As the current school year comes to a close, many educators are preparing for summer negotiations to determine what schools will look like in the fall. Join National Educators United for a conversation about the lessons educators around the U.S. learned over the last year and what it means for our future. The pandemic has magnified many of the inequities in how public schools operate. Some of the issues we will discuss include:

•Health and safety issues like the lack of nurses, counselors, social workers, COVID testing, contact tracing, and proper HVAC systems
•Limited technology access
•Continued deprioritization of racial equity issues like restorative justice, ethnic studies, hiring BIPOC teachers, and police-free schools
•The ongoing reality of underfunded schools

Register at: http://bit.ly/NEU-Pandemic-Organizing

Speaker Bios:

Tanya Coats is the President of the Knox County Education Association and Vice President of the Tennessee Education Association (TEA). Prior to her being elected to her local and state executive boards, she served as an educator for the Knox County School System as a Curriculum Facilitator. In addition, she has over 20 years of experience working at all levels of public education. She has been a high school math teacher, middle school science and social studies teacher and an elementary educator to include serving as a Kindergarten and Fourth grade teacher

Ester Carrera is a high school senior and lives in Elizabeth, NJ. She attends school with 7 security guards and 3 school counselors. As a Youth Power Project member at Make the Road New Jersey, Ester has been talking with young people from across the state about their experiences with policing in schools and asking students what it is they would like to see more of (mental health programming). She decided to join the effort for #CounselorsNotCops so that her sister might have more access to resources in her high school career than she did.

Jerry A. Carbo is a Professor of Labor Relations and Business and Society in the Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University. He is also a practicing attorney in the State of West Virginia. He has over 20 years of experience as a manager, attorney, advocate and researcher dealing with workplace harassment and bullying. Works with Badass Teachers and their Quality of Worklife group and on the board for the National Workplace Bullying Coalition. Author of Understanding, Defining and Eliminating Workplace Bullying: Assuring Dignity at Work.

Elizabeth Lalasz is a registered nurse at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, a steward with National Nurses United, and delegate to the upcoming 2020 California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Convention. She contracted COVID-19 and then returned to work on a COVID-only unit that served detainees from the Cook County Jail.

Samantha Lester is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and has served for 16 years in the Navy and is currently a Commander. She is the parent of 3 children, 2 of whom currently attend Chesapeake Public Schools in Chesapeake, VA. She found herself thrust into advocacy work for the first time in the summer of 2020 after being motivated by the poor policies and leadership in her school system. She is currently the leader of a local advocacy group: Chesapeake Advocates for a Responsible Return to School which tries to increase communications and awareness of the district’s policies and holds them accountable for making safe, transparent and consistent decisions during the pandemic.

Marianne Reyns has been an English as a Second Language teacher for over 7 years prior to the pandemic. Now’s she’s on medical leave. She helped organize the Tennessee Safe Return group. She’s the lead organizer/coordinator for National Safe Return to Campus Page.