CAT (Contract Action Team)

From Training to Triumph: How Our Contract Action Team Delivered Historic Results

Strong contracts don’t happen by chance.They are built through training, organizing, and collective action.

During the bargaining cycle, our Contract Action Team (CAT) played a critical role in transforming educator voice into real, measurable wins—culminating in the strongest contract and highest salary increase in HEA history.

Building Power

The work started long before negotiations reached the table. The Bargaining Team participated in focused trainings to understand the bargaining process, how collective action strengthens it, and how to engage colleagues in meaningful conversations. We actively revived and recruited our Contract Action Team Leads and began more intensive training as we increased participation among our CAT organizers across the district. 

CAT organizers built relationships across buildings, listened carefully to educators’ concerns, and ensured that our bargaining priorities reflected real classroom conditions—not assumptions.

Member Voice Shaped Our Bargaining Platform

Through district-wide surveys and building-level conversations, educators were clear about what they needed to do their jobs well:

• Sustainable class sizes and caseloads

• Safe working and learning environments

• Compensation that recruits and retains educators

• Adequate planning time

• Time to manage IEPs and 504s effectively

  
  

These priorities became the foundation of our bargaining platform—grounded in lived experience and shared urgency.

Mobilizing Together: Visibility, Unity, and Resolve

With a strong platform in hand, CAT members helped mobilize educators in powerful and visible ways:

• Showing up online and in person to support our Bargaining Team

• Attending bargaining sessions

• Participating in rallies and coordinated actions

• Standing shoulder to shoulder at School Board meetings

  
  

Educators packed the School Board—October and November, 2024—sending a clear message: Our bargaining team was not alone, and our priorities were non-negotiable.

Each appearance reinforced the same themes—safety, workload, compensation, and student support—demonstrating consistency, unity, and resolve.

Pushing Through the Hardest Moment

By December, negotiations had reached month twelve, with seven critical contract articles still open. These were core issues—workload, safety, salary, benefits, and extra duty—that directly affect educator sustainability and student success.

Because CAT members stayed engaged and visible, our Bargaining Team negotiated from a position of strength.

The Result: A Historic Contract

In January, we returned to the School Board with welcome news: Our contract was settled and ratified.

This victory belonged to every educator who trained, organized, mobilized, showed up, and stood strong. It was the result of collective action at every stage of the process.

The Contract Action Team proved what’s possible when educators act together with intention and purpose.

When we stand together, we win. In solidarity, we rise.