Playwickian Adviser Ready to Tackle Role as President of the Neshaminy Teachers’ Union

In under a year, Tara Huber backed her student editors on a battle against the Neshaminy School District administration in a literal ‘war over words,’ was named PSPA’s Journalism Teacher of the Year and now takes on a new kind of leadership as president of arguably one of the most talked about teachers’ unions in the state of Pennsylvania.

Throughout her hectic year, Huber has acted as a community outreach coordinator for the NFT, also known as the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers. Combining her desire for quality education for her students and an integrated community that thrives on member involvement, Huber sought greater leadership within the union at the tail end of the last school year. July 1, she took her stand as president.

Huber, who has been a member of the union for more than a decade, will now represent over 600 members. With a union that size, an integral part of its smooth and successful operation, according to Huber, will be open communication.

Becoming a union that thrives on community and union members’ feedback though, will prove to be tricky.

“It’s about sharing knowledge with small and medium sized groups in an effort to set the record straight,” she said. “We need to break down the walls and put a face to what union leadership really is.”

Within the year alone the NFT has battled new district leadership, talks of middle school reconfiguration, even the idea of support staff outsourcing.

All of which, according to Huber, has “spread like wildfire” through social media and email blasts, stirring up a technology-enthralled community that wants to be more involved than ever before in union and district negotiations.

“It is great that community members want to be involved, many have reached out to us and asked how they can work with us,” Huber said. “That means there are even more opportunities to build relationships and trust.”

Building relationships will extend even to the support staff, according to Huber, as the NFT works in support of keeping district work ‘in-house’ and keeping community members employed.

“It’s important as teachers to let support staff know that,” she said. “[The] majority of our [support staff] live in this community, and they have a family that is a part of the district as well.”

The NFT have received some dismay from the public, especially after the five year teacher contract impasse that made national news.

Huber, who teaches her students about their fundamental First Amendment rights as adviser to The Playwickian, grew up in a union household, never seeing any negative connotations when it came to the union’s function in the workplace.

“Unions are a way for employees to do the best thing they can for their families, and as teachers, the best thing we can for our students,” the Huntingdon Valley resident said.

As a teacher who spends roughly seven and a half hours a day with her students, Huber feels that knowing your voice is heard within the union has even bigger connotations back in the classroom. “If you have professional, highly-trained teachers, and they get to have a voice, you are going to have teachers who love their job, which makes for student engagement and lifelong learners,” she said. “That’s what being a part of a professional community is about.”

Huber is taking helm following Louise Boyd’s term as leader of the union.

Huber has said she is looking forward to these next rounds of contract talks and that the union has it in them to work together in coming up with the best solution.

“We at Neshaminy have what it takes to make a great district,” she said.