Teachers unions put imprints on suburban school boards

By Joseph Popiolkowski | News Staff Reporter | @JoePops44 

June 5, 2016

Backing brings majority to largest school districts

Christine Cavarello is a PTA mom, proud graduate of Kenmore East High School, and concerned about how changes in education affect children and their love of learning.

She is on the steering committee of two local groups leading the opt-out movement to shift the emphasis of education from testing to learning.

In short, she’s the perfect candidate to win the endorsement of teachers – and she did. And she’ll join the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School Board on July 1.

Cavarello is one of 35 candidates out of 38 endorsed by teacher unions in Western New York who won election to a local school board last month, according to New York State United Teachers, or NYSUT.

Candidates endorsed by teachers unions in Erie County’s three largest suburban districts – Ken-Ton, West Seneca and Williamsville – won by overwhelming margins. In the last five years, 75 percent of candidates with teacher endorsements won election in the three districts. That includes two elections where Williamsville candidates ran unopposed, so teachers made no endorsements.

As a result, union-backed candidates form the majority on the boards of the three biggest districts.

Local teachers unions have always endorsed school board candidates. But with high-profile fights about the future of education in New York State, new attention is being given to union-endorsed candidates.

Changes in education – from the shift to a more teacher-friendly chancellor and Board of Regents, to how the state handles the Common Core Learning Standards, high-stakes testing and school and teacher accountability – will be felt at the local level. And each school board must approve teacher evaluation plans and teacher contracts with their teachers.

Cavarello said the teachers union support was a big factor in her victory.

“I think that says a lot about what’s going on – not only in the district, but education in general,” said Cavarello, a lifelong resident of the district. “I know teachers everywhere feel like they’re not really being listened to. Corporations, the governor and all these people who don’t know about education are telling us what we should be doing. We need to be listening to the teachers more because they’re the experts in the classroom.”

But teachers aren’t the only ones who have a stake.

“We think teachers are obviously incredibly important to the education process and development of standards,” said Stephen Sigmund, executive director of High Achievement New York. “Teachers aren’t the only voices who can contribute to the conversation to educating kids.”

High Achievement New York is a coalition of community groups, charter schools and business organizations – such as the Buffalo Niagara Partnership – that supports Common Core and other changes in education that have taken place in the last five years. The group does not endorse candidates for school boards.

“It takes awhile, obviously. These are big seismic changes,” he said. “We really believe the standards, in part, are making a difference.”

Sigmund pointed to an uptick in proficiency and improvement in graduation rates as evidence that reforms are working.

While teachers are working in the classroom to increase proficiency, their unions have been working at the ballot boxes.

In Williamsville this year, it was a case of trying to elect people who would resolve the problems between staff and the administration, Michelle M. Licht, Williamsville Teachers Association president, said before the election.

The teachers association endorsed a slate of three candidates who teach in other districts, and they won. Last year, the three union-endorsed candidates also won.

“We’d like a return to peace in the district,” Licht said.

While teachers in public schools are members of NYSUT, the local unions make the decisions on whether they will endorse, which candidates to support and what that support will entail, said Carl Korn, a NYSUT spokesman.

But last year, NYSUT started its “Pipeline Project” to develop candidates friendly to the union. The initiative also seeks to interest teachers in running for office, from school board to town and village boards to the State Legislature and Congress, Korn said.

“Perhaps we have accelerated some efforts in response to the attacks on public education,” he said.

The project came on the heels of massive budget cuts and layoffs, high-stakes testing, and teachers and other public employees being blamed for “societal problems that come through the schoolhouse door,” Korn said.

Educators on the Williamsville School Board, or candidates endorsed by the teachers union, are nothing new.

“It’s not going to be an influx of teachers,” Licht said of this year’s election results.

While three teachers are joining the board, two educators are leaving at the end of the school year, and Mark V. Mecca, a Buffalo school psychologist, is on the board.

At times, the union has endorsed nearly every board member who is serving, including Anthony J. Lafornara, who did not win the endorsement, or the election, this year. Had he been endorsed by the teachers, Lafornara said, he would have been re-elected. Board President Ronald S. Shubert said he has received the endorsement six times.

“Just because someone is endorsed or elected by the teachers doesn’t necessarily mean that the teachers union controls them,” Shubert said. “I haven’t seen that at all.”

West Seneca teachers look for good candidates to endorse, but after they win, the union does not meet with them or ask for anything, said Teachers Association President Joseph J. Cantafio.

“We want good people that have the best interests of students in mind,” he said.

Shubert said it’s important to have a balance of educators and noneducators on the board. He said his experience with board members who have been endorsed by the union is that they are independent, and make decisions in the best interests of the children.

Christopher J. Cerrone is a local teacher who is active in the opt-out movement, and is a member of the Springville-Griffith Institute School Board. He said teachers may have an advantage in that they understand how the education system works from the inside.

“As a teacher on a School Board, my No. 1 loyalty is to the students of the district, not other teachers,” he said. “I’m a parent first. I’m a taxpayer second, then my knowledge as a teacher helps.”