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March 2015

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COMMUNIQUÉ A PUBLICATION OF THE IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION – MARCH 2015 – Vol. 52, No. 5 IN THIS ISSUE: OPINION "Why we fight" by ISEA President Tammy Wawro ORGANIZING TIPS A quick dozen tips for organizing MEMBERS AT WORK Going the extra mile 3 7 11 Set it... Set it... and forget it! and forget it! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! FOLLOW US ON: Shane Peterson had a dilemma. The second-year industrial tech teacher liked working at West Lyon Community School District. He really did. But Central Lyon, located in the town Peterson lives, had a shop about twice as big as his space here and an offer was on the table. He was ready to jump. But there was a school board meeting first. "Parents kind of heard that I was possibly leaving," Peterson, a co-president of the West Lyon Education Association, said. "They came to the school board and said, you know, 'We're going to do whatever it takes to keep him here and we'd like to help you out on the shop.'" Now, in addition to teaching students how to build cabinets, connect light fixtures and frame houses, Peterson is – along with folks in the community – planning for the expansion of his West Lyon industrial tech shop. "I've never seen anything like it," Roselyn Schillerstrom, English teacher and WLEA treasurer said, with a smile. "It was pretty incredible." Incredible, unprecedented, surprising, humbling. It's all that. But Peterson's story is also indicative of the hard work West Lyon Education Association members have undertaken in the last half-decade. Community engagement is a priority. WLEA members run food drives, they raised money for a resident whose home burned down; the teacher's union is a part of – as opposed to apart from – the community whose children they educate. A bulletin board West Lyon is a single K-12 building and a football field surrounded by miles of corn and bean fields in far northwest Iowa. Most of the kids come from farm families and – with a county population density of 20 people per square mile – the school building rivals any place in nearby Larchwood and Inwood as the community gathering place. Politically, it's one of the reddest parts of a red part of Iowa. In Lyon County registered Republicans outnumber independents by roughly 3-to-1 and Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 6-to-1. Unions and associations have historically had a hard time gaining a Patty Roberts serves the entire Shenandoah Community Shenandoah terrified Patty Roberts. The small southwestern Iowa community (pop. 5,100) was nothing like cosmopolitan Monterrey, Nuevo Leon in Mexico (pop. 1.1 million) where she grew up. Roberts – her birth name is Diana, but everyone calls her Patty – a tween at the time her family came north would be enrolling a middle school where she didn't know any of her classmates or even speak the language. "Darse por vencida no es un opcion, nina," her mother told her. "It means 'Giving up is not an option, my daughter.' That's what she would tell me," Roberts Growing our own in West Lyon Educational Support Professional of the Year See GROWING, page 6 See ESP, page 8 Technology Intergrationist Janelle Rentschler works with two students during an afternoon class at West Lyon. Rentschler said the West Lyon Education Association has a new sense of energy among the membership. The Iowa State Education Association will premier a short video about Patty Roberts at the Delegate Assembly in April. We'll post the video online shortly after that. Iowa State Education Association Education Support Professional of the Year Patty Roberts works with Shenandoah Elementary School second-grader Diego Manzo. Roberts helps students ranging from elementary to high school learn English.

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