By Randi Trumble As a Lansing School District nurse, my face is the first one my students see after returning from recess with scraped knees or cuts and when they report having stomach aches, runny noses or sore throats. When we return for in-person learning, I’ll have another role: The first line of response if […]
MEA is monitoring developments related to Friday’s Michigan Supreme Court ruling against Gov. Whitmer’s ability to use executive order to help protect the public during this pandemic – particularly as it relates to schools, community colleges and universities. We appreciate Gov. Whitmer’s efforts to keep the public, our students and our members safe, and we […]
Click to view online. In this issue: ICYMI: Scholarship Program for Essential Workers Above and Beyond – Capitol Area Schools My View: The Awakening Finding Strength in Solidarity Election 2020 MEA Member-to-Member Ed-Tech Webinars Meet Urgent Nationwide Need New MTOY: An Advocate for Educators and ‘Marginalized Voice’ MEA’s New LGBTQ Caucus Off to Good […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor During college, MEA member Anthony Pennock worried about whether he could ever be accepted as a gay man in the classroom. Now the sixth-year special education teacher is co-chair of MEA’s new LGBTQ Caucus. Pennock believes in “the power of one.” One teacher. One counselor. One bus driver. One […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Eric Curtiss thought he had a high number of students in his English classes last year when his numbers topped out at 144. This year he has 168, although the number fluctuates. Last year he had five preps, the most in his 22-year career. Now he has […]
More than 450 educators from Capitol‑area school districts stretching from St. Johns to Holt, Okemos and Lansing returned to their school duties armed with some health and safety essentials courtesy of their local unions. Every year, several MEA units combine their efforts in a late August back-to-school bash that draws hundreds to a family cookout […]
About 625,000 essential workers who continued performing their frontline duties during the height of the pandemic in Michigan are eligible for free college tuition, under a program announced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “This initiative is Michigan’s way of expressing gratitude to essential workers for protecting public health and keeping our state running,” Whitmer said at […]
By Robyne Muray As an historian, I never thought I would witness the life-altering experience of a pandemic. I believed our medical advances made us far more sophisticated than those living through the 1918 flu pandemic. However, persevering through COVID-19 has changed my perspective about who I am and what my professional future holds. Teaching […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan last March, MEA member Chris Thomas found himself in a unique position to help other educators in the district where he worked – Ann Arbor – get up to speed in figuring out how to deliver remote learning. Now he’s doing the same […]
If you are a brand new school employee, or know someone who is, be aware that state law requires newly hired school employees in Michigan to select between two retirement plan choices within 75 days after their first payroll date—or the state will choose for them. And once a selection is made, it can’t be […]
