Union Engagement with Dr. Melyssa Ferro

In this episode, we visit with IEA board member and national education award honoree, Dr. Melyssa Ferro, about being a union member. Ferro, science teacher at Syringa Middle School in Caldwell, is a highly decorated educator who is among five honored this weekend as a finalist for the Horace Mann Award by the NEA Foundation. Ferro was Idaho’s 2016 Teacher of the Year and in 2024 was named Teacher of the Year by the Idaho Middle Level Association and was honored as one the Idaho Business Review’s 2024 Women of the Year. 

Transcript

PODCAST 02.10.26 Melyssa Ferro

[00:00:00]

Welcome to the IEA Reporter podcast, a regular discussion about the news and events important to Idaho Education Association members and those who value public education. IEA members are public school educators from all over the state and members of the largest union in Idaho. They're Idaho's most important education experts, and they use their influence to fight for free quality and equitable public education for every student in the state.

I'm Mike, journey communications director at the IE. And I'll be your host for this episode.

Today, we visit with IEA Board member and National Teacher of the Year finalist, Dr. Melissa Farro. About being a union member. Farro was a science teacher at Sarga Middle School in Caldwell, and is a highly decorated educator. He was among five honored this weekend as a finalist for the Horace Mann Award by the NEA Foundation.[00:01:00]

Farro was Idaho's. 2016 teacher of the year and in 2024 was named Teacher of the Year by the Idaho Middle Level Association and was honored as one of Idaho Business Review's 2024 Women of the Year.

Mike Journee: Dr. Farro, congratulations on being recognized. Another national recognition for your teaching excellence, and you've earned some incredible honors as an educator through the years, and this latest recognition is just so inspiring. Congratulations.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Thank you.

Mike Journee: We're gonna spend most of our time talking about engagement with the IEA, uh, and your local in Caldwell.

But, uh, first I'd like to hear a little bit about you as an educator. How long have you been teaching?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Oh my kids today we were, we were talking about, um, Geologic time and talking about different dinosaurs and the rock cycle. And one of [00:02:00] my kids raises his hand and says, Dr. Farro, is this your journal? So according to my students, I've been teaching since at least 250 million years ago. Um. It kind of feels that way sometimes, but actually it's been about 26 years.

I think that I've had the, the privilege to be part of the education profession, though I'd say I've been a teacher for a lot longer than that. My husband would tell you that that's just who I am. So.

Mike Journee: That's fantastic. That's, that's a, that's, that's quite a career. And you haven't recognized. It a bit for through the years for, for all of your great work. Um, right now you teach at Sarga Middle School in Caldwell. Um, and I happen to know, you also grew up in Caldwell. Uh, did you start your career as an educator there?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: I used to joke back in high school that I wanted my high school biology teacher's job. I didn't get his job, but I did get his classroom. I never intended to be an educator. I wanted to run as far away from the profession. Possible because I grew up in an education family and I saw how [00:03:00] hard the work was, how challenging the, the tasks were, how long the hours, but I could not run far and fast enough.

It just pulled me right back in. So I have actually, with the exception of a few odds and ends contract well. Off-contract type positions. I've actually been in the same classroom, in the same building for the last 26 years at Sarga Middle School, and it just so happens to be my high school biology classroom from when I graduated from Caldwell High.

Mike Journee: That's fantastic. That's such a great through line. it must be especially rewarding to be in, in your high school that you grew up in, to teach there and to, and to have spent such a long time shaping the kids in your own community.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: I have a really deep sense of connection to my community. I feel really grounded in this. This. The, the people and the students and the, the community that exists here in Caldwell. I have the privilege to have worn a lot of different hats in the district. I, I was a [00:04:00] student, a graduate of Caldwell High School.

I obviously am an employee of Caldwell High School. Um, I'm a, a patron, I a taxpayer in the community, and then all three of my children. or will in the next couple of months graduate from Caldwell High School. So I've been a parent of, of Caldwell students as well, and just really, really rewarding to be able to give back to the community that started me on my pathway. I, I, I. Love the quote from Sir Isaac Newton. He said, if I've seen further, it's by standing on the shoulders of giants. That really resonates with me because I think I've had the opportunity to be taught by a lot of really great educators, starting with my own parents who are educators, but then going all the way through school.

I've had fantastic teachers in the Caldwell School District, and now I have that opportunity to turn around and not only teach the students of the the community, but also to help mentor the educators who are. Are beginning their careers in the Calwell district as well.

Mike Journee: That's so fantastic [00:05:00] and, it does speak to everything that I know about you since the time I've gotten to know you in the past couple years, so that's, that's wonderful. So you mentioned you, did your best to run away from education. Uh, why did you end up becoming an educator?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Well, like I said before, I. Have always known what a challenging and difficult job teaching could be. I think I've made bulletin boards and laminated papers and ditto copies since I was old enough to push the buttons on the machine. And so I've, I've always recognized how difficult teaching can be as a profession, and I've always been really passionate about science.

So I always said, what are you gonna be, I'm gonna be a scientist, not a teacher. Then I got to college and started taking my science classes, started doing my labs, and in the meantime I was picking up extra money, working as a substitute when I was home on holiday, my particular university, the schedule didn't line [00:06:00] up with, uh. District schedule. So when I was home on vacation from university, there was always a couple of weeks of classes running in the district. And so, um, I would pick up sub jobs here and there. And I still remember a really tearful phone call home my sophomore year of college to my mom, just saying, mom, I, I can't believe it, but I'm changing my major.

I'm. Gotta be a teacher because I got to the point where I really couldn't see myself spending all day in a lab. When, whenever I thought about science and the excitement I had for science and the passion I had for science, I just wanted to share it with other people. My husband jokes that we cannot go to a zoo or a museum without me gathering up all of the little kids that are in my area and starting to talk on the feeding habits of praying mantis.

He's like, Melissa, you don't have to docent every. Educational facility we go to. that just really speaks strongly to my need to share science with other people. And the best way that I could come up with, to share science with other people was to become a science educator. So from sophomore year of college, I was [00:07:00] locked in.

I was, I was in it for the long haul in education. Um, and I've been, I've been in the Caldwell School District teaching science ever since.

Mike Journee: That's such a great story, and thank you for sharing that. And it kind of plays into my next question here, says, one of the th things that strikes me about you, Melissa, is, is you've always seen to be striving and looking for new ways and tools that will help you connect with your students.

And I think that's in some, some one of the reasons why you, you get recognized. So with so many of these, these wonderful awards, um, all the great things that you're doing. Why is that kind of innovation so important to you and your practice as an educator?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Well, there's, there's a thing called the diffusion of innovation curve. And on that diffusion of innovation curve, it kind of speaks to how people in general tend to accept innovation and how they tend to adopt innovation. And while I will fully admit right up front, I don't think of myself necessarily as being an innovator. I [00:08:00] definitely am an early adopter. On anything that will help connect my students to the world outside of our classroom, connect my students to things that they can get excited about in the real world. Uh, so I would say that I've always been like jump off the deep end of the swimming pool for technology, educational tech science. I'm really passionate about things like place-based learning and project-based learning. Um, joke that if my students aren't. Smelling and rolling around and tasting science that, um, they're not really getting the full science experience. Um, some of my students have called me Miss Frizzle in the past. I feel like I drive the bus and my job is just to shrink that bus down and take it all of the places so that the kids can, um, have those experiences and those opportunities to just. Touch grass and, and realize that science exists and, and trying to come at it from a bunch of different angles. I think that's always been important to me too, [00:09:00] is that it's not just an environmental science project, it's not just a robotics project.

It's not just engineering. I try really hard to come at science and science education from a bunch of different angles just to try and connect kids to something that might be exciting to them, something that that might. Spark a passion in them so that they can move forward and, and be more connected to their learning and their future pathway, whatever that would possibly be.

Mike Journee: Fantastic. So 26 years as an educator. Um, but when and why did you first become a member of the union?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Oh, Mike, I walked my first picket line when I was eight years old. Um, I come from a, a union family. My grandpa was a steel worker, so my dad's family grew up. They were, you know, union was, was how you made sure you were safe. Union was how you made sure that you made a livable wage union was how you made sure that you had a voice in decisions of things that were going on in your workplace. And [00:10:00] so I think it made sense that when my dad became an educator. was where he ended up as well. And so he ended up in a variety of different positions across our school district. He was union president for a while. He was chief negotiator for a while. And so I just grew up knowing that unions were safe, unions were, were supportive, unions were collaborative. So when I became an educator myself, it made sense that I would join my union. I can't remember if I signed the paperwork my first official year in the district, but definitely by year two I had signed the paperwork and I've been a member ever since. Um, I see. I. unions as an opportunity for educators to have a seat at tables that make decisions about our classrooms, our profession, and our students. When I think about unions, especially in the education sense of unions, I think of advocacy. How do I best advocate for myself? [00:11:00] do I advocate for the teachers who share my profession, for the educational support personnel that share my profession? Then how do I educate for, or advocate for students?

How do I make sure that my students have good learning conditions that my students have access to, to funding and support and resources to help them do their best job? And all of those things tie back to how strong the union is in the district. was reading a really interesting article the other day as we were thinking about different legislation that may come through the. Idaho legislature this year in 2026. And when you think about the role that unions can play in districts. They really can help problem solve at a low level. Unions can really be a cost saving measure for a lot of districts. And I don't think here in fiscally conservative Idaho, I don't think we do a good enough job having that conversation. If you wanna be fiscally conservative, if you wanna set your district up for success. You need a strong partnership with your union because they can help you problem solve. They can help you [00:12:00] set up situations where, where things are happening at levels that don't increase costs. Things are happening, conversations are happening before problems get large and out of control and expensive. So I think that that, that's an important factor that we don't talk about enough as well when we think about what unions mean in the state of Idaho.

Mike Journee: You're absolutely right and I think, uh, you know. These union busting bills that we see every year. In fact, we just have one introduced, uh, last week, uh, house Bill 6 0 1. Um, and it looks very similar to the union busting bills we've had in the past. And, and that's clearly one of the things that they're targeting is the fact that that local education associations like Caldwell Education Association.

Can have really great relationships with the administration. And they're, trying to short circuit that, it strikes me as very shortsighted and as one of the things , if they, if they took a moment to really understand those relationships, then they wouldn't be going after it in the way that they've been going after it.

Um. Well, in the 26 years since [00:13:00] you joined, uh, you've been involved in i a as a leader in a lot of ways, and I'm sure, I don't know all the ways that you've been a, a leader. Um, you, you sit on the board of directors as a representative from IAS Region eight, and that includes the, the communities of Napa Mountain Home Caldwell and others.

Um, you serve on the I'S Resolutions committee, , and I know you participate in Delegate Assembly and Lobby Day, and I, and I'm sure you're engaged at the local level with your Caldwell Education Association, uh, in ways that I don't know about. Um, and also I know you're engaged with a lot of pro professional organizations, uh, for, for science educators and, and, and the like, uh, with all the things on your plate.

Why do you make being engaged with the IEAA priority? What, what about it speaks to you? I mean, you, you talked a lot about the importance of it, but, but, uh, is it community? Is it advocacy? Is it, what are, what are some of the other reasons why you might be engaged?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: One of the major reasons why I am a member of the Idaho Education [00:14:00]Association and why I continue to engage and connect with the Idaho Education Association is because it is a professional learning community for me. gives me the opportunity to have really fantastic conversations with educators from my region. From my state and nationally about topics that are really important to our profession and the sustainability and, and likelihood that that we'll be able to continue on in this profession. Sustaining public education as a foundation for our society comes down to the types of professional conversations and support that we can give each other as educators, and I think that every time I. Say yes to something for the IEA. Uh, you know, they, they say, how do you, how do you get something done? You ask a busy person to do it. Um, so why do I clear time to continue saying yes to things for IEA? It's because every time I say yes to something for IEA, I strike up a new partnership, a new collaborative [00:15:00] relationship. I learn something new. I am able to take resources back to my district, to my students, to educators in my area. I have. that open because of me saying yes and, and sitting in on conversations. So while my calendar looks absolutely insane, my husband jokes that my, um, board hobby is getting in the way of my board hobbies. But I continue to say yes because it's going to provide opportunities for me to reengage and for me to energize. I find a lot of synergy my work with other educators across the state. Just like the students continue to in energize me and keep me in this profession and make me wanna come back for another year. My relationships with educators around the state do the same thing. How do I meet the people in my district? not often at district events that I meet them, it's at union [00:16:00] events that I meet them. How do I know the other teachers in my region? It's because I'm meeting them at professional organizations like the IEA. So I think that. While I would hope that I am seen as giving a lot to my profession and to my professional organization and to the IEA, do want it known that I feel like I get just as much back. I, I have that bucket refilled so that I can continue to have these conversations and do the challenging, difficult, but such important work of being a public educator in 2026.

Mike Journee: Well said. Thank you for that. Uh, and I, I gotta say for the. The, IEA staff, all the folks who work here in headquarters and around the state, feel the same thing about working with educators. There are moments where, you might feel a little full strung out and then you get an opportunity to talk to an educator like yourself, and it just really does fills your bucket.

So thank you for that.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: agree.

Mike Journee: So, you know, a lot of folks think about union. They think about contracts or benefits or those kinds of things. From [00:17:00] your experience, how does a strong union membership improve outcome for students? I.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: If you look at the way that we build contracts, I think that it is really easy to find a thread of supporting students in that union contract. There are very few things that we do and we support and we argue for, for educators that don't have an end benefit to our students. Things even like we want our educators to have more professional development. What's that gonna do that's gonna lead to better outcomes for students? We want our teachers to have safer working conditions. What's that gonna do? It's gonna lead to better outcomes for students. I think that there are so many connection points between things that on the surface might appear very teacher facing or very teacher oriented, the students that come through our, our classrooms every day. I think it's really impossible to support students [00:18:00]without supporting the educators. Who dedicate their teaching careers, their, their professional careers to the work of public education. So I think that, that, it just makes sense that when you're talking about a strong union, when you're talking about a strong organization like the IEA, supporting the teachers and the members of the IEA is going to support better outcomes for students across the state.

Mike Journee: Wonderful answer. Thank you. Uh, do you have an example, of a time when solidarity within your local, made a real difference for your school or your school district?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: Several years ago. Our district dipped their toes in the water that many other districts have dipped their toes into and explored the option of outsourcing our custodial services to outside vendors so that the custodians would no longer be employees of our school district. I [00:19:00]know that it's easy to think of the teacher's union. When you think of the IEA, but I think this was a really important example of where we really were an education association. We really were an education union because the teachers across the district, through the union came together and really supported our custodial staff. We said, these men and women are really important of our community. Not only are they super integral to the functioning of our building, uh. They also live in our communities. know the kids that come through our schools. They have relationships with our students because they know our students. They, they're the parents of our students. Um, and it became a really important touch point, I think, for the Caldwell Education Association to step up and say. This isn't a teacher issue, but this is an education issue which makes it our business. And so we were able to [00:20:00] have some conversations with the district, really share the, the potential outcomes that we felt would happen if we did outsource those custodial oper or those custodial positions, and we were able to keep our custodians as Caldwell School District employees. I, I think that. It built a lot of goodwill in our community. It built a, an open line of collaboration and communication between the association and the school district. And it really circled back around to that idea that schools, public schools are so central to communities. The men and women who work in them as specially in our paraprofessional positions are those communities, and we need to support them if, again, we wanna support our students.

Mike Journee: So you're obviously a fan of unions. What would you say to an educator. Who is a member who hasn't gotten involved yet?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: For people who are members and haven't found their in the union yet. I [00:21:00]think that it's important to help them see how becoming active in your organization can actually take things off your plate. In 2026, teachers are busy. Our plates are full. We're being asked to do so many things and eat from so many tables and be part of so many things across our districts and our buildings that I think it's really easy for members to step back and say, I'll let the union handle stuff for me, and I'll just try and keep my head above water as an educator. I think that it's really important to have conversations with those folks and say, if you wanna take stuff off your plate, you get involved. Because the union is how we help provide equity and opportunity for educators. It's how we help create better working conditions for educators. It's how we a voice at the legislature when it comes to things like standardized testing. Um. I think that are some [00:22:00] people out there who are not active in their union because they see the union as being political, and I think it's really important to remind those people that public education is political. Every decision that gets made in their classroom. Whether it be at a local school board level, a uh, legislative level, at a federal level, all of those decisions that influence the day-to-day happenings in their classroom are political.

And one of the really fantastic things, one of IE a's strengths, I think is our opportunity to be political without being partisan. We have the opportunity to step in and have conversations with school board members to have conversations with our legislatures, and I think that if you are a member who's not super active yet, you maybe don't see that opportunity or you don't see yourself in that opportunity. That's why I think it's really important for us to, as active union members, bring people along to those opportunities, bring people [00:23:00] along to lobby day, bring people along to a building rep meeting, bring people along to, um, uh, uh, general membership meeting and let them see how. Becoming active is actually a great way to have more control over the things that are happening to you, and then maybe you won't feel like they're happening to you because you'll feel like they're happening with you and for you.

Mike Journee: Answer. There's a lot happening in public education right now, as why is strong membership and engagement especially important at this particular moment in public education?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: I think strong membership and strong participation is important. To an educator in 2026, now more than ever before, I think it's important that you find that strength in numbers, that strength in unity. There's a lot happening right now that would make it really, really easy to feel [00:24:00] divided and isolated. I think about states like Idaho, where we have a lot of rural teachers who are existing in pockets around the state and maybe not feeling support. They're not feeling part of learning communities. They're not feeling like they have anyone to work with, I think the Union provides a fantastic opportunity for support and collaboration to happen. The old analogy of. You know, divided. We fall and, and united, we stand the the bundle of sticks that you can break one stick, but you can't break 30 sticks. I feel like this time where things feel so divisive and they feel so heavy, you have to have the support and the collaboration and the partnership of other educators. And the union exists in every corner of our state. union exists in every county across our state. It might not exist in every [00:25:00] single school building across our state yet, but there's opportunities for you to find touch points in your area. To find support in your area. I think that it's just really beautiful to have this built in network of educators.

When I go places, when I go to even, even things that are not IEA meetings, when I go to science teacher meetings, when I go to um, middle school level meetings, when I go to state department trainings, find my brothers and sisters from the union there, and I have this ready to go network of people who. We may not agree on everything, but we definitely agree that public education is valuable and we agree that every kid in the state of Idaho deserves opportunities to have access to that public education. And so being able to tie myself into that network and find that network wherever I go in the state, think makes me feel so much more supported and it helps. Spread some of that [00:26:00] burden off onto other people. I'm able to kind of offload some of that burden onto other great educators who are doing this work around the state. I think in a time where things feel really divided, the union is a fantastic place for me to find solidarity.

Mike Journee: That's wonderful. Thank you again. I, um, and then one last question for you if you could leave IEA members with one message about the power of membership, what would it be?

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: If you were to ask me why being a member is so important, I think it comes back to equity. Equity for our profession, equity for our students, equity for, for, um, professional growth. I think that. When I think of the union, I think of an opportunity to advocate for public education. I think that regardless of your politics, regardless [00:27:00] of your faith, regardless of your culture and your background and your upbringing, people go into education because they have a fundamental. Belief in the idea that every kid deserves a public education. Every kid deserves the opportunity that education provides. cannot have a country like the United States of America without having educated people everywhere. I think that when I think about Education Association, I think of that. Credibility in advocacy, that bridge between policy and practice and leadership and all of those I think are. Are things that continue drawing me back to the union and I, I would hope that they're the reason that the union con [00:28:00] continues to be a very powerful cornerstone of how we do business in Idaho. I.

Mike Journee: Dr. Melissa Farro, thank you again for your time. Congratulations again on the recognition, uh, this weekend. And, uh, thank you for your time talking with me about your union membership and why it's important to you.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you this afternoon. I'm always happy to talk about, um, this, this driving force behind who I am as an educator and, and the pathway that I've been on since I was eight years old. Evidently. So,

Mike Journee: All right. Thank you, Melissa.

Dr. Melyssa Ferro: thanks, Mike.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the IA Reporter podcast, and thanks to Dr. Melissa Farro for joining us. Please watch for updates about new podcast episodes on IA social media channels, or sign up to receive IA reporter email updates on our website@idahoea.org. I'm Mike Journey, and as always, I hope you join me.

And thanking Idaho's public school educators for everything they do [00:29:00] for our state students, families, and public schools.