Oregon Voices Podcast: Episode 7 - Claire Reneau BEA Executive Board Member & Co-Founder of BEAU

Claire Reneau is a French teacher at Westview High School in Beaverton. She's also one of the co-founders of BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United), a reform caucus that in its first year swept elections for union president, vice president, and executive board, but her story doesn't start there.

She grew up in a home with an alcoholic father and an abusive grandfather. As a child, she named what was wrong in her own family, even when it made everyone uncomfortable. She learned early that you can't accept that's just how it is. Later, she taught in New Orleans where she witnessed systems that abandoned kids. Then she moved to Beaverton and saw the same inequality playing out here, with schools north of Highway 26 thriving while schools south were starved of resources.

When Eric ran for school board, Claire was there, but the union that should have had his back didn't. That's when she realized something was broken. She connected with organizers, read Jane McAlevy, and started asking questions. Why did the union operate like a service model when members had so much collective power? Why were decisions made in secret? Why couldn't people demand transparency?

She didn't just complain. She organized. She and others built a movement that changed how the Beaverton Education Association runs. They demanded answers and voted down appointments. They stripped away the invisibility and continue to fight to make their union actually serve the teachers in it.

Listen to what happens when teachers stop accepting the way things have always been done.

Guest: Claire Reneau: French Teacher & Co-Founder, BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United)

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Lean back your feet Let us back From the coast to the High Line Bye We've been talking about the same old line Big suits taking up all our time while the ring clock and the kids ask why Kitchen table feels like town hall Pamma cussin' at the late night call. We don't fit in that shopping ball. So we built this show and we set it all. Is that so?

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Welcome to another episode of Oregon Voices. I'm Eric McGuire.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

And I'm Catherine Watkins.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

Today we are joined by Claire Renault, a French teacher at Westview High School in Beaverton and a newly elected member of the Beaverton Education Association Executive Board. She is also one of the co-founders of BEAU, Beaverton Education Association United, a reform caucus that in its first year swept elections for Union President, Vice President, and Executive Board. Claire is the granddaughter of immigrants. She has navigated abuse, an alcoholic home, ADHD, autism, and chronic illness. She has been a single mother queuing up for a free shot bus in a Walmart parking lot. She taught in New Orleans where gunshots were part of the background noise. She has spent her career refusing to accept that's just how it is as an answer. She did not just run for union leadership. She built the movement that got her there. Claire, welcome to Oregon Voices.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Thanks so much. I am so happy to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

So you d describe yourself as someone who has always had an inherent need to do the right thing, even when it's inconvenient, even as a child, even when it meant naming a predator in your own family rather than keeping things comfortable. Where did that come from? And what did it cost you to be that person in the rooms where you grew up?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah. It wasn't easy to be the one who's pointing out the thing that was wrong and making everyone else around you feel uncomfortable. Uh, because once you do that, um the problem is no longer the thing or the person you're naming. It is you because you are the source of the discomfort. Um, so yeah, I grew up in a home that had an alcoholic father who loved me and my brother very much uh and did the best that he could and did eons better than his father, but it was his father who was my abuser. And family was really prized, and we did a lot of family events and we always had to see my grandfather, and that was incredibly hard. And then just one day I just had had enough and I didn't want to feel ashamed of that anymore. I realized that the shame wasn't mine to hold, it was his. And I told my family, and unfortunately in the 1980s, uh, not much happened after I told. Um, an effort was made by my parents to bring me to a counselor for a few times, but I didn't like that person and then stopped going. Still was expected to go to family parties with him. And I think growing up with the physical embodiment of something that's wrong, it makes it really easy to identify what the problem is and what you need to do to get that problem to go away. So I just put my foot down and said, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not going to these family parties. I'm not doing this anymore. And that was so liberating. Um, he kept on sending me birthday checks and I kept on not cashing them. Um, and he was perplexed apparently. And that just felt so powerful to know that I couldn't be bought at a very young age. And I didn't have control of a lot, but I did have control over my message that I was sending to people and what I would and would not tolerate. I think that's what just kind of kept me going is knowing that even if the grown-ups that were around me were not doing the right thing and were not doing everything that I thought that they should be doing, I still have to live with other people and I still have to find a way to come out the other side of my problems. And so when you realize that, you know, you're dealing with an alcoholic uh father and you're dealing with a sexually abusive grandfather, that you can kind of almost take on anything. Yeah. Um so when some people talk about, you know, some workplace issues that we're having, not to minimize them, but it's just like, oh, I got this, I can name this. This there's things that we can do to get over this and see the other side. Um, because I've done harder things.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Yeah. And especially like for the 80s, you know, it was not talked about very much, you know, and so it's not like you had media to inform you and to push you through to advocacy. Um, it wasn't like how it is now, where, you know, as educators, we are trained to be, you know, available for students and be able to look for indicators and find the children help as soon as possible. And so there weren't those safety nets back in the 80s. And so were you just doing this all by yourself? Or was there any adult or any kind of influence to help you see the way? Or were you just kind of making your own path to stand up for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

There wasn't really a path that was that I was following that wasn't my own. I was just kind of just trying to get to the next step. I think just kind of putting one foot in front of the other and seeing where that got me. I knew that um I not to say that I was, you know, masterful at foraging my own path. Uh, I had a lot of um breakdowns. I was suicidal. Um, I had a lot of difficulty seeing the other side at some points. Um there was one day where I decided not to take my life because there weren't enough pills in the bathroom. And I thought, well, this is just so stupid. Like, like this is not gonna be forever. You know, I just had that real, like, this is not gonna be forever, just get through the next few years. And I did tell somebody at school in fifth grade after I had already told somebody in fourth grade, um, because my fifth grade teacher was standing up there and he said, he would go on these tangents all the time and say, if you are being abused and you don't say anything, you're just stupid. Because what's gonna happen to you? Like what it's not gonna get better. And so I was like, huh. Oh, wow. I know he he was a very unconventional teacher, Mr. Von Moluski. And uh I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna tell somebody. So I told a friend who told a counselor, and the counselor called my house, and the counselor spoke to my mom, and you know, she said, Oh, well, we're taking care of it. And that was enough for the counselor, and they backed off. It's the 80s, yeah, you know, or I guess technically 1990, you know, and there was that shame, you know, and then I became very keenly aware that telling somebody at that time wasn't going to change my family dynamic. Um, there was still a lot of shame uh in my family. And my mom has, you know, since apologized, and my dad has since apologized, and they own what they did, and I know that they were doing the best that they could at the time. I I think I just knew that there was something else beyond what I was experiencing because I would go to friends' houses and I would see healthy dynamics, and that was just always inspiring. Um, so nobody was intentionally leading me anywhere. I didn't necessarily have a mentor in all of this, but I had some really great examples to in my in my sphere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

And then so throughout high school and college, were you kind of a social justice eyeball around, or how were you operating? No.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

No. So um I'd always had a strong sense of what's right and what's wrong. Um, that wasn't necessarily something that guided me in like my volunteerism per se, or in the clubs and activities. I was very heavily involved in sports and I worked a lot to get out of the house. But there was one moment in high school where I think I took like my first activist stance, I guess. Um, and it was when I was in a play, it was fiddler on the roof, and the choreographer had called us retarded. And I was like, whoa, that is um that's something. And to make it worse, we had students with uh Down syndrome in our cast because our uh director was just phenomenal at being inclusive at a time when like it wasn't a buzzword yet, you know. Um, and it just really pissed me off. But I knew the world that I was living in at the time, you know, it's like maybe 97, you know, things had progressed a little bit, but not that much. And so I wrote an anonymous letter to him, uh, to the director, and I described what had happened. And I had asked for her removal and um he brought it up to us and brought the letter with him. I signed it a nani mus, you know. And uh I was like, oh shoot, this is where I really need to keep my game face on and pretend like, I don't know, right? I don't know, you know, but like, yeah, she didn't work with us any longer, and that felt really good to stand up in that way. So even if I didn't do it in a formal like organizing capacity because I was always so busy with clubs and work and uh and sports, um I I just couldn't accept things that were not fair and not okay.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

Yeah. I was wondering, so so you spent some time in New Orleans teaching as an intervention specialist, but uh is that where your career started, or did you come to there from somewhere else? Maybe give us a little bit of a snapshot of your trajectory towards Beaverton.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Yeah. So I will try to make this short. Uh in high school, I thought maybe I would like to be a teacher. Um, and then I in my leadership class, I was to give a presentation and I had what I now know is a panic attack. Did not know what it was at the time. I had practiced, I was gonna rock it and just out of nowhere, just blanked and cried and ran out of the room. And I thought, well, obviously I don't have what it takes to be a teacher. Right? I can't even get up and give a PowerPoint presentation unlike the Tower of London, you know. So uh, but I tried to take some education classes in college and didn't it didn't like really sit well with me. It wasn't didn't feel like my calling, you know. I felt like somebody who is a teacher should really want to be there. And I didn't really want it at that time. And so I ended up getting a job at a historic Saint Museum, uh, doing tours in period dress, doing open hearth cooking lessons. So I became kind of a teacher in a way.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Um, and I fell in love with museum work. I loved getting up close to the objects and ended up going to grad school for that in Glasgow. Um and thought I'd come back to New York and get a good job and realize, oh my goodness, I'm gonna be stuck making 25 grand a year in the New York suburbs. I'll never let, you know, move out of my mom's house like anybody if this is what I'm doing. And then worked for an educational travel company selling tours to teachers. And uh then 2008 hit, no one was traveling. You know, almost everybody in the sales staff got laid off, including myself. And I thought, well, man, I've really enjoyed going to different conferences and presenting. And I really did love presenting at the museums when I worked in museum education. So I tapped back into that and I said, Well, what could I do with my life? And so I said, Well, I'm gonna go teach. And so I got accepted into two different programs, one in New York and one in New Orleans, and I went to New Orleans because I figured, why not? I mean, it's an island. Why not? I know. Um, I'd only been there once before, but I figured, why the heck not? Um, and so I got into a program called Teach Nola, which is phenomenal, but also problematic for so many reasons. And I was really lucky that I did not land a full-time teaching job my first year, like some of my colleagues who I feel like burnt out really quickly. But I secured a job as an assistant and was able to go to night school at the same time. So I got that exposure before being responsible for little ones. Um and um yeah, I had some really great mentors at that school. And I'm glad I didn't mess up too many kids my first year because I had a one year of experience under my belt, but it was it was trial by fire, but it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

Yeah, and how how did your experience in New Orleans then, what manifested itself in front of you that you needed to step into that you use those same, that same ideal of like things are not gonna go in front of me that are wrong? Like what activated that part of you?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Oh, there was so much. Um so much. So we first started off at a French immersion school. There was a job opening that became available at fifth grade teaching English, not French. And I just thought, oh, I'm bored, why not try something new? And the previous teacher had quit because they had heard about how rough that rising gear would become. And it's funny because I'm friends with a lot of these kids now on Facebook because they're old. Uh and uh and uh it was challenging, not gonna lie. It was not a piece of cake, but it was really rewarding. Um, but in that role, I had to have a lot of parent teacher conferences. And I remember this one incident in particular where I was meeting with this um mother of two twins. The twins were infamous. Uh and I I enjoyed them. And she would not talk to me alone. She was a black educator. And after Katrina, they fired all the educators and started from scratch.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And I represented, you know, whiteness, carpet bagging, going down, getting a job, reinventing myself, you know, all of those things. She doesn't know me, but where's the lie? You know, like yeah, that's all the stuff that I represented. And she didn't trust me. And I knew I had to earn it. And so we always met with uh Jesse, our our vice principal who was black and from New Orleans, and uh I just accepted it. So that was kind of like my first taste of like the distrust that was there, and yeah, I knew I had to earn it. And uh then I became an interventionist at an arts immersion school um a couple years after that. And again, parent-teacher conferences revealed so much about the history of New Orleans and education and the black experience. I learned about spead sheds. Uh students who received um a designation of being in special ed would be literally removed from the classrooms in the main buildings and be taught in portables that were nicknamed speadsheds. Fine, my God. And so then again, here I am, white lady who has like the best of intentions and is like, oh my goodness, you know, you're in third grade and you can't read. Like, let's get you tested so that we can figure out is this, you know, uh because of dyslexia or is this because of lack of opportunity, you know, like what's what's going on here. And I just had to really build that trust with a lot of parents and get them to understand that like I was trying really hard to be on their side and get their kids the education that they deserved. So whenever we had a referral to make to the to the school district, Jefferson Parish uh school district, we had to present a case with like six weeks of documentation that we have done all our work, we have assessed, we've you know, looked, we've tried to find out if it's, you know, because the student was getting confusing directions from the teacher or, you know, what kind of work are they able to do or not to. And I presented those cases and uh the person from Jefferson Parish who was responsible for the intake said, I can't take anymore right now. We're we're full. And I was like, that's not the way this works.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

And I said, I'm sorry that you're overwhelmed, but this is not the way it works. And she's like, Well, I just can't do anymore. I'm like, I understand that you have a lot to do. I'm like, but we have kids who've been ignored for years. I I can't accept no for an answer. And she started crying and talking about like how the you know, the school district was like, you know, uh putting her stuff in the hallway and making her move offices and how less like backlogged they are. And I said, that really sucks and that's awful. But that's not these kids' fault. Right. It's not these kids' families' fault. Like we still have to do our jobs. And she's like, but my friends at other schools in Jefferson Parish, you know, the way things have always been, right? They're backing off, they're letting me breathe. And I said, that's not my job.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

My my duty is to the kids, not not to help you. I said, I'm helping you by doing all of this work, you need to take it.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Yeah. Uh there's a lot of trust building and not a lot of pushing back that needed to happen.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

So shifting from New Orleans to the Beaverton School District, what led you to the district? And then also, what are some of the things that you notice that are different or very similar?

SPEAKER_00 17:45

So in New Orleans, uh after Katrina, they decentralized the school system. And so every public school is a charter school.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

And so you can't just go to the school right down the street from you. And the idea was that every child would have an opportunity to attend a high-achieving school, an A-plus school if they wanted to. They wouldn't be limited by their neighborhoods. But what ended up happening is the parents who were available in the morning to drive their kids across the city would still be driving their kids to the A-plus schools. And the parents who had to work five jobs or take 20 buses, like still wouldn't be able to get to those high-performing schools. And so when my son was about to enter kindergarten, we entered the lottery, just like all other kids in New Orleans. And we had picked five schools, because that's what you did. And he didn't get into any of them. And he got put in the middle of a really, really nasty neighborhood. And when I say like nasty neighborhood, not like, not like Oregon nasty, like, you know, but shootings like at nine o'clock on the street, right outside of the school, uh, carjackings, you know, all the time. And so I was like, this is what I'm gonna have to deal with like on my way to school every day before I even get to my school, like having to drop my son off in this and like watch my back. Like it just I was like, I can't do this. And we had a C rated school right down the street. And I'm like, my kid's fine, my kids got supports. He'll he'll thrive at the C rated school. You know, community is important. We want him to go there. Couldn't happen. So I told my husband, you need to start auditioning uh for other orchestras. He plays the trumpet and he was playing in the Louisiana Philharmonic. And I said, You just need to start auditioning. I was like, this is just I don't know what's gonna happen. Like if he goes there and Eliza, my daughter, goes elsewhere, like this is just gonna add so much more chaos to what was already pretty chaotic. Um, we would already hear, you know, gunshots, you know, from our house. We lived on a safe block. That's kind of how it works down there. Um, we had to get out. And so he won the job up here in Portland. I was like, sweet, we would probably live there anyway. And uh so as we were looking around, we saw how not diverse the Portland public schools were, or like how segregated they were. Um, and we're like, the we don't really understand the vibe there. That seems strange. And so that's what led us to land in Beaverton because it looked very diverse and we loved downtown Beaverton, which was not cool when we moved up here in 2015, 2016. We liked how diverse it was, but apparently because it was more brown and black, um, it had the reputation of being dangerous. And so I'm like, this is so silly. Like fine, ooh, graffiti on a on a fence, like, you know, scared. Um, anyway, so we're we were happy to to move here, and it just felt like such a land of opportunity compared to New Orleans. Um, just have the big public library and there's no garbage everywhere. Um, people aren't, you know, just completely denied access to food, uh, like they are systematically in New Orleans. Uh, we lived in a food desert. Uh, we had to travel at least three miles to get to the nearest uh grocery store. There were opportunities here in Beaverton with different career path tracks, and they weren't determined by a lottery system. There were jobs available for people. People uh in my neighborhood where we lived in New Orleans didn't have choices for jobs. So people stayed put and did things that made them money that might not be legal. And because that was the only choice that they had, so to come here, it just felt like the land of opportunity, you know? And uh so when I started in the district, I started as a deployable sub. And that means that you work every day and you are assigned to a school that still doesn't have a substitute for a teaching position. That day. So you could be called at 6 a.m. and be told you need to be at this school by 7 a.m. And you're going to be teaching architecture or, you know, and I did coding one day. I'm I'm not a coder. Um but it was fun and it was really interesting. But I did notice as I went from school to school, just the disparities between the different schools, um, especially the north of 26 divide um compared to the schools south of 26 and just how many more resources they had at the schools north of 26, the amount of volunteers that a lot of schools in the richer neighborhoods have. I remember one day I was making photocopies for a teacher, and I was in the I don't know, supply room, and I heard two moms just kind of complaining about having to go to the same island in Hawaii again. And I was like, I am not in New Orleans anymore. Like this is a different world altogether. You know, I also noticed uh the passport club, it was only available at certain schools in uh Beef Richon School District because it's completely run by volunteers. And these schools that have parents that work a ton are not available to work for free during the school day. Um, so it was really jarring just to see how well off some schools were and what the opportunities were compared to the schools where I were in uh New Orleans, where no one was complaining about having to go to Hawaii again. The same island, Hawaii again.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah, the disparity is is really shocking. Um, because I had taught at Aloha High School for 16 years. Um, and then my last year I was at Westview. And just to see the difference of access and just the bells and whistles um in Westview, and you you just don't see that in Aloha High School. And then also when they built the Mountainside High School and just how it looks like a community college, and it's amazing, but it's like in between that is Aloha. So you could afford this amazing school in the north and in the south, but ain't got nothing for the middle, you know, and it's just it's under the same district. How is the disparity so stark?

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yeah, it all goes back to school funding, right? And they try to make it an equalizer by, you know, separating taxes, um, property taxes from how schools are funded, but PTOs make up the rest. You got rich parents, you know, donating$10,000 a week. That's gonna make a big difference in your on your on campus. Teachers are gonna be way less stressed because they have parent helpers coming in regularly. Oh, yeah. You have kids who have opportunities to participate in things like after school clubs that are run by parents, and and that's at the formative years. So very early on in Beaverton schools, we're teaching some students you are worth this investment and other schools you are not. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 25:16

Yeah, this is a pet project of. I mean, this is something that I'm very passionate about because um it's a lack of vision, it's a lack of ability to consider the fact that the way boundaries have always been created in Beaverton has been equitable, which it has never been equitable. And it's always been conducive to letting the people who are the loudest control where borders and boundaries of schools are. And so things are kind of plastered into place right now in Beaverton. It's very difficult under the under a more like status quo way of doing things to ever affect change and equalize schools in our district. But I'm gonna put this in the space. Not that we're talking about this, but but my idea was actually actually wasn't even my idea, it was one of my colleagues' idea when I was at at Mountainside was that the only way you ever really are going to make Beaverton a more thriving district everywhere is to take Aloa out of the out of the boundaries and make it a class A CTE school where everybody wants to go to the programs at Aloha. There's no boundary, anybody can go there and then you reorganize the boundaries with the other five high schools. So it's not it's it's a boundary-free zone. Um and they already have great CTE programs, but you could develop more CTE programs, make it a desirable place for people to go to. Anyway, so like thinking outside of that box is not what people do on the Be Virtual School Board. It's not common to their practice. But thinking about bigger ideas like that to make things better for all kids, um, to me, that's one of the things that I was interested in doing as I ran for school board. So though those are things that I've actually thought about.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

Well, just the audacity too, to then pass that judgment, you know, oh, those Aloha kids. And you're like, well, give them everything that the rich schools have and let's hear your complaints within a year after that. Like you can't steal continuously and then be shocked at the behaviors that happen as a result, or the children's total lack of investment where they don't care. They're not going to the rallies, which are so outdated. I don't even know why those things happen anyway. But it's like you you cannot be upset when the children literally don't give a fuck. Because you obviously don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Why why should they buy in? 100%. Yeah. I I mean uh kids start to believe you when you tell them who they are. Unfortunately. They see it. They see it. They're not stupid, they know what environment they're given, they know their teachers' attitudes toward them, they know, yeah, money, money talks, right? And they see it not going to them.

SPEAKER_05 28:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

This is a bit of a pivot point here where we can kind of start talking about um how you and I met, basically. I mean, we had met before, but um, as I ran for school board, you were kind enough to step in and start the process of getting me organized, um, which I was incredibly unorganized, had no idea what I was doing. Um, so I'm forever grateful for you for stepping into that space and trying trying to direct me in in one way.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Is the blind leading the blind? But I tried. Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

And that was kind of where you and I just kind of connected, um, talked quite often about what was happening around us in that election. And I'm really proud of that work um because we did end up changing the dynamics on the Beaverton School Board. Um, and it did help, I think, knock some pieces loose, you might say. But that also brings up um kind of one of the reasons that we wanted you to come into the podcast and and share with us, because it was at that moment that I began to realize that the unions that I had always kind of seen as doing their work um the right way were not doing anything close to that. And and I was super frustrated because I was part of a group that had just four years earlier put everything we had as a union into getting these three women of color elected. And teachers were out everywhere knocking on doors and doing everything they could in the midst of what became a COVID election. And so I guess what I'm wondering is um maybe you could start with kind of the genesis of this BEA united movement and kind of where that started from and how it because we kind of got a sense of your sense of social justice. Like your experiences have brought you to the point where you're not gonna let stuff happen that is wrong. And so kind of let's talk a little bit about that beginning moment of the BEAU.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah. Um, so yeah, it was a real treat to get to know you better uh through um yeah, through your campaign. Um I remember when I served on BPAC, which is the Beaverton Education Association's um political action committee, and we got to interview candidates, and uh it was really just a thrill to be able to endorse you and the other candidates that we chose uh because of your values. And I thought when I was a part of that, that I would be privy to the like a toolkit, I guess, uh that would help guide us in guiding our candidates towards success. And I had seen the tremendous amount of effort that our union had put into getting um the previous round of candidates elected to the school board. And I thought the same effort would be forthcoming. And I find it really bizarre when several of us on BPAC would reach out to union leadership and we wouldn't hear anything about how things should be done and you know, how we could support you with money or in kind things like printed materials or I don't know, just something. Um and it became very bewildering. And it was at that point where I was like, you thinking, huh? I thought we had a system. And it was at that point that I felt like, oh gosh, it's broken, you know. Um, I'm concerned. And I remember we were had been talking with, you know, uh somebody else who was helping with your campaign who should have had more answers, and they didn't seem that concerned. And I just I was just so confused, like, why are we just not getting answers? And I know that people in our union leadership were focusing on a different campaign, uh, trying to get somebody elected to the statewide level. Um, and I honestly feel like our union dropped the ball on what was happening locally, which is such a shame because it was a chance for us to pick our own bosses. I don't know why we wouldn't have put so much effort into that unless our foot was already halfway out the door. And that's kind of what I felt happened. I was pissed, you know, and so a bunch of us, we didn't like what happened. We were very disappointed. I got to know Karen Stark really well because of that. Um, and it was a real treat getting to know her better. And I got more involved with the DSA through um her. And that's how I got to meet Macy Mineo, um, who was an organizer down in uh Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Teachers Union when they were going through all of their turmoil with their union and improving systems and forming of reform caucus and really making waves and doing things like bargaining for the common good, um, where they're lifting up their whole community, not just the teachers and the students in the classroom, but their whole community. And in speaking with Macy, they let me know, like, you know, if you want to organize, if you, if you don't like what's happening, just let me know. And I thought, okay, well, fine. I guess so. So about a month after the dust had settled, I was really pissed off that you lost and Karen lost, and it just really sucked. Um, I was like, okay, well, I'll reach out to Macy. And so they told me about all of these different things that we could be doing instead. And it was just like this light just shone down on me. And I was like, oh, this is the way.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

Um this is the way.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

It's kind of funny because they kind of have like shoulder, you know, shoulder length Jesus-y hair, you know. So, oh, thanks, Macy. Um, and so, you know, introduced me to uh a book by Jane McAlevy, no shortcuts. I thought, you know, that that was referenced in another interview, uh, which is pretty cool. But yeah, Jane McAlevy is an incredible um union organizer and and writer who passed a few years ago, um, but has inspired so many people in the working class and in unions to get organized to make change. And so uh we started a book club uh and we read no shortcuts together with a few people who were pissed off. And we also started realizing that other things, not just this election, was wrong. And the lessons that we learned from Macy and from learning more about organizing the way that unions could be run, um, inspired us to make some pretty big changes starting last spring when we had some empty seats filled by appointments. We were kind of sick and tired of like the status quo. And that that was like the tipping point. We're like, that's it, that's enough. We can't keep doing things the way they've always been done just because of what's been done before.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

So you were just following up on what we left off with, but you were a cat zone captain. Um, and I and I I knew that when you and I were knocking on doors together one Sunday morning, I think it was, and starting to talk about the value of having a cat team in place all the time uh as organizers. And they could sign up for what they wanted to do. They don't always have to do all the same thing all the time. But you have a ready group of people with numbers and a and a list to activate. And so maybe talk a little bit about the process that Beaverton went through in disengaging from their cat team and the and the complications that brought about and how that motivated you to move forward.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Yeah. Um, so um, with our last targeting session, it was actually a pretty cool idea that has copied from other unions that have been successful with the negotiations is um we had a cat team, which means we're contract um action team. Action team. Yeah, contract action team. Um and so basically you have a bunch of people who are um middle men, middle people uh who are in charge of small subsets of people in getting the message out for action when your union is in the process of negotiating with the district. And so I was a cat zone captain, which meant that I was in charge of getting the message out to a few schools under me. And because we didn't have anybody who wanted to be the cat leader at my school, I ended up being the cat leader at my school as well. So I had to tell myself the message to get out to everybody at my school. Um, and it was a nice and efficient way of getting the message out and activating people. Um, basically like a modern version of a phone tree. And it was great, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. This is something new that we were trying. We were kind of building the plane while flying it. It was fine, you know, and there's room for improvement, but it it was a great idea. But as the name Cat says, you know, it's a contract action team. It's when you're trying to negotiate a contract. So the natural end of that role would end when you get a contract. And so all of this work that we did uh ended up just kind of naturally like dissolving. And I remember there was a meeting with all of us, uh cat zone captains, to talk about what went well, what didn't w go well. And but then it was like, okay, it's over. It's it's done. And it was a real failure on our part to not continue that structure and to keep those people in those roles. And I think the idea was that, well, people had only signed up for this action during the contract negotiations, but we failed to tap into those natural leaders that we spent so much time building.

SPEAKER_05 37:48

Um, and to say I'm sorry to interrupt, but when you say we decided not to keep that structure, you mean that leadership decided that they wanted to shut it down?

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Uh so there was so there's discrepancy there. So when we had our um follow-up meeting to discuss what had happened and and how we would do things differently and to celebrate some successes, um we were told, all right, thank you so much. And so there wasn't like an explicit like we don't have cats anymore. We don't have cat zone captains. It was just kind of like classes dismissed, and we all were like, Okay, I guess that's all we're doing. And then, you know, we weren't receiving any messages like we had been. And so it just kind of falls apart, you know.

SPEAKER_05 38:36

That wasn't structured through a signal chat.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Is that how no, it was just through text. Um and um, so you know, when you don't water a plant, it dies. And that's kind of what happened, I would say, um, more than anything. And so it's a little bit strange, you know, a couple of months later when Suzanne Bonamici was going to be like at Beaverton, like talking about school funding or something. And then we all got this message like, hey, everybody, let's see who can make it to this event to show up for school funding. We're gonna have this event where everybody shows up at their school sites with signs. And I'm like, who's we? Like, what are we like who's at who's being activated here? It was a little confusing. And then um, our union leadership was like, Oh no, we didn't shut down the cat team. And we're like, well, nobody told us that we are still going or being expected to do things. And so it was it was really confusing. It was hard to revive and it just didn't come back. And so, yeah, so we're trying to rebuild that this year, and it's been really hard. Um, because I wasn't named as the co-chair of the organizing committee until well into the school year, and neither was Adam. And so when things are already in motion during the school year, it's so hard to get things started. It's it's hard to jumpstart something when the car is off the road. What's the point? You know, uh, so it's just kind of like coming up with a plan of action this year to revive the cat um structure, but just to be ready to deploy our CATs at any time is just gonna be so valuable. And I don't know if a lot of people in our union currently see the utility of this because we've really only been active as a whole during contract negotiations. And there's this misnomer that if you want to get something done or if you want to affect change, we just gotta wait till we negotiate it. And that's not true. Right. That is absolutely not true. We could be active all the time. We should be organizing all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:37

Yeah. And so maybe take us now from that, from the activity around that cat team and then into launching into like kind of the the genesis of the organizing model that you were developing and and creating within the actual union that was div that was very much used to and comfortable with the service model of organizing.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Yeah. So um our union has been mostly a service model. And what that means is basically you elect people to leadership positions in our union. There are two full-time release positions of president and the vice president. And we have um, I don't know, 12 or 13 people, I think, on our eboard. And they are, you know, doing this voluntarily. Um, they're they're supporting the leadership um in making decisions for the body as a whole. It's representative. What we had discovered was that there was a lot of um miscommunication or non-communication from membership to the people at the top. And something that we had heard time and time again is our members aren't engaged. They don't engage. So it's always on us over and over again. We we do it for the union. Like we, so that third partying of the union uh really hurt us in the end because there became this idea that like the paid people and the people who are on the executive board are the people who do the things and we bring the our our problems to them and then they solve them. And we might get some things solved and we might not get something solved. But what are you gonna do? You know, when you only have like a handful of people doing all the work for the union, right? And so it just kind of became that's just the way it is. When I was a cat zone captain, I just realized the collective power that we had in engaging with our members. And I remember having a lot of one-on-one conversations with people who didn't know that they could ask for something or that we should be doing something differently. And um why and just even just like a lot of wondering like, why don't we do this? And to be completely honest, when I was a Catsone captain, I wasn't fully aware of what we could possibly be doing. But I became so hopeful that there were our our members did want to be engaged, they did want to be a part of the solution. So all of this talk about like how our membership wasn't engaging and how they didn't want to help and they just bring you problems. Well, they've been taught that that's what you do. You know, they're if you are told to bring us your problems, they're gonna bring you your problems, you know? They don't know that there's a committee for this or a committee for this or a committee for this, and they could be a part of that committee and be a part of the solution. And sure, not everybody with those problems is gonna join a committee, but so many will. And they want to do that work. And that's what I discovered with the other cat captains. Like once we fell into those roles, we discovered that there were all these committees. We that there's the bylaw committee, there's the organizing committee, there's um, I don't know, there's so many things, the communications committee. And we had such a diverse skill set among all of us. And when we put our brains together, we could come up with something pretty kick ass. Um, and we discovered that when we were in the Middle of negotiations, and we came up with the idea to do a strike ready school where we decided to educate our members about what a strike is, what it looks like to actually go on the picket line, what that means for your bank account. And we, the CatZone captains and I, we just gathered in my living room and we planned a ton of educational sessions at the Union Hall in like one evening with a few follow-ups after that. But um, it was just really, really cool to, to, to learn that things weren't as hopeless as I thought that they might be, or that there was a different way than the service model. We didn't have to bring all of our problems to just a few people. We could be a part of the solution.

SPEAKER_05 44:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

And we could demand answers.

SPEAKER_05 44:48

And was it that group that you initially had done those things with that became the group that you were leaning on uh when the appointment election started after the exit of the president at the state level?

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Well, it was through um those connections that I got to know the other people a lot better. And a lot of them are uh building reps for their schools. And so when we just got like, you know, it's what sounded like one appointment recommendation after the next, it just seemed like we were filling seats with friends. I was like, this is just so strange. Like we're not hearing what they stand for, we're not hearing their ideas, we're not knowing who else was considered for the position. It just felt like a lot of these um decisions were being made without the rank and file being informed of what the process was. And it was challenging to find out what the process was. I found out, you know, like in addition to the bylaws, we also had procedures that I was not made aware of, you know. And there's a whole list of those that were not made available to the rank and file. You can't find those anywhere on our website. They weren't emailed to anybody. When you become a rep, there's no packet of information. So it's just like we were operating with these invisible rules that we were told sometimes we were breaking or not adhering to, not necessarily knowing what they were. And it just was a little bit too on the nose with what we had just experienced with our own school district. And that really resonated with a lot of people, not just, you know, the other reps who were also cat zone captains and I, but like just the reps in general. And when we'd go back to the school and start sharing what was happening, they were like, Wait, what? You're not being told what the rules are, but you're told that you're breaking them. That's not okay. And I'm like, Yeah, right. I'm not crazy. This is, you know, because people in positions of power who like to gatekeep because they want to have like a group of friends, right? It's comfortable. They get free trips to Hawaii, you know, like Hawaii again, but um, you know, they get, you know, they they get a lot of perks with with the position. And um, we're just like, well, they need to earn that.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

It's not saying that those are all like fun times, but like what are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 47:10

Right. Um and you're not learning what their values are, they're just being kind of appointed to a position and expected to just accept that appointment as these people are good enough to be there.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Correct, correct. So um we started demanding transparency, asking that you know, candidates be or not just candidates, but people who are being considered for appointments. We we changed how that's being done. We now require that um uh an announcement be made uh known to everybody via email with like what the position is, if there's pay associated with it, um, the term limits, um, how you can apply to you know be considered for the position. We're expected to give a little bio and make a little video now because we we demanded those things. We want to know who's running our union. So a lot of good came out of some pretty crappy stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:05

So I'm just curious though, like, how was your reception? Um, because it's um, I mean, I would think it's an embarrassment that you are an organization and all of a sudden you have fraction, you know, and there's like a group that's just like, you know, we're gonna actually do what the people need. And so I'm just curious of like, how did BEA receive it? How did the school board receive it? You know, and just how um, you know, was there a difficulty with that? Or did you find that it people were welcoming to a new vision of actually being proactive and helping people?

SPEAKER_00 48:43

So it's funny, when you take the name out and when you take the word reform caucus out, or you know, when you just focus on the idea ideas, it's not that scary. Right. Um, but I think what was really scary to a lot of people who had just been really kind of comfort in the status quo is when we turn when we got people at the RA to vote down an appointment for vice president. Um, and that had not been done before. Um, usually the rep assemblies are just like a rubber stamp. Whatever e board presents to you, just say, okay, we trust you. You got it, move it on. But after the previous few appointments, we were like, we don't know why this person is being considered. At that point, we knew that there was somebody else who had expressed interest in the position who was very well qualified. Um, and that wasn't the recommendation to the RA that came out of eboard, and it was really perplexing. Um, and so we thought, okay, well, what is our strategy with this? How do we hold people accountable and how do we uh get the answers that we need? So we just thought of something like very simple, just ask questions, but at RA in a public forum. So when the vice presidential pick was brought to us to be voted on at the next RA, we came ready. We had strategy. We had developed a set of questions that would go in a certain order that asked them, well, what was the process that you followed? Who else was considered for this position? Why do we not know what qualities you're looking for in a VP and why somebody was selected over somebody else? And just through that kind of questioning, it became very clear to the revs like, oh, our leaders don't necessarily have all of the answers that we need, or their answers aren't good enough. And that was really empowering for a lot of people because it felt like, oh, we can have a say in who leads our union. We don't have to like third party because we have a say. Like we can't say, like, oh, you know, this person doesn't do anything. Well, why are why aren't we doing anything? Well, you didn't know what you were voting on when you approved them. Now, let let let's find out a little bit more about the people that are going to be presented in front of us. And when the person who was presented to us got a chance to share, he kind of joked around, like, oh, well, I didn't really even consider the position before and the classroom is getting hard.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

You know, chuckle, chuckle, and you know, it makes people laugh, you know, people identify with that, but there was also no vision. Um, and that was really jarring. And that recommendation got voted down. Um, and we did it. And we just really want to make people question. Not and and I feel bad because this person's a really nice person, a really lovely person. But at the same time, we've got a union to run. Yeah. We've got shit to do. And we want somebody who there who's gonna be a fighter for us, and not just somebody who's like the classroom's hard. Um, and to this person's credit, they really tried, but I just kind of feel like uh to do to do some things, but they're still part of a status quo that is not making the changes that we need to make quickly enough.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

And so it wasn't well received. Um, we were told that we were blowing up the union by somebody who I really respected and who was helping out cats uh when we were organizing. And as far as the school board goes, um, I don't know if they're I mean, they must be aware of some rumblings, but um, we did have some guidance and assistance from somebody on the school board who is very well versed in organizing and is in the DSA Tammy Carpenter, who has um really been a great support to to our group, but only in an advisory capacity. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:00

In our last little couple minutes here, do you have is there anything we haven't asked you that you'd like to talk about or anything you'd like to offer at this moment? Um I thought we might ask you that we didn't.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

So I want people who are in unions that are really frustrating to be in to not lose hope. Like you have the ability to identify natural leaders within your organization and tap into those, tap into the doers, question the way things are run at our age, join the committees, demand that you have the rules that you're told that you're supposed to be following.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Follow them.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Uh learn them. Yeah, learn them. Um follow the good ones, you know uh recommend changing the ones that are not helpful or that are holding you back. There is a path forward, and it doesn't have to be the way that it's always been. Um, there is a statewide caucus, um, OEU, uh, and we got a lot of guidance from Stephen Siegel, who really showed us how to be good troublemakers, uh, and uh bunch of people in PAT who also have a reform caucus there. We had a lot of help from people from North Clackamas as well. So we did not do this alone. It wasn't just like me and Macy one day, like, hey, let's just do the thing. Um we we developed a team. Um, and there's a fantastic um educators group that meets up on the first Friday nights um every month. Um, most of the time at Workers Tap, where you get to meet other like-minded educators who want to improve their union and make things more democratic and more transparent and more just and to fight for not only the um working conditions, but also for um a better future, essentially, for educators who are responsible for creating conditions that are going to shape our kids' lives. And it's so much bigger than like the arguments and the nitpicking within the union. You just gotta get over it. There's too much time spent on interpersonal conflict in unions and power tripping, and none of it matters. Just do the right thing.

SPEAKER_05 55:17

There's a lot at stake.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

There's a lot at stake. Just do the right thing, pick your allies well, keep fighting for the right thing. And I don't know, come to the workers to have joined DSA. Like we're, you know, and there's a huge network of people that will support you. I'm not gonna out them, but there are people across the state who are organizing right now.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

Um, and their unions don't even know. Um but they should know because these people have been noisy.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:45

But when they're not listened to, they organize.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

Well, and I think BEAU is a great testament to people in power right now should understand, don't be too comfortable. You know, and that with every kind of technology we have, transparency is the only way to go, you know, and that sooner or later you will be found out. And that people talk, you know, and that the the idea of just status quo or just being a henchman for the bigger institutions, your you know, new faction shows that, you know, no, they'll there'll be something else to replace you if you don't serve the teachers. Because we've got teachers who are literally in danger on so many different fronts. And so if they're getting attacked by students, by parents, by admin, by, you know, media, all of that stuff, who is championing for the teacher who's trying to focus on the student? You know, and so when they are asking their union for help and they're met with, oh, I'm sorry, we're in the middle of bargaining. I can't help you right now because the contract is more important. Why would any teacher pay their union dues? Because what where are those dues going? You know, so I love that you guys did this. I think that a lot more local unions need to start looking at it because I'm sure this is not just a Beaverton thing, that this is wherever there are people in power who are looking for the next greatest jump and that this is a lily pad for them. It is not an actual feeling of I need to help people. They need to realize that people are gonna react, you know, and you you will be replaced one way or another.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

Yeah. We're we're done with does burglars. Yes. Exactly. Doom's burglar. I love that. Yeah. And there's a place, you know, like if we it it's also, you know, where how do we move forward from here? How you said, you know, there might have been, you know, these, you know, fissures. Um, there's a place for the status quo in what we're building. We, you know, you've worked hard. Like if they we don't want to like erase you, come with us.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Come with us. Do the right thing and come with us. It's not scary. And if you're doing the right thing, transparency shouldn't be scary. If you're doing the right thing, democracy shouldn't be frightening.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

You're not rebuilding the whole thing. You're just simply uh making the progressive adjustments or adjustments to help people move forward instead of being stuck.

SPEAKER_04 58:17

Well, most importantly, doing this work, you need to realize when to move the fuck out of the way. You know, and so you hear too much, you need to go, you know what? I can step aside, or I can pass the baton and I'll take the next slap later on. Or maybe the marathon's over for me and um via condios.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

You know, like yeah, or like this is not my wheelhouse, like, but I'm still important to union work and this is how I can operate within the union. There's a place for everybody. Yeah, some of the current, you know, status quo people are amazing in certain areas. And I I hope that they stay engaged because they're valuable and they have a certain skill set for certain things. There and that's the that's the beautiful thing about unions. If you really believe in the purpose of them is that we all belong. Right. And that we should all be moving forward together. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 59:14

Claire Renault, thank you so much for coming in and educating us today. We really, really appreciate you being here.

SPEAKER_00 59:22

Thank you to both of you. I've had such great conversations with you here and elsewhere. Um thank you. And thank you for all your work. Seriously.

SPEAKER_04 59:30

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

And that's another episode of Oregon Voices.

SPEAKER_03 59:44

Yo, mama, daddy's in your channel.