Teachers find orientation helpful

New teacher Matt Sandbank takes care of some moving business in a stairwell at Gallup High School in between new-teacher orientation seminars Thursday. Sandbank is from North Carolina and will be teaching middle school special education in Crownpoint. Gallup-McKinley County District Central Office officials estimate there to be 120 new teachers this year. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — It doesn't take much to make Brian Bernard happy.

Bernard, head of the local teacher's union, finally got his wish Thursday he was inside the Gallup High School behind a table when new teachers to the district received their orientation.

"The air conditioning (in the high school) was better than the shade of a tree," he said late Thursday on an evaluation sheet passed around by the district to see what people felt about the orientation session.

The Gallup-McKinley County School District does this every year as a way to familiarize new employees to the local cultures and to provide them a chance to get their paperwork done in one day.

Chantal Irvin, assistant superintendent of curriculum for the district, said that talks she has had with new teachers who have worked in other school districts indicates that what Gallup does is somewhat unique.

"They said they usually don't feel as welcomed as they did when they came to Gallup." she said.

Officials for the McKinley Federation of United School Employees definitely felt more welcomed this year than in the past.

The union had filed labor grievances against the school district over the situation at past orientations when they were not allowed to set up a table to tell new teachers about the union in an effort to recruit them as members.

In past years, County School Superintendent Karen White said the problem was space and time. The teachers had only a little time available between orientation sessions to meet with those agencies that they needed to meet with that there was little time for others.

But she said that there was always a number of community organizations that wanted a chance to bring their services to the attention of the new teachers, and the district decided to allow them to have tables this year to see how it worked.

The teacher's union was allowed to set up with the other community organizations such as the Methodist Church, Wal-Mart, and local cable companies in an area one level down from the primary group, such as banks and the security company that was providing teachers with a chance to have their fingerprints done as part of the mandatory background check.

While the union wasn't with the main group, Bernard said he felt the union was given as much chance as anyone else to make their pitch to the new teachers and for that reason, he felt the day went "pretty good."

"I hope this is a sign that the relationship between the union and the school district is improving and that this is a sign of good things to come," he said.

The union still has a number of issues that need to be worked out, including the union's persistent request of being allowed to have access to the teacher's mail boxes so they can provide them with union literature.

School officials agreed that the day went well.

At the end of the day, the teachers were given evaluation forms, said Irvin, and the most common comments were that the sessions were "helpful" and the topics were "relevant."

She said that while she didn't actually keep track of numbers, she saw that the group contained many young teachers who were starting work in their first school district as well as a good number of teachers in the middle-age group.

She said there was also a number of older teachers who have worked in the Gallup district before and came in with knowledge of many of the topics that were covered.

"They usually come to see if there are any updates and to get their paperwork up-to-date," Irvin said, adding that some were there because they had retired and were coming back to the district after being away for a year or more and needed to have new background checks, which included the taking of their fingerprints.