NEA-Alaska

Flora Roddy brings sunshine with her wherever she goes. A self-described “people person,” she’s also an experienced bookkeeper and a natural organizer. She brings these talents to her job as Administrative Secretary for the Curriculum Department at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Her crowded desk on the fourth floor of the administration building is the nerve center for the department. Answering phones, distributing mail, setting up meetings in the Curriculum Library with sign-in sheets and coffee, Curriculum Instruction accounting, keeper of the forms, preparing payroll for Curriculum, the Art Department, and the After-School Program—these are just a few of her responsibilities. She helps organize the Spelling Bee, which includes several other Interior districts bringing in about 100 students. She also coordinates the annual College Fair, an all-consuming task that takes the better part of two months.

In addition to her experience and natural abilities, Flora also brings to her position knowledge of the Fairbanks schools and a can-do attitude. Not surprisingly, Flora serves on the Sunshine Committee for the admin building, sending cards and helping out more than 160 co-workers who are sick, hospitalized, having a baby, or suffering a death in the family. She helps organize and orders food for the monthly staff Sunshine luncheons. And she keeps the Sunshine Committee’s books.

In her ‘spare’ time Flora cuts out laminated paper for a ‘Domino Concentration’ game. On Parent Night, the district provides kits with games that parents can play with their children to help them with their math skills.

“I love it here,” Flora says. “It’s the greatest department. I work with people who love their job.” She also appreciates coming to work in the same building at the same time each day, and working 12 months a year instead of nine. On a recent dark day in December, the department was brightened by Christmas decorations, put up, naturally, by Flora. A “Secret Santa” tradition was thriving, and the department had “adopted” several needy children. At Flora’s desk, colleagues came by to check the children’s “wish lists” and sign up for what was still needed.

“I am community service oriented,” she says, and walks her talk. Flora’s strong sense of family spills over to every other aspect of her life. She was born and grew up in the Fairbanks area and attended North Pole schools from kindergarten through high school. “I don’t think there are too many people who can say that,” she says with pride. Her mother, Dorcas Karmun, was an Inupiaq Eskimo who moved to Fairbanks from Nome in 1950. Flora’s father, Jim Sears, a Navy seaman who had traveled the world, moved to Fairbanks in 1959 because Alaska was one of the few places he had not yet seen.

Flora’s maternal grandparents also moved to Fairbanks, and it was from them that Flora got a taste of Inupiaq culture. However, a few years after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, her grandparents were able to gain title to land in Deering and moved back there. Summer and holiday visits to Deering were precious times when Flora was growing up, but the high cost of airfare limited her experience of the more traditional ways of her mother’s people.

In school, Flora discovered an aptitude for math. And she gravitated toward home economics. “I knew I didn’t want to be a secretary, typing at a desk for eight hours a day.” One of her early jobs was as a snack bar attendant at a roller rink.

“I like working with money and food,” she says. As a young married woman raising her children, she lived in Two Rivers, a rural community of fewer than 500 souls, where sled dogs outnumber humans more than 4-to-1. She was a PTA mom, and her house served as a gathering place for area kids. She started her volunteer work at Two Rivers before she began helping out at school. “The principal suggested that I put my name on the sub list for the office and library so she could start paying me.”

In 1999 when her oldest moved to North Pole Middle School, Flora got a 2.5-hour (non-benefit) position as a kitchen aide. The following year she worked 2.0 hours at Hutchinson Career Center, then 2.5 hours again, at Lathrop. Not until early 2001 did she work her way up to a 3.0-hour job (with benefits!) as a roving kitchen manager. She liked working in the schools, and she was climbing the ladder of success.

That first year that she was eligible (when she garnered a 3.0-hour position), she joined ESSA, the Education Support Staff Association. Two years later, when she was working full time and dividing her time between Hunter and Weller Elementaries, Joann White, the Building Rep at Hunter, “snagged” Flora. Joann asked for help with Building Rep duties. Under Joann’s mentorship, Flora soon learned the ropes, and when Joann retired, Flora took over as Rep at Hunter. When she realized that Weller was also lacking a Rep, Flora stepped up there as well.

A natural progression for Flora was to join ESSA’s Sick Leave Bank Committee. The bank helps members who have to miss work by helping them not miss a paycheck. The volunteer committee meets twice a month and includes considerable paperwork documenting reasons for absence (doctor’s note), employee’s sick leave days, and other calculations.

She has also been involved with the Multi-Ethnic Committee, Bargaining Support Committee, and Public Relations Committee. She serves on ESSA’s Board of Directors, where she is soon to complete her second of potentially three terms. Flora has attended trainings at NEA-Alaska’s Fall Event, April Leadership, and Minority Leadership Training. She attended a “Train the Trainers” session and helped present PALS on Women’s Leadership at Fall Event 2006.

Volunteers, Flora and her husband Mark, enjoy a day at the Tanana Valley Fair for NEA-Alaska.

Flora has represented ESSA at Delegate Assemblies and NEA Representative Assemblies, as well as the NCUEA ( National Council of Urban Education Associations) and the national ESP Conference. After her first DA, she wrote a long report of her experience and shared it with ESSA and individual members to encourage their participation.

She was selected to serve on the Elections Committee at the Orlando RA last year and got to visit with NEA President Reg Weaver, Vice-President Dennis Van Roekel and other national leaders.

To keep in touch with her Inupiaq culture, Flora dances in the PAVVA Inupiaq Dancers.

In addition to her activism for ESSA, Flora is also a long time member of the PAVVA Inupiaq Dancers. The group, founded and headed by Sean Topkok, performs frequently at school functions, ANE (Alaska Native Education) potlucks, the Festival of Native Arts, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Family Fun Fest. When the Alaska Federation of Natives gathered in Fairbanks in 2006, PAVVA Inupiaq Dancers were there.

Before she began her current, 12-month position, Flora worked during several summers for the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. Now she does their books part time.

“I didn’t know any Inupiaq dances growing up,” she says. “I was a city kid. And once my grandparents moved back to Deering, a lot of cultural knowledge left with them. The dancing gets me in touch with my culture and heritage.” One of the three languages she would like to learn is Inupiat. (The other two are Spanish and sign language.)

Flora wears her thick, brown hair pinned up most of the time. It takes two scrunchies and a covered band to keep it anchored on her head. When she lets her hair down it hangs over her rear end. The liberal sprinkles of gray she views as a badge of honor. “I’ve earned every one of those stripes.”

As she anchors the Curriculum Department from her desk, juggling calls and questions from colleagues, Flora has a big pair of scissors in her hand. She is cutting out laminated paper “dominoes” for a “Domino Concentration” game. On Parent Night, the district provides kits with games that parents can play with their children to help them with their math skills.

“Some parts of my job are fun,” she grins. During the short hours of December daylight, her plants are thriving. And Flora being Flora, she finds another reason to be happy in her work: From the file storage room there’s a great view of early afternoon sunsets. “Even born and raised here, I love seeing those beautiful sunsets.”


Home