By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Rockford bus driver Russ Clark thought he was picking up children at Lakes Elementary School for a field trip on Tuesday morning, so he was concerned when Transportation Director Jacquie Fase asked him to turn off his bus and step inside the gym to observe an assembly. “That…
Last year, Ryan Heur was a senior at Novi High School taking advantage of an innovative incubator class to design and market a new product from start to finish. The experience allowed him and his classmates to see two of their products for sale at Macy’s. On Wednesday, he was in Dearborn helping to “pay…
Five years after accepting dramatic concessions to help pull Flint Community Schools out of deficit spending, the district’s teachers have overwhelmingly approved a contract that raises pay, lowers class sizes, and restores MESSA health care benefits, among other improvements. In addition, new provisions aim to create a new educator pipeline through a tuition reimbursement plan…
November 20, 2019 By PAULA HERBART/President – Michigan Education Association How would you like your child’s teacher to be evaluated? By the number of correct “bubbles” filled in on a standardized test? Or by creative lesson plans that develop critical thinking skills under that teacher’s tutelage? If you chose the latter, you are in good company.…
Testimony continued Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee on legislation meant to provide local flexibility to the Michigan Merit Curriculum. MEA submitted written testimony about SB 600-601, supporting the direction of the bills to provide greater flexibility for districts to design high school requirements that meet the needs of their communities and their students at the…
Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), who just a year ago was transitioning from a high school English teacher to a state legislator, has introduced SB 633, which would strike the retention requirement in the 3rd grade reading law. In a recent Detroit News column, Polehanki shared her reasoning behind introducing the legislation. “Let’s trust our teachers…
Last week, a potential deal fell apart to end the standoff over supplemental appropriations to fill gaps in the state budget. Now, with the Legislature’s fall hunting and Thanksgiving break upon us, a solution will likely wait until lawmakers return to Lansing in December. MEA members need to contact all our lawmakers and urge them…
The Utica Education Association is calling on members from other locals to join in an informational picket and rally outside the Utica Community Schools Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 11. Educators in the UEA have been bargaining since March and working without a contract since June. The largest K-12 MEA…
By Amy Urbanowski-Nowak Birch Run Education Association President We have a big problem in Michigan schools, folks, and it has nothing to do with test scores or differentiated instruction. It has everything to do with treating teachers like professionals and human beings. Most recently, this came to the forefront for me as a union president…
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer averted a government shutdown on Monday by signing a state budget sent to her on the eve of a fiscal-year deadline, but she used her veto pen to press Republican leaders in the state House and Senate to return to the negotiating table. Whitmer described the Legislature’s budget as “fatally flawed” in…
