Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1530930
"It's that village," she says. "Yeah, I'm the head of the local, but I have a huge village that's willing to support us and we wouldn't be successful with- out that. It was a team effort." Santa Maria Educators Plan Ahead After Power Outages "I didn't know the toilets couldn't flush without power, until I needed to and there was no power," says Riccardo Magni, a member of Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Faculty Associ- ation (SMJUHSDFA). Organizing to fight for student safety also m e a n s b e i n g pre p a re d f o r th e u n e xp e c t e d , w h e t h e r i t 's w i l d f i r e s , u n h e a l t h y a i r, b a d w e a t h e r o r p o w e r o u t a g e s . S M J U H S D FA members found themselves dealing with the l a tt e r th re e t i m e s i n q u i c k su c c e ssi o n th i s year, w hich spurred th e local association to organize around preparedness and force the district to improve its systems. "We have had in a six-week span all of our com- prehensive high schools suffering a debilitating loss of electricity," says Curt Greeley, president of SMJUHSDFA. "A car hit and took out a power line for one, there was an unexplained PG&E outage for another, and a third lost power when a power line broke. You can't predict any of that." Greeley says educators learned quickly just how electricity-reliant their schools are when the outages killed all communications — no email, telephones, loudspeakers, even the bells. In one of the events, cell phone service also went down (and Greeley says it's often spotty in some schools anyway), creating a potentially danger- ous situation. "It just really showed us that there were gaps in our technology, and we have to have contingency plans to address them," says Greeley. "We're cur- rently working with the district to shore up those gaps." At another school, Greeley says they learned during the blackout that the toilets there also ran on electricity, dis- covering the batteries intended as backups in the event of an outage were dead. This meant there were 10 working toilets for approximately 3,400 people for more than two hours. Windows at the school are also fixed-closed, and temperatures became sweltering quickly without electric-powered cli- mate control systems. Magni said the situation was troubling for educators, who had no way of knowing what was happening and no way to contact anyone to find out. " It was par ticul arly frig ht enin g w h en th e ph on e s di dn' t w ork," s ay s Ma g ni , a sci en c e teacher and coach. "Since I have a door to the outside, I would open it and talk to the secu- rity guards to find out what was going on. Our administrators were not prepared for this, so it was really unorganized." S M J U H S D FA m e m b e r s h av e t a k e n t h e s e experiences and used them to power an orga- nizing campaign to fight for safe and healthy conditions for all. Greeley says they are meeting with district safety committees to share their voices and create the best teaching and learning environment in Santa Maria schools and ensure there's a well-thought plan in the event of emer- gency situations. " We have members who are passionate and knowledgeable and if we could have some inclu- sive leadership and more perspective on this, we can reach a better answer. This should be a district-led initiative across campuses so that teachers and staff have expectations," he says. "We'd like to collaborate on what's best for teach- ers, students and staff." Greeley's message for CTA local unions fight- ing for similar health and safety improvements: You are not alone and remember that safety is the foundation for all supportive teaching and learning environments. "Too often, we get caught up in teaching, learning, assess- ment and negotiating contracts. Our experiences this year have reminded us what the true mission of our union is — to keep our members safe when our employer can't or won't." Continued from Page 19 CTA Organizing Grants Local leaders can apply for CTA Organizing Grants to help organize in your chapter and member work, including Site Visit, Planning and Local President Release Time grants. See page 35 for details. 20 cta.org Curt Greeley Feature Riccardo Magni