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• Letter to Members: True school reform achieved only through collaboration
• Does school size matter? Large or small, schools need the tools to succeed
• Rural Hillman High overcomes challenges to build solid foundation for success
• East Lansing High disproves theory that size alone dictates success
• Small schools: Upside and downside
• Granholm a big proponent of small schools
• Stressed out: All school employees wrestle with stress on the job
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• Candidate recommendations made by your colleagues back home, not by leaders at MEA headquarters
• 'No Child must go,' says 9th District congressional candidate Gary Peters
• Generation Next: Melanie Mol
• 'We need to fight for funding for our students'
• Unions hold answer for lifting America's middle class out of current economic malaise
• MEA helps Perry and Morrice defeat consolidation
• MESSA partners with Jackson Public Schools
• The MEA-Retired mission: Protecting members' health care and pension benefits, promoting public education
• Spring RA delegates to elect MEA officers, NEA directors, adopt 2008-09 budget
• Education Action Group rants against school employees
• Detroit TIgers' 6th annual MEA Day/8th annual golf outing to support MEA Scholarship Fund set June 23
• Ed Sarpolus new director of MEA Government Affairs
• MEA encourages service credit purchase before June 30 to avoid penalties
• Voice Classifieds

Spring RA

Michael Graves, For MEA secretary-treasurer

MEA Board member Michael Graves is currently in his third three-year term as president of the Southfield Michigan Educational Support Personnel Association, one of MEA’s largest ESP affiliates with 510 members. He is one of the few full-time release ESP presidents in the country. Graves served two terms on the NEA Board of Directors. At the state level, he is an MEA ESP Caucus Board member and has served on the Summer Leadership Advisory Committee, Minority Concerns Committee, Statewide Screening and Recommendation Committee, and the MEA-PAC Governing Board. In 2004, Graves received MEA’s Connie Jackson Award for outstanding contributions in promoting human and civil rights within the association. His 22-year career as a custodian for Southfield Public Schools has included work on the district-wide Professional Development Committee and on the district’s Strategic Planning Committee. He has been vice president of his local and chair of the local’s Public Relations Committee. He also has served as coordinating council chair.

I have devoted my association career to advocating on behalf of all MEA members and building strong coalitions to further the goals and objectives of school employees.

I have a strong passion for protecting and promoting public education and advocating for children. I have been an active parent volunteer in my school district and community.

I have continuously sought out members and encouraged, educated and assisted them in getting more involved in the association at all levels.

One of my goals has been to serve as a model for involvement in our association. I have been one of the most visible Michigan ESP members on the national scene. I gained great experience as an NEA Board member for six years and also as the NEA Board Black Caucus chair. I currently am on the NEA Resolutions Committee and am treasurer of the NEA Black Caucus.

I believe that it is very important that we actively work to make all schools great, and I strongly believe that involved membership and strong leadership are the keys to having an effective association.

This is the depth of experience I will bring to the office of MEA secretary-treasurer. I appreciate your vote for this high honor.

Michigan Education Association, 1216 Kendale Blvd., P.O. Box 2573, East Lansing, MI 48826-2573 800-292-1934 • webmaster@mea.org