It’s our turn, MEA President Paula Herbart told delegates to the annual Representative Assembly in East Lansing late last week. Michigan educators need to speak up – and show up – for two Capitol rallies in June, plus join local activism efforts in the meantime, Herbart told the MEA governing body. The state budget debate…
MEA member Marti Alvarez makes a distinction between her job at Traverse City Area Public Schools and her reason for being. She is employed as a bus driver, but she is driven by a goal to help students be successful human beings – a message she spreads to colleagues doing every type of work in…
Yvonne Williams wants MEA’s Education Support Professionals to banish a word from their vocabulary: “Justa.” “It would not be unusual to hear one of our colleagues say I am justa bus driver, I’m justa secretary or I’m justa custodian,” the recently retired MEA Northern Zone Director told attendees at the ESP Statewide Conference in Port…
We all know the world of difference that Education Support Professionals (ESP) make every day in the lives of students. Nominate an outstanding ESP member for the Leon Brunner Award, and sign up to attend the ESP Statewide Conference in March where the winner will be announced. There would be no school without great para-educators,…
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is still erupting and spewing lava and ash onto Hawaii’s Big Island, and our union brothers and sisters in the Hawaii State Teachers Association have been affected.
Just glancing at Facebook pictures yesterday showed the huge number of Michigan educators who participated in #WearRedForPublicEd. Those numbers are sure to grow next Wednesday – and every Wednesday through the end of the school year – as MEA members are asked to wear red to show solidarity for their profession and their students.
FROM MEA PRESIDENT PAULA HERBART MEA members, Throughout the day, MEA has been monitoring the situation around the shooting at Central Michigan University that locked down that campus and the surrounding K-12 school systems. While the shooter has not been apprehended as of this writing, we know that law enforcement has been helping to ensure…
Recess Aides have a tough job that’s often thankless. But Mitzi Thornton knows nearly every kid at Linden Elementary School—and she gets rewarded in hugs. A recess aide does more than watch the playground, right? Oh, yes. You have to keep an eye out for fights or bloody noses. Name calling. The kids fall; they…
This year marks the 30th anniversary of a holiday charitable fundraiser held at MEA headquarters in East Lansing, a drive that raises more than $20,000 a year to help area families and charities across the state.
Waterford bus driver Becky Lesh tears up discussing her love for her job, and she shares how the MEA transportation unit she leads beat privatization—for now. Isn’t safety becoming even more important in your job? It is. There’s so many distracted drivers, and so many laws have changed for us as drivers. We now have hazard…
