By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Barbara Parker, who for the last 10 years has headed the Hillsborough Education Association, had her retirement request approved by the school board Monday night.
Ms. Parker, who will leave at the end of June, was a teacher before being designated for full-time release as head of the 980-member association of professional and support staff in Hillsborough schools.
She began her career as a speech therapist in the 1970s before moving into special education. All of her whole classroom time in Hillsborough, which began in 1984, was with the gifted and talented program at the middle school, she said. It’s where she achieved her greatest satisfaction, she said.
”When I think of myself and what I did in my career, I think of myself as a teacher, not as a union leader,” she said.
She spent the last 10 years as an “advocate for the profession,” she said.
Having a full-time staffer representing employees allowed problems to be solved on a lower level and saved administrative time, she said.
She said there had been no unfair labor practice claims filed after her first year in the job, she said.
In her job, she’s on a number of task forces and committees interviewing potential employees, developing an evaluation system, serving on the gifted and talented steering committee, for instance, she said. Her status allows the district to have her serve without the need to hire a substitute, she said.
She said she talks with every pregnant teacher to inform them of the nuances and differences between family, child care and maternity leaves, sparing school human resources that task. There were 60 such talks last year, she said.
The association’s pre-retirement workshop, scheduled for this week, has about 50 people registered, she said.
As head of the education association, she’s elected to a two-year term. Her term will have a year left when she leaves, and she said 1st Vice President Daynon Blevins would take the duties.
She said she would be around to complete contract negotiations, which begin this week, she said. She didn’t expect staff-board talks to be about salary and benefits as much as meeting new state laws on staff evaluation methods and tenure as well as enabling teachers time to deal with demands of computerization, like online lesson planning, articulation with colleagues and the new grading system and electronic “parent portal,” which exponentially increases the number of emails with which staffers must deal, she said.
At Monday’s meeting, board member Christopher Pulsifer said Ms. Parker called her “a consummate professional working for the best for children in the district” and led applause for her service.
Afterward, Superintendent Jorden Schiff said “one of the reasons the district is so high functioning is the relationship between the HEA and the administration.”
He called it “trusting and mutually respectful.”
”She’s a passionate advocate for teachers and is as honest as the day is long,” he said. “She’s one of the very rare people who quietly and respectfully have made a significant difference.”
Ms. Parker, who has four grown daughters who all went through Hillsborough schools, said she envisioned time traveling, writing and spending time with family and friends in other parts of the country.

