Voice: September 2017

When Dolores McCracken became PSEA’s president on Sept. 2, she viewed it as the capstone of a long career serving kids, promoting public education, and fighting for working people.

McCracken has spent more than 30 years doing just that as a paraprofessional in classrooms in the Council Rock School District, Bucks County. And, as a PSEA officer since 2011, she has led PSEA’s financial operations, been the point person coordinating with union partners in the CLEAR coalition, and spearheaded efforts to rewrite the Association’s mission, vision, values, and goals.

Now, as she begins her term as PSEA president, McCracken is eager to take the reins of an organization she loves.

“It will be an honor and a privilege to serve as PSEA’s president,” McCracken said. “I love PSEA, I’m absolutely committed to our members, and I’m going to fight for them and what we believe in every day.”

With Jerry Oleksiak’s departure to serve as Gov. Tom Wolf’s secretary of labor and industry, McCracken now leads a new officer team.

During the PSEA Board of Directors’ July 22 meeting, board members elected former treasurer Rich Askey as vice president and former Northeastern Region president Jeff Ney as treasurer. Askey’s and Ney’s terms also began on Sept. 2.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the new officer team,” McCracken said. “Rich, Jeff, and I hit the ground running, and we’re excited to work together to lead PSEA. This is a team effort, and we have a great team to do this important work.”

McCracken added that her priorities as president will include standardized testing reform, increasing giving to PSEA-PACE, redoubling the Association’s efforts to recruit and engage new members, and helping to re-elect Wolf and other pro-public education candidates.

“PSEA is an extremely powerful organization because our members are engaged on issues that impact their schools, their students, and their professions,” McCracken said. “PSEA does an excellent job of harnessing that energy to do good things for our members, kids, and working people.

“I’m planning to keep growing PSEA’s influence in education policymaking so that we, as educators, can keep doing what we love to do – teach kids, serve our schools, and connect with our communities. I’m eager to get started.”