Table of Contents
In an effort to build stronger connections with the community and collect school supplies for Highland Springs High School students, the Henrico Education Association is hosting a supply drive this weekend.
“We're here to continue to facilitate events like this that make sure students' learning conditions are as supportive as possible,” said HEA member John Reaves, who is organizing the event. “As much as it's about supplies, it's also about connecting with people and bringing people into one place.”
The top five most needed items are binders, pens, pencils, poster board and whiteboard markers. Students often go without basic school supplies, and educators spend too much of their own money to buy them, Reaves said.
The drive will take place Nov. 20 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the new Highland Springs High School, where there is a strong union presence.
“We're just interested in showing that the union is not another institution,” Reaves said. “The union is the community. We're facilitators in the community, we are of the community, and just want to continue to show who we are as professionals.”
While HEA members are encouraged to stand in solidarity with the Highland Springs community and attend the drive, they are not being asked to bring donations. The HEA’s collective bargaining committee has been contacting local organizations to encourage donations.
Local elected officials including Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan, Del. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico) and Henrico School Board Chair Roscoe Cooper III are expected to stop by in support of the HEA.
“We're just trying to establish legitimate relationships with our communities and trying to facilitate a relationship between businesses, organizations and people and the schools in their community,” Reaves said.
The HEA, local affiliate of the Virginia Education Association, has been planning a push for collective bargaining for over a year. A new law that went into effect on May 1 overturned the ban on collective bargaining for local government employees that had stood since 1977.
But because of a caveat in the law, public sector employees can negotiate agreements only if individual localities vote to allow that process to occur. For teachers, that means the local school board has to vote to approve a resolution.
The topic has not yet been discussed at a Henrico School Board meeting.
* * *
Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.
