Education Support Professionals

Education Support Professionals (ESP)

Educating Michigan’s students requires a team effort by everyone involved in public education, including the thousands of education support professional who are represented by MEA.  School support staff – including paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers and other transportation workers, food service employees, maintenance, skilled trades, and more – are an essential part of making public education work.  Aside from their locals, MEA’s ESP members are represented by the ESP Caucus Board, which works to ensure the needs of school support staff are met by their union.

The Latest:

ESP News

NEA president’s school visits spotlight Michigan successes: ‘I will tell your stories everywhere I go’

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor NEA President Becky Pringle and MEA President Chandra Madafferi serve free breakfast to students at Dublin Elementary in Walled Lake, the first stop of a two-day, four-district tour. NEA President Becky Pringle visited four school districts in Michigan last week to see what change looks like when a governor and state Legislature prioritize public…

Special ed paraeducators share challenges and needs

MEA member Darrin Watkins has been a paraeducator in Pontiac for longer than he can remember – somewhere around 30 years – and he has a few ideas about how special education could be restructured and resourced to improve services and keep people in the field. Darrin Watkins of Pontiac of Reed City discusses whatparaeducators need to be successful and…

Food service workers raise voices to ensure students don’t go hungry

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's team convened a conversation in July with food service professionals and MEA members from across the state to begin discussing the logistics around the universal free school meal program included in the recent state education budget. Veteran food service professionals, who nurture deep bonds with students, voiced their excitement about ensuring no kid goes hungry in Michigan…

Paraeducator builds membership and a new home

Paraeducator and union president Jessica Davenport and son Xavier, 13, moved into a Habitat home in Kalkaska over the holidays. (Photo courtesy of Habitat for Humanity, Grand Traverse Region) In just over three years since she became co-president of her local support staff union in Kalkaska, Jessica Davenport has worked hard to rebuild membership numbers that had dropped low enough…

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