Oswood

OFF THE I -10 in the Low Desert, transportation is a lifeline for remote locations including public schools, keeping campuses supplied and getting students to and from school safely. Desert Sands Teachers Association (DSTA) Vice President Dani Oswood says being three hours into the desert poses logistical and financial challenges, especially with students who live a half-hour away from school and campuses with poor internet connectivity.

“Funding cuts have exponential impacts to rural districts,” she says. “Our district needs updated technology — we struggle with WiFi because many of our locations are remote.

“Our transportation budget is going to take a huge hit if Prop. 55 expires. That doesn’t necessarily affect certificated staff, but it impacts how your students get to school,” says Oswood, a physical education teacher. “I’m looking at how we’re going to be able to get food to our students — I imagine that’s going to go away.”

DSTA is currently in bargaining and while Desert Sands Unified has a large reserve, according to Oswood, programs are still underfunded and they lost some staff since last school year.

The district would lose a whopping $36.1 million if Prop. 55 were to expire, which Oswood says would have significant impacts on students — including less classroom supplies and fewer paraeducators in special education classes.

“Each site would lose a few educators, which means that class sizes won’t be optimal for the quality of education we want to give our students,” she says. “If your budget is cut so much that you only have nuts and bolts for the schools to run, you can’t provide the services your students need.”

DSTA is organizing Chapter Action Teams (ChAT) to lead their Prop. 55 extension campaign at every site — it’s an idea that came out of their participation in the Low Desert Leadership Conference. These teams are comprised of 4–5 members at each site, who have committed to collecting signatures and sharing information about the importance of the Prop. 55 extension.

“We asked all the site reps to fill out a Google form so we can track who is active on these teams. It’s a way of doing site mapping but around a common theme — and then we create more of a collective union,” Oswood says. “We’re trying to mobilize and make the education system as strong as possible, and that starts with proper funding. Most educators are doing the job because we want students to succeed, and they can’t if we’re not giving them the proper resources.”

Oswood says DSTA is working to be more deliberate about member outreach, giving multiple avenues for members to get involved and inviting them to do so. That includes engaging new educators about the union, our shared values and collective fight for the public school funding our students need and communities deserve.

“At a community level, people never say ‘don’t fund our schools’ because they know how much it means to our kids — and if we don’t push at the community level, we’re not going to get the funding we need at the state level.”