Peg Becker

She is a teacher and president of the Dubuque Education Association, but Becker in no way considers herself a "typical union boss." Instead, she prefers the label "association leader" and explains that she is simply a teacher who decided to step up and accept the challenges and risks of leadership.

Becker possesses a unique perspective on local education and workplace issues. Here are highlights of her recent conversation with the Telegraph Herald.

TH:Was teaching something you always aspired to?
PB:I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I come from a family of teachers. My mother was a teacher and my grandmother was a teacher. In fact, they both taught in one-room schoolhouses in the West Dubuque area. My mom taught for 30 years in West Dubuque.

TH:So, when you were a young girl, you'd play school with your friends. Would you always be the teacher?
PB:Oh, yes. And we'd hang out with mom. My family owns a farm about two miles north of Epworth, so my mom helped run that family farm. She taught, sometimes part-time and then eventually full-time. After school, we'd always go to her classroom. Then we'd hang out there and help her.

Actually, my dad had to quit high school when he was a sophomore in high school because his dad had a heart attack. He always felt really bad about that. He always teased us, because he said he had a Ph.D. from the School of Hard Knocks. We'd kind of roll our eyes and go, "Oh, no, not the School of Hard Knocks." I think he appreciated the lack of education in his life, that he always pushed all of us to finish high school. We all went on to finish college. Actually, all my brothers and sister have their master's degrees.

TH:You and your sister Patty are twins. When you were growing up, did you pull any pranks on teachers or boyfriends?
PB:Not that I remember, no. We were just so identical that we had a hard time convincing people who we were a lot of the time. Even yet today, people see us together they can tell us, but apart, we look so much alike that people will still be confused who we are.

TH:Sometimes there are some misunderstandings?
PB:Sure. I was in Mercy Hospital the other day and I was all dressed up like this and they said, "You always dress for work like that?" I carry on a conversation because I usually think I know them from the business world - I know their parent or something like that - then all of a sudden I realize they think I'm Patty. So then I have to explain, "No, I'm her sister. I'm not who you think I am." Our voices sound a lot alike, too.

TH:I'm sure that after 26 years you've seen lots of your colleagues experience burnout.
PB:Yeah. And even some of them retiring. I think teaching is such a high-stress job that you're on 24-hours-a-day when you're teaching and you have so many decisions that matter so much when you're dealing with someone's child. I can see where people get so stressed out when teaching.

Plus, the No Child Left Behind has left a lot of mandates and expectations. It's probably made us more accountable. From that aspect, it's been a good thing. But from a lot of the testing aspect and the pressure it puts on and having to change curriculum constantly, those things put a lot of stress on a lot of individuals.

TH:What grade would you give to the No Child Left Behind law?
PB:I would give it a C-plus. I think the plus would come from making us more accountable, but it's a lot of unpaid mandates that are forcing a lot of issues. We're trying to hustle to get funding for it and we're losing a lot of funding. If you believe in a program from a federal level, there should be funding to support that.

From a testing point of view, for a child, there's never one test that's going to meet a child perfectly, so you need to do a lot of different types of assessment. A lot of the No Child Left Behind believes you should base it all on the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills), so there's a real hustle to make sure, almost like teaching to the test. I believe that you need to teach children strategies and problem-solving abilities.

TH: What are your thoughts about the concept that floats around every now and then about year-round school? Is that a good idea?
PB:From the consistency of it from the child's point of view, I think it's nice that learning never stops. But our buildings aren't designed for year-round school.

Dubuque is so traditional in its values and beliefs, I think that would be hard for a lot of people in this area. I've had four kids, and so I've been through a lot, just watching my kids grow up. I think there's a time and place where kids need a break away and I think truly summer is that time that they need to be involved in other activities.

Sometimes parents will say to me, "Should I keep them tutoring?" I said, "Just let them be a kid this summer."

By mid-August, kids are coming up to me and saying, "I can't wait to be back." Even my own kids. They're so bored. There's that expectation of a new school year starting and they're ready to come back and they're ready to learn.

I think a year-round school, the basic premise of it, is sound, but I think there are a lot of things that work against it in a lot of ways.

TH:You mentioned your kids, and I know this because our families are familiar with each other: You teach in the public schools, you are involved in the Dubuque Education Association ...
PB:I knew you were going to ask me that question. Keep going.

TH:You've chosen to have your kids in the Catholic schools. Do you get asked about that a lot?
PB:Yeah, I've gotten a lot of heat about that. That's a valid criticism as far as I'm concerned. I've even had some secondary people say, "I really have a problem joining the DEA if you..." But I usually explain my background.

We had our daughter Mary in Irving. It was probably one of the best years of her life. Diane Muir was her kindergarten teacher. She is one of the most outstanding teachers ever. But John's family - his mother went to St. Anthony's, his whole family went to St. Anthony's, and when I talk about a traditional values of Dubuque, I think to John's family. That really meant a lot. He was really torn the year we had Mary at Irving because he saw what a great school it was, but still at the same time, he felt really strongly pulled back to support the institution of St. Anthony's.

I work really hard for the public school and I don't there's a better public school system in the United States, actually, and I'll continue to work and I believe strongly in the Catholic school system, too. Is one better than the other? I don't think so. They're just different and why you have your children at different places are for different reasons.

The Catholic school has been going through a lot of crisis right now. We went through those crises too in the public school with rezoning and change, especially when it come to the elementary students. I would hate to see the demise of the Catholic school here in Dubuque because there are so few of them left that are so strong.

TH:In your "spare time," you're president of the Dubuque Education Association. How long has it been?
PB:Actually, it's eight years. I took over in '96. I turned 40 that year and I moved into a new house and I found out I was pregnant with twins. I was like, "Oh, my gosh!" I was thinking of quitting before I even started.

I was four years as vice president under Larry Croghan. Larry taught at Senior and he was the basketball coach for years and years. Then one day he said to me he really thought it was time for him to move on, and he said, "Do you want to take the ball and run with it?" I wasn't sure if he was talking about me being his assistant basketball coach or the DEA president. So I gave him a hard time about that.

I think at that time it was pretty unheard of to have even a lot of women in the leadership of the association. People question: "What does that little elementary twerp know about running a big association?" Larry had been the association president for, I believe, nine years. So, for someone new to come in, it was kind of a big upheaval. I had a lot of good support as I was going through.

I think things have changed a lot. I think we're seeing a lot more women leaders in roles. A lot of times when I first started in leadership roles, it was almost all men. Dubuque Labor-Management Council. When I sit around the table, I laugh sometimes, because it's like all men and myself. When you go into a lot of the union meetings and things like that, there aren't as many women in there. I think once you prove yourself that you have good problem-solving skills, good negotiating skills and people start trusting you, you become just one of the guys.

TH:Occasionally, I'll get feedback from teachers who say, "Hey, you referred to us as a 'union.' We're not a union; we're an 'association.'" But I heard you say union.
PB:We are an association forthright. A lot of things we do would label us as a union. But we're a professional organization. First of all, we'd like to be known as a professional organization. But the things we do, negotiating contracts, representing our membership in grievances are all things a typical union would do. I think they run a fine line there.

Lawyers and doctors, I suppose they belong to professional organizations. They might get upset if you said they were a union. But it's the idea that we are a professional organization and that is foremost what we care about. And we foremost believe our job is to promote education of children.

TH:But the Rotary Club isn't negotiating contracts. You're negotiating contracts.
PB:So from that aspect, we are a union. We do a lot of the same things that union leaders would do. Our money promotes that type of thing.

TH:How would you describe the relationship between the DEA and the administration and the school board?
PB:It's changed a lot over the 12 years that I have been in. I think I've worked under six superintendents, three personnel directors, a lot of school board members. And one of the things I really strongly believe in is Stephen Covey's beliefs of win-win and look at the end in mind and those types of beliefs. One of the things I've tried to do is to work very closely with our superintendent, whoever it may be. When Joel Morris was here, we started - actually, when Diana Lam was here too - we started having monthly meetings. Joel Morris came up with the idea of a breakfast meeting once a month (with administration and DEA leaders).We talk about problems that are arising in some of the schools. Issues. Right now, staffing of the new junior high is a big issue. Rezoning is another big issue. How to pass a school bond issue has been an ongoing discussion. We also talk about little problems that arise in personnel and administration-type things. In those meetings, we also generate a lot of ideas. We've continued doing that with John Burgart.

TH: Tell me about John.
PB: I've always believed in John Burgart. He's an excellent administrator. He wasn't real well-known because he was kind of behind-the-scenes-type personality, but I've known John for years and so it's no secret that I felt strongly that he should be our next superintendent. I work well with him. He has a great sense of humor. He has great leadership. To be a good leader at a school board and as a superintendent, you have to have a vision of what's coming down the road.

TH:What has changed over your past 25-plus years of teaching?
PB:Dubuque is a very traditional community and strong values and that part I don't think has changed. My father would say you could go for hundreds and hundreds of miles and never find a better place to live than Dubuque County. I think that's still true. But the role of the family has really changed.

We're seeing a lot more divorce situations. Two families, step-families. We deal a lot more with that type of situation. So kids come to school stressed out sometimes. They come with a lot of baggage that when you first started teaching, there's usually a mom or a grandma at home that they went home to. A lot of kids go home to nobody or they're in daycare after school. You're trying to get them to get their homework done. There's nobody checking up because parents - especially a single parent, working full-time - come home tired and wanting to sit down to homework with a child who's tired too. It can be a really rough situation. So I think the whole role of the family has changed a lot. It doesn't mean the families aren't as good as they were, but it's just the roles of the family. And that just gives kids a lot of different messages.

TH:Are parents as involved in their kids' education as you'd like them to be?
PB:Sometimes. I think that we can always as parents be more involved in our child's education. I have a lot of excellent parents here at Hoover. But there are times when I wish parents would be more involved, and I can't always understand why you wouldn't set that as your No. 1 priority.

That's always been one of the things that have been so important in our family is if my child needs something, that always comes first. When I see a child that doesn't have that support system, my heart really goes out to them.

You can't take a child home with you, so there's not a lot you can always do. You can sometimes get support through Social Services and things like that, but we see kids in some really difficult situations that I would never have dreamed of when I was growing up or even when I first started teaching.

TH:In many other states, teachers can go on strike. That's not the case in Iowa.
PB:No. We have right-to-work laws here that protect that.

TH:What's you're feeling about that? Should Iowa teachers have the right to strike, as their colleagues in other states do?
PB:Well, there's a lot of pressure that that would be a way to get higher salaries and better benefits. But again, it's a win-lose situation. So if you're winning by losing, you're not really winning. For me, that wouldn't be a way I'd want to accomplish that.

One of our biggest issues right now - and I'm sure there isn't a business alive right now that doesn't struggle with the economics of higher health-care costs. We fought really hard just to maintain the health care we had this year. I see right now John Deere is in a big struggle with changing their health care. So every year we go in to fight and just maintain what we have. We have good benefits, there's no doubt about it.

Negotiation is a matter of knowing when to give up and when to draw a line in the sand and when to stand firm on those type of issues. You have to give a little to get a lot. Sometimes, you've got to give a lot to save a little. There isn't a union alive who doesn't battle those type of issues.

TH:Right now...
PB:So right now, do I think we should be able to strike? Not really, because again, it's a win-lose situation when you do that.

TH:And you're comfortable with the arbitration...
PB:Yes. Sometimes we've come out really good with arbitration. Sometimes we haven't. Of course, I'd always like it to come out our way, but you don't always win in those. That's a risk. I don't really gamble, except maybe on sales at Younkers.

It's a gamble whenever you go into an arbitration. So one of the things to avoid is arbitration. Both of your sides need to work really hard before arbitration.

People don't realize how time-consuming negotiations are, but we probably start in October and we usually don't settle, at the earliest, April. Some nights we've gone up to 1 or 2 in the morning negotiating something. They are tough decisions because when you come out of that, you have to take the package that you have won and present it to the members. Of course, members don't see everything that went on behind closed doors. There's always that criticism: "Couldn't we have gotten more?" Or, "Why do we have to give this up?" I say that to administrators or people on the other side of the negotiating table, "You want me to take that and present that to my people? You've got to give me a package that's fair and just."

TH:Unless I'm mistaken, the health care program right now is 100 percent district paid for the teacher or the employee's position.
PB:And it's 75 percent for family.

TH:75 percent?
PB:Mm, hmm.

TH:I'm not asking you to give up anything at the negotiating table here, but with everything that's going on in the world of health care anymore, how much longer can the school district afford to keep doing this?
PB:I don't know how much longer, but when you have healthy employees, you all benefit. When we don't have to lose our employees to... We are faced with a germy environment, so you don't come to a situation that you're not meeting up with a lot of different infections and things.

And the stresses of our jobs, too. But if you have benefits that you can fall back on, I think that's really important. And it also shows the, the employee is showing the employer or the employer is showing the employee that they care about them. We realize that we're in an uphill battle.

Sometime I realize we're probably going to have to give up some big issues. That was a big issue and I look forward to it probably being another big issue next year. Base of pay is really just a small issue as we go into...

TH:Do you have any spare time?
PB:I like to read a lot and I like to walk. I'm just a real high-energy person. I spend a lot of time with my kids going to soccer and baseball, so that's free time. I can sit on the bench and sidelines.

TH:What book or books did you enjoy this summer?
PB:"Five People You Meet in Heaven." I enjoy his (Mitch Albom's) writing a lot. I kind of vary my reading, too. I like the author Elizabeth Berg. "The DaVinci Code" was another one I read this summer. I'm a magazine person, too.

TH:What's a good day for you at school?
PB:A good day for me is Friday (laughs). Don't put that in there. Really, Friday is a good day, because Friday is the day we test and so you look at the kids, have they mastered the spelling words, have they mastered the story that you tried to teach them all week. It's kind of a day of celebration. I know it's a little stressful for the kids and it's stressful for me because I have to get those corrected and get them to the kids, but there's no greater satisfaction than to give a test back to a child and say, "I did it!" A good day for me is when I see a smile on a child's face and I know that they walk out the door and they've had a good day at school. 11