Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545561
4 SUMMER 2026 | ADVOCATE e Classroom Site Fund is where every district houses Prop 301 money. Our district had been trying to reserve a year's worth of that funding in case the economy dipped, but reserves had already risen beyond $3 million. e amount needed to get that extra 2% bump was something like $556,000. We partnered with the district to commit those reserve dollars, and we'll have six years before it runs out. Every year, the district can carefully manage the reserves and slowly repay what has been withdrawn. Long-term, we are in a declining enrollment district, so we will eventually have fewer staff and a smaller pool of people drawing from those funds. THE ADVOCATE: How do you see this campaign building long-term power for FEA? DEREK BORN: In the short term, we get to brag about the raise. We'll be talking about it at new employee events and lifting up all the people who were involved. One of my favorite things to do after a successful organizing campaign is a big meeting where you recognize everyone who played a part in getting across the finish line. In the long term, the way that we'll translate this into more power is through leader identification. We identified all of the educators who spoke at board meetings and will be reaching out to them explicitly to engage them in union work. As a result of this campaign, we have organic leaders that we wouldn't necessarily have known about before. THE ADVOCATE: What would be your advice to other locals who are considering launching a similar campaign? DEREK BORN: Be ready for the tension that results when you make public demands. When our campaign launched, our superintendent was uncomfortable. He felt that we were airing the district's dirty laundry when we have an override to pass next year. My response was that we were just telling the truth. We weren't saying the district was evil. We were saying that it's hard for educators to live in Flagstaff on the low salaries we earn. Over the course of the campaign, we saw that our pressure was creating the exact urgency we wanted to build. FEA's work caused the district to look at all kinds of things in new ways and consider efficiencies that it hadn't considered before. I'm really excited that we had all those conversations this year because they surfaced a whole laundry list of new opportunities to consolidate our gains and forge ahead. LOCAL NEWS