The area between Victorville and Coleville along the eastern side of the Sierras has some of the highest mountains, lowest deserts and oldest life forms in the country, as well as some of the most geographically remote, hardest-to-reach CTA chapters in the entire state of California.
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The big purple bus (from top) makes a stop in Lee Vining. Teachers attend a community outreach event in Bishop. Mono Lake was on the route. CTA President Barbara E. Kerr holds a conversation with teachers at Bishop Elementary School. |
Which is why each spring a hardy group of CTA leaders fans out across two remote counties to bring the CTA gospel to those members who don't often get a chance to join their colleagues in union activity. This year's 30th annual Inyo-Mono Run, as it's called, was even more successful than past years, according to participants who rode on the big purple bus. Not only did they meet with chapters in crisis, but they reached out to communities as well.
"We are so far away from everything that it is very hard for our regional reps to make it up here," says Mono County Teachers Association President Carolyn Crawford. The chapter, headquartered in Lee Vining, represents about 25 members. "Everyone who came was so positive and supportive. It let me know I had resources I could draw on."
Meeting with teachers along the route May 19-21 were newly elected CTA President Barbara E. Kerr, several CTA Board members, Service Center Council and State Council representatives, and CTA staff. It was not the first time for Kerr, however, who was one of the early participants in the annual venture.
The rousing reception "surprised a lot of us because this is something we had been doing for so long," says former CTA Board member Paul Markowitz, a veteran of at least 18 previous Inyo-Mono Runs. "We always get a very nice reception from our teachers. Because of the geography, we don't get up there as often as we'd like. And although we don't have a lot of members out there, this lets them know that they are thought about and cared about."
The trip was partially funded by the High Desert Service Center Council.
"Our goal was to stop at every school site from Trona to Coleville. The idea was to get our CTA president out there in a big way," says Don Veith, a Tehachapi leader. "I think the fact that we were there gave the local people who are fighting battles a lot of hope."
Teachers in Mammoth, Lone Pine, Bishop, Convict Lake and places beyond were able to share their ideas and interests as CTA experts in the areas of organizing, pension issues, community outreach and the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) joined the group to lead discussions.
"It showed our unity and the fact that associations care about one another," says Donna Davis, a member of the Victor Valley Teachers Association. Davis participated in the community outreach aspect of the trip, leading discussions in how to improve communication between teachers and parents. For the first time, parents were invited to dinner discussions in which they were given "homework boxes" assembled by CTA. The boxes contained supplies, reference books, math manipulatives and a list of ideas to help their children with school.
It wasn't necessarily easy for the group to reach out to members or the community. Some teachers were skeptical about the visitors at first, and at least one principal was openly hostile to the mission - until he actually got to see what the teachers were doing.
"After we showed him the ways that teachers could help parents, he totally changed his attitude," says Davis.
Others were just surprised by the spectacle of a big purple bus riding into town.
"We arrived in one town to rumors that J-Lo [performer Jennifer Lopez] was on the bus. Kids were lined up to see her," says Veith. While they may have been disappointed that the star wasn't among the teachers, the students eagerly toured the bus anyway.
In addition to the camaraderie it mustered, the Inyo-Mono Run helped break the isolation that many teachers feel when they work in such far-flung areas.
"It was amazing," says Victor Elementary Teachers Association President Nancee Fine. "It was really enlightening to see how some of these teeny communities are dealing with the budget crisis, for example. I realized we are all so different, and yet all so the same."
Dale Martin
