During her term as KEA President, Stephanie Winkler helped Kentucky’s teachers increase their advocacy
in Frankfort through KEA Days of Learning. Twice a week during the General Assembly, district associations
send members to Frankfort to meet with their legislators and advocate for public education. (Photo courtesy of KEA)
Q. Do you think legislators have misperceptions about public schools? If so, how can teachers and school board members help change them?
A. I don’t think they are intentional misperceptions. Everyone goes in with good intentions and very few people ever say that they don’t love a teacher. Everyone remembers a teacher they had. Nobody ever remembers a governor, rarely do you remember a legislator.
People will say, “We went to school, so we know what it’s like.” But that’s just not true. Unless you work as a bus driver, a superintendent, a principal, a teacher, you don’t understand what’s involved and the things that you have to be aware of, go through emotionally and endure.
Q. That includes legislators?
A. Right. Legislators will go to a school and present a flag or visit a class and talk about politics. But rarely does a legislator spend an entire day in a public school, following one teacher.
Q. What a great idea.
A. That needs to happen. Legislators should spend a day in every school in their district to get a sense of the needs in every school they represent, because they are vastly different from one county to the next and one town to the next. You can’t help advocate for what our infrastructure and what our state government should have as priority until you experience what’s happening.
Q. Have you suggested this?
A. I’m writing a letter to legislators and inviting them to do that. It will go out before I leave office.
Q. On the final day of the legislative session, you were recognized on the floor of the Senate and the House by Sen. Jerry Carpenter and Rep. Travis Brenda. Legislators applauded you and signed a resolution to honor your work. How did it feel, given the often-contentious relationship between KEA and the legislature?
A. I think it validated the fact that I try to be professional and have civil discourse. I teach that. I try to be an example in that although many legislators and I may not agree, there’s never been a time where someone has approached me that I haven’t been willing to have a conversation. I think it was a testament to the fact that we can have civil discourse. That’s the way government should work.
Q. Some say that in recent years, the partnership between the KEA and KSBA has been pretty active and strong. Do you agree?
A. Yes, we work together when we can and when we can’t, we discuss why, so that we understand our perspectives and try to educate our members about why we may be at odds. For the most part, we’ve had a good working relationship.
Q. School board members and teachers are critical to education. How can they work together more to benefit students?
A. There is very little communication in my opinion between school board members and teachers. I think there’s a lot of fear because being a school board member is a political office. Teachers understand that board members have a direct ear to the superintendent. I think if school board members could reach out to more teachers, that would improve communication.
Q. Do you have suggestions on how that could happen more?
A. I think it’s getting more perspectives on policies and benefits from employees. Those conversations about how employees can work with their employer in solving issues around different budget decisions and involving people like our cooks, bus drivers and other staff.
Q. A lot of challenges face the teaching profession. Is there a single issue that is top of the list?
A. I call it stressful work environment. It’s not just pressure to do a good job, but the intrinsic weight of societal ills, of wanting to please others, of dealing with difficult situations. There’s so much involved in this job that the stress – physical, mental, social, emotional –is at the point where people are leaving.
Q. That’s not something unique to Kentucky.
A. No, it’s the profession as a whole.
Q. As KEA president, you have peers across the country and attend conferences. Do you hear about ways other states are addressing these problems?
A. I am also outgoing vice president of the National Council of State Education Associations (NCSEA). Our conference in May is called Disrupted Learning. That is the term we’re coining to describe what impedes not just teaching, but also learning by students. It involves school safety, workplace environment, societal issues that impact schools. Our national association is looking at what different states are doing. Strategies are popping up all over the country that could be emulated. It’s a matter of pulling it all together, and that’s what we’re trying to do at a national level.
Q. Your successor, KEA incoming president Eddie Campbell, served as your vice president. What kind of advice do you have for him?
A. I started writing things down for him about this time last year. I took it month by month and wrote down the things I did, things I would have done differently and what happened that I didn’t expect. I thought, “Okay, this is what I would want if I was incoming president.” So that’s my gift to him.
Q. As you do leave office, is there one change in public education that you would make if you could?
A. I would like for there never to be another fight for full funding of public education. Or public pensions. Or healthcare. Just to have enough money in the state budget that we could fully fund those three areas.
Q. Your terms at KEA and NCSEA end this summer. What’s next? A run for the state legislature?
A. I don’t know. Maybe later. I haven’t ruled it out.
Q. For now, you will return to teaching?
A. Yes, at the elementary level or I might pursue an administrative position. It depends on what is open.
Q. It will be exciting to have a new challenge.
A. Exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.