Joint effort brings closure to historic strife

For Fairfield-Suisun Unified Teachers Association (F-SUTA) members, it is nothing less than a historic moment: Their president, Liz Priest, and Superintendent Sharon Tucker standing side by side in front of a roomful of teachers and administrators — sitting side by side.

Priest and Tucker are there to kick off a training session on the new teacher evaluation process created jointly by teachers and administrators.

They take turns describing the work, then turn the session over to F-SUTA mentor teachers there to train teacher/administrator teams in the evaluation process. The teams are expected to duplicate the training at their respective school sites.

Three years ago, such a harmonious sight would have been impossible to imagine. Following a teachers' strike, the superintendent said it would be a "cold day in hell" before the teachers triumphed. Responding with a "Cold Day in Hell" rally, teachers showed up in snow clothes and built an igloo out of a ton of ice they had delivered to the district office.

Relations remained frosty for a long time after the settlement was reached.

Now, as teacher leaders and administrators make a concerted effort to improve the overall culture of the school district for the sake of staff and students, there's a perceptible thaw in the hostilities. Both sides are meeting regularly to work on improving communication and adapting school policy.

"It's very healing to see the administration and union working so hard together," says consulting teacher Barbara Riney, one of the evaluation trainers. "We've had a hard time bringing closure to what happened during the strike."

"What's exciting is that F-SUTA picked the mentor teachers to train the administrators today," adds Maria Bertsch-Brown, also a trainer. "The teachers here today were very powerful people during the strike and are not patsies of the administration. But today, it's nice to see people building bridges instead of walls."

"It's exciting to have evolved so far and to have worked together on something that has great potential for being meaningful and useful," says Laurel Salerno, a teacher at Fairfield High School. "The fact that we did this together is huge. It's been a true collaboration. I'm inspired that we have moved so far from 2001 when we had complete separation to being able to work toward a mutual goal."

The previous evaluation process was adopted during the strike period. Teachers disliked it because it was subjective, did not measure professional growth, and did not give teachers much in the way of feedback or an opportunity to communicate with the evaluator. Six months ago, a committee of six teachers, six administrators, the superintendent and the association president sat down and worked out changes in the process. The new process is less subjective, gives teachers a chance to respond to comments, provides more time between classroom observations in which to measure professional growth, and uses a rubric rather than a rating scale.

F-SUTA Executive Board member Kathlan Latimer, who served on the committee, believes it is a huge first step. "It shows that teacher perspective is respected and valued. This is give-and-take."

F-SUTA members and administrators are also in the beginning stages of working together to address the worsening discipline problem. Years ago, the one-size-fits-all discipline model for students was eliminated without another model to replace it.

Teachers and administrators at Sullivan Middle School are getting a head start on the rest of the district. They started meeting over the summer to work not only on discipline, but also on creating a school culture, says teacher Carol Walton. "We have a long way to go, but it's something the staff is welcoming." The school also plans to initiate "collaboration days" for staff this year for the first time, and to hold assemblies to recognize good student behavior and attendance and otherwise celebrate the positive.

Teachers say they knew the culture of the district was moving in a more positive direction when the district office supported sending teachers and administrators to the CTA Urban Issues Conference to hear Ruby Payne's presentation on the culture of poverty. In fact, the district paid for about 75 out of 100 staff members to attend. Following the conference, the board decided to pick up the tab for additional training.

Priest believes other factors are at play in the decision to begin a new era of cooperation. School board members backed by F-SUTA have been elected since the strike, including Beverly Taylor, a middle school counselor and member of United Teachers of Richmond, and Barbara Mallon, a member of the Vacaville Teachers Association. Also, the superintendent is in her final year at the helm and does not want to leave a legacy of bitterness for her successor. "Most of us feel that it's time to stop the fighting and the bad feelings and get on with the work that needs to be done so we can hone our craft and focus our attention on being educators," says Priest. "Ultimately, the children will benefit from this."