In order to provide a successful environment for students and staff, a union is needed to ensure fair and healthy working conditions, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges said. South’s Teachers Union is composed of an executive board of teachers, providing a space for important conversations on major issues in the building, Teachers Union Co-President, Dan Rhoades, explained.

Every workplace has a union, which ensures that the American workforce is properly compensated, safe, and healthy, Georges said. South’s Teachers Union is composed of teacher volunteers from each department at South, North, Off Campus, and district administration, Rhoades said. When teachers are able to work together and share problems from their classrooms, students are more successful, he explained.

“I want students to understand that [the Union is] advocating for what we think [students] need, in addition to the needs of the teachers,” Rhoades said. “Students are always at the center of what [we focus] on.”

The work done by the Union ensures that teachers have access to the right resources, including equipment, technology, and high-quality classrooms to best support their students, Matthew Whipple, recently retired Union President, said. Teachers also seek a salary that consists of health care benefits and health insurance through the Union, he added.

“I make the assumption that the staff, when paid quality wage and given workplace conditions, [can make] direct and meaningful benefit [to their] students,” Whipple said.

When South was established, the Union created a contract listing laws and rules regarding teachers’ protections that was revised in 2-3 year increments, Whipple said. In 2003, the Union moved to five-year contracts, where each teacher got a contract with rules on the work of teaching and overseeing learning in the classroom, Whipple stated.

“[The contract] set the groundwork for a quality program of education in the district,” Whipple said. “Those are [not] nuances you’re going to see as a student, [but] instead it sets a stable groundwork for high quality teaching and learning.”

At Teachers Union meetings, resentatives share any issues and then solve them together, Rhoades explained. This provides an opportunity for presidents of the union to stay aware and updated on any concerns, along with celebrating accomplishments, Rhoades said.

“It would be impossible for any one group [of teachers] to know everything that’s going on in the school, so when we put our heads together, we can have many different perspectives,” Rhoades said.

The level of teamwork in the school’s organization would not be available without this collective union, Georges explained. She believes the union is essential to the success of not only the classroom environment but the operation of the district.

“Teachers need a lot of support in modern public education, and I think unions have been leading policy and working condition changes for teachers,” Georges said.