Ketchikan Cartographer, APEA Member Honored As AFT Everyday Hero

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 10:48:54 -0800

LAS VEGAS—For his willingness to take a tough stand for integrity and fairness on the job, and for making a difference every day in his Ketchikan, Alaska, community, Jim Pomplun today received an American Federation of Teachers Everyday Hero award recognizing his years of dedication and volunteer service.

Pomplun, a cartographer for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough planning department, said, “I make an effort to understand an issue from all sides.” In the workplace, he added, it is important to “always try to be civil.”

After moving to Ketchikan from the Midwest in 2005, Pomplun quickly became active in his new community. He is a member of the board of directors for his local public radio station and serves on the Alaska State Parks Advisory Board.

On top of all that, Pomplun is a member of the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad, which aids in search and rescue operations for people who get lost—many of them hikers in the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest that surrounds Ketchikan. The squad conducts six to 12 rescue operations every year.

This kind of volunteerism, Pomplun said, is part of the character of Ketchikan. The town of about 15,000 residents relies on volunteers for a variety of services. “I enjoy helping shape my community,” Pomplun said, “because, in the end, the community does more to shape me than I could ever imagine.”

This is the second year of the AFT Everyday Hero awards, which are given to AFT members who go above and beyond the call of duty and make a difference every day in their workplaces or communities. This year, there were more than 350 nominees, and five semifinalists were selected for each AFT division (Teachers, Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel, Public Employees, Higher Education, Healthcare and Retirees). More than 5,000 people voted online to select the winners.

This year, the Everyday Heroes are being honored at their divisional conferences. Pomplun, a member of the Alaska Public Employees Association’s Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Local 6137, received his award at the AFT Healthcare/Public Employees Joint Conference in Las Vegas. The other AFT Public Employees semifinalists were Rich Aarstad, an accession archivist/oral historian for the Montana Historical Society (Montana Federation of Historical Society Workers, MEA/MFT Local 4367); Bryan Gunning, a fiscal administrative officer for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (Administrative and Residual Employees Union, AFT Local 4200); Ed Kautz, a wildlife biometrician for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (New York State Public Employees Federation, Local 4053); and Dawn Thomas, an application architect for systems integration for the University of Connecticut Health Center (University Health Professionals, Local 3837).

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Anchorage Schools On The Chopping Block: Cuts Will Be Felt At Every Grade Level & ASD Campus

Thu, 3 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0900

(Anchorage, AK)—From information technology to music, from school secretaries to safety & maintenance personnel, Anchorage schoolchildren are about to make do with much less.

"Cutting these positions will have a direct impact on students," added Anchorage Council of Education (ACE) President Duane Moran. "A school may be the only place of stability in a student's life, and once you cut things like graduation coaches for the kids who need them most, you can't simply make them up in another year. Their impact on the lives of our kids is permanent."

The draconian cuts are expected to hit children from already difficult circumstances especially hard. Slated for elimination are graduation support, counselors and social workers. Remedial summer school for high school and middle school students would be slashed, as would all summer school for the elementary level students.

"We keep hearing how important the employees are to the district," noted Sharon Baker, a 29-year district employee and President of APEA's TOTEM local representing educational support staff. "They were hired in the first place because there was a need to support the students. That need isn't going to go away, the work isn't going to be eliminated—the people who now do that work and serve those needs are what's going to disappear."

Press Releases

Ketchikan Cartographer, APEA Member Honored As AFT Everyday Hero

Anchorage Schools On The Chopping Block: Cuts Will Be Felt At Every Grade Level & ASD Campus

Anchorage Schools On The Chopping Block: Cuts Will Be Felt At Every Grade Level & ASD Campus