Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1509126
says Hutchins, a member of the SCTA Executive Board. "Having reps at every site has strengthened our union. Our members know they have a voice and it feels like nothing is impossible." Like many school nurses in SCTA, Nho Le-Hinds hadn't really been active until district management tried to bring in a tele- medicine contractor a few years back without even discussing the matter with their dedicated 20-plus school nurses, who had numerous safety concerns about the idea. When management refused to listen to their voices, Le-Hinds turned to SCTA leader- ship, who set up meetings and helped the school nurses organize to fight off telemedicine. at victory was the wind in her sails in becoming a site rep; for five years she has kept her mostly itinerant school nurses informed, engaged and organized. "We nurses go to our sites and work, and we don't see each other very often," Le-Hinds says, noting that organizing and fighting together escalated their collective activism. "I don't think [we] had ever been at a school board meeting before." During the 2022 strike, the school nurses worked at the first aid tent during massive midday rallies, and Le-Hinds enlisted their support in the campaign that followed to flip the school board — with school nurses writing letters, walking precincts and knocking on voters' doors to elect new district leadership. High school math teacher and SCTA site rep Fernando Rodrí- guez also walked and knocked every weekend to f lip three school board seats and elect leaders who value educator voices. "We knew we needed to talk to everybody, and that's exactly what we did. All we were asking for was for our students to have a live teacher in every classroom. It made it clear to people that we were fighting for their children," Rodríguez says. "e change in leadership has shown how things can be better when we all have a common goal of representing ourselves, representing our community and serving our schools." While the site reps were quick to credit Milevsky, Fisher and SCTA leadership for their vision for Sacramento schools, the leaders were just as fast to point to site reps' willingness to com- mit to each other to fight for better, together. "A strong site rep program builds a bond that cannot be bro- ken," Milevsky says. "Our site reps are leaders at their schools who shine a light on what our educators and students really need. ey understand that an injury to one is an injury to all." ird grade teacher Marcie Amparo volunteered to be a site rep before she quite understood what the responsibility entailed. When she started as a teacher, there was no rep at her site and there hadn't been one for years, but she stepped up, learned as much as possible and helped build a new culture at Kimble Ele- mentary School. SCTA school nurses during the 2022 strike. SCTA leaders David Fisher and Nikki Milevsky, in action. Winning with #SacCitySolidarity SCTA members went on strike for eight days in Spring 2022, along with SEIU Local 1021 members in a glorious display of worker solidarity in the streets of Sacramento. With the rallying cry that every student deserved a teacher in their class- room, educators built a movement that captivated the capital city and saw a group of district moms occupy the school district main office to move the district to an agreement. After eight days, SCTA won an agreement that will help attract and retain quality educators and address the district's staffing crisis, as well as health and safety contract lan- guage improvements. 20 cta.org Feature