About

The first educators’ union in Volusia County, the Volusia Educators Association (VEA), was organized in 1978. At that time, many teachers did not have a planning period or a duty free lunch. Over the years, VEA advocated for more say in the profession. Years later, the first union to represent office specialist was formed, which later expanded to include paraprofessionals and became the Volusia Association of Educational Office Personnel (VAEOP) and later the Volusia Educational Support Association (VESA). In 1990, the Volusia Teachers Organization (VTO) challenged VEA for the right to represent instructional staff in Volusia and won. VTO and VESA continued to operate as separate unions until the statewide merger of the two state teacher unions in 2000. At that time, VEA merged into VTO. In 2016, VTO and VESA merged to create the Volusia United Educators and continues to advocate for the rights of its members and for our students.