Meridian Education Association

IEA Region 9 Welcomes North Star Charter School!

Posted on 10. Mar, 2011 by tricia.waltner in Featured, News

The Idaho Education Association recently made a historic step in recognizing the first locals organized at public charter schools, including one at North Star Charter School in Eagle.

“Your issues are our issues. Our issues are yours. We welcome you with open arms,” IEA President Sherri Wood said after the board’s unanimous vote last November to welcome locals representing educators at North Star as well as at Xavier Charter School in Twin Falls.

Wood noted that although some individual teachers at Idaho charter schools have long been members of the IEA, “People at North Star and Xavier took the next logical step and decided to get organized as locals. Every educator has the right to join the IEA. North Star and Xavier have done it in a big way.”

At North Star, 35 teachers representing 83 percent of the certified staff had joined the local as of early December, and 90 percent of the staff agreed to be represented by the North Star Charter Education Association, which has asked its school board to bargain. (Idaho law requires that just 50 percent of employees “plus one” agree to the local’s representation before bargaining may be requested.)

The North Star local is being led by John Hansen, who previously taught at Capital High School in Boise. He joined the charter school in 2007 to teach social studies and coordinate North Star’s International Baccalaureate program. He is joined by Shirley Rau, the 1991 Idaho Teacher of the Year and a past Nampa Education Association president. Rau worked as executive director of the Idaho Charter School Network and as school choice coordinator at the Idaho Department of Education before returning to the classroom in 2009.

The curriculum at North Star is rigorous and faculty members are passionate about teaching. “We agreed that we wanted to form a professional association so we could, under Idaho law, have a seat at the table to help our school move forward,” Hansen says. “We look forward to having a constructive, positive relationship with parents, the school board, and everyone else in the charter school community, and to be a good example of how the IEA can be a positive working partner in charter schools around the state.”

Sue Scott, the new IEA Associate Executive Director, helped guide the North Star staff while serving as Region 9 director for the IEA in the organization’s Meridian office. (North Star is authorized by and within the boundaries of Joint School District Number 2, but it operates independently.) “Watching a local begin from the ground up has been incredible,” she says. In turn, Rau says that Scott’s expertise – and support from the entire IEA staff – has helped the organizing process go smoothly.

Scott says the North Star effort is organizing as it should be, with professionals saying, “Let’s get together and talk about what matters to us.” Although most charter schools succeed, their survival is not guaranteed. More than anything, North Star EA members seek to uphold their school’s high standards and have a consistent contract and equitable working conditions from year to year.

“That’s what your membership in the Idaho Education Association is all about: joining a group of people working together to the do the best possible job for kids in the state of Idaho,” says Sherri Wood. “We’d be more than happy to speak with other charter school educators about possibly starting their own local.”

Educators in charter schools who would like to explore affiliation with the Idaho Education Association are invited to contact the regional director in their area. Find your region at http://idahoea.org/directory/or call (208) 344-1341 for help.

Do you know of – or do you teach at – a school that deserves wider recognition for its innovative staff? Nominate it as an IEA Featured School by emailing jfanselow@idahoea.org.