By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor A few years into his role as president of the Farmington Education Association (FEA), Chris DeYonke was marking member information in a spreadsheet when he stumbled across a finding: New hires who joined the union remained in the district more often than those who didn’t join. DeYonke gathered all […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor In her nearly 14 years as president of the Clawson Education Association, Kelly Pearson has not bargained a better contract than the one she recently signed. Overwhelmingly approved by membership, the deal struck different responses between early-career and longer-term educators. “Overall, people were happy,” Pearson said of reactions during […]
Retired educator Isabell Nazar could not mathematically pinpoint the positive effects of a new law that will save her pension from being taxed; instead the former 38-year middle school science teacher from rural Homer in Calhoun County declared, “It will improve my life to the nth degree.” A board member of MEA-Retired, Nazar was among […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor “Wonderful news!” “Here’s why we work hard to elect legislators who support public education.” “Elections matter!” “Let’s keep going!” Hundreds of similar comments and shares on MEA’s social media echoed in celebration after the Michigan Legislature approved changes to the state’s broken teacher evaluation system starting next school year. […]
Soon after teachers in Flint’s Beecher Community School District settled a strong contract, staff at the combined middle/high school enjoyed a visit by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on her back-to-school tour – joined by NEA President Becky Pringle and MEA President Chandra Madafferi. After a decade of financial struggle and stagnation, the Beecher Education Association’s new […]
Just two years ago, the MEA unit representing 11 office clerical workers in Grosse Ile Township Schools consisted of one member. The group was working without a contract, and the unit faced decertification for low membership numbers. In the winter of 2021, that one member recruited two others and the trio did their best to […]
Three secretaries and a band director in Rochester found some closure in bringing complaints and publicly testifying against a school board trustee whose social media post and television news appearances sparked a deluge of vile, threatening phone calls to Hart Middle School. With the help of their union, the educators bravely shared their experiences in […]
UPDATE: The House Labor Committee passed House Bills 4354-4357 on Thursday, May 25. The legislation will now proceed to the full House for consideration, likely in June. In the early hours of Thursday morning, over a dozen MEA members from across the state made the drive to Lansing to make their voices heard in the […]
Last fall when Kalamazoo Education Association President Heather Reid saw an ad announcing the Bored Teachers Comedy Tour was coming to town, she applied for a small MEA grant to hold a members event before the show. Soon she heard staff in the local MEA office discussing the same idea, so they all joined forces […]
When MEA member Amy Rever-Oberle experienced a mishap on a field trip with 150 sixth-grade band students and 30 adult chaperones from Rochester Community Schools, she handled it, got everyone back to school early, and let administration know what happened. Over the next few days, the principal responded to a few parent questions, and life […]
