Privatization News
Political action thwarts privatization in Ypsilanti
Four years of electing school board members pays off for EA and ESP members.
When employees in the Ypsilanti
school district decided to get involved
in local school board elections,
they hoped that their political action
might pay off.
Little did they know that four years’ worth of election victories would save the jobs of more than 40 bus drivers.
But that’s exactly what happened earlier this year when the Ypsilanti Board of Education voted against pursuing additional information that might lead to firing the district’s bus drivers and hiring a foreign company to transport students.
The win was a big one for approximately 600 members of the Ypsilanti Education Association and the Ypsilanti Support Staff Association, who had worked for years in this Washtenaw County district to recommend and elect school board members committed to students and the district’s employees. Political action thwarts privatization in Ypsilanti Four years of electing school board members pays off for EA and ESP members.
“This just goes to show how important it is to elect your employer,” says Kelly Powers, president of the teachers union.
Shared vision for district
Beginning with the 2003 school board election, and continuing through 2006, school employees successfully elected seven board members who shared their vision for the district.
Like most districts, limited state funding has prompted Ypsilanti to cut budgets, eliminate some jobs and consider various ways to trim spending. Privatizing the bus drivers’ jobs has been on the radar for some time, but never more than late 2006 and early this year when district officials considered more seriously investigating this option.
District administrators considered a United Kingdom-based company as one option, but the board of education voted in February not to pursue outsourcing the jobs.
Partnership cemented
The February board decision says a lot about the importance of political action, but it also served to cement a partnership between the two local associations, which didn’t have a long history of working cooperatively.
Larry Hankins, a carpenter and president of the support staff association, and Powers, an elementary physical education teacher, started working more closely beginning in fall 2006. The two leaders eat lunch together daily and each attends the other’s bargaining sessions. Each attends and speaks at most school board meetings.
Powers has used her comment time at board meetings to address support staff issues, including privatization, and Hankins said he stands ready to support his teacher colleagues by doing the same. The two associations will work closely during the 2007-08 school year to implement an effective public relations plan, too.
“I believe in union,” Powers says. “We’re a team. We’re united.”
Hankins agreed, adding: “We’re in this together. These students are like our kids. It’s not just the teachers who educate the students every day. The bus drivers, the secretaries, and the other support staff employees contribute, too.”