The big news: National Education Association President Princess Moss traveled through North Idaho with Idaho Education Association President Peggy Hoy on Sept. 4 to speak with educators about what makes their rural and small-community schools special, and the challenges that make their work increasingly difficult.
• In conversations in Plummer, Mullan, Kellogg and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho educators spoke about deep community connections, chronic underfunding of public education, teacher recruitment and retention, geographic isolation and the challenges of union organizing under Idaho’s new anti-union law, House Bill 516.
• Again and again, educators delivered the same message: Small schools may face unique challenges, but they should not be defined by what they lack.
“We do take care of each other,” said J.J. Macmillan, president of the Plummer Education Association. “And it’s a family.”
IEA Reporter Podcast:
NEA President Princess Moss and IEA President Peggy Hoy discuss the challenges facing rural public schools and why educator voices are essential to building stronger schools and communities.
Why it matters: Nine of 10 Idaho public school districts are rural, but educators told Moss their experiences can be difficult for policymakers and even their fellow union members to fully understand.
• In Plummer, Macmillan described educators who commute long distances because they are committed to the students and community they serve. She travels about 88 miles each day, while some colleagues drive nearly two hours. “To serve here is to truly serve,” she said.
• In Mullan, educators described working in one of Idaho’s smallest school districts, where teachers fill multiple roles, online courses are essential to providing a broad curriculum and the distance from Boise makes participating in statewide union activities especially challenging.
• Julia Smulkowski, president of IEA’s Region 1 and a Coeur d’Alene School District educator, described the challenge of connecting educators across a region stretching from the Coeur d’Alene Reservation to the Canadian border. The region includes some of North Idaho’s largest school districts as well as some of its smallest, each with different needs. “The challenge of bringing people together and really forming community and having that sense of identity over such a large geographical location” is significant, she said.
“Oftentimes rural communities go unseen or, because we’re not the loudest voices in the room, we sometimes get looked over,” Moss said. “We have educators out here that deserve to be lifted up, their voices lifted up and seen.”
What makes rural schools different: Educators repeatedly pointed to relationships as one of their schools’ greatest strengths.
• Macmillan said working in Plummer allows her to know students and families over many years. “Where else do I get to work where I get to watch students (from) K-12 and have those relationships?” she said. “It’s nice that I get to know the families, the students and the community and be invested.”
• Those relationships extend to educators and administrators. “If we don’t coalesce and work together, nobody’s successful,” Macmillan said. “It’s about win-win.”
• Dr. Victoria Carson, superintendent of the Plummer School District, is not an IEA member but joined the conversation with Moss and Hoy. Carson grew up in the community and returned to lead its schools. “It still holds enough magic that I would move my own flesh and blood here,” she said.
• The district also benefits from extensive support from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, including behavioral health services, after-school programs, food, school supplies and cultural programming. “Everybody. All means all,” Macmillan said. “They take care of the entire community.”
• In Mullan, Ben Clark, president of the Mullan Education Association, said teaching students for years creates similarly close bonds. “I’ve never missed a graduation, because you’ve taught these kids for six years,” Clark said. “The kids know we’re here for them.”
The challenge of keeping educators in Idaho: North Idaho’s proximity to Washington creates a particularly stark recruitment and retention problem.
• Jake Smulkowski, president of the Post Falls Education Association and an 18-year Idaho educator, said he could make about $43,000 more a year doing the same work in nearby Spokane.
• For many educators who stay in Idaho, he said, the decision comes down to commitment to their students and communities. “To stay in Idaho, for many of us, it’s a matter of faith,” Smulkowski said. “It’s a matter of caring about our kids and our communities. And that makes it tough.”
The funding problem: Educators told Moss that Idaho’s chronic underfunding of public education leaves local communities responsible for paying for basic school services through supplemental levies.
• “The ZIP code of our children dictates the quality of the education that they get, in some cases,” Smulkowski said. “And that isn’t fair, and it’s not right.”
• In Mullan, Clark worried about protecting programs such as Advanced Opportunities, which allows students to take dual-credit courses many families otherwise could not afford. “How do we protect that opportunity going forward?” he asked. “Because I think that’s going to become more important, not less.”
• More broadly, Clark said small districts are particularly vulnerable to changes in state support. “Any budget cuts are going to hit rural schools first.”
A new environment for organizing: Educators also discussed how House Bill 516 is changing the way local associations and IEA operate.
• Hoy said IEA is responding by taking meetings and trainings closer to members rather than always asking them to travel to Boise. “Our members have to know that we’re still going to be there for them,” Hoy said. “We just might have to do it differently.”
• That also means returning to the fundamentals of relationship-based organizing. “We’re in a new time, and we have to think outside the box,” Hoy said. “We have to think of, how do we go back to that one-on-one conversation?”
• Stacy Lawler, vice president of the Lakeland Education Association, recalled being told by her superintendent that educators needed to “pause” as districts and local associations worked to understand the new law. “I can’t pause,” Lawler said. “I’m never going to pause the passion that I have for students, the passion that I have for my colleagues. … If anything, we are at a moment where we need to move forward.”
• Clark welcomed IEA’s increased regional outreach. “For those of us that work in more rural locations, it makes it so the union’s coming to us,” he said.
What Moss took away: The visit gave Moss an opportunity during her first week as NEA president to see firsthand how geography, funding and other challenges affect rural public schools.
• Moss emphasized finding common ground around the needs of students, educators and public schools. “There’s some things that we can all agree on, like we love our kids, we love our students, and we need to fight for what they need,” she said.
• Moss also credited Hoy with pushing rural education higher on NEA’s agenda. “Peggy has been very instrumental in pushing the National Education Association to recognize our rural communities,” Moss said.
• “I’m on a mission to be with our members, listen, and use what I learn to help ensure that we create better circumstances for educators and for the students,” Moss said.
For Macmillan, the message from Plummer was simple: “We’re small, but we’re mighty.”
Bottom line: That was also the message Moss heard throughout the day: rural schools face real pressures, but their size can be one of their greatest strengths. They are places where educators know their students, communities rally around their schools and relationships remain at the center of the work.
