LETTER TO MEMBERS
Leading Amid Competing Needs In-person vs. hybrid vs. online? Safety vs. normalcy? Essential frontline employees— who can feasibly do work remotely. Students whose learning may be delayed, while their physical and mental health is at risk. Educators and parents on every side of the divide—and our students in the balance. At the local and state level, your union leaders are at the center of competing conversations every day. For every educator who wants in-person learning tomorrow, another believes it’s not safe until this pandemic is behind us. Some want a vaccine now—others say never. Far too many members are stressed beyond the breaking point trying to be everything for everyone—not the least for their own families. Some students are embracing virtual learning, thanks to amazing work done by MEA members. But many are struggling emotionally and/or academically. While learning delay can be addressed over time, the emotional impact—of failure, of isolation, of stress, of loss of routine—is more difficult to manage. These competing needs aren’t just issues for students and MEA
Paula J. Herbart President
members—administrators, school board members and parents are experiencing them every day. In a pandemic, there are no clear choices—no one gets everything they want. The best we can do is to be guided by our principles. That every student deserves a high-quality education that meets their academic, social, emotional and physical needs. That all school employees— teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty and staff—are essential workers who deserve the resources necessary to do their job and help students succeed. That learning spaces must be healthy and safe, because the learning environment of our students is the working environment of our members. That the best decisions are made locally, using collective bargaining to ensure the voices of our members are heard in decisions that affect them and their students. These core beliefs can guide us to the right responses to the tough questions ahead. Reopening schools for in-person learning needs to happen—safely. We must plan for how to get students
Chandra A. Madafferi Vice President
the face-to-face education that best meets their and their family needs. But we must monitor the latest health information—including vaccinations and spread of new contagious variants of COVID-19— and make real-time decisions based on science and health expert input. We need to heed the cries for help from students and parents, while ensuring they and our colleagues aren’t entering unsafe situations—just as we must heed the cries for help from our members who desperately need additional support and relief from this frantic pace. We must strictly adhere to safety measures—from masking to social distancing to ventilation to disinfecting—inside our schools where we can control it best, but also in our communities where we must call on everyone’s better angels to do what’s right and safe and healthy. We must make decisions locally— raise our voices and organize our communities to do what’s in the best interest of educators and students. Above all else, MEA will remain true to that core principle, working tirelessly to back the decisions made by our 1,100 local associations while advocating at the state level for the support our members and our students need.
Brett R. Smith Secretary-Treasurer
CONTENTS
4 Editor’s Notebook Educator shortages 7 News Roundup Where we stand 9 My View Virtual successes 26 Region Elections Rules and candidates On the cover: As local union president in L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, Kathy Parmentier has worked hard for members. Read more on pages 12-14.
Executive Director �������������������� Michael Shoudy Director of Public Affairs ������������������ Doug Pratt Editor �����������������������������������������������Brenda Ortega Staff Photographer ����������������������� Miriam Garcia Publications Specialist �������������� Shantell Crispin The MEA Voice ISSN 1077-4564 is an official publication of the Michigan Education Association, 1216 Kendale Blvd., East Lansing, MI 48823. Opinions stated in the MEA Voice do not necessarily reflect the official position of the MEA unless so identified. Published by Michigan Education Association, Box 2573, East Lansing, MI 48826-2573. Periodicals postage paid at East Lansing and additional mailing offices. Payment of the active membership fee entitles a member to receive the MEA Voice. Of each annual fee whether for active or affiliate membership, $12.93 is for a year’s subscription. Frequency of issue is October, December, February, April and August. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the MEA Voice, Box 2573, East Lansing, MI 48826-2573 or via email at webmaster@mea.org. Allow at least three weeks for change of address to take effect. MEA Voice telephone: 517-332-6551 or 800-292-1934. Circulation this issue: 111,693
15— COVID VIGNETTES: Getting books to kids is harder now but just as important as before.
16— COVID VIGNETTES: A third-generation Copper Country teacher makes industrial tech work.
10-22— COVER STORY: The pandemic has challenged us all to redefine our roles, our work, and our lives. In part two of the limited series, What it’s Like: COVID Vignettes, read more of how MEA members and leaders have adapted.
20— COVID VIGNETTES: A social worker shares how her job has broadened through the crisis.
24— MEMBERS AT WORK: Equity work leads to success at Lansing Community College. MEA VOICE 3
NEWS & NOTES
Editor’s Notebook We keep hearing the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified and exacerbated already existing issues surrounding education. Some examples: • The digital divide • Crumbling school buildings • Increasing child poverty and hunger • Student mental health Although we don’t hear enough about it, we can add educator mental health to the list. Last September, an article in Psychology Today discussed ways in which COVID-19 has negatively impacted educator well-being—and reasons cited for it include all of the above. It’s not a surprise that the pandemic has also worsened educator shortages. That includes critical shortages of teachers, substitute teachers, and bus drivers, among others. The chart on the next page casts some data on how the pandemic has taken a troubling problem from bad to worse. MEA member Jackie Lyons is one of those statistics. Struggles of the pandemic forced the nine-year elementary teacher to quit her job last fall, but some of the issues that drove her out of the classroom predated COVID-19. Read her story on page 18. Lyons believes top-down changes from policymakers contribute to growing levels of anxiety for students and teachers alike. Developmentally inappropriate curriculum. Punitive performance measures. Too much testing, paperwork and bureaucracy. Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing) agrees. “It’s incredibly sad what the Michigan Legislature has done to educators over the past several years,” he said in an interview. “It’s always been a difficult profession, but they’ve made it harder to be a teacher.” Hertel and other lawmakers have been working to introduce bills to address flaws in the educator evaluation system that was implemented over the past decade. MEA members should be prepared to lobby for those fixes in coming weeks. Like Hertel, Shana Barnum—longtime MEA member, now a principal in Mason—understands that our nation’s public schools represent the best hope for a future that closes equity gaps and bridges the divide between possibility and promise. Read her story on page 19. Barnum says the number of applicants for teaching positions has dwindled down to single digits amid the pandemic, but it was already a struggle before last March. She is pressing lawmakers to consider creative solutions—and to waive teacher evaluations for this year. Everything in teaching has changed in this crisis, she notes, “but the stress remains the same.” —Brenda Ortega, editor
4 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
2500 Number of school bus driver positions that remain unfilled midway through the school year, according to a transportation specialist at the Kalamazoo Regional Service Agency quoted in a Jan. 18 M-Live article. The shortage is a serious problem that predated COVID-19 and has been worsened by the pandemic to such a critical extent that inadequate staffing of bus drivers has forced some school districts to cancel in-person learning at times this winter.
QUOTABLES “I’m very excited to bring some DIY physics kits to my kids in order to keep project-based science education alive during a very strange school year.” Rob Barrett, science teacher and senior capstone/experience facilitator at the Kent Intermediate School District’s Innovation High School, on being the latest MEA member whose project received funding through the MIDream Contest, sponsored by MEA Financial Services and MSU Federal Credit Union. Find the contest entry form and submission details at meafs.com.
NEWS & NOTES
ICYMI
192
201
217
264
Increase in 2020 data compared to 4 year mean
31.5
42.5
1.5
-5.75
35.5
6.42% 13.73%
0.79%
-2.78% 19.56%
Percentage increase for 2020 compared to 4 year mean
December
352
November
522
October
2020
284.25 3224.75
September
181.5
August
206.75
July
190.5
June
March
309.5
May
February
490.5
4 year mean 2016-2019
April
January
Michigan teacher retirement data by month released last month by the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) shows dramatic increases in retirements in the months after the 2020-21 school year began.
362.5
410.75
257
194.75
178
3284
390
685
440
300
254
-20.25
59.25
27.5
274.25
183
105.25
76
-7.12%
1.84%
7.59%
66.77%
71.21%
54.04%
42.70%
Above and Beyond For the past several months, members of MEA and MEA’s higher education branch—MAHE—have begun every meeting by reading a land acknowledgement, which is a formal statement “collectively acknowledging that we meet on the traditional lands served by the 12 tribes of Michigan, upon which those participating in this meeting reside and work.”
Central Michigan University Professor Marcia Mackey started the practice last year when she became MAHE president after seeing it done at MEA and NEA meetings. Every month, she will ask a different member or leader to read a land acknowledgement related to the Indigenous peoples from the lands where their universities and colleges are located.
“We honor Americas First People— all elders, past, present, and emerging and we are called on to learn and share what we discover about tribal history, culture and contributions that have been suppressed in telling the story of America,” read in part a land acknowledgement presented at a virtual MAHE meeting in December.
Read the full text of a land acknowledgement Mackey has been invited to read at the NEA Board of Directors meeting in February, which includes historical notes on the Chippewa tribe, at mea.org/ acknowledge-native-lands.
Read more about land acknowledgements and other issues surrounding Indigenous Peoples in a special Member Spotlight conversation on page 34, featuring Birmingham Public Schools educator Mathew Brown, a member of the Sioux Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
QUOTABLES “Internet access has become an increasingly important element of a modern education, but it continues to be absent for millions of K-12 and higher education students throughout the U.S.” Policy Brief from the Education Commission of the States, drawn from numerous studies—including a recent NEA study on digital equity—which outlines three unique digital divides: availability of broadband internet; affordability of internet access; and access to devices. MEA VOICE 5
NEWS & NOTES
UPCOMING EVENTS February 22—March 11
Art Exhibition Entries VIRTUAL This year artists can submit art entries online for the 57th Annual MEA/MAEA Art Acquisitions Purchase Exhibition, which also will be held virtually. Any member in good standing of MEA, MEA‑Retired or MAEA is eligible to submit artwork. No entry fee is required. Go to mea.org/art for an entry form and information on how to submit a digital entry between Feb. 22-March 11.
Nominations sought for ESP Caucus Board Nominations are being accepted for several positions on the MEA ESP Caucus Executive Board. Open positions are as follows: PRESIDENT:
1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024
VICE-PRESIDENT:
1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024
SECRETARY:
1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024
AT-LARGE:
1 Position – Immediate to Aug. 31, 2021 1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024*
DIRECTOR BY CLASSIFICATION
March 20
MEA Conference for Aspiring and Early Career Educators
CUSTODIAL:
1 Position – Immediate to Aug. 31, 2022
MAINTENANCE:
1 Position – Immediate to Aug. 31, 2022
VIRTUAL Aspiring and early career educators will gather virtually to network and train on topics such as classroom management, high-leverage best practices, legal issues, work-life balance, and union involvement.
OFFICE PERSONNEL: 1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024
March 26-27
ESP Conference VIRTUAL Education support professionals will gather virtually to network and train on topics such as legal issues, ESP certification, privatization, school violence, and member engagement. April 23-24
Representative Assembly VIRTUAL MEA’s highest governing body will meet virtually for the Representative Assembly (RA) to consider the organization’s policy matters for the coming year. Delegates are elected from locals around the state.
6 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
HIGHER EDUCATION: 1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024 PARAPROFESSIONAL: 1 Position – Sept. 1, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2024
Elections to the ESP Caucus Executive Board will take place during the virtual MEA Spring Representative Assembly on April 23-24, 2021. Information needed for each candidate includes: name, present occupation, home address, home and work telephone numbers, home email address, school district, name of nominee’s local ESP association and written consent of the candidate running for office. Candidates and nominators must be members in good standing of MEA/NEA. Information must be received no later than Feb. 23, 2021. Mail to Michele Ready Harrison, MEA/ESP Department, 1216 Kendale Blvd., PO Box 2573, East Lansing, MI 48826-2573, or email misrael@mea.org. Additional nominations will be accepted from the virtual floor at the MEA/ESP Caucus meeting on Friday, April 23, 2021. Candidates will be given up to three minutes to address delegates. Biographical sketches can be emailed to Monica Ritchie at mritchie@mea.org. She will send them collectively to all ESP RA Delegates in good standing. Direct questions to Jim Sparapani, ESP Caucus Elections Chairperson, at 906-779-1984 or jsparapani@att.net. *A mistake in the print magazine wrongly indicates the number of At-Large Director positions which are open for nominations on the ESP Caucus Board. We regret the error.
A Year for the History Books Among the first educators in Michigan to receive a COVID‑19 vaccination on Jan. 11, MEA member Mark Carlson thought back on the past and society’s liberation from smallpox and polio, terrors vanquished by vaccines long ago in the U.S. The Armada math teacher also dared to look forward for hope. The mix of feelings was surreal, he said: “After what we have been dealing with for the past 10 months, it means there is a chance of returning to some semblance of normal in the not-too-distant future.” In January, many educators lined up to get vaccinated—and many more worked to get in line with local health departments—following a pause of in-person instruction in December ordered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Multiple MDHHS measures to reduce transmission lowered Michigan’s case numbers from holiday peaks, but an ineffective federal rollout slowed vaccinations in states. Meanwhile, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer encouraged all school districts to start planning to offer some form of in-person learning by March 1. In addition to masking, the updated state guidance for schools recommended assigning children to cohorts to limit interactions, improving air ventilation systems, and keeping children six feet apart
through creative use of building space, among other suggested safety procedures. A COVID relief package approved by Congress in late December included $82 billion for education, which means the median Michigan district should receive an additional $650 per pupil to continue addressing the COVID crisis, according to MEA Economist Tanner Delpier. Gov. Whitmer requested another $300 million in state funding be appropriated for schools, on top of the $1.6 billion that is Michigan’s portion of the federal relief bill. The new year began with a split screen of history—the hope of vaccines amid a global pandemic on one side and the ignominy of a violent insurrection against Congress on the other. The Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol attempting to overthrow the free and fair election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris led to the second impeachment of President Donald Trump. Based on Trump’s repeated lies about the election, the mob attack echoed the horrific right-wing plot to kidnap and murder Whitmer by a dozen extremists, uncovered by the FBI in October. For MEA member Blake Mazurek, the attack on Congress had a personal dimension. The Grandville history teacher served as one of 16 Michigan electors, and his signature
Mark Carlson
was on ballots to certify the election inside a box in the Senate chamber. Despite his own fears and uncertainties, like educators across the country, the next day Mazurek shouldered the solemn duty of guiding his students through troubled waters. “What stood out for me was their incredible passion,” he said of his students in a moving op-ed about the experience in Bridge Michigan. “These 13-year-olds listened, challenged and worked through some tough issues. My heart grew because I saw what was possible. As we closed our discussion, I shared my gratitude for them, I learned from them. They restored my hope.”
MEA VOICE 7
MESSA providing peace of mind during COVID crisis MESSA deeply appreciates our members, who work hard every day to care for our kids and our schools. MESSA is here for you during these challenging times, and that’s why we’ve taken several important steps to ensure access to care for all MESSA members and their covered dependents. MESSA is fully covering the cost of the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine for members and their covered dependents. That means members will not be responsible for paying a deductible, copayment or coinsurance when they receive their COVID-19 vaccine. At this time, there are no restrictions on where the COVID-19 vaccine can be administered for eligible groups, whether at a local health department, a vaccine clinic or another authorized site. For more information about finding a location, visit michigan.gov/covidvaccine. “The COVID-19 vaccine has been proven to be safe and effective, and I will not hesitate to get it myself as soon as I am able to,” said Dr. Julia Spalding, MESSA’s medical director. “This vaccine is an essential weapon in the fight against this pandemic, and I encourage all MESSA members to get vaccinated when it’s their turn.” Since the start of the pandemic, MESSA has fully covered medically necessary testing at no cost to our members and covered dependents. Tests—and repeat tests—are
8 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
covered as long as they are ordered by a health care provider and administered by an in-network provider. Additionally, MESSA is fully covering all medically necessary treatment for COVID-19 through June 30, 2021, with members paying no deductible, copayment or coinsurance. Since information changes quickly in a pandemic, you can always be sure to find the latest information about MESSA’s COVID-19 coverage at messa.org/covid19. No-cost Blue Cross Online Visits through June 2021 To help you get the care you need when you need it, MESSA is fully covering medical and mental health visits through the Blue Cross Online Visits app through June 30, 2021, at no cost to MESSA medical plan members and their covered
dependents. To get started, go to messa.org/onlinevisits or download the Blue Cross Online Visits app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. “Providing free medical and mental health care through the Blue Cross Online Visits app will help ensure our members get the care they need, when they need it, without having to take extra trips outside the home,” MESSA Executive Director Ross Wilson said. “At MESSA, we know education employees have jobs that are extremely stressful, particularly these days, and we will continue to provide our members with the exceptional health care coverage they deserve.”
Putting a Spotlight on Strategies ideas in a digital format which was well received across the district and community.
By Robyne Muray While some educators have transitioned to virtual teaching this year without missing a beat, remote learning has challenged many professionals to find ways to build student participation while continuing to provide necessary guided instruction, classroom management, differentiated support, and social-emotional learning. In my travels throughout the Lansing School District, I have witnessed innovations firsthand. SYNCHRONOUS STRATEGIES For synchronous learning, the teachers at Attwood New Tech have taken traditional discussion strategies from the classroom to breakout rooms. The magnet school features a student-centered approach to explore and solve real-world problems and challenges through peer collaboration. Virtual Culture Project: During first-semester remote learning, students led discussions on the execution and launch of a virtual poetry café. Instead of cancelling the scheduled event because of pandemic restrictions, the students wrote poetry and worked together to develop, polish and present their
“It was amazing to witness students collaborating in small groups while providing feedback to their peers,” said Principal Carla Turner-Laws. Learn more about the project at tinyurl.com/attwoodshowcase. BLENDED STRATEGIES Nicole Minor, a math teacher at Lansing Eastern High School, says in her class a balance of asynchronous and synchronous instruction has sparked meaningful whole-group discussion. Flipping a remote classroom: Minor’s blended technique involves teaching new content asynchronously through recorded videos and posted activities. During synchronous class periods, students summarize the new math concepts learned before being divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in a small group assignment. Flipping her classroom allows Minor to spend less of her limited class time with direct instruction and debriefing. “It allows time for me to more efficiently observe and identify which students are struggling on a particular concept,” she said. ASYNCHRONOUS STRATEGIES Asynchronous learning allows students to access information and assignments at a time convenient for them, and K-2 faculty at Post
Oak Academy—an International Baccalaureate school—say students can learn at their own pace and dig deep into skillsets being presented. Challenges and Choice: Firstgrade teacher Lori Leach gets her students excited about reading independently for fun with the famous caterpillar icon. Her students have collectively read over 150 books while enjoying “read-a-pillar” challenges, badges and digital prizes. Ann Jones, coordinator of the Primary and Middle Years programs, uses choice boards to differentiate instruction, develop interest, and build motivation. Students are given choices in how they practice skills and show learning, which supports individual learning styles. “I love that choice boards are adaptable to any subject and grade level,” Jones said. I have been privileged to observe so many amazing and creative examples of virtual instruction this year. It has been a humbling experience to see my professional colleagues rise to this immense challenge—and in the process model for students how to be resilient lifelong learners. Robyne Muray is a Lansing teacher and MEA member participating this year in the district’s Aspiring Leaders program. She was the 2018-19 Michigan Region 6 Teacher of the Year. MEA VOICE 9
COVID
What it’s Like
Vignettes
COVID-19 Q&A with Paula Herbart It’s been nearly one year since a novel coronavirus first began reshaping daily life across the globe and MEA mobilized its bargaining, advocacy, legal and communications resources in response. We sat down with MEA President Paula Herbart to look back at where we’ve been. Here’s an excerpt from our talk.
Last month, with school employees starting to receive vaccinations against COVID‑19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer encouraged school districts to begin planning to offer a face-to-face learning option for students by March 1 if they hadn’t before then. What’s important for our members to keep in mind as that work continues? Several mitigation strategies go along with vaccination, so the critical piece is to plan how to reopen safely with educators seated at that table. We’ve had school districts across the state offering some version of in-person learning since the beginning of the school year and have found some successes. We’ve also seen a broad set of challenges, not the least of which are a huge lack of substitutes and varied adherence to safety standards. We have had some school districts fined by MIOSHA [the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration] for not following the state’s reopening guidelines. It’s not just one mitigation strategy that keeps people safe, even with the vaccine. It’s four or five strategies that work like a puzzle to ensure that our students, faculty and staff can return to buildings as safely as possible to teach in a superior model, which we know is face to face. 10 FEB–MARCH 2021
None of that works if community transmission rates are high, though, right? That’s the big key. It’s incumbent upon each of us—inside and outside of schools—to take all these safety measures seriously. It won’t do us any good to have everybody in the schools mask up if people in the community are holding large gatherings without masking or distancing, or if people go into the grocery store and defiantly refuse to put a mask on. That’s why it’s so frustrating when many state and federal lawmakers continue to refuse to advocate for wearing masks—or to even wear masks themselves. The Michigan Legislature should have made masks mandatory in public, right from the start, period. And yet, we still have legislators who walk into that Capitol building and refuse to mask. That is professional malpractice. The fact that an
individual in a position of power refuses to do the one thing we know is the best strategy against spreading this disease is repugnant to me. You cannot insist that somebody else risk their life because you decided you don’t care about yours. Children are watching, so adults need to start behaving like adults and do what it takes to make sure students and schools are safe. Many educators say they are feeling unappreciated—disrespected even—because of things being said in school board meetings where parents are pushing for full-time face-to-face learning for all students. What are you hearing from members about what their lives and work look like right now? A close friend of mine teaches middle school science. She’s up at 5:30 in the morning, and at 7:30 at night she starts planning for the next
What it’s Like
day. She’s up till past midnight. She’s literally working around the clock in order to provide for these students— meeting one-on-one to ensure those students who were absent can get caught up and following up with families. School boards and people in positions of power need to understand. It’s hard to be an educator, doubly so right now, and we don’t have the comfort of seeing the students’ faces or being able to touch their shoulder in reassurance or to give a hug to a small child when they feel frustrated. It’s so difficult, and we don’t have the coping mechanisms that we’ve had in the past. There is no escape for anyone, and it’s beyond stressful. Educators are doing amazing work to improve virtual learning and, in the end, want to be face to face. But we have to be safe. We need to be involved in planning; we need to be listened to; and we need adequate safety equipment, protocols, and procedures. How would you sum up the union’s role in helping? Throughout the entire pandemic, the MEA and our locals have been at the table to ensure educators were a part of decision-making. If we knew that wasn’t happening, we fought to insist on it. We’ve developed strategies for those locals to have members’ voices heard—to act on grievances, to take collective action, to ensure members’ fears and concerns don’t go unanswered. In many cases where we’ve pushed, we’ve seen real change— maybe not 100 percent what everyone wanted, but significant movement. It’s no small thing to go from full-time face-to-face to virtual learning for six weeks to allow for the procurement of more PPE [personal protective equipment] or until case numbers go down. Some of our leaders’ and staffs’ work to keep members out of harm’s way happens behind the scenes and doesn’t get a lot of airplay. But rest assured, had
the union not been involved since the beginning, things would look a lot more dire in this state. Going back to March, what are the top moves the union made? Well, if I could go back to the first thing we did that has made a difference, it’s that we got Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Nessel and Secretary of State Benson elected. That is a huge thing. If Bill Schuette had been our governor, I believe we would have been pushed into reopening face-to-face without a focus on safety protocols. Instead, we’ve been involved in planning. Last spring we worked with the Michigan Department of Education to make sure evaluations were postponed and standardized tests were waived. We fought for our sisters and brothers who are support staff, regardless of whether they were working directly with students or not, to receive their pay for March until the end of the school year. We got that. And remember the hazard pay money that passed the Legislature? The initial Republican proposals left out support staff, we pushed and pushed to get it expanded to include others—and we did. It was telling stories at the state level to highlight the work educators were doing, and through the summer being the voice for educators on mask wearing. We kept hammering that message until masks became mandatory for all students, not just middle school and up. And it was pushing back against districts that were nonsensically requiring people to be in school buildings to teach students remotely. Those are a just few examples of what we’ve been able to do—and in
COVID Vignettes
each of those areas, we fought to do more. We’re continuing to advocate in this school year for the suspension of evaluations and standardized testing. In fact, we’re pressing for bubble test scores to weigh less heavily in educator evaluations from now until forever, because those changes have harmed the profession. That is a push our lobbyists picked up again in January as the new Legislature was seated. So what do you say to young people coming into the profession about why it’s more important than ever to join the union? We get the respect we’re given at the statewide level because we have the membership numbers we have. Because there are people behind those numbers, people who do the good work of the state, and we represent their interests. Because there are so many of us and because we speak with one voice, that voice is listened to in a way that no individual or small group could ever hope to accomplish. Being united in purpose means all of us over time are seeing improvements. But the minute we drop our guard, the minute we start abdicating our power or abdicating our responsibility to being a union member and being active in the union, is the minute that we start losing the battle. What we know has worked for decades—the unionism and collective action that has helped our profession move forward—has also helped to turn around bad changes that we couldn’t stop. Nothing worthwhile is easy, and the most satisfying wins aren’t accomplished overnight. It takes all of us to get engaged and push in the same direction to make it happen, so join the union and be a part of the good fight for educators and for public education!
MEA VOICE 11
COVID
What it’s Like
Vignettes
Union Presidents Lead through Unprecedented Crisis What’s it like to be a local union president in the age of COVID? In this story, we talk with three local leaders in Macomb County—an urban hotspot in northern metro Detroit—who have employed every tool at their disposal to unite members and guide collective action through the most challenging circumstances in living memory. As in districts across the state, local decision-making processes require MEA locals to determine and advocate for what’s best for their members and their community.
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor From what she’s seen, L’Anse Creuse Education Association President Kathy Parmentier says every local union leader like her has faced daunting challenges this school year unlike anything before. “It’s one thing after another,” she says. “We solve one problem and another one comes up, and then we solve that problem and something else happens. It’s just a never-ending list of issues and concerns that we’re trying to get addressed.” Parmentier teaches biology, in the 10,000-student district which began the school year with five-days-aweek full face-to-face learning with a virtual option chosen by about 30 percent of families. At various times in this tumultuous school year, communities across most every Michigan county have watched COVID-19 infections,
12 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
hospitalizations, and deaths make a steep ascent—and with them the fears, illnesses, and troubles of school employees. “There was a time when I would get constant phone calls from teachers saying, ‘I’m crying every day,’” Parmentier said. “They’re concerned about their own safety. Some have immune-compromised children or older family members, and they’re afraid of being that carrier who transmits something. They’re concerned about their students’ safety. And they have this huge extra workload to keep up with. It has been very, very challenging for all of my teachers.” The biggest issue for classroom educators in her district—class sizes—has also been hardest to solve, despite ongoing communication between the union and administration. Talks led to the hiring of a dozen additional teachers to keep class sizes down around 20. That allowed for some
Kathy Parmentier physical distancing, though not the recommended six feet. Repeated surveys of the LCEA membership revealed 60 percent were OK with 20 kids per room, but 75 percent feared overcrowding if virtual-only students returned to classrooms at the start of a new semester in the middle of a highvirus-transmission winter. To pull together members of differing viewpoints, a crisis team was formed to build consensus around safety priorities to focus on ways to publicly demonstrate solidarity. Regular building meetings and general membership meetings have been held to keep people apprised of what the leadership is doing, “because I’m always talking with
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the district and working to solve problems, but they don’t always know what’s happening.” Many members have stepped up to email school board members and speak at school board meetings. Tensions have formed as some board members and parents have pressed for buildings to reopen without addressing the needs of the adults who staff them, Parmentier said. Pushing for face-to-face instruction at times of high community spread of the virus means pinging back and forth between in-person and virtual for students and staff who either contract it or must quarantine because of exposure—raising stress levels and interfering with learning. “And not just teachers—we had one day that a building had no food service workers because everyone had gotten either sick or exposed. Secretaries, administrators, custodians, tons of people... at one point, we had 300 staff members out.” Heading into the holiday break, nearly 85 percent of her members surveyed said they felt unsupported by the school board. “On a positive note, the board did approve a $500 thank you payment to all staff. But people feel that’s a Band-Aid when they see board members who aren’t paying attention, who are talking to their neighbor when someone is in front of them expressing concerns, literally in tears.” A ‘Family’ Divided The disagreements have also divided folks in nearby Fraser, where union president Jon Skladanowski
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grew up and returned to more than 20 years ago to spend his career teaching math and coaching football because of its tight-knit small-town feel. The vast majority of members in the FEA want to run a hybrid system that rotates smaller groups of students into buildings at a time, but the school board has been determined to operate a full-time face-to-face schedule. “We don’t feel like the Fraser family whatsoever,” he said. “I was interviewed by Channel 4, and I said, ‘You can believe whatever you want. You don’t want to listen to facts, don’t listen to facts. But can’t you err on the side of caution for your fellow people?’” Last summer the district approved a plan to operate remotely through Jan. 25, after which small groups of students would return. However, under community pressure the board abruptly reopened K-8 buildings to all comers on Dec. 9— amid dramatically rising winter case numbers that prompted a statewide “pause” for high schools where virus transmission rates were higher. After four days, sick students had exposed dozens of teachers and classmates, a principal, and secretary, all of whom went into quarantine Skladanowski said. Heading into the holiday break, his preschool daughter was forced to isolate from exposure to a COVIDpositive teacher. Yawning statewide shortages of substitute teachers hamper efforts to fill absences. “It’s unsustainable,” he said. “Our custodians, our administration, our teachers are working their tails off to make this work.”
Jon Skladanowski
The divide has been difficult to bridge, because discussions inevitably break down, he added. “I’ve always had a great relationship with the board and with central administration, but it’s to the point where we can’t even discuss this because there’s no changing their mind. It doesn’t seem to matter if everyone gets (COVID)— they would still try and open up the school.” An increasingly unhappy membership began crisis activities in December to apply pressure on the board—wearing red, walking in together, walking out together, pushing their message on social media and in public comment periods at board meetings. A general membership meeting was held around the same time to explore options with the requested help of MEA UniServ, Legal, and Executive staff, including President Paula Herbart, who spent her career teaching vocal music at Fraser. “It’s easy for me to say what’s best to do, but that has to come from you,
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virus going around, we have to admit that it’s just not going to work.” Meanwhile, Skladanowski expects to see more staff members retire, quit, or escape to more employeefriendly districts as some already have done. “I’ve stayed in Fraser my whole life because it’s a community that always looks out for each other— or that’s the way we used to be,” he said. Jamie Pietron
knowing all the factors,” Herbart told those assembled in the virtual space. “We’ll back you up whatever you do, but are you willing to possibly lose your jobs? You have to think about that, and it’s hard. You should never have to be in this position.” The group took a job action vote, but for now members are documenting safety concerns. “We’re not against face-to-face instruction, and we’re trying to make it work,” Skladanowski said. “But at some point when there’s too much
Listening to Lead One problem in navigating such an epic crisis is that school board members generally do not understand the intricacies of how schools and teachers operate, said Jamie Pietron, president of the union in Anchor Bay School District, which straddles southern St. Clair and northeastern Macomb counties. “They don’t understand how disruptive the back-and-forth is to staff and kids and learning. You’re virtual, you’re not. You’re quarantined, you’re back. Teach these students, now those students. Do this, now that. Everyone is working harder than ever, and it’s exhausting and frustrating.”
After the district announced plans to start the school year in full faceto-face mode, about 30 teachers requested leaves of absence for medical concerns and issues, Pietron said. About 20 percent of the district’s 5,900 students indicated an interest in virtual learning. She and local leaders shared concerns about a lack of thorough protocols and protective equipment with area news media. Eventually district officials relented and began the year remotely for one month to prepare safety plans and gather supplies, she said. The public backlash was swift for Pietron, a special education teacher who says the nastiness she experienced was “very difficult” even though she’s a “tough girl.” “I’ve given 20 years of my life to this district and to these kids, and it’s disheartening,” she said. Educators are grieving the loss of normalcy and connection with kids at the same time they’re having to learn all-new ways of delivering instruction and even documenting attendance. Pietron conducts nearly weekly surveys that include openended questions to keep in touch with needs.
Local leaders and MEA staff are using every tool in their toolkit during this crisis, including strategies old (job action/school board pressure) and new (Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaints). Last month, South Lake Public Schools in Macomb County was cited and fined $9,800 by the state for COVID-19 safety violations.
The crisis has unified her membership, and a greater number of them now step forward to email and speak to board members to be heard and press for change. The five-year president has tried to show them she will always be there to help.
Where districts are not adequately addressing safety issues related to spread of the novel coronavirus, MEA is working with members to file complaints with MIOSHA—either individually or on behalf of groups of employees. For assistance, contact your local UniServ office (mea.org/uniserv) or visit MIOSHA’s COVID Workplace Safety page at michigan.gov/covidworkplacesafety.
“People want to know we’re in this together and someone is listening and advocating,” she added. “It’s that group mentality. It’s nice to know these are your people.”
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Jill Wheeler: On Books, Kids, and ESP Throughout the pandemic, MEA member Jill Wheeler has gone above and beyond to get books to kids, hand-delivering titles to classrooms and sanitizing the returns since students could no longer check them in and out in-person due to safety protocols. Much has changed in her role this year as a library aide in Sandusky Community Schools, but some things remain the same, she said. It’s as important as ever to keep children connected to the joys of reading. She typically maintains a book wall with recommendations of titles she’s read and wants to read. “In normal times, I love the gratification of a child’s face when you hand them the book after they come to check it out,” Wheeler said. “I’m still getting that gratification, just in a different way. I’ve still seen the kids in the classroom when I take the books down and they’re all very excited to see me.” Wheeler runs two libraries in the Thumb-area district. The work has required careful attention to detail in following the state’s health and safety guidelines for masking, distancing, and decontaminating circulating materials. When a book is returned, library staff must wait a few days and then check it in, wipe it down with Clorox wipes, and wait for it to dry before reshelving it. At the elementary school, books await shelving on
a banquet table. At the high school, she was thrilled to snag a free outdoor book drop-box from the local college. Wheeler has been president of her support staff union for the past 15 years, representing secretaries, paraeducators, custodial and transportation staff, and bus drivers. Under her leadership, the district’s support professionals have helped serve the unique needs of families throughout the public health crisis. “We were delivering food. We were delivering homework packets. We were riding buses,” she said. “The parapros were actually creating activities for their students and dropping them off at their homes. Some of them who work in credit recovery at the high school were still coming in to move virtual kids when they passed a test or to answer questions that came up. “We all bent over backward because we care about this community,” she added. Despite the pandemic, March is Reading month marches on this year, Wheeler explained, and she’s ready to help her students celebrate books and reading. She is currently working on adapting Read Across America activities scheduled for March. In a normal year, she organizes book giveaways, prize drawings, and even a lunchtime book event at the high school to celebrate reading during the month.
Jill Wheeler
“I have two bags of books and prizes in the back room, and I’m just praying I can give them away this year. Keep it going, you know? Because last year it felt like the world stopped on March 13th.” Wheeler’s dedication to helping students succeed earned her the 2020 Leon A. Brunner Award, which recognizes support staff who have exhibited a high degree of commitment and dedication to their union while advocating for ESP member issues. During her tenure as local president, Wheeler has bargained contracts, fought off an effort to privatize custodians, and helped organize and maintain her association’s involvement in various community service projects. “It’s gratifying all the way around,” she said.
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Gary Mishica: His Work is Hobby, Joy, Passion When he was a high school sophomore, MEA member Gary Mishica already had a collection of old cars and buggies to work on, so his parents shouldn’t have been surprised to find another vehicle when they returned to their Copper Country home from a (rare) vacation. They “flipped out” to see an orange 1942 Ford ambulance in the front yard, 27 feet long and 7 feet high, bought by their son for $100. “They said, ‘You have one week to get rid of that,’” Mishica said. “Then it was a month, and before you knew it I had it there for five or six years.” From a young age, learning from his industrial arts-teacher father, Mishica found what he calls his hobby, his joy, his passion and his job—following in the footsteps of his paternal grandparents, mother, father, great aunt and assorted other relatives who served as educators. “I’ve been at this all my life, and I’ve never wanted to do anything else,” he said. “When you’re surrounded by people that are dedicated to a profession, with this amazing passion, you’re drawn to it.” Over a 39-year career, Mishica has used copper art sales, grants, and donations to assist in the development of a $2 million Industrial Education facility at Hancock Public Schools in the northwest Upper Peninsula. Students learn 16 trades in his program. They start in seventh grade and can
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stay enrolled for all four years of high school. “I wish everyone could see what we do, because a lot of people made this learning environment possible, and it is pretty spectacular.” This year he added $35,000 in prize money to his budget for new equipment as one of two Michigan finalists in the $1 million Harbor Freight Tools for Schools competition. He also was chosen by Harbor Freight to receive additional help during the pandemic. The company donated 100 toolboxes, each with $50 worth of tools, for students to take home and complete projects when COVID-19 forced building closures. Using part of a $10,000 donation from a local contractor’s will, Mishica sent home his high school students with the necessary tools and materials to construct sheet metal storage boxes and the wood to build a bird feeder. In normal times he runs an optional Wednesday evening open shop, with help from three retired professionals he recruited as co-teachers, where students work on assigned or personal projects—much like his old car-collecting self. When required, he has shut down those sessions this year. With just a few years of teaching left before retirement, Mishica prefers when his school can stay open and practice masking, distancing,
Gary Mishica
and hand washing against virus transmission—using sanitizing stations that his students built for the district’s schools. His students’ community service work abounds in the building and town—from a 42-inch aluminum bulldog adorning the high school entrance, to the pergola at the medical facility, and the benches now being built for installation at Veterans Park on Main Street. “We’re doing what we need to do to be safe,” he said. “But in my eighth-grade industrial arts class, for the last two weeks, I’ve had perfect attendance. That’s the dedication my students and parents have, and it’s why I say I’ve been very fortunate to have a job that is everything to me.”
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Demetrius Wilson:
‘We’ve made it work’ One of the ways that MEA member Demetrius Wilson challenges students in his Engineering, Robotics, and Mechatronics program is to put “faults” into equipment that students have to solve before they can proceed with other tasks. It’s one thing to know how to build or use equipment, but it’s next-level to fix broken stuff, he says. “I tell students, ‘You’re worth your weight in gold when something breaks down and time is of the essence, and you get that piece of equipment up and running.’ “Students actually start enjoying it. They’re like, ‘Do anything, Mr. Wilson. I’m going to turn my back, and you mess it up.’” Adaptability to change has served his students well in the pandemic, Wilson says. The Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northeast in Pontiac—providing skilled trades learning and technical training to students from five Oakland County school districts—operated virtually until mid-January. He kept them learning with Google Classroom lessons, home toolkits, and virtual simulation software. “Something is always coming out new, and they figure out how to work it,” Wilson said. “This is difficult for them, and we talk about how to cope, but it’s impressive how they’re dealing with it. Our Zoom attendance is fairly strong, and we’ve made it work.”
The 30-year veteran has built an award-winning program in the building where a 1980s high school electrical class revealed his life’s path. He’s learned on the job—alongside students and colleagues—expanding content to include industrial electrical, mechanical, robotics, CNC and PLC programming, fluid power, CAD, and electrical power-line training. Last October, Wilson learned he was a national prize winner in the $1 million Harbor Freight Tools for Schools competition—which earned his program $35,000 for improvements and included a $15,000 prize for Wilson. In 2019, his program won the state’s College and Career Readiness Initiative Excellence in Practice award. “I tell my students, ‘When you find something that you could do every day, and you can almost do it for free, and you look forward to Monday, you’ve found a career.’” First-year students get an overview, and 90% return to specialize for a second year. Most go on to pursue related careers, including one who patented a plug-and-play vehicle tracking and collision avoidance system and now runs a successful company in Florida. That alum—Nathan Trotts— spoke with students last year about how Wilson and the program helped him realize his dreams. “That never gets old, having former
Demetrius Wilson
students come back saying thank you,” Wilson said of why he chose a career in teaching. Wilson hasn’t decided how to spend the Harbor Freight winnings for his program, but he hopes to use some to recruit more minority students into his program to access career opportunities. Despite this year’s difficulties, he plans to stay in his post for a while, he said: “I’ve seen many challenges in the education profession, and this is by far the most challenging, yet we always come through better, stronger smarter. Teachers are change agents, and we get the job done. “I have the privilege of touching the hearts of young people. This is what I love to do, what I was meant to do, and this is where I’m going to stay.”
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Jackie Lyons: ‘I walked away’ Her district had started the year remotely, and Lyons found herself unable to meet the expectations of teaching a full curriculum live on screen all day. The six-year-olds in her class required constant help and supervision, and so did her seven- and threeyear-old daughters. “There would be times where I had to give my students a five-minute stretch because I needed to cry or just step away from the screen for a minute,” she said.
MEA member Jackie Lyons cried when she met with her principal to quit her first-grade teaching job last October. “I said, ‘I don’t want to leave. I love working with these kids, and I love the school community, and I love my teaching partners and all of our school staff.’ Then I walked away and looked back and thought, I’m never going to have that again.” After nine years of teaching mostly lower elementary-aged children in Mason, Lyons left her position when she became overwhelmed, began suffering health effects, and watched her young family struggling to cope.
Lyons worried about her toddler becoming a “TV zombie,” and her second grader’s anxiety about schoolwork, and her husband straining to juggle work demands and helping with the kids. She was up until 2 a.m. doing schoolwork and back up at 6 to start again. “I was just watching my family fall apart,” she said. “I lost my hair, I developed ulcers and gastritis, I gained 10 pounds—and that was in six weeks. Then I had to worry about going back to school in person, which was another level of anxiety for me.” She took a leave of absence through the federal CARES act, but that option evaporated when her
district reopened, which would have allowed her children to return to school and daycare. Pre-existing health conditions make her susceptible to COVID-19, and she was afraid of the risk. Under her district’s HyFlex model, teachers are addressing the needs of in-person and at-home cohorts, plus full-time virtual learners, at the same time. She also was buckling under the stress of pre-pandemic state requirements that remained—for example, to do frequent benchmark testing of kids, produce Individual Reading Plans for parents of children who did not meet prescribed benchmarks, and develop and track data goals for her teacher evaluation. “You still have to show progress as if we weren’t in a crisis, and right now I just want to survive,” she said, calling the lack of regard for educator expertise “disheartening.” When the threat of the pandemic subsides, Lyons doesn’t know if she will return to the classroom. Expanding mandates flowing down from non-educators— just in the decade since she began her career—are often developmentally inappropriate and detrimental to learning, she said. “I have had many teacher friends say to me, ‘You are doing the right thing. If I could, I would.’ And that’s hard, because if I’ve left and you leave, then who will be around to teach the children?”
Read how Lyons’ principal is hoping to stem educator losses. 18 FEB–MARCH 2021
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Shana Barnum: ‘It’s heart-wrenching’ Shana Barnum is known as a principal with “one foot in the classroom” since she taught K-6 for 20 years before becoming an administrator in Mason in 2017. From that vantage point, Barnum is worried by what she sees. She knows her staff is overtaxed and overstressed—just like educators across the state. Two early career “rock star” teachers from her school have quit under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, and others have hinted they’ve thought about doing the same. An educator shortage already exists and now they’ve been asked to do more than ever before, “but not much has been taken off the plate,” Barnum said. That got her thinking. What could we do here and now to retain educators in Michigan amid a global health crisis? A longtime MEA member and former union building rep—now MEA-Retired—Barnum came up with two teacher retention ideas and started pitching them. She got the attention of Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-Lansing), who represents the region that includes her school, Alaiedon Elementary. Her first idea was to offer an extra year of retirement service credit to teachers who stayed through a school year in the pandemic. “If they taught one year in the 2019-20 school year, it would be counted as two years toward their retirement, and same for the 20-21 school year.”
Teachers on her staff have been working extra-long hours addressing the needs of three different groups of students in the HyFlex model— in-person learners who rotate into the building in one of two cohorts, students alternating at home in cohorts, and full-time virtual learners. The work of making and uploading video lessons, teaching live all day both in-person and online, responding to student work, and connecting with students in the building and at home who need extra attention has become all-consuming, Barnum said. “Our teachers were already stretched thin, and now they’re working twice as hard.” Beyond the service credit enticement, Barnum urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to waive evaluations, which compound the stress: “When it comes up, you can feel the anxiety.” Teaching models vary among districts statewide, but most schools have experienced shifting back and forth from in-person to virtual learning forced by illness or absences that can’t be filled due to a critical shortage of substitute teachers. Amid the instability, she said, it’s not appropriate to evaluate teachers using a tool and metrics designed to assess in-person instruction. Hertel said he was intrigued by Barnum’s retirement credit idea and was already working with
Shana Barnum
Democratic lawmakers on bills related to evaluations. All options were being considered. Barnum intends to keep pushing for something to be done soon to stem educator losses, or the real loser will be the state of Michigan, she said. “It’s heart wrenching to see amazing teachers leave in their prime who are so loving and passionate about their craft.” For someone who knew she would become a teacher since she was 10 years old, moments like this explain why she became a principal, she added. “I had a calling to support educators because I knew this is how I could have a greater impact on even more students and families.”
Read about one of Barnum’s teachers who left. MEA VOICE 19
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Claudia Rodgers: Committed to her Work For Claudia Rodgers, a second year social worker with the West Bloomfield School District, the pandemic’s constraints can be summed up by the old expression, “out with the old, in with the new.” “Most of us are social people,” the MEA member said of herself and social worker colleagues. “We enjoy social interaction with others, whether it’s our clients, our co-workers, or our community. It’s really hard not being able to see students and their families, not being able to see our own families. “Trying to find that balance between needing social interaction while staying safe has been very, very challenging.” Rodgers’ job is to ensure the well-being of students, with a focus on kids in grades 3 through 5. The COVID-19 crisis has greatly increased her workload, but it also makes her feel most effective because the need is so critical. “I think if you were to talk to any social worker working in any field, when things get really tough, that’s when you get most committed to your work.” On a typical day in a typical school year, Rodgers works with all students but plays a unique role in helping mitigate issues between students and between students and their parents, which sometimes impact what’s happening at school.
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Her work with special education students typically makes up the majority of her role, helping to set objectives and work with students to achieve goals and monitor progress. She also meets with students in general education classrooms in small groups to help with issues and teach social-emotional-behavioral skills. “Not seeing a student’s face makes it difficult to know if they’re feeling sad or frustrated,” Rodgers said. “Now, more than ever, kids need affective vocabularies so they can verbally share how they’re feeling when you can’t see it in their faces.” The pandemic has grown the breadth of her work to include supporting more families who are in need across every socioeconomic and ethnic background. Supports range from tools to help their children stay engaged in learning to help finding and accessing financial assistance, food, health care, and counseling services. “Most of my work now is helping families find tools and strategies to keep their kids on track,” Rodgers explained. “Helping those students to stay focused on learning while also addressing their social needs is more than a full-time job.” Insecurity and anxiety can arise from social isolation, which students may experience because of changes to in-person learning, physical separation for occasional virtual
Claudia Rodgers
learning, and switching back and forth between the two, Rodgers says. “Teachers are doing a wonderful job at providing virtual learning experiences for West Bloomfield students, but I believe it is setting up a different set of demands and expectations, and that can be tough for anyone but particularly for younger students.” What does the future hold? “When things return to some sort of normalcy, I don’t see returning to the old way of working with students,” Rodgers said. “I believe what we’re learning and doing in this time of pandemic will make us better at what we do. And what we do is help students succeed.”
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Danya Stump: Building Preschool Potential MEA member Danya Stump knew from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher, but she didn’t figure out until college that she wanted to be a preschool special education teacher. The impetus for her direction was a little boy she was assigned to work with at the early child development center where she worked as a freshman at Eastern Michigan University. He had developmental delays, behavioral issues, and trouble playing with other children. “Today with my experience, I can see exactly what was going on there,” she said. “But at the time I didn’t know, he was new and hadn’t been evaluated, and they were struggling with what to do with him. They thought by giving him a person to be with him all the time, it might help.” It did, and a career was born. “What drew me into this little boy was seeing that after he began to trust somebody, there was this whole other person in there that people didn’t know existed. To be a part of helping to draw that out really, really touched me.” Now the 26-year veteran says the pandemic has changed some parts of her job at Farmington Public Schools. For one, the already heavy paperwork load has increased. “We’re doing more documents for the state,” she said. “We’re doing what we call contingency learning plans for each child, just showing what we’re providing for them and
what the parent concerns are, and that document is fluid so it can be changed if need be.” What hasn’t changed is the movement that gets incorporated into the day; the hands-on activities done with items from around the house or from a material bag delivered to students monthly; and center rotations accomplished with breakout rooms, a paraeducator, and aides. “My students are making progress. We’re seeing lots of changes in them, which is great. Their faces when they first hop on and say ‘good morning’ are all smiles. They’re happy to be there.” In Farmington, high COVID-19 case numbers kept the district virtual—except when the early childhood center briefly opened in the fall— through January when an in-person hybrid program began with a virtual option. Stump continues to teach a virtual class of 23 preschoolers. Last summer, she joined a statewide group of educators— speech, physical, and occupational therapists plus a social worker, in addition to teachers—who built an online collection of at-home preschool learning resources in a partnership between Build Up Michigan, PBS, and Gud Marketing. Stump called it one of the best experiences of her time as an educator—being part of a team to help families amid the worst
Danya Stump
pandemic in a century. “Coming together with amazing people from all over the state to work on that common goal was uplifting,” she said. Those materials can be found at buildupmi.org/thrive. Being on screen four days a week, Stump has had to let go of feeling self-conscious. “I would have never imagined I’d be on camera dancing in front of parents every day, but here we are,” she said laughing. She misses being in the classroom with students but enjoys prompting engagement and interaction online. Despite the challenges, she finds the same joy she discovered as a college freshman working with the little boy who changed the course of her life. “I still just love kids like him,” she said. “I love being able to problemsolve what underlying supports are needed to help them get to the potential that’s in there waiting to come out.” MEA VOICE 21
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Rachel Niewiada: Honored on National TV MEA member Rachel Niewiada already knew her Grandville Middle School choral music students were wonderful singers, but after she appeared on the ABC television program The View the seven-year teacher now knows they’re incredible actors as well. Niewiada says she had no idea several of her students would appear in taped interviews to talk movingly about her impact on their lives during a segment honoring her on the daytime talk show in December. “They were such great secret keepers!” she said in an interview afterward. In the segment, after talking with The View hosts Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin about how she has adjusted to teaching during the pandemic, Niewiada was surprised with a video montage of her students sharing touching reflections spliced with images of her at work. “She’s just been so impactful on my life, and I don’t know what I would do without being in her class,” said one boy identified as Aaron, 13. “You always make people feel happy and positive about themselves. You’re just amazing.” Like band, art, theater, and physical education, choir class provides an outlet for students when the global pandemic is exacerbating mental health issues for many people, Niewiada said.
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“Kids are looking for something that they can cling to, something they can use to express themselves. Getting kids up and moving for stretches and vocalizing and focusing on our breathing helps put everything else at bay, so they kind of forget what they’re worried about.” Niewiada was distraught last summer when her principal said in-person students might not be allowed to sing because the virus spreads through aerosols. She used a University of Colorado study on performing arts and the coronavirus which said how to mitigate risk—by ensuring adequate air flow and replacement, spacing students more than six feet apart, singing for 30 minutes or less at a time, and masking. Class moved from the choir room to the auditorium. “I checked with my school’s maintenance department, who put me in touch with the engineer of our middle school auditorium and he was able to check the ACH—which is the air change rate per hour—to make sure it fit with the recommendation from the University of Colorado study.” Students adapted to the changes although masking requires greater voice projection and more distancing creates a larger “bubble” of space to fill between each of them and the other singers.
Rachel Niewiada
Some students found the bigger bubble allowed them to more distinctly hear their own voices— and correct pitch problems—which increased their confidence. Others found it made them more selfconscious and reticent about performing, Niewiada said. She spends extra class time on sharing good news and fostering conversation among students so they feel less isolated. As in many districts, the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases forced her suburban Grand Rapids district to go virtual for several weeks in November and December. “The kids and I are super resilient and flexible, so we make it work either way,” Niewiada said.
MEMBERS AT WORK
LCC Equity Initiative: ‘A Game Changer’ After nearly a decade of equity work focused on improving student success and closing achievement gaps, Lansing Community College History Professor Jeff Janowick has some hard-fought wisdom to share. Some of it, the MEA member admits, may seem obvious.
There is no magic solution to fix the problem, but a sustained focus on pedagogy and practice has yielded slow, steady results over the past several years, says MEA member Kevin Brown, one of three full-time professors in the LCC history department.
“The first thing we had to change as a department was our mindset,” Janowick said. “As teachers we often think we’re teaching content and then measuring whether students were successful in learning it. Instead, we had to think about what we could do to help students be successful.
“What we have found is student success often comes down to trying to make a connection with your students over the material,” Brown said. “If you are going to teach undergrads, you must love your subject, but you also have to be excited about teaching it to others.”
“That seems obvious but turns out it’s a game changer.”
Student success in the introductory history class was especially critical to address because it is considered a “gateway” to college completion— so-called because it is often required to move forward and because students who don’t pass often end up leaving college.
The history department began to face the problem when a collegewide data review and improvement process nearly 10 years ago revealed sizeable achievement gaps for firstgeneration students and students of color, he said. For Black students in the introductory history class, in particular, the divide in passing rates compared to other students stood at 20 points at that time, Janowick said. Nearly half of Black students who took the intro-level history class were failing, according to the data. “We knew we had issues, but I don’t think we knew it was that bad,” he said. “It’s one thing to sort of have a general impression. Looking at the numbers made a huge difference because it was a slap in the face.”
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For example, the introductory history class is required at Michigan State University, which is the institution where the largest number of LCC students transfer to complete a four-year degree.
Jeff Janowick Janowick said. “It means we’re not doing what we want to do—we’re not reaching those students, and we have to change something.” To make change, the department launched the Faculty Institute—a monthly forum on teaching which brings together the three full-time faculty members and several times as many adjunct instructors who also teach the introductory course. “We made sure our adjuncts were invited and compensated for attending, but more importantly their opinions were heard and respected when we started making decisions about what to change,” Janowick said. “We made sure it was a group conversation.”
Recognition of the problem led the department to join a college initiative known as Gateways to Completion, targeting student success rates in gateway courses with emphasis on improving the performance of students from marginalized groups.
To begin with, the sessions addressed faculty beliefs that resist change—those arguments that student achievement issues stem from the ubiquity of cell phones or social media or societal problems— by focusing instead on what is in the control of instructors.
“At some point we had to recognize this wasn’t just a student problem,”
Goals were set to avoid the task feeling unmanageable. “We didn’t
start out saying, ‘How are we going to get rid of a 20-point gap?’ We focused on coming up with a 5- or 10-percent improvement in the numbers, which meant helping two more students succeed in a class. And thinking of it that way, sure, I can help two more students.” To start with, everyone shared best practices, “and that led us to a really rich conversation,” Janowick said. One of the struggles of firstgeneration college students involves their lack of awareness of what to expect from college—and what college expects from them, he added. With that in mind, one significant change across the department has involved breaking up a small number of assignments that account for big percentages of the final grade. “Sometimes we say students need a wake-up call, but if the wake-up call is 50 percent of their grade—they’re going to be in trouble,” Janowick said. Along the same line, faculty members have explored how best to give students feedback to help them
advance their skills. The old wisdom that said to offer a “compliment sandwich”—tucking a critique between two pieces of praise— doesn’t hold true for students from marginalized populations, he said. “First-generation college students want direct guidance. They want you to say, ‘Here’s what you need to do to improve.’ It needs to be specific, and I’ve found—if you give them a clear target, they will work to hit it.” In addition to the “how” of teaching material, the department had to be willing to explore the “what” of course content and whether it was inclusive of marginalized populations. “We still have room to grow, but we have made a conscious effort to make sure we were more representational in terms of the material we taught.” From there, it’s a smaller leap to an important shift: moving away from multiple choice assessments to more critical thinking and interaction with primary source documents, said Anne Heutsche, the other full-time
Helping More Students Succeed in College Nearly 10 years into an initiative to improve the success rates of first-generation and marginalized students in “gateway” classes, History Department faculty at Lansing Community College have this advice for others looking to reduce achievement gaps:
Shift faculty mindset Break up big assignments Offer specific feedback Make content more inclusive Focus on teaching practice Involve all faculty in process
Anne Heutsche history professor among the three who rotate leadership duties. “I ask students to connect pieces of information from different formats and perspectives,” she said. “How are they adding to the conversation or historical narrative? I work to create learning opportunities to develop students’ own thoughts and voices.” Beyond success in class, students deeply engaged in learning and thinking are better equipped “to navigate the complex and messy world in which they live,” Heutsche said. The department’s work has increased the success rate of all students and most significantly raised the passing rate of Black students from 52 to 63 percent by 2018, Janowick said. The achievement gap for Black students dropped from 20 percent to 13 percent. “There is still a lot of work for us to do,” he said. “It’s slow, incremental change, and sometimes it’s frustrating that there isn’t a silver bullet that makes everything OK. But we just have to remember that this is the work of a lifetime.”
MEA VOICE 25
REGION ELECTIONS
Region Election Information
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14 Election procedures required to be followed in the regions comply with relevant federal laws. ELIGIBLE VOTERS Voter eligibility listings will be created from information received by the MEA Membership Department from the local associations by Feb. 7, 2021. LOCALS USING PAPER BALLOTS FOR THE REGION ELECTION There will not be any Locals using paper ballots this year in the March 2021 region elections due to the MEA Board passing a motion on Oct. 2, 2020 stating that face-to-face meetings will not occur until after June 21, 2021 due to COVID‑19. If an individual is unable to access the online voting system they will be issued a paper ballot upon request. All members must be in good standing to be eligible to vote.
26 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
15 12 13
11 9
10 6
8
5
4
7 3
2
ABSENTEE BALLOTING The region at-large election is an on-site election. However, eligible voters who are not able to vote on site during the election period may notify their local association president of their need to vote by absentee ballot. The request must be in writing, include the specific reason necessitating an absentee ballot and be received no later than Feb. 22 by the local association president. Eligible voters requesting an absentee ballot and complying with the above requirements shall be mailed an absentee ballot by the local association election committee. An absentee ballot must be returned by U.S. Mail and received by the local association no later than the last day of the election. Late absentee ballots shall be unopened and set aside as void ballots.
ELECTRONIC VOTING Members of regions 2 thru18 participate in MEA’s Online Region Elections.
continuous ballot for ESP members, who will begin with the Statewide Region 50 Ballot and continue on with their region’s ballot.
Get involved by voting for your MEA Board members and your Michigan and National delegates anytime between 8 a.m. Monday, March 1, and 3:59 p.m. Monday, March 15. Use your home computer, library computer or school computer (if allowed). Sign in at mymea.org/ onlinevoting and follow the prompts. If you have problems, call for help at 517-337-5440 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. After hours, leave a message and someone will get back with you as soon as possible.
Positions elected by acclamation at the December Region meeting will be noted on the ballot.
Members access the website using the last four digits of their Social Security number. There will be a
Online election rules and an explanation of the process will be forwarded to local presidents and Region election chairs the last week of January 2021. This information will include the procedure for members who do not wish to use the online process to request a paper ballot. The request for paper ballots from individuals or locals must be submitted by 4 p.m. on Feb. 15 to Mike Ostertag in the MEA Executive Office.
CANDIDATES IN THE MARCH REGION ELECTIONS REGION 2 Position 1‑MEA Board of Director/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Don Harris, Wayne‑Westland E Position 2‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Dawn Pierz, Wyandotte E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Lauren Altenbernt, Van Buren E Position 4‑MEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Erin Jackson, Allen Park E Position 5‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Lauren Altenbernt, Van Buren E Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate
1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 4/1/21; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR
Elections Chair: Dave Daly, mrddaly@gmail.com
REGION 3 Position 1‑MEA Board of Director/NEA RA Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; Lee Haselschwerdt, Dundee E; Geoff Lowes, Jackson City E 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Lee Haselschwerdt, Dundee E; Geoff Lowes, Jackson City E #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Percy Brown, Ann Arbor P Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Santino Gaitan, Jackson ISD CFMOT; Noncy Fields, Ann Arbor E 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Jim Brousseau, Milan E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Kristi Sisty, Summerfield E Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate
MEA VOICE 27
REGION ELECTIONS 4 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12 ‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Jim Brousseau, jbrousseau@mea.org
REGION 4 Position 1‑MEA Board of Director/NEA RA Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Rachel Foreman, Harper Creek E Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Sarajane Eppley, Bronson E; Allan Sherwood, Marshall E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Elinor Marsh, Marshall CFMOP; Julie Tourjie, Calhoun ISD P Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Sarajane Eppley, Bronson E 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; Julie Tourjie, Calhoun ISD P 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Elinor Marsh, Marshall CFMOP 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, Joyce Wesner, Battle Creek P Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR
28 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
Elections Chair: Ross Williams, dad2kobe@yahoo.com
REGION 5 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR 2 positions*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/22; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/22; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/22; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/22; NNR Elections Chair: not Mary Cooper, mcooper@mymea.org
REGION 6 Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #3 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Jody Becker, Port Huron E; Jon Fielbrandt, Warren E; Paula Herbart, Fraser E Position 4‑MEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑ Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Mary Campbell, Mt. Clemens E Position 7‑EA/ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Paula Herbart, Fraser E Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Jacob Reno, Lakeview‑St. Clair Shores P Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate
#1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Mary Campbell, Mt. Clemens E Elections Chair: Heather Schulz, hschulz28@gmail.com
REGION 7 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Lisa Welch, South Lyon E; Kim Abel, W. Bloomfield E #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Angela Lentz, Walled Lake E Position 2‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Maurice Telesford, Ferndale E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Steve Sanchez, Clarkston T; Angel Bell, Farmington E #1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; Kim Bilkovic, Bloomfield Hills OP 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR #1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; Jennifer Dooley, Pontiac E #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Jennifer Dooley, Pontiac E Position 4‑MEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Ulipamwe Amagulu, Birmingham P 3 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 7‑EA/ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Chandra Madafferi, Novi E 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Robyn O’Keefe, Birmingham P Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Shanette Kidd, Clarkston T 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR 1 position, immed, thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR
Elections Chair: Robert Gaines, rg4esp@gmail.com
REGION 8 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Martin Leftwich, Howell E Position 2‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Eva Menefee, LCC E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Steve Dickinson, Lansing E #1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; Alfonso Salais, Lansing E #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Alfonso Salais, Lansing E Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #3 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Dawn Levey, Ovid‑Elsie E; Marc Daly, Perry E; Bryan Wertz, Ovid‑Elsie E 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Liz Hubert, Eaton Rapids CFMOP 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 5 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; Bryan Wertz, Ovid‑Elsie E #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Bryan Wertz, Ovid‑Elsie E 3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 3 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate #2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Kelly Davis, Lansing O; Jeff Wilson, LCC Part‑Time O 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 2 positions*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Liz Hubert, Eaton Rapids CFMOP
1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Theresa Collett‑Such, Waverly FOP Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 4 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Marty Leftwich, mleftwich@mea.org
REGION 9 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Reed Bretz, Kenowa Hills E; Joe Westra, Kentwood E; Blake Mazurek, Grandville E; Dan Slagter, Grand Rapids E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 5 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Candy Vela, Grand Rapids E; Theresa Dudley, Grand Rapids O; Dan Slagter, Grand Rapids E; Rosemarie (Renee) Taylor, Grand Rapids E; Dawn Sobleskey, Godwin Heights E; Troy Ungrey (Grandville E) Position 5‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Candy Vela, Grand Rapids E; Troy Ungrey, Grandville E; Dan Slagter, Grand Rapids E Position 7‑EA/ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Reed Bretz, Kenowa Hills E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Michael Porter, Carson City E; Erin Porter, Portland E 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; Eva Pritchard, Wyoming CFMOPT 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Eva Pritchard, Wyoming CFMOPT 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 2 positions*, immediate thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate
3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 3 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 4/1/21; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 5 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 5 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 5 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 4/1/21; NNR 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 4/1/21; NNR Elections Chair: Joseph Guy, josephguy@ymail.com
REGION 10 Position 5‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Felicia Naimark, Flint E Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑ Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 7‑EA/ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Mitzi Thornton, Linden CFMP 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR
MEA VOICE 29
REGION ELECTIONS Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Kevyn Welter, kweltr@gmail.com
REGION 11 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Marci LaValley, Tuscola ISD E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Jennifer Shelito, Tuscola ISD COPT 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate #4 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Danielle Brewer, Tuscola ISD E; Amy Krug, Reese E; Tracy Brightman, Vassar E; Jane Reif, Cass City E 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Jennifer Shelito, Tuscola ISD COPT 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Toni Scribner, tscribner@mymea.org
REGION 12 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Rick Meeth, Bay City E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Don Tilley, Bay City E; Chaunta Ford, Bay City OP; Kathleen Chantaca‑Kubczak, SVSU CM Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate
30 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
#1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Jeff Katt, Standish‑Sterling E Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Christina Briggs, Standish‑Sterling CFMOPT; Kathy Hammell, Harrison CFMOPT Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate #3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; Jeff Katt, Standish‑Sterling E; Jenny Oster, Houghton Lake E; Tammie Lewis, Harrison E 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Jenny Oster, jjvandui@svsu.edu
REGION 13 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate # 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Melissa Treppa, Montague E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Sue Federico, Reeths‑Puffer OP; Kevin Reid, Whitehall E Position 4‑MEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, immed. thru 3/3123; NNR Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Kendel Trim, Mason Co Eastern E; Jason Gripton, Holton E 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate
#2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Dee Pierson, Muskegon City OP; Karla Wheeler, Oakridge CMFT 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Mary Martin, Oakridge OP Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Sally Purchase, sally.purchase@gmail.com
REGION 14 Position 4‑MEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #3 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; Amanda Thiel, Mio‑Ausable E; Tim McFalda, Mio‑Ausable E; Ashley Klee, Atlanta E Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate #2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; Emma Pendergrass, Alcona E; Erin Rees, Alba E Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Ronda Davis, Gaylord MOP 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21, same seats as above; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR
Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 3 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate 2 positions, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Region 14 MAHE EA RA Cluster Delegate 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Region 14 MAHE EA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Greta Brock, gbrock@mea.org
REGION 15 Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, immediate thru 8/31/21; Bryan Hawkins, Kalkaska E #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Bryan Hawkins, Kalkaska E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Tawni Deike, Forest Area E 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; NNR 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; NNR Position 10‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/22; Christina Trogan‑LaMie, Traverse Bay Area ISD P 1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; NNR Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate #2 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Dana Monks, Buckley E; Holly Rives, Forest Area E #1 position*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Kris Baker‑Donnan, Frankfort‑Elberta E Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Joe Macaluso, Elk Rapids E Elections Chair: Harvey Miller, hmiller@netonecom.net
REGION 16 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Rebecca Newell, DeTour E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Matt Johnson, Pickford E Position 9‑EA MEA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; Angela Craven, Eastern UP ISD E Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate
#1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Angela Craven, Eastern UP ISD E Elections Chair: Al Beamish, abeamish@mymea.org
REGION 17 Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Terrie Rugg, Breitung Twp CFMOPT Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #3 positions, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Lisa Talon, Carney‑Nadeau E; Theresa Hruska, Dickinson‑Iron ISD E; Lily Anderson, Dickinson‑Iron ISD E Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; Danielle Chartier, North Central CFMOPT Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Region 17 MAHE EA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Nanci Love, Bay De Noc CC E Region 17 MAHE EA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 4/1/21; Ronald Pearson, Bay De Noc CC E Elections Chair: Lisa Carubini, lcarubini@gmail.com
REGION 18 Position 1‑MEA Board of Directors/NEA RA Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Eric Ghiggia, West Iron County E Position 3‑MEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/21; Eric Ghiggia, West Iron County E #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21, same seat as above; Eric Ghiggia, West Iron County E Position 6‑EA NEA RA At‑Large Alternate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) #1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; Morgan Raether, Adams Twp E Position 8‑EA MEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Tim Routheaux, Ontonagon E Position 11‑ESP MEA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; Sandra Maki, Ewen‑Trout Creek CFOPT Position 12‑EA NEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, immed. thru 8/31/23; Amanda Rinkinen, Baraga Twp E 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; NNR
Position 13‑EA NEA RA Cluster Alternate 2 positions, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR 1 position*, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Position 14‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Delegate #1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Steve Elenich, Copper Country ISD CFMOPT Position 15‑ESP NEA RA Cluster Alternate #1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; Sandra Maki, Ewen‑Trout Creek CFOPT Region 18 MAHE Cluster Alternate 1 position, immed. thru 3/31/23; NNR Elections Chair: Steve Elenich, selenich@copperisd.org
REGION 50 Region 50‑ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/22; Marisol Adelman, Reg. 3; Lisa Watkins, Reg. 3; Elinor Marsh, Reg. 4; Jacob Reno, Reg. 6; Steve Sanchez, Reg. 7; Dee Pierson, Reg. 13 Region 50‑ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 1 position*, immed. thru 8/31/23; Marisol Adelman, Reg. 3; Lisa Watkins, Reg. 3; Joyce Wesner, Reg. 4; Sherry Carpenter, Reg. 7; Ulipamwe Amagulu, Reg. 7; Stephanie Ferrell, Reg. 9; Karla Wheeler, Reg. 13 Region 50‑ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate 1 position, 3 yr. term begins 9/1/21; Theresa Dudley, Reg. 9; Antonella Piccirilli, Reg. 6; Elizabeth Hubert, Reg. 8; Jeff Wilson, Reg. 8; Paula McConnell, Reg. 6; Kelly Davis, Reg. 8; Marisol Adelman, Reg. 3; Lisa Watkins, Reg. 3 Region 50‑ESP NEA RA At‑Large Delegate‑Representing Minority 3‑1(g) 2 positions*, 3 yr. terms begin 9/1/21; Theresa Dudley, Reg. 9; Antonella Piccirilli, Reg. 6; Elizabeth Hubert, Reg. 8; Jeff Wilson, Reg. 8; Deb Rickert. Reg. 12; Kathleen Chantaca‑Kubczak, Reg. 12; Marisol Adelman, Reg. 3; Lisa Watkins, Reg. 3
KEY: Elected by acclamation— denoted with “#” No nominations received— denoted with “NNR” Minority 3‑1(g) position— denoted with (*)
MEA VOICE 31
Take your mental health seriously We’re committed to helping keep educators both physically and mentally healthy—and that’s why we provide excellent coverage for mental health services.
By Ross Wilson, MESSA Executive Director
As a nonprofit formed and governed by everyday school employees, we at MESSA know that teachers and education support professionals are facing extraordinary pressure right now, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and it’s negatively affecting your family or work, consider making an appointment to see a therapist. MESSA covers traditional, in-person therapy just like a typical office visit. There are no limits on outpatient mental health visits. In addition, you can talk to a therapist from the comfort of your own home through MESSA’s online doctor service, provided through a partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Using your smartphone, tablet or computer, you
and each of your covered family members can choose from a roster of certified therapists, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists. You can then schedule a 45-minute appointment between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. any day of the week. If you need help finding an in-network provider, call our East Lansing Member Service Center at 800-336-0013 or visit messa.org/findadoctor. If you’d prefer to see a mental health provider through the Online Visits platform, download the Blue Cross Online Visits mobile app or visit messa.org/onlinevisits.
Classifieds Help with anxiety, depression, teaching stress and relationship issues. Experience working with teachers. Offering insurance-billable telehealth sessions to teachers throughout Michigan via video or telephone. Robert Goode, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist. Office in Grand Rapids. Visit goodepsych.com MESSA, BCBS, Aetna accepted. 734-223-4202. Got travel on your mind? As vaccines roll out, we know you want to travel. At Far Far Away Travels we help educators tailor travel plans to your needs. We know which travel companies treat their clients well and, if something goes wrong, we are there to help. farfarawaytravels.com 877-508-5008 journey@farfarawaytravels.com — Our advertising policies, rates and schedule can be found online at mea.org/voice.
32 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
Coverage you can depend on for the ones you love.
As an eligible NEA member,* you’ve got the protection of NEA Complimentary Life Insurance, issued by
Visit neamb.com/protect to learn about all the solutions available
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DT250221
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Mat Brown, an MEA member who teaches engineering technology in Birmingham Public Schools, recently joined a panel discussion on issues surrounding Native Peoples in Michigan. A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Brown was one of four panelists in the talk, moderated and livestreamed by former Michigan Teacher of the Year Rick Joseph, who also teaches in Birmingham. Below are excerpts from their conversation, with Joseph asking questions. mother left school in 10th grade. That’s where it ended for her, and you can’t get a whole lot of work without a high school diploma. Growing up that way, raising a family that way, it’s tough. And that still occurs.
What terms do you prefer to identify yourself—AmericanIndian, Native American, Indigenous person, Aboriginal? I’ve been called worse than an Indian, I suppose. My mom, as a kid, was called that little Indian girl on the corner by all the neighbors. And I knew that never stuck right with me... Is it Native American? Is it American-Indian? Is it Indigenous? I think, as long as the context is there and the intent is not to do harm, then it doesn’t come off as offensive no matter what term you use. What would you say are the biggest issues facing Native Americans in our region today? Education is one. I can’t speak on a global scale about all Native American schools, but the ones that I’ve visited tend to have lesser resources available... My own
34 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2021
What are some myths about Native Americans that you think are important to address in 2020? For me, this debate about whether sports teams are offensive if they use a Native American logo, I think the answer’s kind of obvious. If you have to ask the question, you probably already answered it too... It’s amazing how many people can wear a giant chief on their chest, and he’s got a headdress. I’m like, “But that doesn’t even really portray who the people were. He’s riding a horse with a spear. That’s not even correct.” And they’re like, “Yay, indigenous people!” I think we need to revisit Columbus. There is so much in the world that people could educate themselves on, but if you live in America... people were here before your ancestors got here. We want to know about your history, and we would hope you care about the history of the land you’re standing on.
More institutions are beginning meetings by reading a land acknowledgement recognizing the First Peoples who were on this land before it was colonized and they were, in many ways, exterminated. Nine out of 10 Native persons were killed through war, disease or genocide. What do you think about land acknowledgements? I don’t know. I think keeping it to a point where it’s reflective, and you’ve done your homework, and you’re just acknowledging in a respectful way what was, then I think it’s a huge honor and getting back just a little bit towards erring on the side of respect. Is there something that gives you hope for the future of the Native American community? It extends beyond the Native American community for me. It’s a hope that all people, really, will start to open their eyes to more questions. Stop believing they have all the answers and start appreciating and wanting to know and to learn. And to make more critical observations of their own behaviors, their own attitudes, and their own motivations behind how they view different cultures, races, heritages, the whole bit.
we know life is busy. that’s why we do the work for you. simple human sense
800.292.1950 • meafs.com
Blue Cross Online Visits are free through June 30 Because we care To help ensure our members receive the care they need during this ongoing crisis, MESSA is providing 100% free coverage for telehealth visits via Blue Cross Online Visits, through June 30.
Visit a doctor or therapist on your smartphone or computer You and your covered family members can see and talk to: •
A doctor for minor illness such as a cold or sore throat
•
A behavioral health clinician or psychiatrist to work through mental health challenges such as anxiety or depression.
Get started: visit messa.org/onlinevisits or download the Blue Cross Online Visits app.