By Secretary Paul Karnstedt (Science, LHS)
My first job out of college was at Kenosha Unified School District in 2010-2011. During that school year, the Wisconsin state government passed legislation that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers unions. I left that job after only one year, so didn’t personally experience the effects of this. However, I kept in touch with some friends… some stayed, and some went to other districts in Wisconsin. Some examples of the fallout in various Wisconsin school districts that were shared with me were: the base salary in KUSD was frozen for over 5 years, medical coverage being immediately downgraded, class sizes drastically increasing, evaluations being changed to every single year for all teachers (with more observations), and immediately going from five to six preps.
This simple example shows the importance of unions because it showed how quickly to me that school working conditions, which are learning conditions, can change without our collective voice. This is the third district I’ve worked in and it has always been clear to me that at every stop, even as teachers unions advocate for our union, we are the strongest advocates for our students. I’m proud to serve in a leadership position and further involve myself in this work.