Kevin Vick moved to Colorado in 1993 and rapidly discovered the ski slopes. Six years later, he was snowboarding 100 days a yr and within the summers went mountain biking and mountaineering.
He liked being outside, however he felt like one thing was lacking from his life.
“I didn’t really feel like I used to be having an actual nice goal,” he stated. “Or I used to be actually making a distinction.”
He turned to educating and located his goal serving to college students as a social research trainer and prep soccer coach. He additionally taught different educators to advocate for themselves and arranged them to higher their work situations.
Now, in his twenty fourth yr as an educator, Vick, 55, who has taught at Doherty Excessive Faculty, has taken over as president of the Colorado Training Affiliation, the state’s largest lecturers union. He desires to make use of his platform to ensure Coloradans know the way a lot exhausting work and dedication educators put into their jobs.
He additionally desires to share his perception that educating is filled with goal and lecturers make a distinction on daily basis.
“I believe individuals want to know simply how rewarding schooling is and the way admirable the individuals which are in it actually are,” he stated. “They’re attempting to make college students higher, Colorado higher, and, finally, the world higher.”
Vick just lately talked with Chalkbeat Colorado about his new place as president.
Vick is stepping out of the vice chairman function
As the previous vice chairman of CEA, Vick labored carefully with former President Amie Baca-Oehlert.
“You form of serve on the pleasure of the president,” Vick stated. “So no matter Amie wanted, I used to be managing.”
He doesn’t plan large modifications to the priorities of the union, which has 40,000 members statewide. As a former Colorado Springs Training Affiliation president, Vick says he cares about empowering lecturers to have a voice and cut price on the native degree.
Vick additionally cares about how testing and state accountability impression lecturers and college students. He feels accountability has created a one-size-fits-all strategy. Extra consideration must be given to the challenges that occur in school rooms.
“Faculties are threatened by sanctioning from the state to provide outcomes, no matter what the scholars could also be experiencing in that setting,” he stated. “This creates quite a lot of disconnect for the trainer, due to their experience, they know the place a pupil must be. However they’re not capable of due to the bigger coverage pressures.”
Vick will even must deal with new points in schooling that his predecessors didn’t, equivalent to expertise equivalent to cellphones and synthetic intelligence.
Each are instruments that may assist lecturers, however each have to be used responsibly, he stated.
As an illustration, Vick understands the controversy round cellphones and that they are often disruptive. However many lecturers have revolutionary methods of utilizing cellphones within the classroom, he stated.
Districts ought to contemplate how lecturers train earlier than making broad insurance policies, he added.
Office situations are particularly necessary to Vick
Faculty is a office, Vick stated.
Vick believes higher work environments begin with pay, and lots of lecturers have a tough time making ends meet on their salaries. Educators can barely afford to cowl their well being care, he stated. Colorado and different states have struggled to maintain lecturers within the classroom due to pay, and lots of educators find yourself working a number of jobs as a result of they don’t earn sufficient educating.
“Educators do get higher yearly of their profession,” he stated. “They only get a better talent degree yearly. And so we have to preserve them in so long as doable.”
Vick will proceed to push for extra state schooling funding
This week, Vick appeared earlier than lawmakers this week throughout a particular session to assist safe a deal that might keep away from two poll initiatives that many predicted would devastate colleges and authorities providers. The particular session referred to as by Gov. Jared Polis was meant to assist protect schooling funding whereas additionally putting a deal on property tax reduction.
Vick defended the property tax deal to fend off the poll initiatives.
And for years, CEA has been a relentless in legislative committees, particularly with regards to calling for elevated college funding. This yr, Colorado lawmakers ended the follow of withholding cash from colleges to pay for different priorities.
Not a lot will change there with Vick. He stated he helps a statewide poll initiative to spice up college funding.
“We really feel that the timing is fairly good proper now to make that case to voters that our colleges do deserve higher and our youngsters deserve higher,” he stated.
Jason Gonzales is a reporter overlaying increased schooling and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado companions with Open Campus on increased schooling protection. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
