At Florida Education Association's 2021 Delegate Assembly, we sat down with the newly re-elected leadership of FEA to discuss the challenges facing education in Florida right now and how unions can help to overcome those challenges as well as the officers' vision for what public education should look like in the years ahead.



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Episode 11 Show Notes:



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Guests





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Show resources





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Transcript







GuestsAndrew Spar, FEA PresidentCarole Gauronskas, FEA Vice PresidentNandi Riley, FEA Secretary-Treasurer 

Resources* Learn more about FEA Leadership* Check out FEA History

TranscriptAndrew Spar, President of FEA: Hi, this is FEA President Andrew Spar. To stay on top of all the latest news and issues impacting our public schools, be sure to follow FEA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information on this podcast, visit FEAweb.org/podcast.  Sharon Nesvig, Announcer: You’re listening to Educating from the Heart. Thank you for joining our lively conversations with teachers, support professionals, parents and students as they share issues that matter most in our public schools. Here are your hosts Tina Dunbar and Luke Flynt.  Tina Dunbar, Host: Hello, and welcome to Educating from the Heart. I’m Tina, and I’m here with Luke Flynt.  Luke Flynt, Host: Hello!  Tina: We have been so busy lately because we’ve been involved in a very important event. You know, every fall the Florida Education Association hosts its annual meeting called the Delegate Assembly, or the DA as some call it. At this event hundreds upon hundreds of members unite to discuss important education issues and policies. They elect leaders and set and organizational path for the future. Educators also take time to recognize important events. So, Luke, I’d like to open this episode by saying congratulations for 20 plus one years of merger.  Luke: Congratulations indeed. It really is a big deal. Let me give a little history lesson for the listeners that might not know that FEA used to be two separate unions of educators. Following years of competition between both organizations, the FEA United and FTP, the Florida Teaching Profession NEA, they decided it would be smarter to begin working together instead of against one another. After years of talk, the two unions merged into one much larger and more powerful organization in the year 2000.  Tina: And now 20 plus one years later the FEA is considered the largest labor union in the South, representing public school teachers throughout Florida. We’ve accomplished a lot since 2000, and we firmly stood together through adversity and some challenging times. Our success is directly related to our strong leadership.  Luke: To the newly elected leadership: Congratulations! And I guess where I want to start is at some point, everybody was just an infant in their union journey. Right? But before you even become a delegate or a local leader or a state leader, you make a decision to become involved in your local union. So share with us why did you decide to get involved in your local union in the first place? And President Spar I’ll start with you.   Andrew Spar, President of FEA: First and foremost, I grew up in New York, just outside of New York City. And my mom was a teacher and a member of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers. And so, it was just kind of in me, that when you come into the profession, you join your union. And so that's what I did. Right when we started out in the new teacher orientation, I joined,