Teacher advocate: New Cobb County Association of Educators president looks to grow group

Aug. 18—Jeff Hubbard remembers well the incident that got him involved in teacher organizations.

As a young teacher in Douglas County, he had a colleague who, due to her diabetes, had to use the restroom frequently. She had a legitimate medical excuse to do so, but the principal at the school wouldn't accommodate her condition, Hubbard said.

"And literally, she would, whenever she would go to the restroom, she would have to stand outside her door and look for a teacher coming down (the hall) so they could cover for her," he said. "One day, she soiled herself. And it was very dispiriting ... It was causing her severe emotional stress, because it happened in front of students."

Hubbard and another colleague helped the teacher write an official grievance, which the principal rejected. After appealing to a higher authority, the teacher won, and the principal was forced to accommodate her medical condition.

"I found that you can have a voice, you could speak up for working conditions, you could speak up for teaching conditions," Hubbard said. "I found that exceptionally powerful."

Hubbard has now been a member of the Georgia Association of Educators, the state's second largest teacher organization, for 38 years. For 32 of those years, he's been an association representative or local officer. He served as state president from 2006 to 2010.

The statewide organization has about 25,000 members, Hubbard said. The largest teacher organization, Professional Association of Georgia Educators, says it has more than 90,000 members.

In June, Hubbard took over as president of the Cobb County Association of Educators, GAE's local affiliate representing staff in Cobb and Marietta schools. Hubbard was elected by the local chapter and ran unopposed. He replaces Connie Jackson, who stepped down after 12 years as head of the Cobb chapter.

"I'm just thankful that we have someone willing to step up in Cobb, being one of our metro locals," said Lisa Morgan, president of GAE, who has known Hubbard since 2004. "It is very important that we have someone who is willing to speak truth about what's happening in our classrooms and how we move forward."

Inside strategy

In Hubbard's view, while the school system looks out for students, it's the job of teacher's organizations to have educator's backs.

In exchange for paying dues, GAE provides legal services and professional development to members. It lobbies state legislators on issues of importance to educators, while local affiliates such as CCAE lobby superintendents and school boards.

Hubbard believes in a cooperative strategy of establishing relationships with officials — such as Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and Marietta Superintendent Grant Rivera — in order to work out issues before they get out of hand.

"Adversarial relationships do not work. Because at the end of the day, when you finally reach a conclusion, there's still hard feelings on both sides," Hubbard said.

For example, in July, Ragsdale asked his board to approve the addition of armed, non-police security personnel to schools, a new policy billed as a way to improve safety in case of a mass shooting, which the board approved.

An earlier draft of the policy included a provision that teachers could carry weapons if the superintendent determines that a teacher has "unique qualifications" to do so. Hubbard, after hearing from alarmed members, met with Ragsdale. The superintendent removed that language ahead of the vote, ensuring teachers would not be armed.

"Could I have gone to the school board meeting and raised holy cane and yelled and screamed? What good would that have done?" Hubbard said.

While the National Education Association mostly supports Democrats, Hubbard said CCAE is bipartisan. In the May primaries, it endorsed Democrats such as state Sen. Michael "Doc" Rhett and state Rep. David Wilkerson, but also Ed Setzler, a Republican state representative running for state Senate.

In the gubernatorial primary, Hubbard pointed to GAE endorsing both Gov. Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams (GAE later endorsed Abrams for the general election). For state school superintendent, he said GAE is backing incumbent Republican Richard Woods.

Hubbard also mentioned retiring state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, a Republican, and former state senator turned state House candidate Doug Stoner, a Democrat, as "friends of education."

"They (teacher organizations) don't always vote as a bloc, but when they organize and when they coordinate, that can be an effective force in voting," said Kerwin Swint, director of the School of Government and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University. "Probably the most notable of which was their efforts against Roy Barnes in 2002. ... It was one of several factors that led to his loss."

Looking to grow

Born in Atlanta, Hubbard was raised in Gwinnett County, graduating from Norcross High School and later, the University of Georgia.

He first served as president of a local GAE chapter in Clayton County, where he said he increased membership from 1,200 to 2,000.

In Clayton, the local chapter successfully lobbied the local school board to pass its own version of teacher tenure, after Gov. Roy Barnes had repealed the state's fair dismissal policy.

The policy gives teachers the right to a school board hearing if their contract has not been renewed. In essence, its repeal made it easier to fire teachers.

Clayton passed a local version of the tenure, which Hubbard said served dual purposes — protecting veteran educators, and recruiting them from other districts which had fewer protections.

Other counties followed suit. Eventually, Barnes was defeated by Gov. Sonny Perdue, who reinstated fair dismissal rights.

"Unions helped build the middle class in America, unions helped create a new standard of living for Americans," Hubbard said. "We believe that that should also happen for the professionals in the classroom, as we work with America's future — our children."

While GAE is the state affiliate of a national union, the National Education Association, Hubbard said that it is seen more as a teacher's association. After all, state law prohibits Georgia teachers from striking or engaging in collective bargaining.

GAE is second to the Professional Association of Georgia Educators in membership. Hubbard believes that is mostly due to PAGE having lower dues. Dues range depending on job type and local chapter, but a full-time teacher pays about $55 monthly to be a CCAE member. For PAGE, it's about $15.

"PAGE was founded by some administrators who were not happy that teachers were going to control the association. And so they broke and they said, 'We're not going to be part of a union, we don't think that you should be able to do strikes and bargaining and things like that.' Well, we didn't bargain in Georgia, that was pretty much a northern thing," Hubbard said.

Hubbard is engaging in an aggressive membership campaign in Cobb, along with updating CCAE's website and moving into a new office. In the two weeks leading up to school starting, he said CCAE added 125 members, bringing its total above 1,200.

His pitch to educators is that you get what you pay for. GAE, he argues, offers better legal services, the resources of a national union with 3 million members, and a more robust network of local chapters and advocates.

"People pay for quality service. ... If their (PAGE's) dues were so much less than ours, why aren't we out of existence? It's because people believe in high quality, people believe in a high level of service, people believe in advocacy," Hubbard said.

Kayla-Danielle Murphy, a teacher at Smitha Middle who worked alongside Hubbard there, said Hubbard convinced her to join the group.

"He would answer any questions I had ... since he had not only been in education for so long, but also kind of had an understanding of education and politics in general, I would always just kind of pick his brain and get some good perspectives on that."

Added Murphy, of joining GAE, "It's good just to have kind of someone in your corner to represent your voice, just in general, whether it's for small issues or big issues ... It keeps you informed as to things that are going on, too, because there may be some things you missed ... people are not always aware of some of the legislation that's going through in the state House."

Issues of the day

Hubbard retired from Clayton County schools in 2016 as an administrator. He later moved to Cobb, where his daughter is a middle school student, worked as a substitute for a couple of years, before working part-time as a social studies teacher at Smitha Middle for four years.

"The kids loved Hubbard at school, they thought he was a good teacher. He just was a very positive presence at Smitha in general," Murphy said.

Asked about the biggest issues facing Cobb teachers, Hubbard mentioned getting back to normal.

"The next couple of years are going to have to be spent playing catch up. And it is going to be stressful on students, it is going to be stressful on teachers and administrators. So our job is going to be helping them find ways to be successful," Hubbard said.

He said getting parents back in classrooms and closely involved in their child's education is "beyond important" to supporting the child's development, as well as building trust between schools and families.

"Despite what we might hear, the pandemic is not over," said Morgan, the GAE president. "And certainly the impacts of the pandemic on our students is not over, and we cannot move forward without addressing those impacts."

Addressing burnout is another challenge, Hubbard said, due to the mental and physical toll teachers and students took during the pandemic. School systems need to invest in psychologists, he said.

A supportive school administration makes all the difference, he added, saying Cobb schools, for the most part, have such leadership.

The two historic raises Cobb awarded in recent years have also been important, Hubbard said.

"That has kept some people in the profession. And more importantly, it has gotten us a lot of teachers from other systems who were not able to match it. And that goes back to the fiscal leadership that your chief financial officer (Brad Johnson) has provided this system," he said.

On the subject of recent legislation regulating the teaching of race and other sensitive topics in schools, Hubbard said that as a former history teacher, he understood the challenge teachers face.

In the classroom, sticking to state standards is best, he said, but controversies will eventually arise. He hopes those issues are dealt with professionally.

"I hope that as this moves forth, that we'll have some calmer heads looking at it. And if kids do have a concern, that if parents bring the concerns up, that they will be addressed in a calm, rational manner, rather than some of the things that you've seen around the state and around the nation over these topics," he said.

When it comes to debates over library books, Hubbard said part of the responsibility lies with publishers who recommend how old children should be to read a certain book. He added that librarians are professionals, and "we need to trust their judgment as well."

"There are attacks coming against educators in public education, a lot of times that are based on disinformation," Morgan said. "But it is more important than ever that our policymakers hear the voice of educators, the professionals in the classroom, on the buses, in our media centers, counseling offices ... so that policymakers can truly understand the importance of policy that is going to improve the lives of educators."