Incoming President Peggy Hoy on Building IEA's Next Chapter

What does the future of the Idaho Education Association look like in the wake of House Bill 516?

In this episode of the IEA Reporter Podcast, we visit with Peggy Hoy, the newly elected incoming president of the Idaho Education Association, as she prepares to begin her term leading Idaho's largest union.

Peggy reflects on more than 30 years as an educator and union leader, discusses how HB 516 is changing the way IEA serves and connects with members, and explains why she sees this moment as an opportunity to build a stronger, more engaged organization. She also shares how the relationship-based organizing that fueled the successful May Matters campaign can help shape the union's future.

Whether you're an IEA member or simply care about Idaho's public schools, this conversation offers an inside look at the challenges, opportunities, and vision guiding the association into its next chapter.

Transcript

Mike Journee: 0:13

Welcome to the IAEA 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 collective voice to advocate for strong public schools, support one another, and ensure every student has access to a free, quality, and equitable public education. I'm Mike Journee, communications director at the IEA, and I'll be your host for this episode. Today, we're joined by Peggy Hoy, the newly elected incoming president of the Idaho Education Association. Peggy has spent more than three decades as an educator, local leader, and union advocate, and now begins her term at a pivotal moment for public education and for the union. We'll talk about how House Bill 516 is reshaping the way IEA connects with its members, why Peggy believes this challenge is an opportunity, and how relationship-based organizing-the same member-to-member approach that powered the May Matters campaign-can help build an even stronger union for the future. Well, Peggy, congratulations on your election as IDA president. It's really exciting to have you come and and be a full time member of the of the team here at headquarters, and and looking forward to working with you greatly, you've been involved in this union for decades, and as you step into this role, have you seen what you've seen through the years? As you step into this role, what's at the forefront of your mind as you step in?

Peggy Hoy: 1:55

I think first, I'm honored, extremely honored that members across the state have the trust in me to do this work. I have been an active member my entire career, which spans over 30-five years. And I think I think what I think of the most is the opportunity that this presents. This presents us an opportunity to rethink how we build our association. I think we're at a time now where sending emails and text messages just aren't enough. We need to go back to one-on-one conversations, personal touch, and I think that's important for me. And that's really what's at the forefront. How do I do that? Because that's that's what roped me in. That's what got me involved was the one-on-one conversations that I had with people that I admired, that I respected, and when they asked me to do things, it was hard to say no because it was personal. I think we need to move away from relying on emails and texts so much.

Mike Journee: 3:01

That's really interesting. You say that, and you said something similar. We've got a publication that's coming out here in a few weeks that that you wrote an introduction for us. Thank you for that. And members should be looking for that in their mailboxes around the first of September. It's called the Union Guide. It's a guide for all things IEA. But what you just said is something that we talk a lot about on the comms team. We talk a lot about just how far mass communications gets you in the organization. And I think you're right. I think there's only so far that mass communications, that emails and blog posts and the website and the texting and all the things that we do do in order to engage members and get them involved in the work of the union. It can only go go so far. So that's that. That's I think that's really true, and I'm I'm glad to hear you say that. Yeah. Now your term officially begins on august 1, and you don't have a whole lot of time to ease into the job, right? So your very first week, you're going to be chairing the your first IEA board of directors meeting as president, what tone do you hope to set for your presidency with the board at that meeting?

Peggy Hoy: 4:07

I like the board to really see my vision, and my vision is a truly member-led union, and I would like my board to see and truly identify themselves as organizers. You know, when they every time they have a conversation with a new member or check in with a new member or a new teacher or somebody in their building that's never been involved before, having those conversations is so important to the work that we're going to do. And so I'm hoping during our board training, so we'll start the week with a training, and that training is really about how do we come a a board that's active and involved, and so that's that's really what I'm hoping to see.

Mike Journee: 4:52

That's really great. In the introduction that we mentioned a moment ago in the Yiggy Guide, you talk a lot about you wrote about. Your early years in the union about sitting around kitchen tables, about making phone calls, bringing your kids to meetings-I think in some ways that's kind of what you're talking about. Talk a little bit more about those memories and what they mean to you. Those early years in the union and and how they got you where you are today.

Peggy Hoy: 5:17

I always joke that the union was so much of a part of my life, it was like my family, but that is true. Coming young, right out of college, moving out of state into Idaho, knowing no one, the union took me in. We had leaders in my local that that took care of me, and then once my husband and I started having children, and we couldn't stop the work. We were my husband was also involved, and so they came with us and they would play with puzzles or color on the floor while we were organizing around some event happening, whether it was negotiations or just a picnic we were planning or whatever it was. My kids were there and they were involved from the beginning and they laugh about how they would just sit in the corner and hear our conversations and I have some of these people now who have long since retired still reach out and they see my kids out and about and they they talk to them about when they were little and at our union meeting so it's just to me it was that sense of belonging, which was really what I'd like to bring back. How do we make sure that we feel that sense of belonging-that we're belonging to something important, something that makes a difference in the lives of our students and in the lives of our educators?

Mike Journee: 6:34

Is that what makes a union strong?

Peggy Hoy: 6:36

I think that's what helps make a union strong, is those personal connections. If you think about what is a union, it's not just about bargaining rights. It's not about protecting the contract. A union is about unity. It's about coming together. It's about coming together for a common cause, or just having someone to talk things through that you can trust and know where to go to find the answers, and you can do that. You can do that around when there's trust that's built. And I think when I look back at it, that's really, really what we were doing around those kitchen tables, or you know, the office. If we were in an office, we were building trust among the teachers that were in that room, but then also among the members that we are representing-that's

Mike Journee: 7:21

really great. Now, House Bill 516-it the new law that attacks some of the most fundamental ways this union operates. It's going to change how we communicate and organize. Simply, just like what you're talking about, Peggy. Most people understandably focused on what we lost, but you seem much more interested in what we can build as a result of 516 Can you talk a little bit more about that? Does that sure make sense?

Peggy Hoy: 7:51

Yeah, I think you know I I want to be optimistic about how this gives us an opportunity to change how we build, but you know I think you know we have to be honest that 516 is going to make our work harder. I mean, there's there's no doubt about it. But that but that was their intent.

Mike Journee: 8:09

100%

Peggy Hoy: 8:10

You know, their intent is to destroy who we are from our core, and so we can't fall down because that was their intent. That's not what we can. What how we're going to be successful. So I think when I think about what we can do, I think we can still have conversations. They can't stop us from having coffee with each other. They can't stop us from checking in on each other. They can't stop us from having conversations about what's important in our daily lives and in our daily work, so I think we need to make sure that those conversations are happening and happening more often than they used to be, because we're not going to be sending emails like we did. We're not going to be bringing people in to do these organizing conversations. Now the organizing conversations have to come within the buildings, and I think this gives us an opportunity for our members to have those conversations, and then hopefully that will help them see that this is their union. It's not the union. It's our union.

Mike Journee: 9:12

That's great. That's great. You've been in this union for a long time, and you've met many, many people who've been in it more than you have. Is what we're talking about something that we've drifted away from as a union early and early on in in your years? Is that something? Was that more of a common thing than it is now? And why do you think that

Peggy Hoy: 9:38

is? Yeah, I think we've changed. I think we've shifted a little bit. I think you know when I first when I my first early memories of the union work was really localized. Like we fought or we talked about issues that were really in our own local, and we didn't really. I didn't really think about. What was beyond that? I think our union has done a great job over the years, really showing our members what the state can do for you, what national can do for you, and so I think that those are some good things. But I do think that we've we've shifted away from the one-on-ones conversations, we've we've done a good job telling them why it's important to pay attention to the political work that happens in in our public school system, but we haven't done as good of. I don't think we've done as good of a job getting people to understand how how they can do more with it because you know they're like oh I can't I'm not political I can't do that but I think if we I think this is an opportunity for us to give everybody some power everybody has everybody can check in on somebody everybody can invite somebody over for a cup a cup of coffee or whatever I think we need to get more back to that. Now,

Mike Journee: 11:01

before 516 we spent months, months talking about May Matters, which was our campaign to try to create, recreate a profile public education majority dad who state house, and we met with some success through the May primaries. We had we had some really good turn some results from that, we had some disappointing results, but we also had some really good results. And they go overall, it was a net positive for public education and for educators in this state. At its core, wasn't May Matters really what you're talking about?

Peggy Hoy: 11:36

Organizing, absolutely. Let's let's just say it. Yeah, I think organizing is absolutely what we are doing, and I think it became successful in the areas where we were able to get people to see the value of having those conversations, and that door knocking can be fun, and that having going to the going to somebody's door and having an opportunity to talk to them, also provides an opportunity to brag about what we do and who we are, and really tell our story. And so, you know, we we had people knocking on doors every Saturday in the Magic Valley, and you know, and we had a lot of criticism from people saying, "Well, educate. We should stay out of politics. It's not our place, you know. You say you're, you know, you're, you're so political or whatever, but I think it's important to understand that I'm not out there to elect Democrats or to elect Republicans. I'm out there to elect pro public education people, and I think that that's important. Republicans should want strong public schools. Democrats should want strong public schools. So it doesn't matter what your party affiliation is. What is important is that you understand what makes strong public schools. And so when our members can see that and feel that, and then they're like, "Yeah, I can have these conversations because my job is important, and what I do is valuable. Then that that that is the key to success. And yes, so that is organizing because that's what you do. Organizing is conversations,

Mike Journee: 13:12

100% And and along those lines, you know, you had a lot of conversations during the May Matters campaign. I know you did. What was the power of those? Can you can you pull something out of those conversations that you had that kind of showed the power of that one on one conversation that you you would have with somebody through through that campaign?

Peggy Hoy: 13:33

Yeah, sure. It gave us the opportunity, I think, to really speak the truth, really talk about some of the falsehoods that are out there, you know. So right now, politics is there's so much that's political that they go off on a tangent and they'll like they get hung up on it. So like for example, a couple years ago was critical race theory. They're like, oh, you teachers are teaching critical race theory, or you're letting. I remember one that was in the paper all the time about the litter boxes in the classrooms, right? And that's not that's not what we're seeing. And so I think by having those conversations and what I saw, how I saw it empowering our members was that they were able to say, "No, this is what I do on a daily basis, and they invited people in, come and see what we do, and just by saying that, come and see what we do. Come and spend the day at our school. Welcome you in. Just doing that, I think, really helped build this trust with the community. You know, study after study shows that your communities trust the public schools. It's the other schools that they they have a problem with, but getting them to trust, getting people in the community to trust our public school teachers, and seeing and and just validating what we actually do, I think that was really powerful, and I think those were some of the strongest conversations. Had when, you know, you would have somebody say, "Well, I heard that in schools, you know, you're doing X, Y, Z, and then I could say,"Wow, that's interesting, and I'd like to tell you why it's not true, and then I give that opportunity because I was speaking from, I wasn't making stuff up. It wasn't, I wasn't just sharing lines that I read. It was coming from the heart, and it was coming from truth in a space of what I know to be true, and they trust that.

Mike Journee: 15:27

One of the things, as you started your answer, you talked about how it's-it always seems like it's-it's never the teachers in their schools, it's never their schools and their community that are doing this. It's always the someplace else that's happening, and it's-it's an interesting dynamic that I never quite have been able to put my finger on about why that's out there. That misinformation about those various things that they stories they get told about public schools out there. One of the biggest takeaways for me matters was that members discovered that they have political power when they organize together. Just as we're talking about, how do we take that same energy into the locals every day, along with the lines of what you're talking about.

Peggy Hoy: 16:07

I think political power comes from advocating for yourself, advocating for your profession. So when I when I step into the Capitol and I'm sitting and walking into a meeting with an elected official, my my role, I believe, is to share who and what I what I am, and that's empowering. And I think taking that back, and when our local educators can feel that sense of empowerment, that you know what I'm a teacher, I deserve fair wages, I deserve to have a 30-minute lunch break. I deserve to be safe at school. All of that comes together, and if they if they truly get to the point where they feel that that's you know what this is, I don't need to I don't need to hide behind this. This is a reality that I deserve. I deserve this. Then that empowers them to have those conversations with their administrator, and they can go down and say, "Look, I deserve to be safe. I can't have this this student throwing scissors across my room. That makes me not safe. That makes my students not safe. Or sitting at a negotiations table, I we deserve to have a cost of living increase. We deserve that. We work hard. We shouldn't have to give up our 30 minute duty free lunch. It's in our contract. We should be able to honor that. So I think it empowers them to have those conversations because they know that this is who they are, and they need to they need to believe in themselves. And I think that having what I saw with May Matters and how we can bring it back is that we need to empower our teachers to really believe that, so that they can have those conversations effectively.

Mike Journee: 17:42

Right. One of the things I read recently was a line that I read that I thought was fantastic. It says, "Good classroom working conditions are great learning conditions for students, and I think it's I think it's just it's really true. It all comes back to the students at the end of the day. Teachers who are who have everything that they need in the classroom are do great jobs teaching our students. So, do you envision members knocking doors and talking to coworkers and recruiting volunteers and building relationships? You see, that's the future model for the IEA. Then,

Peggy Hoy: 18:19

yeah, I think I don't know that I put knocking doors as the first because that takes time and that takes a lot of trust. So I think, but but that that's I'm not saying that that can't happen. It absolutely can happen, but it does take time and trust. But walking to your next door neighbor in your in your school and knocking on their classroom door and having a conversation about working conditions, about how things are going in your daily in your day. That's what I see our vision, our our future is. If we aren't having those conversations in our buildings, and we are not going to be successful, we have to have those conversations. Has to happen. And as I talk to educators from other states that don't have 516 hanging over them; they're seeing the exact same thing.

Unknown: 19:11

Sure.

Peggy Hoy: 19:11

So this is happening in other states as well. Like they want we as as a union, we need to get back to that one on one conversations, checking in on people and trusting each other because if I have your back, you have my back, and that's you only do that if you build trust, and you only build trust if you have conversations.

Mike Journee: 19:28

In that sense, do you think every member could be an organizer?

Peggy Hoy: 19:30

Absolutely, yeah, because it doesn't. There's many levels of organizing, right? You could be the person that I'm going to go door knock. I'm going to be the head negotiator. I'm going to be the one that goes to the legislature. That's at a completely different level than somebody that's just like you know what, I'm really comfortable to go and take a group of teachers and have a conversation with them about my member benefits or about what the union has done for me over the past year. I can do that, but they might not feel comfortable doing other things. But everybody can have conversations and. That's how organizing, or at

Mike Journee: 20:01

least having a conversation with the the person right across the hall. Absolutely, and that's how

Peggy Hoy: 20:05

organizing starts. Yep,

Mike Journee: 20:07

that's right. In your vision, what does a healthy local look like in this new chapter that you're talking about here.

Peggy Hoy: 20:23

A healthy local has to be a local that has many voices. A healthy local can't just have a president calling all the shots. It has to have somebody. It has to have a group of people that are willing. We have to build the bench. You hear that all the time. And what does that actually mean to build the bench? You hear that we got to build the bench. Well, building the bench is you have to have people that can do other jobs so that one person isn't doing everything because then it doesn't. Then we're not a union, so a healthy local has a president and or an entire exec team that is willing to delegate is willing to trust their members to take care of of things, and so you could have one person that just does the sunshine report when good things are happening, or one person that when things go wrong and there's a family death or something, they do the sympathy things. One person organizes the picnics. One per, you know, you just the president doesn't need to do it all, and so I think a healthy union has people that all hands on deck.

Mike Journee: 21:34

That's great. So three years from now, after the end of your first term, and this organizing vision has succeeded. What's different? What what does an educator experience that they don't experience today? The average educator.

Peggy Hoy: 21:50

I think what I'd really like to see is that our members really have ownership in their union, it's not the union; it's my union, it's our union, and they they feel pride. They feel pride in the work that they do with the union. That the union isn't just about fighting. I think sometimes we get this stigma that you know the union just wants to fight against the school boards, or we want to fight, we want to go on strike, or whatever. You know, we just want to do all these aggressive things. That's not what we are. What we are is we are a group that works together to demand what to demand strong public schools. Right. So three years from now, what I really hope to see is that our our locals have members that call it their own union. It's not the union; it's their union, and they feel belonged, feel a sense of belonging.

Mike Journee: 22:55

There was a line. There was a line in the message that you wrote for the union guy that really struck with me, and it's your-I think it's exactly what you're saying here. A union is more about advocating for better schools and better working conditions. It's about people. I think that's what's-that's what you're talking about here. It's about people having each other's back, and it's about about engaging and and keeping an eye on on on each other. So I appreciate that. Is that what you hope every member,

Unknown: 23:22

absolutely

Mike Journee: 23:23

members in the theater, absolutely?

Peggy Hoy: 23:25

What you mentioned at the beginning is important. Strong public schools advocating for better wages, advocating for working conditions-that's not going to go away. That's still important work, but it becomes all of our work when we're all engaged in the process.

Mike Journee: 23:40

Well, Peggy, thank you for this conversation. I've got one more question for you. May Matters showed educators that when they organize together, they can change elections. Now, House Bill 516 is forcing us to organize differently inside this union. If you could ask every IEA member to do one thing this year to help build this union, what would it be?

Peggy Hoy: 24:01

Don't be afraid to tell your story. Why is the union important to you? And if you don't know, find out. Attend a meeting. Ask questions. Pay attention to your legislation. Pay attention to who's representing you. Attend school board meetings. Just make have ownership in the work that you do.

Mike Journee: 24:21

That's fantastic, Peggy Hoy. Again, congratulations on your election. Looking forward to working with you over the next three years, maybe longer. And thank you for your time.

Peggy Hoy: 24:31

All right, thank you so much. I'm excited for this opportunity.

Mike Journee: 24:40

Thank you for listening to this episode of the IEA Reporter podcast, and thanks to IEA President Peggy Hoy for joining us. If today's conversation inspired you to get more involved in your local association, strengthen relationships with your colleagues, or become more engaged in the work of this union, we hope you'll take that next step. Please watch for updates about new. Podcast episodes on IEA's social media channels, or sign up to receive IEA reporter email updates on our website at idahoea.org. I'm Mike Journee, and as always, I hope you join me in thanking Idaho's public school educators for everything they do for our state's students, families, and public schools.