Fleming takes over helm of state teachers union.

Carol B. Fleming, a speech language pathologist in the Little Rock School District, began work Monday in her new role as president of the Arkansas Education Association, the state’s largest union of educators and support staff.

Fleming, 52, was elected by association members to the two-year term earlier this year over incumbent Cathy Koehler, who was seeking a second term in the statewide position.

On the faculty at Little Rock’s Pulaski Heights Middle School, Fleming has worked with students for 20 years.

“I am coming to this new role straight out of the classroom, and have been living and breathing the issues facing Arkansas’s teachers,” she said in an announcement about her first day. “I have a close working knowledge of what we must do to improve our students’ learning environments.”

People who work closely with students on a daily basis are the experts in education, she said.

“I look forward to lifting our collective voice at the state level to ensure each student has the opportunity they deserve,” she said, adding that her first days will be focused on her ongoing efforts to listen to educators from across the state and working with the association’s board of directors to “chart a collaborative, positive path forward.”

Fleming takes on the presidency at at time when she says there are significant concerns facing the environment for teaching and learning.

Those issues, she said, include student safety, adequate and equitable resources, and sufficient number of teachers, as well as growing efforts to water down educational standards and privatize public education.

The high cost of health insurance, a move to reduce teacher retirement benefits, and efforts nationally and in the state by corporations to reduce their tax bills — the revenue from which schools are surpported — are other concerns.

The state Board of Education late last year waived the state’s Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which is an employment protection law, in the Little Rock and Pine Bluff school districts. The two districts operate under state control.

“Any time you lower the standards within one school district, it becomes problematic elsewhere,” said Fleming, who was away from the association’s building Monday and responded to questions by email through association spokesman Susana O’Daniel.

“The Teacher Fair Dismissal Act simply affords teachers due process. This law is critical to maintaining a strong, vibrant teaching and learning environment for students and teachers alike. We will continue to stand strong against efforts to dismantle this critically important law,” Fleming said.

The association’s new president called the governor and General Assembly’s move earlier this year to raise the minimum teacher salary to $36,000 “a step in the right direction.” But she also said that the legal change isn’t enough to benefit all teachers and support staff in a state where teachers are paid less on average than other college graduates.

“In Arkansas, the average teacher salary is approximately 24% lower than other college graduates,” she said. “If we hope to provide a quality educator for every child in the state, we need to treat educators as the professionals they are and to pay them a fair wage.”

Fleming and all of her children graduated from North Little Rock School District schools. As the parent of an adult child with special needs, Fleming said she is reminded daily about the importance of the teaching profession and the students who are served, and that has fueled her passion for education, leadership and professional issues.

Koehler and Fleming had vied in 2017 for the state AEA president position, with Koehler winning the seat at that time.

A former president of the Little Rock Education Association, Koehler said last weekend on social media that she will be returning to a job as a library/media specialist in the Little Rock School District.

Fleming most recently was the state-elected representative to the board of directors of the National Education Association, the parent organization to the state association.