JULIA NORMAN
Waltham Educators Association
Educators have been winning elections, groundbreaking contract campaigns, and organizing initiatives that are changing the future of our profession. I am running for the NEA Board of Directors to continue this momentum.
I have stood in solidarity with MTA locals in the fight to win strong contracts, including the right to strike. We must continue to pave the way in demanding revolutionary collective bargaining agreements and harnessing our collective power.
Leadership opportunities in the Waltham Educators Association and the MTA have given me extensive experience in organizing our members. During our MTA campaign to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement, I facilitated the gathering of thousands of signatures, recruited students and educators to appear in MTA statewide commercials, and spearheaded the MTA Grassroots’ effort to support local associations to organize tables at community days. I also participated in canvasses, voted yes to campaign funding at the Board, and spoke at MTA rallies in Springfield and Waltham. Showing up and speaking up matter.
On the NEA and MTA Board, I will continue our fight for:
- Fully funding preK-16 Public Schools – Advocating for public schools and fighting privatization efforts.
- Fair Pay and Benefits – Advocating and bargaining for better compensation and mental health resources for educators.
- Dignified Retirement – Protecting educator pensions and securing regular COLA increases.
- High-Stakes Testing – Overhaul biased, high-stakes testing.
I have served on the MTA Board of Directors, as an MTA Political Action Leader, and on the Waltham Educators Association Executive Committee. My service to the MTA also includes 20 years of working on numerous committees. More information can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/julianormanforneadirector.
I would be honored to have your support as we work together to create an education system that truly works for everyone. Thank you for your dedication to the MTA.
CONNER BOURGOIN
Tewksbury Teachers Association
If there’s one thing I’ve been inspired by in the past few years in Massachusetts, it is how we educators have found our collective voices. From fighting together against unsafe working conditions during a pandemic to seeing educators, together, taking back their dignity in the workplace in this current Massachusetts educators’ labor movement, I am inspired by the bright future of public education in Massachusetts. While we are seeing solidarity and leadership on the local level, we need that same leadership on our NEA Board of Directors to build on a national level. Being an English teacher and union president, I have seen firsthand what coalition building and solidarity look like. I have been inspired to be a founding member of the first educators’ bargaining coalition (Merrimack Valley Educators Bargaining Council) in Massachusetts, which has led to some of the most consequential contract wins in recent history. Through this council, I have learned that being together is not only within one local union, but throughout the state. I believe we can find power in coalitions to bring dignity and respect to educators throughout the country.
We have a tumultuous road ahead with public education and unions on a national level. If elected to the NEA Board of Directors, I will continue to bolster the 21st century labor movement by advocating for fair funding for every public district both in Massachusetts and our country. I will fight against the privatization of public education, and I will continue to bolster the rank-and-file driven mandate that commands what we need for both us public educators and our students. Such things as the Living Wage Campaign and paid parental leave didn’t happen behind closed doors; they happened by us all coming together. I plan to keep this momentum going.
BRIAN FITZGERALD
Wareham Education Association
I ask for your vote to continue the important work of making our NEA a modern union that empowers every member.
We need to build a union that finds strength with every member in every local throughout the state, that is unified across all natures of location, wealth, religion, and all that our opponents use to try to divide. An NEA that reaches out to the 10,000 educators who have chosen to turn down the chance to join our union.
Throughout my service on the Board of the NEA and the MTA, as MTA senate district coordinator, president of the Plymouth County Education Association, and as president of my own local in Wareham, I’ve been in the classroom all day, every day of my 20 years as an educator. I nurture allies among fellow public-school parents and guardians, and elected town meeting representatives in Plymouth. From the streets to the State House, I’ve spoken up for public education.
My values are expressed in my MTA and NEA Board votes. For years, I’ve voluntarily recorded those votes in the name of transparency and accountability. My record is available via http://tinyurl.com/MTAregion41C.
I’m proud to have undertaken the following:
- Authored the NEA Resolution text explicitly recognizing members’ rights to strike.
- Led a fight to push the MTA into leading an information campaign about opting out of MCAS.
- Shared research at NEA Board meetings about partnering with questionable organizations.
- Demanded we listen to members before spending millions of dues dollars.
- Co-wrote an NEA business item on religion-based attacks on educators.
- Focused on the threat and opportunity of AI in education.
I seek re-election to continue representing all members at all levels, statewide, no matter your local’s size or wealth. I ask for your vote, and welcome your thoughts at weabrian@gmail.com.
KYLE GEKOPI
Wellesley Educators Association
I am a passionate advocate for democratic unionism and building the power of rank-and-file locals. As an incumbent NEA Director, I do not always see these values reflected in our national union. I have attended five Representative Assemblies sponsored by corporations who are hostile to unionism, to smalltown America, and to consumer health. If elected to continue my service on the NEA Board, I will continue to work collectively with my Board siblings who demand transparency, member voice, and equity of access to build a vision and strategy for public education that supports all students and the labor movement. We must re-invest our time, energy, and hard-earned money into the social systems that genuinely expand racial, social, financial, and educational justice.
I have been a proud union rank-and-file member, leader, and educator for 15 years. In 2023, my local successfully concluded a contract campaign that increased ESP salaries by 27%, expanded prep time, won Just Cause for our ESP staff, and expanded parental leave to 12 weeks for all parents and union members, regardless of gender.
I wish to replicate these wins at the national level. Member education, solidarity, and collective action were the only tools that worked. If good working conditions are good learning conditions, we must start learning more from our members, allocating resources effectively, and working together to support each other across state lines.
On the NEA Board, I work tirelessly to build solidarity alliances and educate members on how to exercise their collective power to further breathe life into our collective education workers’ movement. If you’d like to connect, please email me at GekopiWEA@gmail.com or text me at 407-797-1354! I thank you for reading and ask you to send me back to the NEA to keep working for us!
