Kevin Vick, CEA’s new president, wants to share the purpose he found as an educator

Kevin Vick moved to Colorado in 1993 and quickly found the ski slopes. Six years later, he was skiing 100 days a year and in the summers went mountain biking and rock climbing.

He loved being outdoors, but he felt like something was missing from his life.

“I didn’t feel like I was having a real great purpose,” he said. “Or I was really making a difference.”

He turned to teaching and found his purpose helping students as a social studies teacher and prep football coach. He also taught other educators to advocate for themselves and organized them to better their work conditions.

Now, in his 24th year as an educator, Vick, 55, who has taught at Doherty High School, has taken over as president of the Colorado Education Association , the state’s largest teachers union. He wants to use his platform to make sure Coloradans know how much hard work and dedication educators put into their jobs.

He also wants to share his belief that teaching is full of purpose and teachers make a difference every day.

“I think people need to understand just how rewarding education is and how admirable the people that are in it really are,” he said. “They’re trying to make students better, Colorado better, and, ultimately, the world better.”

Vick recently talked with Chalkbeat Colorado about his new position as president.

Vick is stepping out of the vice president role

As the former vice president of CEA, Vick worked closely with former President Amie Baca-Oehlert.

“You kind of serve at the pleasure of the president,” Vick said. “So whatever Amie needed, I was managing.”

He doesn’t plan big changes to the priorities of the union, which has 40,000 members statewide. As a former Colorado Springs Education Association president, Vick says he cares about empowering teachers to have a voice and bargain at the local level.

Vick also cares about how testing and state accountability impact teachers and students. He feels accountability has created a one-size-fits-all approach. More consideration should be given to the challenges that happen in classrooms.

“Schools are threatened by sanctioning from the state to produce results, regardless of what the students may be experiencing in that environment,” he said. “This creates a lot of disconnect for the teacher, because of their expertise, they know where a student should be. But they’re not able to because of the larger policy pressures.”

Vick will also have to tackle new issues in education that his predecessors did not, such as technology such as cellphones and artificial intelligence.

Both are tools that can help teachers, but both must be used responsibly, he said.

For instance, Vick understands the debate around cellphones and that they can be disruptive. But many teachers have innovative ways of using cellphones in the classroom, he said.

Districts should consider how teachers teach before making broad policies, he added.

Workplace conditions are especially important to Vick

School is a workplace, Vick said.

Vick believes better work environments start with pay, and many teachers have a hard time making ends meet on their salaries. Educators can barely afford to cover their health care, he said. Colorado and other states have struggled to keep teachers in the classroom because of pay, and many educators end up working multiple jobs because they don’t earn enough teaching.

“Educators do get better every year of their career,” he said. “They just get a higher skill level every year. And so we need to keep them in as long as possible.”

Vick will continue to push for more state education funding

This week, Vick appeared before lawmakers this week during a special session to help secure a deal that could avoid two ballot initiative s that many predicted would devastate schools and government services. The special session called by Gov. Jared Polis was meant to help preserve education funding while also striking a deal on property tax relief.

Vick defended the property tax deal to fend off the ballot initiatives.

And for years, CEA has been a constant in legislative committees, especially when it comes to calling for increased school funding. This year, Colorado lawmakers ended the practice of withholding money from schools to pay for other priorities .

Not much will change there with Vick. He said he supports a statewide ballot initiative to boost school funding.

“We feel that the timing is pretty good right now to make that case to voters that our schools do deserve better and our kids deserve better,” he said.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org .