Meet Your Colleagues

Kenya Burton is a sixth-year resident teacher at Sisulu-Walker Charter School in Harlem.

Q: Why did you decide to become a charter school teacher?
A: My initial impression of charter schools was they were freed from being forced into a “cookie-cutter’ curriculum and provided teachers with greater control over what was taught, which seemed exciting to me. I thought of traditional district schools as more rigid and charters as having greater freedom over what was taught in the classroom.

Q: How has the union made a difference for your school?
A: Being part of a union allows us to rise above the factions and all work towards what’s best for the school and the students. The union is a call to be united and pushes us towards one another because we have a common goal; we may teach in different classrooms but we have a common goal of providing a quality education all of our students. Once we developed a strong school culture as a group we can develop even better culture in each classroom and then reach the larger community. As we learned in the last UFT professional development workshop on trust and teaching, there is a direct correlation between teachers’ relationships and the performance of the school; the high performing schools have teachers that trust one another.

Q: What would you say to your colleagues in non-union charter schools?
A:If you want to have your voice heard you certainly need a union. Charter schools were initially formed because it was supposed to be a teacher-run/teacher-oriented schools, it wasn’t supposed to be bureaucrats who had no classroom experience. The union allows teachers to have an active voice in the school.

The union helps the school to be a more collaborative effort: teachers, parents, and community members can all have a say in educating the students. I’ve had three colleagues check on me today because the head teacher is out and that is prompted by the union; that is prompted by the sense that we are all in this together.