The latest winner of the Leon A. Brunner Award, Clare Hoover, second from right, is flanked by her sisters.
MEA celebrates contributions of ESP members
About 330 educational support personnel attended the 2009 ESP Statewide Conference. The March 20-21 event commemorated the 25th anniversary of the merger between the Michigan Educational Support Personnel Association and the Michigan Education Association. Participants also honored Clare Hoover of Grand Rapids, who won the Leon A. Brunner Award, and Joyce Phelps, an MEA lobbyist who received the ESP Hall of Fame Award.
Read a resolution adopted by the MEA Board of Directors that honors the contributions of ESP members.
Watch a slide show of pictures from the ESP Conference.
Read a press release about the winner of the Leon A. Brunner Award.
Nominations Sought for ESP Caucus Executive Board
Nominations are being accepted for several positions on the MEA/ESP Caucus Executive Board.
Openings for three-year terms on the board, beginning Sept. 1, 2009 include:
-
President
-
Vice President
-
Secretary
-
Director at large (three positions)
-
Director by classification (one each for paraprofessional, higher education, transportation and office personnel; and one for minority concerns).
Elections to the ESP board will take place at the MEA Spring RA in Lansing on May 2, 2009.
MEA Launches the Privatization Complaint Box
In order to balance the one-sided media coverage of privatization, the MEA has launched the Privatization Complaint Box, a service that will allow school workers to file a complaint about shoddy work by privateers doing the jobs that used to be done by school employees.
MEA receives these complaints often enough that an effort to collect them in an organized and searchable form is indicated. The complaint box will serve as a storehouse of complaints that can then be used for media inquiries and to generate statistics to counter those published by conservative think tanks.
The complaints can also be used to put the school’s administration on notice that shoddy work is not going unnoticed and that they are being made accountable for the decision to outsource this work.
You are invited to participate in the 2009 MEA ESP Statewide Conference to be held March 20-21, 2009 at the Dearborn Hyatt.
This statewide conference is designed to serve the expressed needs of the Educational Support Personnel members of the Michigan Education Association. Individual workshop sessions have been structured to meet both the generic and specific needs of the group.
Troy custodian Mel Sledzinski named Michigan School Support Person of Year
State Board of Education President Kathleen Straus congratulates Troy school custodian and MEA member Mel Sledzinski.
Head custodian Mel Sledzinski started his day on May 1 getting the gymnasium at Wass Elementary School in Troy ready for special visitors and a special student assembly.
State school superintendent Mike Flanagan and State Board of Education members Kathleen Straus and Elizabeth Bauer were coming to Wass to recognize students and staff for their continued outstanding performance on the mathematics portion of the MEAP test.
Little did ‘Mr. Mel’ know that he was getting the gym ready for his own surprise party.
Report urges caution for schools contracting out support services
MEA ESP Caucus president calls study ‘a quantitative, unbiased resource we can use to fight privatization.’
A new report that examines the outsourcing of transportation, food and custodial services in public schools urges caution before rushing to privatize.
Vermont school administrators Drs. William Mathis and Lorna Jimerson say in their report that privatizing sometimes saves districts money, but many times it does not. Read more.
Longtime Muskegon leader Gilda Wilsonbecomes 10th member of MEA ESP Hall of Fame
Muskegon’s Gilda Wilson, the latest member selected to the MEA ESP Hall of Fame, says support staff are under-appreciated for the work they perform in our public schools. Read more.
Updated: June 4, 2009 11:29 AM
