By Carolyn Moss and Brandon Everest Workers in Traverse City often hear the saying “a view of the bay is half the pay.” On behalf of everyone who experiences the impact, we beg to differ. Employees in Traverse City scorn the notion that location is an excuse for poor pay and poorer working conditions, and […]
The MEA Scholarship application is now open. Interested applicants can find it online at mea.org/mea-scholarship. The application deadline is Feb. 20, 2020. Questions can be directed to Barb Hitchcock at bhitchcock@mea.org or 517-333-6276. To be eligible for the MEA Scholarship, applicants must be a dependent of an MEA member or MEA-Retired member in good standing. […]
By Paul Helder MEA Retirement Consultant Are you eligible for retirement benefits you were not aware of? That is a possibility if you were a student who worked part-time at a Michigan community college before July 1, 2014. The problem is this: The state doesn’t have information to identify and notify those people. Instead, eligible […]
Terri Spencer clocks in to her custodial job at Clarkston High School at 9:30 a.m. By 1:00, the union president has helped clean three lunch periods and mop up at the end. Then room cleaning begins. How many classrooms do you clean? After 2:00 I’m responsible for 19 rooms, the girls and boys bathrooms, and […]
Something was missing from opening day in Grand Blanc Community Schools this year. For the first time in more than a half century, MEA member Vickie Weiss was not in attendance. In June she completed an astounding 55th year teaching elementary school in the district, and in August she passed away at the age of 79 […]
When MEA member Jeff Austin started a writing center at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor six years ago, he didn’t have a mentor or a network of support to help him. Now he wants to be one and build that for others to follow in his footsteps. Austin’s innovative tutoring program provides quality writing […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Holly Hereau teaches science in a suburban Detroit setting, but she grew up in the wild. The 15-year veteran of South Redford School District fondly recalls a childhood in the Upper Peninsula’s Escanaba area playing outside with her friends—mostly in the woods, discovering nature by following her […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Pardon the cliché, but MEA member Mallory Rivard is living her dream—and not only because she’s on her way to compete in the Miss America pageant representing Michigan in December. “My dream has always been to be Miss Rivard,” she says. “It’s always to be a first-grade teacher. It’s […]
First-year educator Stephanie Connell briefly paused and held her head in her hands to contain the overwhelm she felt while shopping in the New Teacher Store at Rochester Community Schools a few days before school started this year. The high school English teacher and new MEA member could take what she wanted from a room […]
My View is a special series taking a ground-level look at big issues My preparation for a new school year follows a similar routine: buy new classroom supplies, organize and set-up the classroom, look over and revise lesson plans, and my favorite part—get to know my newest third graders. I can’t wait to meet the […]
