise up
your voices and your calls for equity, equality and now for control over your
own bodies.
The lessons I have learned from all of you, our NYSUT educators, I will carry with me for the rest of my life. These are the same lessons that you continue to teach one another as you support our members, your fellow leaders, and NYSUT leadership. You continuously reminded me that the power of the collective is always stronger than one voice alone. You showed me how to turn a spark of advocacy into a flame. You taught me to never give up and never give in -- even when the cards are stacked against us. You strengthen NYSUT, you challenge NYSUT, and you will remain the heart and soul of NYSUT going forward, and you, my NYSUT family, will stay in my heart forever.
Thank you, delegates!
