Teacher finds inspiration in national role

In terms of lifetime teaching careers, Kelly Millard is a relative newcomer.

But in terms of national involvement in her profession, Millard is an old hand.

For the past three years of her five-year career, the Whitefish teacher has represented her colleagues as part of the Montana delegation to the National Education Association Representative Assembly.

As part of the 37-member contingent to what is billed as the world's largest democratic deliberative body, held this month in Los Angeles, she celebrated the success of New York NEA members as they won the right to put a vote to their membership on merging National Educational Association with the American Federation of Teachers.

It gives New York teachers the same opportunity for unionized strength that Montana has enjoyed since it first forged a partnership between the country's two largest teachers' unions.

"Montana really has been an advocate for merging," Millard said. "It makes sense. Why have two unions fighting?

"It was a real victory for New York," when the 64 percent vote cleared the way for that state to join NEA and AFT, Millard said.

It's an example of the type of national advocacy that Millard undertakes from her local base.

The Whitefish native and University of Great Falls graduate began her teaching career five years ago as a history teacher at Flathead High School.

Four years ago she began teaching history and English at Whitefish Independent High School and never looked back.

She's also been president of the Whitefish Education Association for three years now, and has chaired the District One board for Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers for four years.

Millard said the state and national connections have helped her become more professional.

Her involvement came through a chance legislative invitation.

She had known little about the union as a fledging teacher, when a colleague asked her to speak to the Montana Legislature about her struggles as a new teacher in a resort community on a low salary. She tried to help lawmakers see the sacrifices teachers make, just to stay in a profession in which they strongly believe.

In the effort, she worked closely with her former mentor and high school counselor-turned-legislator, Bob Lawson. She went back to the Legislature in 2003 and 2005.

That first experience in 2001 led her to the Stand Up for Education campaign, a public-awareness effort by a coalition of Montana organizations connected with Montana's public schools and universities.

"That woke me up," she said. "It made it clear how many teachers Montana is losing."

She continued her proactive stance, taking part in decision-making that affects teachers from Whitefish to Washington, D.C.

At the Representative Assembly, Millard and her fellow delegates deal with governance and bylaws of the NEA but do not establish the union's platforms on state or national issues.

"I'd never been in a room with that many people," she said of her first year at the assembly, held in Dallas. Typically, she said, 8,000 or 9,000 delegates attend and are joined by another couple thousand people without voting privileges.

"I was impressed with how tangible our actions are," she said of the divergent opinions given their time at the podium, and the orderly process followed at the convention. "Anyone could get up and make a difference, and be respected."

Millard is an advocate of keeping them tied to education goals.

"The organization wants to work with legislators and let them see the reality," of consequences of such programs as No Child Left Behind, she said. "I don't feel lawmakers always understand the impacts."

She worries about the lack of funding to support No Child innovations, she said, "but I'm a positive person and I look for solutions."

Her second Representative Assembly, last year in Washington, D.C., was focused on the Presidential election and drew the satellite-broadcast speeches of Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards.

Still, Millard said bipartisanship is a hallmark of the convention.

"It was surprising to me that it wasn't just a sweep," she said of the 10 percent vote cast for George Bush and Dick Cheney when representatives indicated support.

This third Representative Assembly, held July 1-6 in Los Angeles, became a lesson in supporting other states.

The bylaw proposed by New York's delegation to allow the NEA and AFT to merge there - Millard said only Montana, Florida and Minnesota now permit the cooperation - made it past the representatives. But the NEA president, she said, doesn't support wholesale mergers across the nation. Each state must follow New York's example to pass an individual bylaw.

"Montana wanted to advance the idea of a merger," Millard said. "We've seen so many of the benefits."

Those include AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination program to train teachers for success in the classroom, and membership open to non-classroom teachers such as Head Start professionals who bring divergent viewpoints to the table.

"Both the NEA and the AFT are big on classroom support," Millard said. "Everyone wins when the teachers are prepared to be in the classroom."

Also at the Los Angeles convention, representatives backed lobbying efforts to make No Child Left Behind work better in real life while supporting its accountability goals.

Millard supports State Superintendent Linda McCulloch's efforts to redefine "highly qualified teachers" to make the requirement workable in rural Montana, and to reach a realistic balance of testing and accountability.

Personally, Millard came away from the Representative Assembly inspired.

"It gets everyone fired up to go back into the classroom," she said of a speech by the National Teacher of the Year.

"We're lucky to be able to do what we do," she said. "I'm a strong believer in this. It makes our kids good citizens."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com