Earlier this year, the Preston Education Association was in disarray.
The president of PEA had to step down just before bargaining season, leaving members scrambling to prepare for the negotiating table. PEA had not participated in any bargaining trainings or meetings. Most members had very little negotiating experience, if any. And they had to learn — fast.
“That was baptism in fire,” Tiffany Barfuss, PEA’s new president, recalled.
Now, months later, PEA is proving the old idiom right: Relationships forged in fire are stronger. The local union is reorganized, reenergized, and ready to transform.
“Once (educators) understand what it can do for them, I think that’s where we’ll see a huge change,” said Katie Troumbley, PEA’s new membership director.
‘It’s Just More Personable’
You probably are at least a little familiar with Preston — even if you’ve never been there — thanks to the cult classic “Napoleon Dynamite,” which was filmed in town. Preston is the seat of Franklin County, which shares a border with Utah. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows everyone, and that’s the great advantage of working there, Troumbley and Barfuss said.
“I like the fact that I live here, so I get to live in my community and see the kids all the time,” Troumbley said. “I love being a part of a small district. It’s just more personable.”
Like many areas in rural Idaho, the Preston School District serves students from several far-flung communities — some children board the school bus at 7:15 a.m. and don’t return home until 5 p.m.
It’s also a tight-knit district, Barfuss said. “The superintendent here — he knows who you are,” she said. “It’s kind of a neat thing for him to be able to walk into a room and know us. … This place is unique, and I think it’s great.”
That closeness worked to PEA’s advantage when they had to triage their negotiations process earlier this year. PEA member Saige Ostler took over the presidency and got to work.
“Our vice president had to step up,” Barfuss said. “And there hadn’t really been any training for anything. We didn’t have a negotiations team. We didn’t have anyone to step up. We had missed all the trainings. We created a very quick-and-dirty negotiations team where none of us, including myself, had ever been on a negotiations team.”
Barfuss gives credit to Caitlin Pankau, IEA’s Region 5 director, for preparing the team for the negotiating table, and to Ostler for her leadership. Ostler stepped down after finishing her term and Barfuss was elected to replace her.
“(Ostler) was able to do some incredible things with the amount of time that she was in there, just that short little period of time,” Troumbley said.
Luckily, PEA also had a template to follow thanks to previous negotiations teams, Troumbley said. “They didn’t put up with getting walked over,” she said. “They knew exactly what we could get, and they always had our best interests at heart … I love that they’ll fight for us in the way we need most.”
Despite the baptism by fire, the process resulted in more than just a crash course for the new negotiations team. PEA walked away with big wins, including improved salaries, paternity leave for biological and adoptive parents, more time to use district-funded classroom supply funds, and better PTO.
They also learned the importance of the give-and-take. “We should be willing to give and take all the time and compromise so that we get a little bit of good, but we also give good,” Troumbley said.
‘They Fight for Us’
Going through the negotiations process drove home the importance of PEA, Troumbley and Barfuss said — and they’re working hard with other members to spread the word.
“I feel like in education, we fight and fight to have our voices heard, but there’s no backup for it,” Troumbley said. “The PEA does that for us. They fight for us. … I didn’t know we had the opportunity to support our educators that way.”
For Barfuss, who grew up in a union family, joining PEA was never a question. But even she didn’t quite realize the breadth of resources available to her until she became more involved in the local. This summer, she attended Summer Institute for the second time and has been learning more about how she and other members can take advantage of training and knowledge.
“I feel like our members need to know that,” Barfuss said. “They also need to know strategies and their rights — you know, things like what is in your personnel file? Do you have the right to go look at it? What should be in there and what shouldn’t be in there?”
PEA wants to help members understand how the union can work for them. “Once you understand what it can do for you and all that good stuff, you feel like (membership) is an investment versus somebody else who just wants my money,” Troumbley said. “Once they understand what it can do for them, I think that’s where we will see a huge change.”
PEA is already back on track with all-member meetings and is discovering the best ways to communicate with members and get the word out about the union. It’s not easy work. But Barfuss and Troumbley say the effort is worth it.
“I feel like a lot of educators just don’t feel supported, and that’s why we lose a lot of really good educators,” Troumbley said. “Knowing that I can help be a part of that change, of helping them feel supported and heard and seeing action taken because they were heard … it makes a huge difference. That’s when educators go, ‘I would love to be a part of something that helps somebody feel valued.’ Because this is not an easy job.”
