Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series of stories exploring the teachers union in Idaho. Tuesday's story will look at teachers' benefits, wages and job security.

Education reform bills now being considered by lawmakers in Boise would redefine teacher unionism in Idaho.

Rachel Reed, a third-grade teacher at Ponderosa Elementary in Post Falls, said she's a union member because she believes in what it does for teachers.

"My union works hard to communicate the needs of teachers to the district," she said. "This isn't just about continuing contracts. We negotiate much-needed prep time, class sizes and due process rights."

The union also gets teacher input about students' needs such as whether they need extra help from classroom aides, and the union provides support with problems regarding performance or administration, Reed said.

"A teachers' working environment is also a students' learning environment. We're teachers first and association members second," said Meghan Ridley, a Betty Kiefer special education teacher and president of the Lakeland Education Association.

Under the Students Come First education reforms proposed by Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, tenure would be phased out. All new educators would have two-year contracts with some pay based on performance evaluations and student achievement. Teachers with seniority would no longer be protected from workforce reduction layoffs, and collective bargaining would be limited to salary and wage-related benefits.

The legislation would also apply the state's open meeting laws to school district teacher contract negotiations, requiring that they take place in public.

Since 2009, struggling schools in the state have felt the loss of $200 million in state funding, with districts balancing their budgets by furloughing employee days, foregoing textbook purchases, and eliminating jobs, programs and services for students.

Without a comprehensive change in the education system, Luna has said there will be more of the same.

Lisa Hoffeld, a fifth-grade teacher at Mullan Trail Elementary in Post Falls, said the union is made up of hard-working teachers.

"When our union is being blamed, the blame is really being placed onto the shoulders of Idaho teachers," Hoffeld said. "I find it unfortunate that some do not understand the role that the association plays in everyday school life."

Teachers have worked hard to make sure students are the least impacted by recent funding cuts, she said.

"I understand that when you look at a state budget that keeps shrinking each year you have to look for cuts," Hoffeld said. "My concern is when are we going to start looking for revenue?"

Mary Conrath, a teacher at Betty Kiefer Elementary in Rathdrum, part of the Lakeland School District, said she appreciates what the local teachers association in her district does to support students and staff, but her issues are not with the local.

The Idaho Education Association, and the local district associations, are affiliates of the National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union. The NEA requires unified payment of local, state and national dues, so teachers cannot join the local association without financially supporting the state and national union.

"I have made the decision (to not be a union member) because I do not agree with all of the activities of teacher unions at the state and national level," she said, declining to elaborate.

Lake City High School music teacher Tim Sandford testified Thursday in front of the Idaho Legislature's Senate Education Committee.

Sandford, last year's chief negotiator for the Coeur d'Alene district's professional employees, told lawmakers that collective bargaining makes Coeur d'Alene a more effective district. Contracts allow educators to teach with integrity, to be innovative and invested in their communities, Sandford said.

In the Coeur d'Alene district, one of the largest employers in Kootenai County and the sixth-largest school district in Idaho, Superintendent Hazel Bauman oversees 1,300 employees.

"We've always enjoyed good relations with the Coeur d'Alene Education Association," Bauman said.

The master contract serves as a guide for everyone involved, Bauman said.

Trustee Edie Brooks, chair of the Coeur d'Alene district's school board, said she has been on the board's negotiating team for as long as she has been on the five-member board. Brooks served as trustee in the district's Zone 4 from 1996 to 2004, and was elected to a three-year term in Zone 1 in 2006. She was re-elected in Zone 1 in 2009.

"Our CEA (Coeur d'Alene Education Association) has been so collaborative in the past few years," Brooks said.

It has "taken a lot of work, and a lot of years," to develop the relationship that exists between the board and the local union.

"I feel like it's not a bad thing, what we have here," Brooks said. "It's two teams working together to come out with something that's good for everyone, including the taxpayers."

Collective bargaining is a mechanism that initiates conversations that "need to happen," Brooks said.

"I feel like teachers have not been compensated enough, that they're under-appreciated and looked at as not having a very hard job, and nothing could be further from the truth," Brooks said.