Next up in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates is the School Administrators (AFSA). The series will run weekly until we've covered all 55 of our affiliates.
Name of Union: American Federation of School Administrators
Mission: To promote the professional, occupational and economic interests of its members and fight for the highest quality public school education for all pupils.
Current Leadership of Union: Ernest A. Logan began serving as president in July 2018, succeeding the late Diann Woodard. Leonard Pugliese serves as executive vice president and Lauran Waters-Cherry serves as secretary-treasurer.
Current Number of Members: 20,000
Members Work As: Principals, assistant principals, administrators, supervisors and other school leaders
Industries Represented: Public schools across the United States.
History: The origins of AFSA begin in 1962 when the Council of Supervisory Associations (CSA) was formed in New York city to fight for collective bargaining rights. By 1968, CSA formally became a union and changed its name to the Council of Supervisors and Administrators. In 1971, CSA was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO and CSA became Local 1 of the School Administrators and Supervisors Organizing Committee (SASOC), a national union. SASOC held its first convention in 1976 and changed its name to the American Federation of School Administrators.
Current Campaigns: Build a Coalition helps administrators build community partnerships to help support their schools and students. AFSA's Action Center is the home to resolutions passed by AFSA in support of its mission and provides members and allies opportunities to help out. AFSA is committed to providing support to all of its locals, working to support the organizing efforts of its existing locals and increase efforts to organize unaffiliated school leader associations.
Community Efforts: The School Leadership Forum helps principals and other school leaders by underwriting research, resources and training needed to improve the learning environment in classrooms across the country. The Student Grief Support Resource provides tools to help administrators address grief among students. The School Leadership Forum also supports funding for the Diann Woodard AFSA Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to children of AFSA members.