After years of losing colleagues to low pay and zero contract protections, the nurses of Columbia Public Schools built a bargaining unit with Columbia MNEA and MNEA's support, and every single vote was yes.

For 18 years, Rachel Willenberg has worked as a school nurse in Columbia Public Schools. She watched a position that once drew 20 applicants become one that could barely keep people from walking out the door. Three to four nurses were quitting every year, and the constant turnover meant the nurses who stayed lost something beyond colleagues. They lost camaraderie, institutional knowledge, and the stability that students with complex health needs depend on.

Without experienced nurses, the district relied on agency nurses to fill the gaps. For students with feeding tubes, tracheostomies, seizure disorders, and diabetes, that kind of revolving door is not just inconvenient. It is a health and safety concern. Every child in Columbia Public Schools deserves access to a highly skilled nurse who knows their name, their history, and their needs.

The reasons for the turnover were not a mystery. 

Columbia's school nurses didn't have a contract. They had a notification of employment with blunt language: you are at will, and you can be terminated with or without cause, at any time. Pay was low, liability was high, and there were no stipends for mentoring new nurses or supervising nursing students. "For a job that requires a license, that requires professional development, that requires continuing education, and that requires an advanced degree," Willenberg said, "it didn't seem like we were viewed as skilled professionals".

So Willenberg started having one-on-one conversations with her colleagues. She asked why they were leaving. She listened. And then she brought what she learned to CMNEA President Noelle Gilzow, who told her something she didn't expect: nurses could form their own bargaining unit. The CMNEA teachers who had already won contract protections through collective bargaining helped guide the nurses through the process, showing what solidarity across job classifications looks like in practice.

Missouri NEA staff were there from the start. When the nurses sat down with MNEA UniServ Director Kyle Olmsted to talk about what they needed, he listened. And they were not quiet. They just kept saying, "This is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is wrong," Willenberg recalled. Olmsted helped the nurses navigate the steps toward recognition, turning frustration into a clear path forward.

"It was so easy to get people on board," Willenberg said. 

The choice was clear. Form a bargaining unit and join CMNEA, or nurses would continue walking away from the district.

When the vote came, 80% of the 38-member bargaining unit cast ballots. Every single vote was YES!

Now, with recognition secured and bargaining ahead, Columbia's nurses are focused on what comes next: a real contract with protections against termination without cause, stipends for mentoring and student nurse supervision, professional development incentives, and working conditions that keep experienced nurses in the buildings where students need them most. Willenberg's message to her fellow nurses, and to every educator in Missouri who feels unseen, is simple: 

"This can get better. We can try to make this better".

_{SB, Spring 2026}