MEA Voice Magazine - April 2023 Issue

HOW ONE LOCAL WAGED A WIN

OUTLOOK FOR

BARGAINING

Defending public ed

HOW FOLKS IN ONE SMALL TOWN ARE PUSHING BACK ON RIGHT‑WING THREATS

Letter to Members: We are champions

If you’ve been keeping up with developments at the state Capitol since January, you know some good things are happening and more is in the works.

Democratic leaders in both cham bers passed a rollback of the state’s unfair retirement tax, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed along with an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for working families in a ceremony attended by MEA leaders and members.

Also prioritized for hearings and action has been gun safety legisla tion in the wake of yet another horri fying school shooting — this time at MSU (read more on page 8) — and a long‑sought elimination of the retention mandate in the third‑grade reading law.

As we write, lawmakers have also begun work to restore school employ ees’ collective bargaining rights — stripped away in 2011 — which stagnated salaries, drove up health care costs, and removed numerous subjects of bargaining. In addition, we look for ward to action on changes needed in the teacher evaluation system.

There is much to celebrate and antic ipate. But this issue of the magazine

also underscores the reality that our work as educators and union members is never done.

We’ve all seen or heard about extreme forces pushing book bans and anti‑LGBTQ+ policies on school boards across the state and coun try. This coordinated effort to drive a wedge between educators and par ents will not succeed, especially when we unite and work collectively to stop it (like is being done in Southwest Michigan’s Brandywine district — see story on page 11).

Our public schools are overwhelm ingly valued and supported in com munities large and small, conservative and liberal, and we are powerful when we join forces with all of our educa tion stakeholders in defense of quality public education.

Yet we know the work is exhausting and can be demoralizing. Find inspira tion in these pages. Know we are here for you — and together with you, we will continue to make a difference for students and educators alike.

From MEA’s officers: President Paula Herbart Vice President Chandra Madafferi Secretary‑Treasurer Brett Smith

BEST IN SHOW: MEA member Keith Beale, who’s in his first year teaching art in Troy, took the “Best in Show” prize at the 59th Annual MEA/MAEA Art Exhibition. Beale, who previously taught in Virginia for 19 years, won for his watercolor painting of a street behind Detroit’s Eastern Market. Beale says he is drawn to the mystery of industrial landscapes and enjoys trying to control the chaos of water in watercolor painting. “It has taken so much time to learn control of personal pacing and the timing of the water — when to keep painting into your paper and when to let it rest,” he said.

Read the story at mea.org/troy‑educator‑wins and view a gallery of all the artwork accepted into the exhibition, co‑sponsored by MEA and the Michigan Art Education Association, at mea.org/art

QUOTABLES

Kat Sibalwa , a Spanish teacher and co‑president of the Byron Center Education Association, on the many ways unions matter in the lives of members in an arti cle she wrote for NEA titled, “We not only protect students and educators, but we’re also a family.”

“We recently added paternity leave to our contract. We’re the first in the county to do so.”

For more indepth story coverage with links and additional photos, visit mea.org/voice

On the cover: Union leaders Debbie Carew and Abby Janke from Brandywine schools in Niles are part of community push‑back against extremism. Story on page 11.

Fatal shooting at MSU, page 8. Bargaining outlook , page 20. Member speaks out , page 30. More inside: Aspiring + new educators, page 5. My View series, page 7. Northern Michigan grant project deepens lessons, page 22. MEA Elections, page 23.

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 necessar ily 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 sub scription. 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: 108,305.

Interim Executive Director Earl Wiman Director of Public Affairs Doug Pratt Editor Brenda Ortega

Staff Photographer Miriam Garcia Publications Specialist Shantell Crispin

Educators from the bargaining unit at three campuses of the Oakland International Academy, who executed a textbook crisis action to win nearly all of their contract demands, share their story and advice, page 16.

21st Annual MEA Scholarship Fund Golf Outing June 12

Save the date! The 21st Annual MEA Scholarship Fund Golf Outing will be June 12 at the Forest Akers Golf Course in Lansing. The outing raises funds for scholarships given to college‑bound students from Michigan public schools. Golfers will have a shotgun start at 9 a .m. in a four‑player scramble format. The golf fee is $120 per person, which includes breakfast and lunch, and a portion of the fee is tax‑de ductible. Registration forms will be available online soon. Please contact Barb Hitchcock at 517‑333‑6276 or bhitchcock@mea.org with questions.

QUOTABLES

MEA Human Rights & Educational Excellence Awards

Three MEA Human Rights & Education Excellence Awards were pre sented to exceptional members at the MEA Winter Conference in February.

J. Blake Johnson, a professor of Art and Graphic Design at Saginaw Valley State University, received the Distinguished Servant of Public Education Award for the innovative SVSU Cardinal Solutions program he founded that gives students a chance to work with local nonprofits and businesses before graduation.

Char Fitzgerald, a bilingual and bicultural second grade teacher in Houghton Lake Public Schools, received the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion Award for her work helping children and colleagues in her district and community understand the needs and challenges of marginalized people.

Sarah Furman, a math teacher at Inland Lakes Schools in Indian River, received the Instructional Excellence Award for her dedication to contin uous improvement, commitment to engaging students in math, and her work developing free content for math teachers at Open Middle.

Congratulations to the winners!

ABOVE AND BEYOND

on page 20.

Members of the Fraser Paraprofessional Association were fortunate to attend the MEA Winter Conference in Detroit in February for the first time. All of the workshops were beneficial, they said, but one in particular sparked an idea. In that session participants discussed a district where bus drivers sent holiday cards to members of the school board. The Fraser group decided during a school break they would send Valentine’s Day cards to some district administrators and school board members. It so happened that a few of the district’s special education classes were selling Valentine’s Day cards hand‑made by students to showcase their talents and raise money to buy books for a local foster closet. The unit purchased the cards, and members added a handwritten note of “Fraser Paraprofessional Association sending some joy your way.” It was a great way to send some kindness and to let recipients know what some special students and staff in their district were doing. As an added bonus, the classes that made the cards were able to raise enough money to purchase 225 books for children in foster care for March is Reading month.

“These changes hurt not only my children but children across the state, because we’ve created working conditions that are killing our workforce.”

Christopher DeYonke, a high school special educa tion teacher, president of the Farmington Education Association and “proud son of two public school teach ers,” who testified at a hearing on one of several bills by Rep. Matt Koleszar (D‑Plymouth) to repeal laws passed under Gov. Rick Snyder 12 years ago to weaken collective bargaining rights in Michigan. Read about this year’s bargaining outlook

THE FUTURE IS NOW The Sometimes Forgotten Benefit

Many people think of collec tive bargaining for salary, benefits and working conditions as the most essential benefit of union member ship, but the solidarity created by belonging to a union family is at least as important.

That solidarity was demon strated recently through the work of both AEM (Aspiring Educators of Michigan) members and MiNE (Michigan New Educators).

AEM chapters came together to discuss their own shattered sense of safety on campus after the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University. Annette Christiansen, MEA’s state organizer for AEM, reached out to members, and many joined virtual drop‑in sessions for talk and support.

Aspiring educators also came together to care for members from MSU. Central Michigan University AEM members created cards in green and white. Ferris State University AEM members drafted messages to their MSU colleagues.

These cards and messages were delivered to MSU at their Feb. 28 meeting where the focus was on camaraderie and self‑care.

Members of MiNE have supported their colleagues through a series of virtual book studies over the past few years. Usually, these books address pedagogy and are enjoyed by teach ers at all points in their careers.

This year was different. This year the book chosen was From Burnt Out to Fired Up: Reigniting Your Passion for Teaching, by Morgane Michael, in response to the growing number of

members feeling overwhelmed with the stresses of life and pressures of a challenging job.

Both the virtual book study and a condensed version of the book study offered at the MEA Winter Conference have been in‑demand and well received.

Despite so much focus on the social‑emotional needs of our stu dents, teachers often forget to meet their own needs. Couple that with the primary and secondary stresses of the job and the empathetic distress caused by the growing mental health needs and adverse experiences of our students, and it is no wonder so many teachers are feeling overwhelmed.

The good news is that the book offers specific suggestions for over coming these challenges, and the virtual book study provides support ive conversation about what is being learned. Each chapter focuses on a different “R” the author contends will help reignite the passion once felt for teaching.

The first section offers suggestions on how to “reflect” on emotions and

stay mindful to avoid judgment or over‑personalizing events. A second section provides ways to “reframe” our thinking to build resiliency and avoid toxic positivity.

Next the book challenges readers to “refocus” through goal‑setting out side of work and to “reconnect” with friends, family and colleagues when exhaustion and stress might other wise encourage us to withdraw.

Due to overwhelming demand, this five‑week book study is starting again on April 11. Follow MiNE and AEM on social media (below) to connect and stay informed! v

Connect with AEM: instagram.com/aspiringedofmichigan twitter.com/AspiringEdOfMI facebook.com/aspiringedofmichigan

Connect with MiNE: instagram.com/mineweducators twitter.com/mineweducators facebook.com/mineweducators soundcloud

Aspiring educators from chapters at other universities, including Ferris, sent messages to colleagues at MSU.

MESSA’s Spring Worksite Wellness Conference: Mood Matters

Register now for this virtual event on May 12

MESSA’s Spring Worksite Wellness Conference will dive into topics relat ing to mood including exercises that stimulate your brain, how to curb emotional eating, and how to choose food that improves your disposition and your quality of life. The virtual conference takes place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, May 12.

When you hear the expression “you are what you eat,” you tend to think good food equals physically fit body — or the flip side — junk food is akin to sluggish and not‑so‑fit body. But did you know the food you eat can also directly impact your mood?

Simply put, food defines your phys ical and mental character.

“Our moods often feel out of our control but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Dr. Deanna Minich, a nutri tion scientist who will lead the “Food & Mood” session at the conference. “While mood disorders certainly

have factors beyond nutrition, food can have a profound effect on how we feel.”

Certain foods we eat have nutrients and amino acids that serve as build ing blocks for serotonin, a chemical in the brain that affects mood. Serotonin carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and throughout the whole body. When low, serotonin is related to depression. Research shows ultra‑processed foods that are low in nutrients and fiber while high in sugars and fat are associated with depression. Some of the popular cul prits are frozen pizza, prepackaged soups, french fries and hot dogs.

Instead, consume more fruits and vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, fiber, vitamin B6, iron, whole grains, sea food and tryptophan to support a better disposition, Minich said.

“Trying new foods and consum ing every color of the rainbow such

2023 Spring Worksite Wellness Conference: Mood Matters

Join MESSA Health Promotion Consultant Rhonda Jones for this free virtual conference for MESSA members. MEA members in good standing can receive SCECH credit for attending.

Rhonda will share tips and strategies for starting a worksite wellness program, spotlight a worksite wellness program at a local school district, and explain how MESSA benefits support your good health.

• W hen: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Friday, May 12

• W here: Live on Zoom

• Registration and more information: messa.org/SpringWWC23

as plant foods that are blue, purple, green, yellow, orange and red is a great way to increase fruit and veg etable intake to support mood,” Minich said.

Improving your mood doesn’t just stop at eating the right food. You have to put in the physical work, too. Diet and exercise go hand‑in‑hand, which means moving your body to perk up your brain and boost your mood is also essential.

A session titled, “Refresh Your Brain with Mindful Movement,” will focus on how to synchronize your body and mind with movement, breath and rhythm. Simple exercises like bending your spine or swaying your arms can nourish and stimulate the brain.

“Intuitively, we all know we feel more alert, more energy, more aware when we move our bodies,” said MESSA’s Health Promotion Consultant Rhonda Jones. “Just simple movements like sitting up straight or standing increase circu lation to the brain, which can help with memory, mood and sense of well‑being.” v

Rhonda Jones

Dear Past, Present and Future Educators

My first article back in August, titled “A Chance Encounter,” was a tribute to the love I hold for my mother and the teaching profession. This is my last article for the My View series, and upon much reflection I decided to write a love letter to honor all my educator colleagues.

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not believe in good‑byes, but rather “until later.” The latter phrase signifies a continued bond, and the former renders the end. Until next we connect, I leave you with these words that have shaped my thinking and actions. I live by this motto: “You conceive it in your mind, believe it in your heart, and set out to achieve it.” Wise words ingrained in me by my Godmother.

Educators inspire our students to dream big dreams and to reach for the stars. But many times along the way, educators forget to continue to dream bold dreams for themselves and fuel their own personal passions. What are your current dreams both professionally and personally?

Without first the mental concep tion (the dream), the physical real ity can never be. A vision shows us what to fight for; the mission is the calling that there is a job to be done, and the third step is the action taken to move towards the vision. As edu cators, we answered a moral calling that goes beyond simply teaching subject matter.

Educators must shape schools into places where every student has access to equip themselves with the skills to fully participate in an ever‑changing global society. That preparation includes learning formal subjects such as math, reading, and writing; and equally important are lessons that teach students strong communication skills, acceptable societal behavior, and sound moral values on how to treat each other as human beings. This is our profes sional mission.

I hope educators will continue to make a difference in the lives of all students, especially those who at times feel unseen, to know that dreams do come true. The true test in being an influential educator is help ing students to have happy and pro ductive lives. Day by day, educators plan and deliver impactful lessons, comfort students with smiles to warm their hearts, motivate them, counsel before and after school, attend extra curricular activities. Educators pour their hearts into their work.

While we embody the noblest profession, this cannot be your only dream. If not careful, educators can forget to have their own dreams and take care of themselves, their fam ilies, their health, and miss out on healthy relationships with others. Taking time away from the stressors of teaching could be as simple as con sistently walking, running, practicing

yoga, taking a class, reconnecting with a friend, taking the time to make a healthy meal, etc.

These little things often get pushed to the side, but taking the time to invest in yourself allows you to give more on a greater scale.

“Until later” connects past, present, and future educators in that some of us have already passed the baton or will eventually pass the baton to the next generation of educators to con tinue to dream bold dreams for their students, each other, and themselves.

I choose to have FAITH; faith is believing in things when everything tells you not to. Faith in the future, faith in my family, faith in myself, and faith that there is a bigger purpose than what I can conceive.

Until later — Shana. v

Shana Saddler is a veteran Farmington Hills teacher. For comments or questions, reach her at shana.saddler@fpsk12.net.

Shana Saddler

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor

Like many other MEA members who are alumni of Michigan State University, Marissa Teslak returned to her beloved alma mater less than a week after the devastating mass shooting that killed three students and critically wounded five others.

A behavioral consultant in Warren Consolidated Schools, Teslak and her 11‑year‑old daughter Josephine par ticipated in “Spartan Sunday” — a stu dent‑organized grassroots effort to welcome people back to the reopened campus six days after the Feb. 13 tragedy.

The pair had hand‑written 200 cards to give out, said Teslak, who wrote mes sages such as “Welcome home, Spartan,” and signed hers with “Love, Marissa, College of Ed 2004.” Her daughter chose to share inspiring quotes she found online.

“On one of them she wrote, ‘You got this. You can do it. The world needs who you were made to be,’” Teslak said of her sixth‑grade daughter. “At first she was nervous to talk to the students, but the more she did, the more comfortable she became walking up, passing out notes, giving hugs, being a part of them.

“She knew why we were there, because we talked about it beforehand,” Teslak added. “She told me, ‘They’re probably scared to come back, Mom. I’m glad we’re here. We’ll make it better for them.’”

Teslak noted a palpable heaviness in the air as she and her daughter parked at the Breslin Center and walked to the

In the wake of MSU shooting, loss, grief, anger and activism

Spartan Statue at the center of the event. Later the two prayed at the MSU Union, where the killer targeted victims after first firing at students in a classroom at Berkey Hall.

It’s hard to find words to describe Spartan Sunday, Teslak said, but slowly the tension softened as hundreds quietly connected in both intense grief and love for MSU.

She and her daughter walked the campus at Josephine’s request and vis ited Erickson Hall, home of the College of Education, where they found uplift ing chalk messages to current education students written on the sidewalk near the entrance.

Then her daughter said she wanted to attend MSU and become a teacher, and Teslak began to cry. She wrote later in a reflection, “As tough as this job is, as hard as all of it is right now, she sees her teach ers as the difference makers. She sees in them the love in education and a future in changing the world.”

‘There’s no playbook’

Spartan Sunday and its return of caring alumni to campus was profound and healing for many people who are not students but call MSU home, said Martin McDonough, president of MEA’s Administrative Professional Association at MSU known as the MSU‑APA.

“For the members I heard back from, it resonated,” McDonough said. “There was that sense of community coming

back together that quite a few of them really needed.”

The crushing loss of three students, terrible injuries of five more, and life‑al tering trauma for everyone involved hit hard and deeply for the members of the association representing 3,000 support staff employees across many job catego ries at the university, he said.

“When students come to us on campus, they live with us so they become family and our connection is close,” McDonough said. “The people I represent work in housing, in admissions. I’ve got some of my people who right now are counseling others through this crisis.”

The morning after the shootings, McDonough connected with members and consulted with MEA President Paula Herbart and MEA staff to learn of help that would be available. “My first thought was how do we support those that are supporting others — those are my people,” he said.

MEA staff connected McDonough with Oxford Education Association President Jim Gibbons, who led educa tors there following a deadly shooting at Oxford High School just 15 months earlier. “I was very thankful for that call because knowing you’ve got somebody you can talk to is huge.

“He told me, all of a sudden we’re mem bers of a club we don’t want to be part of,” McDonough said. “Talking with Jim helped us get more anchored as we reached back to our members. He let us know there’s no playbook. You’ve just got

to lead with your heart. Where does your heart tell you to go?”

Private counseling for MSU‑APA members was offered at MEA head quarters just a few miles from campus. McDonough said, “Without going into details, I have some people who are in a pretty big crisis. And I can say what we did with the counseling was invaluable and changed lives. It got some people to take steps in the right direction toward the help they needed.”

The next week, Herbart wrote a column in The Detroit News backing leg islation to curb gun violence: “We can’t keep doing this. We can’t accept school shootings as a normal part of life, offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ and move on. We can’t keep wondering if today is the day the unthinkable happens to one of our children or grandchildren.”

67 mass shootings

The sudden loss of three promis ing young people at MSU reverberated across the state and nation, but espe cially in the school districts from which they had recently graduated and looked out toward bright futures. The university has granted honorary bachelor degrees to all t hree.

Among the first murdered in the shoot ing spree, Alexandria Verner graduated in 2020 from Clawson High School, where her mother is a teacher and long time MEA member and her father serves on the school board.

“She was a tremendous student, athlete, leader and exemplified kindness every day of her life,” Clawson Public Schools Superintendent Billy Shellenbarger wrote about Verner in a letter to Clawson schools families.

“Her parents, Ted and Nancy, and sister Charlotte and brother TJ are equally grieving but are certainly already feeling the uplifting support of this tre mendous community,” he wrote. “If you knew her, you loved her and we will for ever remember the lasting impact she has had on all of us.”

Grosse Pointe had two 2021 gradu ates killed in the attack: Brian Fraser of Grosse Pointe South and Arielle Anderson from Grosse Pointe North. Grosse Pointe Education Association co‑presidents Jackie Shelson and Taryn Loughlin issued a statement regarding the deaths of the two students, saying:

“We loved these two students, just as we love each and every one of the chil dren who walk through the doors of our schools. Our hearts go out to their fam ilies, friends and loved ones, as well as to our entire Grosse Pointe community,

L‑R: MSU shooting victims Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser, Alexandria Verner

L‑R: Oxford shooting victims Hana St. Juliana, Justin Shilling, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin

as we mourn this senseless tragedy. Now more than ever, we must unite and sup port one another as we grieve.”

Just 11 days later Jo Kovach, MSU student body president, memorialized all three Spartans in moving testimony before the state Senate committee considering gun safety legislation. She described the terror of being less than 600 feet away from the shooting when it happened.

“I don’t remember the last time I had a full night of sleep or a real meal,” she told the committee. “I need to take care of my 39,198 students who are all hurt ing beyond belief right now. You truly never believe it’s going to happen to you until it does. And my beautiful home on the banks of the Red Cedar River was home to the 67th mass shooting this year already.”

Young people lead

In the aftermath, MSU student leaders organized several protests and a candle light vigil. Protesters sat on the Capitol steps facing out, demanding change, or in rows on the sidewalk to simulate a lock down drill. They were joined by activists from the Oxford and Parkland, Florida school shootings.

Speakers described fear at barricading doors and huddling in closets amid gun violence, “generational trauma” experi enced by young people who began active shooter drills in kindergarten, and rage at politicians for doing nothing to save lives in the wake of so many mass casualties in so many events.

Students who endured the chaos at MSU include survivors of Oxford and Sandy Hook school shootings who took to social media to vent, such as Emma Riddle, a freshman at MSU who tweeted at 12:31 a.m. on Feb. 14, before the shooter was found and took his own life:

“14 months ago I had to evacuate from Oxford High School when a fifteen year old opened fire and killed four of my classmates and injured seven more. Tonight I am sitting under my desk at Michigan State University, once again texting everyone ‘I love you’

“When will this end?”

The morning after, a clearly grief‑stricken Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — an MSU alum — vowed action would be taken. “We’re all broken by an all‑too‑fa miliar feeling,” she said. “Another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed.”

But young people like Oxford senior Dylan Morris, who formed a non‑profit with classmates aimed at mental health and gun safety, take nothing for granted. On Nov. 30, 2021, when a stu dent gunman terrorized his community, Morris became an activist. In March he testified before a Senate committee.

“I couldn’t understand how this could happen at any school, let alone mine. But here we are, still reeling from the effects of gun violence in our communi ties in Michigan, at MSU, in Oxford, my school, my community, my home. Is this America’s idea of freedom? It’s not mine.”

Reina St. Juliana, co‑founder of the non‑profit No Future Without Today, also delivered powerful, emotional tes timony. Her bright, bubbly, little sister Hana, a freshman, was gunned down at Oxford High School, and she asked: “Why wasn’t Oxford enough? Why aren’t the kids who are killed every day by gun violence enough?

“By the time it hits you or your loved ones, it will be too late. You will be left with the grief — your love that has nowhere to go.” v

Firearms recently surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for American children and teens.

In response, MEA advocated for immediate passage of a package of commonsense and broadly popular gun safety bills introduced in the Michigan Legislature.

As of press time for this issue, Democratic leaders in both chambers hoped to pass the legislation this spring. Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D‑Beverly Hills) who represented Oxford last term in the State Senate, has been pushing the issue and introducing bills for four years.

“We are the adults, we have to fix this,” she said at a press conference after the MSU shooting. “This is our job. This is our responsibility. The polls keep saying Michigan wants this.”

The measures would require safe gun storage and universal background checks for gun purchases and allow extreme risk protection orders to keep firearms away from those deemed a danger to themselves or others. The gun lobby has threatened to attempt recalls against lawmakers who vote in favor.

Want to get involved in pressing for change? Much is happening! Join MEA’s Protect Our Schools Action Team, part of a large coalition of organizations and community leaders working together in the effort. Go to mea.org/gunsafety for information and opportunities for advocacy.

Small district, big battle: Educators and community push back against extreme school board

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor

Things weren’t going according to plan at a recent meeting of the board of Brandywine Community Schools in Niles, where community opposi tion is growing as a new board major ity has begun to enact an extreme political agenda targeting library books and teaching materials.

Missing two of its seven members, the school board was unable to agree on an agenda to get started.

With about 75 people watching from the audience — including educators, par ents, and students wearing matching red shirts and waiting to speak — the newly elected board president, who leads the newly elected ultra‑conservative major ity, abruptly ended the meeting 11 min utes after calling it to order.

“Meeting is adjourned, thank you,” board president Thomas Payne declared after a few minutes of questions and dis array, reversing course after first saying the agenda for the Feb. 27 meeting was approved by a 3‑2 vote.

Superintendent Travis Walker had just interjected to clarify the board’s bylaws require a majority vote of elected officials to pass a motion — not merely a majority of the quorum in attendance — so four votes were needed.

School secretary Amanda Cousineau uses a sign to indicate when people from out of town speak at board meetings.

“Do we still have to have public com ment, though?” asked third‑year board member Jessica Crouch, now in the minority of many 4‑3 votes since the four new board members were seated in January.

“No,” snapped Payne, gathering his papers and materials into a folder. “Agenda’s not approved.”

From the audience, a man shouted a rule from the manual of parliamentary procedure known as Robert’s Rules of Order: “Adjourning requires a motion!”

“The agenda doesn’t exist —” Payne began, speaking into the microphone, but was stopped by the man’s authoritative tone even above shouts from others in the audience for Payne to resign.

“It doesn’t matter — you called the meeting; adjourning the meeting requires a motion.”

“I move we adjourn the meeting,” said board member Elaine McKee, one of the four elected last November with financial backing in part from “We the Parents,” a group in the region that espouses the need for “faith, family and freedom” to replace supposed “indoctrination” of children in schools.

“Second; meeting adjourned, thank you,” Payne declared again — with a pound of the gavel and no vote — stand ing to scoop up his materials and walk briskly out of the high school gym, where meetings have been held to accommo date the crowd.

That is when something remarkable happened.

As dozens in attendance gathered belongings and chatted about the turn of events, Brandywine’s white‑haired former superintendent — John Jarpe — stood from a seat in the audience near the front and turned to face the crowd, waving both hands to say, “Excuse me,” above the murmur.

“It seems to me you all came here tonight to say something, and maybe you ought to be able to say it,” he said, making his way to the center aisle. “I’ll go first.”

A 43‑year educator, Jarpe is well known and respected in the area, having served as a teacher and/or principal in Brandywine and St. Joseph, both in southwest Michigan’s Berrien County. He was superintendent of Brandywine for 10 years before his retirement in 2017.

A month earlier, he’d been featured in local news coverage of a contentious Jan. 23 meeting in which he told the new board he was “heartsick” at conflict sur rounding the district and asked novice members to slow down and learn before making changes — or risk losing employ ees to other schools.

Now he was acting as an impromptu organizer, offering people a chance to have concerns heard and connect with each other even though the meeting was over. Four board members — including two of the newly elected four — stayed to listen.

Had the meeting continued, Jarpe said, his message to the board would have been to say removing books from the library or dictating what can be taught in sex education or any other course — none of that is addressing real problems facing schools or parents or communities.

“Tonight I was going to urge the board to take on chronic absenteeism,” he told the crowd, nearly all of whom remained for about half an hour. “That is a big prob lem just about everywhere you look and absolutely critical to a student being able to learn. I was going to say take that on and fund it, figure that out, and you’ll have people coming to Brandywine asking ‘What’d you do? How’d you do it?’”

From the outset, the new board major ity has focused on forming several com mittees to make recommendations on library books to remove, classroom cur ricula to change, and sex education topics to teach or not teach, among other issues.

In addition to We the Parents, which opposes dialogue about race and LGBTQ+ people in schools, the four board members are backed by 1776 Project PAC, a political action commit tee trying to elect school board members nationwide to push “patriotic” history and ban classroom discussions of racism.

When Jarpe finished, a parent stood to speak who said she regrets voting for the four new board members and agreed the panel needs to address problems that will help students be successful.

John Jarpe

Ambrosia Neldon

Lakeisha Byrd

“It is frustrating to see the agenda focus ing on books currently in the schools and not on making sure students can get to school,” said Jen Unger, who has three children in the district. “The shortage of school bus drivers and the posted positions that are still not filled were not discussed.”

Another parent brought up a frequent complaint: that board action precedes scheduled public comment. Ryan Adams, father to a Brandywine graduate and a current student, said the community must ensure the board’s new commit tees — formed without public input — follow the state’s Open Meetings Act.

“That means handpicked committees don’t get to hang out at the gym and decide which parts and pieces of sexual education to teach,” he said in a fiery speech. “It means handpicked commit tees don’t get to sit at Sunday social and decide the future of our schools’ curric ulum. Not without the public viewing the gathering…

“Be transparent. It’s going to be in the community’s interest that the order in which the committee meeting agendas are organized puts our participation before decisions, before action, before recommendations.”

Lakeisha Byrd, the only Black parent in attendance who spoke, said she was “shook to my core” when she researched values and beliefs of We the Parents before voting last fall. What she found were “divisive” statements about gender, patriotism, and “woke” school boards, she said.

A second‑generation Brandywine graduate whose mother was in the first graduating class of 1963, Byrd said she and her husband moved back to the area specifically so their kids could attend the schools.

“If We the Parents principles are based on respecting our rights as parents… I a sk that you indeed respect the rights of all parents and teach al l of our history and you include all of our children,” she said, reading from prepared remarks, adding the board should not favor “a single con stituency” but should unify and build on district strengths.

The stability of the district has been imperiled by the new board’s actions,

said Brandywine District Education Association (BDEA) President Debbie Carew, an English language arts and humanities teacher who grew up in the district and has taught there for 26 years. Former superintendent Jarpe was her fourth‑grade teacher.

Carew shared with the crowd prelim inary data from a staff survey she was conducting.

From the staff of 80 teachers, of the first 40 who took the survey 100% agreed the school year started out with positive momentum and high spirits, Carew said. A talented new superintendent hired just last spring had already begun building a powerful culture of collaboration, she explained.

“In a really stark contrast to that, now 62.5% of those same people have consid ered leaving the district or retiring earlier than planned due to this recent turmoil,” Carew said. “That’s a drastic change in our morale since January, and that’s about a third of our staff that have con sidered leaving.”

Nearly all respondents — 85% — said the disruption and tension were neg atively affecting their health. “We’re headed for much bigger problems if we have our amazing teachers, administra tors and staff decide that calmer waters would be best for their personal well‑be ing or career,” she warned.

WHAT’S HAPPENING at Brandywine is not unique. While the majority of extremist candidates lost their bids for school board seats across the state, wins in scattered races for can didates backed by far‑right groups such as Moms for Liberty, FEC United, or Ottawa Impact tipped control of some boards and altered the makeup of others without a full takeover.

For example, in Grosse Pointe, a new conservative board majority torpedoed a planned high school‑based health clinic, hired its own legal counsel independent of the district’s attorneys, and — as in Brandywine — formed committees to wade into hot‑button issues right out of the gate in January.

In Allendale, a new board majority quickly fired and replaced the district’s legal counsel. They also heard testimony from a well‑known alum, Ruth Crowe,

a successful artist who said the new regime dis‑invited her from helping at an art workshop for high school students because she is gay. Crowe demanded to be removed from the district’s Hall of Fame.

But in Brandywine, a small district of three schools, the four new board mem bers all were elected at once and touted nationally by the 1776 Project as one of its biggest successes. The PAC claims to have won 100 races across the U.S. and flipped 10 school boards with its “paren tal rights” agenda.

The tight coordination of messaging and objectives among right‑wing groups in the last election — from school board contests up to gubernatorial races — was not a coincidence, according to Josh Cowen, a researcher and professor of education policy at Michigan State University.

The same groups that for decades have pushed for states across the country to adopt destructive Betsy DeVos‑style voucher schemes — proven to have harmful effects on educational out comes — a re now funding the “culture war” battles to ban books and demonize LGBTQ+ people, Cowen has written.

“The school privatization movement and with it the Right’s attacks on public education are some of the most extreme forces operating today in American pol itics,” Cowen wrote in a January op‑ed published by the Network for Public Education.

“Extreme, and ultimately very dan gerous,” Cowen concluded. “Defending public schools is becoming increasingly a movement to defend human rights.”

Debbie Carew, the local union leader, said the BDEA did not make voter recom mendations in November’s election. She believes the four were elected because they had lots of outside money paying for yard signs and many people in the com munity didn’t realize what they stood for.

“They weren’t attending our school board meetings and making a lot of noise about masks or books over the past few years like you saw happening in other places, so people have been surprised,” she said. “And now that they know, they’re getting active in pushing back.”

Carew and her vice president, Abby Janke, have been keeping members informed and building solidarity as membership has grown since the elec tion. Since taking over the VP role last fall, Janke’s job has been to attend board meetings, take notes, and report back to the local.

“This has been a good role for me because it helps me feel empowered to make sure we’re keeping abreast of what’s happening and not getting blind sided by things,” Janke said. “We’re a good team.”

Lately educators have been among the dozens regularly turning out for school board meetings with many speaking and others wearing red in the audience in a show of numbers.

At a Feb. 13 board meeting, several people appeared in support of the board, but nearly all of them came from St. Joseph or Stevensville 30 minutes away. Brandywine staff fashioned signs to hold up during district outsiders’ testimony

which read, “SPEAKER IS NOT A BRANDYWINE STAKEHOLDER.”

The biggest concerns expressed by educators, students, parents, and com munity members at several meetings in a row surround the board’s combative stance toward school employees, along with the alarming potential for book bans, restrictions on teaching, and marginal ization of LGBTQ+ youth.

Some students created a group called “We the Students” and distributed flyers at board meetings that explained, “We want to see the LGBTQIA+ community sup ported, we want to not see books banned in the library, and most importantly we want to protect our rights as 21st century learners.”

Several students have spoken at board meetings, including senior Kiersten Colby, who helped organize the group. Colby reminded the board that parents have the right to opt out their own children from books or learning they find objectionable,

so a committee is not needed to elimi nate materials for all.

“Where’s the transportation committee that will find more drivers to get behind the wheels of our buses to ensure effi cient, timely, and safe transportation for our students to and from school or events?” Kiersten asked. “Where’s the teacher retention committee to ensure the school attracts and keeps quality teachers in front of students during a time of a teacher shortage?”

District alumni have also played an important role in opposing the board’s agenda. Twin sisters Ambrosia Neldon and Jasmine LaBine — who gradu ated in 2009 — started a Facebook group, Brandywine Alumni, Parents and Educators for Educational Freedom, which quickly grew to nearly 700 members.

Being the first generation in their family to graduate from college, both value the education they received at Brandywine.

Abby Janke and Debbie Carew, leaders of the Brandywine District Education Association, are joining with stakeholders in the community to protect academic freedom and marginalized students.

LaBine is a professor of communica tion at Western Michigan University and a visiting assistant professor at Albion College. Neldon is the former editor and publisher of the hometown newspaper, now working as communications man ager for Cass County and living four houses from the high school.

“My life was shaped by some of the teachers that I had,” Neldon said in an interview. “I know for certain I wouldn’t have taken the career path that I have without my teachers at Brandywine. It breaks my heart to see what they and the students at the school are going through.”

Recently named a Distinguished Alumni by the district’s alumni commit tee, Neldon said a significant number of the Facebook group’s members are people who voted for the four board members and now feel they were “bamboozled.”

“They may have had some frustrations with things like masks or the way COVID was handled, but we have people from all over the political spectrum who agree the school board is no place for politics. There’s a reason why it’s non‑partisan, and there is no reason to make a battle ground of our schools.”

A small city of just under 12,000 resi dents, Niles and the surrounding area is home to two school districts and histor ically, the community is protective of its schools, Neldon said.

In the case of Brandywine, with a K‑12 population of about 1,200 students, there is no corresponding town; the school district is what brings people together and creates the community, she said. “We’ve seen something like this happen before, and people tend to come out in droves and say, ‘Not our school. This isn’t happening.’”

The community’s push‑back against the board so far seems to have reso nated. The day after the February board meeting that was unexpectedly cut short, the board’s president appeared on a talk show podcast, hosted on the far‑right Rumble platform, to “set the record straight.”

The show’s host, Casey Hendrickson, described opponents of the board as “a teachers’ union‑organized insurgency” while Thomas Payne — the board

president — argued there is no plan to ban books or teaching materials as people have opposed. Then he appeared to contradict himself.

The board is merely reviewing books “to see if it is of educational value to the kids, and if it’s not, the primary reason for the kids to be there is to be educated. And to have this kind of material doesn’t make sense. Personally, I don’t think so. I think it’s gross. But that’s up to the board to decide.”

On that point, BDEA President Debbie Carew reached out to another distin guished graduate of the district to make a case for intellectual freedom: Diane Seuss, who graduated from Brandywine High School in 1974, became a univer sity instructor, writer‑in‑residence, and highly regarded poet.

Seuss, whose mother was a high school English teacher in the district and father was a guidance counselor before his untimely death at age 36, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry last year for her fifth collection, titled frank: sonnets

In response to Carew’s call for help, Seuss penned a lengthy open letter to the Brandywine school board, describing the school family that supported her through her father’s illness and developed her as a person.

“I don’t believe any of my accom plishments would have happened with out my time at Brandywine,” she wrote. “Books were freely available in the library. Challenging books. Even controversial books. My mom taught some of them in her classrooms, and kept those students who might have otherwise checked out engaged in discussions of literature to which they could relate, or even about which they could argue.”

Seuss urged the board not to turn Brandywine into a school system with out freedom of thought and expression.

“You risk alienating hard‑working pro fessionals who are, in fact, experts in their fields. You risk shutting down the imagi nations and intellectual adventurousness of the students. A surefire way to turn off students to their own educations is to control them into submission.”

Carew found the letter moving, and read it aloud to the board. But equally profound, she added, was a message she received from a former middle school student of hers — now a senior — who was her checkout clerk at a recent trip to the grocery store.

While ringing up groceries, he con firmed the senior class was moving to have teachers hand out diplomas this spring, instead of the school board as tradition would have it, and he would be asking to receive his diploma from her. Then he thanked her for caring about him in class.

“I went out to my car and had a big, hard cry,” Carew said.

The BDEA vice president, social stud ies teacher Abby Janke, agreed that seeing students, parents and a broad swath of the community coming together in defense of the teaching and learning happening at Brandywine schools has been gratifying in a way that’s hard to describe.

“It feels so personal when people are attacking the thing I love, the job I wanted to do since I was 14, but seeing the love for Brandywine flowing at these meetings — it just feels energizing,” Janke said. v

RELATED STORY / PAGE 30

A respected music teacher in Rochester, whose field trip mishap became international news in far‑right media circles, speaks out about threats and reputational damage she has faced after a newly elected school board member spread misleading information on social media and “Fox and Friends” without ever talking to her.

Anatomy of a Crisis: How one MEA bargaining unit built strength to win

THE STORY

One year ago, a group of Oakland County teachers began negotiating a new contract. They had been underpaid for a long time. Their bargaining unit was not tightly organized. They had little union infrastructure or member involvement. Few members even knew what the con tract said.

Yet today those educators boast major contract wins plus a newly solidified and strengthened local union at the Oakland International Academy, an International Baccalaureate (IB) school which joins staff and students across three cam puses — a ll comprised from 13 different county school districts.

In the time between going to the bar gaining table last April and settling a con tract with most of their demands met in November, the team executed a “text book” crisis operation which can be a model for others across the state, MEA UniServ Director Scott Warrow said.

“We bargained for a while, and the dis trict was offering very little,” Warrow said. “Then the crisis started, and I’ve never seen a group of people organize and implement crisis better than this group. It was amazing.”

The operation worked through phases, starting with unifying and organizing the membership; launching social media and community outreach; and conducting direct action.

With talks going nowhere as the first‑day‑for‑staff professional develop ment day approached on Aug. 15, the team pulled together an initial show of unity. All teachers in the bargaining unit arrived in the parking lot for opening day, dressed in black, and walked in together.

“It sent a big message,” said Catherine Hennessy, a 20‑year math teacher who served on the crisis team. “I think the administration was very surprised that we had organized that rapidly and that consistently across everybody. Then that

day we had a lunch meeting, and we had a lot of interest in getting involved.”

Key to the group’s success was fol lowing Warrow’s advice to ratchet up the actions slowly, added Roger Winn, another crisis team member who’s taught chemistry for 16 years, including seven years at the school. Starting small and building the tension offered at least two benefits right away, he said.

First it showed the union’s willingness to work with the administration by not jumping straight to the most aggres sive actions, and it allowed members to develop the comfort and confidence to play a role. Ultimately, holding the mem bership together and building momen tum over time forced the issue, Winn said.

“The administration knew these actions would stop when they met our demands with the bargaining team, but as long as they didn’t this ratchet would keep going up and up and up, until it was time for them to cave, which is what I think even tually happened.”

THE UNIT

The International Academy (IA) is a public IB magnet school which began as one campus in Bloomfield Hills (now know as IA‑Central) and later expanded to White Lake (IA‑West) and Troy (IA‑East). Teachers and stu dents come from 13 home districts in Oakland County.

Rather than a school board, the IA is controlled by a governance council made up of five superintendents from among the home districts.

The school’s unusual structure also applies to the unique way teachers in the bargaining unit are paid. Each works under their home district’s contract plus an additional letter of understand ing (LOU) that addresses pay for extra duties and for the longer school day and the extended calendar the staff works.

The IA has always had a longer school day than the typical Michigan high school at seven hours, 50 minutes, requiring staff to stay nearly one hour after school every day; and a longer school year at 190 stu dent days and 192 teacher days.

Combining the additional hours and days required under the LOU from 2017‑22 showed the IA teachers worked 20 days more per year than the average of their home districts.

THE BARGAIN

The bargaining team began by calcu lating the average per diem rate among the 12 contracts from the various mem bers’ home districts to determine what they should have been paid for that extra time vs. what they were being paid.

The 2017‑22 LOU compensated a range of $2,350‑3,800 for the addi tional 20 days worked, but the calcula tions showed the extra time should have been worth more than $6,900. Getting a contract that properly valued their time became a central point of negotiations and crisis.

Talks began in April, and the contract expired in June. Warrow and the team stood firm on what represented a fair wage for added hours while trying to get the administration to back up their posi tion with budget data, according to Eric LaNoue, a music teacher and bargaining team member.

“We kept saying, ‘Here’s what’s fair in terms of time or money — do the math: Do you want more time or less money? But either way, here’s a fair wage,’” LaNoue said. “And they would just say, ‘We can’t do less time and we can’t do more money.’ We’d say ‘Prove it,’ and they couldn’t. They’d just put up a wall by saying, ‘Well, it’s really complicated.’ Or ‘We can’t figure that out.’”

Other goals of the bargain included cleaning up language that was outdated, unfair or minimized educator voice, and adding language to specify certain arrangements that had relied on histor ical practice. In other words, if it’s not spelled out in the contract, it doesn’t exist, said Maureen Convery, a mid‑ca reer English teacher and bargaining team member.

“Certainly when we did all the math and figured out how many hours we were working, and what we were getting paid for it, that was really upsetting,” Convery said. “But also how do we take a lot of this institutional knowledge that exists in our school and make sure that is actually what the contract says?”

The two sides met several times for six‑hour sessions over the eight‑month span, but at times it appeared propos als from the union bargainers would go untouched between meetings, LaNoue said. “Weeks would pass, and we would be at the exact same position as the last bargaining session.”

Things came to a head as the start of school approached. “We had a bargain ing session right before school started, and going into it someone said, ‘If this doesn’t go anywhere, we’re going to have to get a crisis team in place.’ Then we came, and they offered a $50 raise, and it was laughable.

Photos by Tara Johnson

“No forward momentum was happen ing, they were barely moving at all, and that was the critical point,” LaNoue said. “We were ready to start actions. We knew we needed things to become urgent to them like it was to us.”

THE OBSTACLES

Lack of cohesion across campuses that are spread far apart, combined with recent staff turnover and poor under standing among members of the letter of understanding — or LOU — that oper ates as the school’s contract, were the first challenges that local leaders in the IA union had to address.

As bargaining began, the team nego tiating a new LOU set out to inform IA membership of the existing contract and the calculations which revealed the edu cators were making roughly $19 an hour for the added time involved with working at the school.

“Teachers sort of inherently go along to get along: ‘Oh, we have less money? The roof is leaking? We don’t have enough books? That’s fine. I don’t have any chairs? Cool — whatever.’ That’s how we are as a profession,” said crisis team member and math teacher Catherine Hennessy.

“Now we had to say, ‘This is not OK. These are the things that we need to make it OK. This is how we can sup port the bargaining team, but we have

to do it together, right? It has to be the whole group.’”

That meant asking people to set aside fears and worries about joining the cause. To succeed, the team needed to make sol idarity its own reward and help members feel good about being part of the action.

“When we did that first crisis action on the first‑day PD, we had some people who did it on their first day teaching — ever — which was amazing,” Hennessy said. “We kept emphasizing that solidar ity piece again and again so people could see they were part of something bigger — that this will work because we’re doing it together. You’re not putting a target on your back; it’s all of us as a group.”

Chemistry teacher Roger Winn agreed he didn’t understand at the outset how important it would be to give members feedback as actions concluded and next steps were planned. “I knew the crisis team is about action, but an equally important job is to make other people feel comfortable,” Winn said.

“I didn’t realize until I was in the midst of it how important it was to celebrate those actions along the way — letting people know what they were doing was making a difference, because it didn’t always feel that way in the moment — and in that sense helping them build capacity to do more actions as well.”

Communication was key, agreed bar gainer and music teacher Eric LaNoue. “People were so informed from the

beginning that there was immediately a lot of buy‑in,” he said. “People were hyped that we could get a better contract, and there was a lot of hope, so when it con verted to crisis that energy shifted over.”

THE CRISIS

To improve the flow of communication in both directions, the crisis team sur veyed the membership and established a point person on each campus who issued one major crisis email per week with updates and reminders. If questions or concerns bubbled up, in‑person meet ings were held.

The association had t‑shirts printed for all to wear proclaiming the slogan: “Valuing teachers is valuing students.” Action Mondays coincided with staff meetings in which members wore match ing colors and walked into and out of the building together. They adhered to con tractual start and end times.

Some members of the crisis team put together a Q&A handout to distribute internally so members could become familiar with talking points and rehearse how to answer questions from students or the community, building their confi dence in the process.

New Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts were created around the handle @supportIAteachers and cranked up to speed with regular posts, said Ian Jones, a 13‑year science teacher

Members of the bargaining and crisis teams for Oakland International Academy presented at the MEA Winter Conference.

and crisis team member who handled social media.

Members were asked to like, share, and retweet those accounts, and it soon became evident that Instagram posts with photos of members in action cre ated the most engagement, Jones said. “Every day I tried to come up with some thing new using simple phrases and talking points.”

The team stayed in constant contact and offered something for people to do every week, even if it was small actions in between larger asks, such as pushing a social media post or getting a commu nity contact to write a letter to the board, Winn said.

“My worry was if we got people involved to start and then said we’re just going to wait until the next big action three weeks later, we’d be back to orga nizing at ground zero again because we let all that momentum die away,” he said.

Early on members were asked to indi cate what they would be willing to do, and individuals signed up in a Google form for tasks that suited their comfort level and strengths. If someone didn’t want to speak at a board meeting, perhaps they could write a speech for someone else to deliver.

“We ended up with a way better prod uct because we had everybody kind of doing what they were strong at versus us trying to do it all ourselves,” Catherine Hennessy said.

People with graphic design expertise helped create branding for social media posts and a tri‑fold brochure with a QR code directing community members to supportive actions they could take, such as calling or writing emails to the board.

“The fact that we stuck to a simple message around time and money helped the community to really understand and react,” Hennessy added. “Parents could drive down the street and see McDonald’s is hiring at 17 or 18 dollars an hour, and then compare that to my kid’s teachers making 19?”

Those who had knowledge of how to write a press release or contacts in the news media helped to garner media attention. A first‑year teacher afraid to picket could work behind the scenes

making signs and posters for others to carry.

When talks went to mediation and the administration side was slow to sched ule sessions, the crisis team ensured the tactic didn’t succeed in draining energy away from the effort, Hennessy said.

“They gave us a bunch of time, I think, as a tactic to draw it out, but we used it to our advantage and really ratcheted up. That’s when we started picketing, and our pickets got bigger and more involved, and then all of a sudden they wanted to meet very, very quickly.”

In addition to attending board meet ings of their home districts, large num bers of members turned out to picket at and attend governance council meet ings, wearing matching shirts in a show of strength, where members and leaders along with MEA staff spoke to convey the unit’s issues and demands.

The membership was “irate” to learn the talks had stalled with meeting times dragged out after little movement, agreed bargainer Eric LaNoue. “I think that was a catalyst for some anger that was neces sary to push the crisis actions forward,” he said.

THE WINS

Drew Shankles, an IA music teacher who was part of the bargaining team, stressed the importance of MEA UniServ Director Scott Warrow, whom he said made the team believe in their own worth and abilities, delivered extra resources, and kept motivation running high.

“Scott was my hero, so when they set tled and we got so much of what we were asking for, I looked at him and he said, ‘Sometimes we just have to outlast them.’”

Along with a step and significant increases in stipends for extra time worked, the IA teachers succeeded in reducing their work schedule by a week, reducing minutes per week, boosting the extra duty and meetings pay, reducing after‑school meetings, and more.

“Just on those demands for more money and less time, we got pretty much every thing we asked for,” bargainer Maureen Convery said, adding that language gains were also secured that increase teacher input in decision making and allow more

flexible time for planning and record keeping, among others.

In addition to the contract wins, the unit’s membership increased and people understand their contract. “Now we have an IA union newsletter that’s building on this infrastructure and identity,” crisis team member Roger Winn said.

Same with the social media accounts, said fellow crisis team member Ian Jones. “I’ve transitioned our social media pages into a positive place to show off who we are and to keep us connected to each other,” Jones said. “It also keeps the idea in the back of admins’ heads that, ‘Oh, this is a bigger beast now than it ever was before.’”

Winn agreed: “All that we continue doing now keeps the groundwork there for the next time we have to negotiate.” v

THE ADVICE

■ Focus on staff unity and solidarity

■ C hoose a simple, relatable message

■ D elegate to non‑crisis team staff

■ L et members choose how to get involved

■ Communicate often and do weekly action

■ Start small and ratchet up

■ Celebrate along the way

Crisis team member Catherine Hennessy speaks out at a school board meeting.

MEA bargaining tools arm local

As local bargaining teams head to negotiating tables this spring, MEA has new data showing in many places educator compensation has not kept pace with school funding increases, information which could be used to justify significant pay increases.

Statewide trends show all school employees’ compensation as a share of total school district expenditures has fallen from 82% before the Great Recession of 2008 to 77% in 2021 — which is an all‑time low, accord ing to MEA’s Statewide Bargaining Consultant Craig Culver.

Bottom line: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has presided over a signifi cant increase to the state’s education budget over four years, and overall pay increases have not kept pace. Culver’s calculations and figures do not include federal COVID‑relief money which was one‑time funding to address the pandemic’s challenges.

“The irony is the administrators’ total compensation (as a share of total expenditures) has remained flat,” Culver said, “so they have kept their share of the pie, but the rest of the employees statewide have lost pieces of the pie.”

Statewide and local trends do not parallel each other in every place, but “Where it exists, union leaders and bargainers must make it their ‘mis sion’ to restore lost compensation to their members and adopt strategies and best practices to succeed,” Culver wrote in a report issued by MEA’s Statewide Bargaining Strategies and Implementation Team.

The Cost Alignment Calculator, designed by Culver, produces his torical trends and district compari sons — u sing state‑audited data that are undeniably accurate — to tell a

story and make a case at the bargain ing table, Culver said.

Much of the data needed for the Cost Alignment Calculator is now available to most bargaining units in the state thanks to the new automated district financial analysis developed by MEA Economist Tanner Delpier.

“There’s not a state association in the country that has better tools than what MEA has developed in‑house to serve our members,” Delpier added.

At a recent bargaining retreat in Gaylord hosted by the Northern Michigan Education Association — attended by 35 bargaining units from the area — Culver shared an exam ple from a district where a teachers’ unit has had compensation as a share of expenditures drop from 60% to 52% over the last five years.

Simply to bring that number up to 55% — not even back to the highest five‑year point but to the average

percentage over those years — would require a 13% pay hike, he noted to audible gasps in the crowd.

“The point isn’t to do all this finan cial analysis so you can look at it and be mad,” Culver said. “Tell it to your members prior to beginning negoti ations; resolve to get it back; lay the numbers out on the bargaining table, and tell your administration, ‘Here’s how much you’re under‑spending on our unit, and we’re going to bring you a proposal to solve that.’”

Another angle to pursue in docu menting the need for a compensa tion increase is to compare current pay structure against comparable districts in the area, Culver said. Especially useful is an analysis MEA’s bargaining department can provide that compares salary schedules over a 30‑year career.

“We’re doing a lot of this career earnings analysis to get people to

MEA Statewide Bargaining Consultant Craig Culver (left) speaks with Josh Brey, a math teacher at Harbor Springs, during the Northern Michigan Education Association bargaining retreat in Gaylord.

teams with powerful narratives

think about not just necessarily bar gaining a good percentage on their salary schedule, but to make sure they’re bargaining a good percentage on a good schedule.”

Jamie Roster, president of a unit representing office workers and par aeducators at Traverse City Area Public Schools, heard Culver’s pre sentation in Gaylord and said she looks forward to going to talks with the district this spring armed with new information.

School support professionals are struggling to make ends meet and the district can’t fill openings, said Roster, who works as lead administrative assistant at an elementary school.

“Ours is the group in the trenches,” she said. “We are the one‑on‑one aides for special‑ed and medically fragile students; we’re the (preschool) assistants. We’re managing behav iors and expected to act like nurses in the office even though we’re not nurses. And ours is the group living paycheck to paycheck.”

Marlene Bailey, a 42‑year educa tor who’s been teaching in Elk Rapids for 23 years, is part of a bargaining team for the first time ever this year and said she felt “really shocked” but better prepared by the information Culver presented.

“When you have the substance and the information to stand on, it gets you — I want to say fired up but not so much that as it gets you grounded in your own position,” she said.

Culver and Delpier regularly travel the state conducting trainings and working with UniServ directors to support bargainers. At a recent Saturday training in Kalamazoo, the bargaining team from Portage Public

Schools said they built confidence from the information presented.

The team hadn’t seen their Cost Alignment Calculator yet, but regard less of the exact percentage increase the team pursues, “this tool lets you see that a big number that sounds too big may not be when you look at this historical data,” said Matt Caramagno, local vice president and bargaining team member.

“Teachers have been underpaid for so long that seemingly large increases are needed to close that gap, and this tool lets people see that more easily. And having more people with the knowledge of what’s fair and what we deserve gives us more strength.”

Pearl Rojas‑Brown said she hopes the same is true for members of her unit, the Kalamazoo Support Professionals (KSP). The office staff, paraeducators, teaching assistants, campus safety and transportation employees have felt under‑valued and dispirited in recent years, she said.

“We’re hoping with all of this infor mation that we can build some momentum,” said Rojas‑Brown, an associate teacher in the pre‑kinder garten program. “If one droplet can create a ripple, then more of them can make a wave.” v

Some Recommended Strategies for Bargainers

■ Determine whether your local Association’s compensation trends mimic the statewide data.

■ I f so, demand financial proposals that restore your “fair share” of the Revenue received.

■ Do an analysis of your school’s financial trends over time and create comparative analysis of your school to other comparative schools.

■ T here’s a school employee shortage. Compare your pay amounts to those of surrounding districts to determine if your pay is competitive over the course of a career.

■ S hare all of the above with your membership.

DO ALL OF THIS PRIOR TO BEGINNING YOUR NEGOTIATIONS.

Pearl Rojas‑Brown hopes to build bargaining momentum in her Kalamazoo support staff union.

Northern MI grant project engages students, families, educators in deeper history

By Glen Young

Educators in northern Michigan are utilizing a national grant award to help develop curriculum to address topics of social justice and strengthen reading in local schools.

“Building A More Perfect Union” funding is supporting 38 groups nationally in anticipation of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, accord ing to National Writing Project (NWP), which coordinates the awards with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Top of the Mitt Writing Project, an affiliate of NWP, received the grant last spring to conduct a year‑long Teacher Leader Institute (TLI), oper ate a Family Literacy Project encom passing five area districts, and renew collaboration with the Little Traverse Historical Museum.

The TLI kicked off with a five‑day workshop to identify areas of interest and create lesson plans for elemen tary through high school students. Work on the grant will conclude this summer.

Top of the Mitt founder Toby Kahn‑Loftus said the books and films studied in the TLI proved transforma tive, including The Anti‑Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez and Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammad, among others. “This institute has taught us all that power

lies in those that get to tell the story of history, and that history is and will forever be profound, vulnerable, and complicated,” she added.

TLI teachers have developed lessons on the 1901 Burt Lake Burnout, the life of slave and poet Phyllis Wheatley, and the compli cated history of the 2nd Amendment, among others.

After meeting through the summer, the K‑12 teachers met one day a month from September through December. January through May the group is meeting via Zoom to refine lessons and workshop their own writ ing, a key component of the writing project’s professional development.

Carol Johnson, a Missouri teacher with professional roots in north ern Michigan, says the institute has helped her rewrite her fourth grade history curriculum. Citing Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, also part of the reading list, Johnson says, “Our units now include more indigenous history and its intersection with early American history. Multiple points of view and stories have made our his tory units richer and more complex.”

Traverse City Pathfinder elemen tary teacher Cara Burns, one of the TLI teachers, says, “This work has granted me the space to grow my social justice teaching today to help ensure my students have the tools to make a better tomorrow.”

Northern Michigan educators in the year‑long project discussed books and developed lesson plans to enrich students’ reading and understanding of history.

The Family Literacy Projects brought together teachers, students, families, and school administrators in Boyne Falls, Pellston, Charlevoix, Alanson, and Grayling. Each par ticipating family receives a home library and other supports designed to encourage more reading.

Khan‑Loftus says the projects “have inspired fundamental shifts in how parents and teachers view their roles both at home and at school in five small, northern, rural communities.” v

Glen Young is a writer, teacher, and outdoor adventure guide in northern Michigan. He is also co‑director of Top of the Mitt Writing Project, and the author most recently of Four Seasons of Mackinac Island

Candidates for MEA Executive Office and NEA Director positions

The following information has been provided directly by the declared candidates for offices to be elected at the 2023 MEA Representative Assembly.

Candidate for MEA President

Paula Herbart

MEA President Herbart took office in 2017. A music teacher from Macomb County, Herbart served as local president, 6‑E coordinating council chair and president of MEA/NEA Local 1 and was on the MEA and NEA Board of Directors. She has served as Vice‑President/Mid‑West Region on the National Council of State Education Associations (NCSEA). Herbart was named to the Governor’s Return to School and Student Recovery Advisory Council, is co‑chair of Launch Michigan and in 2022 was appointed to the Children Trust Michigan board. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Herbart lives in Lansing, MI with her husband and son.

Campaign Statement

“Now, more than ever, the union is the beacon of professional strength, and that’s what my campaign is all about.” Six years ago I said this in my nomi nation speech and now it’s our reality. MEA has regained its rightful place as a political powerhouse, organizing to ensure influence over policy and profes sional agency, and providing the fund ing needed to accomplish our goals: increased wages and benefits, meaning ful professional support, and equita ble resources for every student across Michigan regardless of their zip code.

I have delivered on my promise to make MEA the voice of every education professional.

During my presidency, we have witnessed the largest increases in statewide public‑school funding in a generation! Michigan’s per pupil allow ance has increased exponentially over the past three years. With this year’s proposed preK‑12 increase, school

budgets will have improved by 18% since 2020 and, with increases of 4% in each of the last two years, dedi cated funding for higher education has become a priority for Michigan.

I continue to work tirelessly to make certain the stories I share with policy makers and people of influence are YOUR stories. The stories of bus drivers delivering sometimes life‑saving ser vices to students during the height of Covid, stories about the challenges at the bargaining table, and stories about what it will take to make things right for all educators. Now I can share stories with you about our victories: long over due wage increases that haven’t been seen in a decade which immediately change the trajectory of members’ lives, ESP members winning district‑provided health care, and significant increases to the hourly wages of our lowest income members. We’ve secured tuition reim bursement for those who choose to go into teaching and eased the finan cial burden by instituting paid stu dent‑teaching experiences. I made sure our policy makers heard YOU and it has made a difference in the lives of every single MEA member!

As MEA’s Governance Champion for Organizing in NEA’s Year‑Round Organizing program, I have worked alongside you and other members and staff to build a culture of organizing that has increased our ability to make connections with potential members, a system of organizing which didn’t exist when I was first elected president. We have dedicated staff organizers, member organizers, and have received unprecedented grant funding from NEA to execute this organizing. We have room to grow and we have a plan to grow. Now we all must be fully engaged

in the hard work started six years ago in realizing the gains we anticipated prior to Covid: to make sure every potential member sees them selves in the union, is connected to the union, and wants to be a member of the union!

As a result of my persistent efforts, during my tenure as president the MEA has significantly strengthened its coali tions with other unions, school adminis trators, and school board associations; the Michigan Department of Education; and solidified through the Launch Michigan coalition, business groups. But more importantly for our union, the trusted relationships I have established with Michigan’s Offices of the Governor & Lt. Governor, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and other policy makers throughout the state have been crucial to MEA’s success in advocating for our members, students, and schools and universities.

I am certain MEA is on the right path. Now, let’s organize our ranks! Our suc cess stories illustrate the value of union ism! I know that people will become members of our union when we demon strate what can be accomplished when we work together. I have worked every day to guarantee MEA will be here to represent and support generations of educators! Our professional advocacy continues to be strong. I am committed to fighting for these issues. I am com mitted to standing up for our mem bers. I am committed to the Michigan Education Association. Join me in being a Champion for Education!

Candidate for MEA President

Chandra Madafferi

Chandra joined MEA more than 25 years ago at CMU while becoming a teacher. Elected as MEA vice president in 2017, she has served in a variety of roles including local president for the Novi EA. Chandra holds a master’s degree in education from U of M Dearborn, is a Fellow of the Education Leadership Policy Program through MSU and was a teacher in the Novi Community Schools where her two children currently attend. In addition, she was a 15‑year administrator in the Bloomfield Hills School District for a summer program (Bloomfield SCAMP) that services individuals with disabilities.

Campaign Statement

MEA is unique, as we are not only a professional association meeting the needs of our members, but we are also a union. We are not just any union, but the largest labor union in Michigan, and our members are our biggest strength! Today, we are at a crossroads for not only our organization, but our chosen profession. Prior to the pandemic, mem bership was on a decline after many left prematurely due to years of pay freezes, legislative attacks, and privatization. Regressively organizing, or continually trying to replace members who leave with new ones, has become a challenge we must overcome.

Even with these challenges, I believe that MEA can not only grow our membership but be on the forefront of education innovation for our mem bers and our students. We must take a NEW approach that is more personal ized and proactive to meet the needs of our diverse membership. Bringing the experience of our staff together with the strength of our members, MEA must rebrand education as the profession of the future. We must inspire and ignite the next generation of educators, giving us the opportunity to become mem bership net‑positive for the first time in

years. As the author of the proposal of the Center for Leadership and Learning, I have observed that the increase in professional development through part nerships with universities and education associations, in addition to those with our staff, has improved member engage ment and given our members another direct benefit.

Strong locals with well‑trained local leaders, who work closely with high ly‑trained MEA professional staff/ UDs, are the lifeblood of our organiza tion. Assisting with release time and reducing dues are just a few ideas my VP Candidate, Brett Smith, and I will explore. We are prepared to address the countless statewide governance vacancies and support burned‑out lead ers holding multiple positions, worried about who will take over next. We will expand our leadership bench for local associations and our UniServ staff by threading the needle between the Presidents’ Academy and staff train ing as we recruit the best and brightest with years of demonstrated success. I am confident that with my proven lead ership experience and growth mind set, together with the MEA Board of Directors, our MEA/NEA delegates, aspiring educators, and the wisdom of our retirees, we will revitalize and strengthen our systems that provide the best service to our members while ensuring financial stability.

We must continue to focus on bar gaining for better wages, benefits, and working conditions to make education careers more appealing and provide a livable wage for all. In addition, we must take advantage of the most pro‑pub lic education, labor‑friendly legislative body we have seen in years to reverse many laws that have been harmful to our educators and students.

As vice president I continue to be active in electing individuals and devel oping relationships with those who sup port public education at the local, state,

and national level and appreciate the importance of working with people on both sides of the aisle. I have worked closely with indi viduals from the Michigan Department of Education, higher education institu tions, the governor’s office, and other education associations from sitting on statewide task forces, committees, and boards. We are committed to partner ing with labor unions in a new way to help reinforce our efforts to support labor friendly legislation and strengthen the union movement.

As a systems thinker, and a natural collaborator, I use data to drive change, accountability, and improve transpar ency to solve issues before they become problems. Often working behind the scenes and out of the spotlight, I listen to members and am side‑by‑side with leaders and staff doing the work. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished as vice president and am grateful for those who had faith in me to get me this far. Brett and I are proud to be the ESP Caucus recommended candidates and are thankful for the early endorse ments taken by the 2B coordinating council, regions 4, 7, 10 and 13 as well as endorsements from 2, 3, 9, 11, and the Michigan Association for Higher Education (MAHE). Together with over twenty years combined experience at the state and local level, we have the knowledge, vision, and ability to make the benefits of membership more visible as we improve our services to our mem bers. With a social justice heart, a busi ness and service mindset, along with the strength of our union as our shield, I will continue to keep our association and profession the powerful institution and influential profession it is for gener ations to come.

Candidate for MEA Vice President

Alfonso Salais

The son of Mexican parents, Alfonso Salais, Jr. is a first‑generation honors college grad uate from Central Michigan University. As a 28‑year educator in the Lansing School District, he firmly believes that the MEA will be stronger when we fully embrace our diversity and the diverse members we serve, which includes ESPs, Higher Ed, and other classified and licensed professionals. Alfonso served in multiple leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels. He is currently the Vice President of his local, an NEA Board of Director and serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the National Council of Urban Education Associations.

Campaign Statement

I am pleased and honored to announce my candidacy for Vice‑President of the MEA to represent and advocate FOR YOU and for ALL educators in our union!

During my 28 years as an educator, I have made it my goal to educate people

Brett Smith

about our profession and advocate for public schools and its employees. I feel privileged to contribute to the com munity in which I grew up and to be an integral part of my urban school district where male educators of color are des perately needed.

My purpose as a professional is to support, serve, and uplift others, uncon ditionally and positively. My service to our association in many different roles has included advocacy for public edu cation, raising awareness of racial and social injustice for marginalized com munities, and working with other orga nizations and community stakeholders to elevate the profession.

My heart and passion for this orga nization has never faltered! I am very fortunate to serve in many leadership capacities. As a MEA and a NEA board member, I made it a personal mission to champion our work and speak on behalf of ALL educators at the local, state, and national level.

I served on the NEA’s Resolution Committee, was appointed to serve on NEA’s Racial Justice in Education Policy statement task force, served as the Ethnic Minority Director for the National Council of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA), and was elected as the NEA’s Hispanic Caucus Midwest Director. Currently, I serve as a member of the NEA’s ESP Career Committee and have served as NCUEA’s Secretary/ Treasurer since 2018.

I feel it is important to be a propo nent for all members of our profession: students, teachers, and support staff who are the glue that hold our schools together. They are our ESP members‑ both K‑12 and Higher Education. It is with the same confidence and commit ment to this organization that I ask for your vote of confidence in electing me as Vice President of the MEA.

Candidate for MEA Vice President

I t ake the work to heart, and unionism is part of everything I believe.

Brett is currently serving his second term as the MEA secretary‑treasurer. Before being elected as MEA secretary‑treasurer, Brett was an elementary teacher in Linden Community Schools for 17 years. He has been a proud MEA member for 23 years. Before teaching, Brett worked for General Motors and Ameritech Cellular. Brett and his wife Tracey have four children and reside in Linden.

Campaign Statement

Dedicated, passionate leadership is what I believe in most.

I am committed to continuing to work with and for our members. Traveling the state and listening to members has pro vided me with the knowledge and tools to advocate and represent our members. I am passionate in regards to revitaliz ing the MEA into the strongest profes sional organization and union it can be.

I have the leadership experience that makes me the clear choice to be the next vice president of the MEA. As a local leader in Linden, I served as an association/building representa tive, vice president, grievance chair, lead negotiator, and president. Having these experiences as a local leader is an imperative part of being a successful vice president.

At the state level, I have gained incredible insight as I have a seat on the MEA Board of Directors, the MEA Executive Committee, the MESSA Board of Directors, and the MEA Financial Services Board. I also sit on several committees for the MEA Staff Retirement Plan Board. I proudly rep resent MEA members as I sit on the Executive Board of the MDE Special Education Advisory Council.

As MEA secretary‑treasurer, I have become a national leader. I lead

trainings for officers from other NEA state affiliates. I am also a mentor to other NEA state secretary‑treasur ers. As a member of the SRP board, I have the unique opportunity to attend national training where I facilitate sessions, and I have built relationships with other labor union leaders across the country. I will use these relationships to further the labor union movement nationwide.

I am looking forward to working with Chandra Madafferi. We plan to honor the past by including MEA retired voices in conversations. We will seize the present by providing the best member service possible as we are a member‑driven organization. We plan to revitalize the MEA and rebuild our union and our profession. We also believe in being fully transparent and will include MEA Board Members in crucial decisions concerning the MEA.

Candidate for MEA Secretary‑Treasurer

Frank Burger

Frank Burger is a proud 25‑year public school educator in the Carman‑Ainsworth School District, where he serves as the president of the Carman‑Ainsworth Education Association. He became active with the union early in his career when he was elected Vice‑President of the CAEA. Frank has served on the MEA Board and Executive Committee, NEA Board of Directors, MEA Region 10 President and Treasurer. He also serves as the co‑chair of the MEA PAC Governing Board and Statewide Screening and Recommendation Committee, and co‑chair of the NEA LGBTQ+ Caucus. Frank lives with his hus band Michael of 16 years in Grand Blanc.

Campaign Statement

Honesty, Integrity, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Commitment, Passion, Visionary. These are the words that best describe me as a leader.

As a proud union member and local president of the Carman‑Ainsworth

Education Association, I currently teach high school biology and physical science. Growing up in an MEA family, I learned the importance of unionism. I h ave appreciated your past support as an NEA Board Member, and am now seeking your support for the office of MEA Secretary‑Treasurer.

Good leaders have vision, are pas sionate, focused, committed and caring. Strong leaders go further by motivat ing others to achieve higher goals and take collective action. I am passionate about advocating for members, lifting up social justice issues, educating the public, and building alliances at the grass roots level. My goal is to ensure MEA has a budget that is transpar ent, provides an equitable dues system, serving the needs of all members and reflects our union values!

Members’ voices must be heard no matter where they live or work. People want to see their MEA officers fighting for every aspect of public education! As stated in our mission statement, MEA must “to ensure that the education of

our students and the working environ ments of our mem bers are of the highest quality.” As Secretary‑Treasurer, I will work to make certain our union has the resources needed to achieve these goals. MEA must build on the strong partnerships already established to solidify its place as the education policy experts. I’m proud to have built success ful coalitions with several labor unions, including the AFL‑CIO, Teamsters, and UAW in Genesee County, that allow us to stand together united. MEA will be able to leverage these relationships I have fostered at the local, state and national level to garner more resources for all members.

As your next Secretary‑Treasurer, I know we can build on our successes that we have seen in the last year alone at the ballot box and work to build a strong union that represents all of our members!

Candidate for MEA Secretary‑Treasurer

Aaron Eling

Aaron has been a classroom teacher for almost twenty years, having the unique opportunity to teach in both charter and public schools across urban, suburban, and rural communities. Prior to becoming a public school teacher, Aaron spent over a decade in the service industry as a skilled tradesman where he learned the value of a “hands‑on” education. Aaron is a resident of Grand Haven and currently teaches 6th grade science and social studies at White Pines Intermediate School. He and his wife have three children and share their home with their two rescue dogs, and an occa sional foster pup.

Campaign Statement

Honor, Courage, and Commitment. These core values are the building blocks that aid in making the right decisions at the right time. They are the values you live by and they are the values you fight with as well. My union

brothers and sisters, you don’t need me to tell you that our schools have become battlegrounds. Ultra‑conservative activists have declared a culture war on our students and on our members. They are attacking our curriculum, our libraries and our school boards in an attempt to destroy public education as we know it. For the sake of honesty and transparency, we know public educa tion is not perfect. We know some of the current systems are broken. But we also know there are systems that we can fix together, if we reprioritize the work at MEA and bring our collective voices to a wider audience.

To accomplish this we will need a leadership TEAM that brings out the BEST in each other, a team that com municates honestly and effectively, a team that works together to achieve a shared goal. We also need to organize members who are willing to step up and do the work that needs to be done. Our members are our greatest asset.

As a local leader, I recognize that mem bership has been on a steady decline in many areas of the state, especially on the westside, where I live. I see that it’s getting more difficult to organize new hires, and in some cases, retain our existing mem bers. We are a professional labor orga nization and it is crucial that we evolve to meet the changing needs of our mem bers, while staying true to our mission: To protect, advocate, and advance the rights of all education professionals to promote quality public education for all students.

I’m running for MEA

Secretary‑Treasurer because I strongly believe in the value of public education and honoring and protecting the integ rity of my union brothers and sisters. I am thankful for our union and the sta bility it provides for our members, and I am thankful for all of you. Solidarity.

Candidate for MEA Secretary‑Treasurer

Eva Menefee

Eva Menefee is the Lead Advisor at Lansing Community College. She has been at the college for nearly 30 years after spending 10 years at Michigan State. She has been a department rep, secretary, treasurer, nego tiator, and is currently the Local president. At the state level, Eva serves on the MEA Board of Directors and sits on the Executive Committee. Eva is the currently the desig nated bookkeeper for the Anishinnabek Caucus of the MDP. In addition, she and her husband own a successful food trailer, and go to close to 25 Native American Pow Wows and Ethnic Festivals each year.

Campaign Statement

Eva Menefee is running for the posi tion of MEA secretary treasurer. When asked why she wants to run, she said, “I want to run for this position because at a conference for higher education last

March the president of NCHE made a statement that only three affiliates had members of Higher Ed on their executive teams. How can we as a teacher’s union representing all facets of education and not have more people from higher education as executive offi cers?” After the conference she came home to Michigan to ask if there had been a Higher Education member on the Executive team, only to find out it had never been done. That information made her decide to run. Not just for the members who work in higher education, but for all who might feel disenfran chised in the organization.

Her career in higher education has allowed her to understand strategic planning, and budgeting. She believes in data driven decision making and is committed to using a group consen sus model when making decisions. Eva believes in leading teams by creating

a culture of cooper ation and commit ment to the work that needs to be done. While many new treasurers have never had the oppor tunity to understand the requirements of a local treasurer, Eva believes that MEA needs to provide the training and resources to help everyone understand what is needed to be fis cally successful. In addition to treasurer training and member engagement, she believes in bringing the MEA organiza tion into a closer position of a balanced budget. Eva feels the MEA executive office needs to make sure the number of employees of our company is right‑sized to provide our members with the great service they are expecting. Being fis cally responsible when spending the dues of our members is an important value that Eva has.

Candidate for NEA Director

Anthony Pennock

Dr. Anthony Pennock is an alternative high school special education teacher in Battle Creek Public Schools and is also the president of the Battle Creek Education Association. He has served on the bargain ing team for his local since 2017. Anthony is currently the Region 4 Vice President and is also a delegate to the South Central Education Association coordinating coun cil. Anthony has served on the Screening and Recommendation committee for Region 4 and is a founding member of the MEA LGBTQ+ Caucus and serves as the Male/Non‑Binary Co‑Chair. He has been serving as NEA State Director since 2021.

Campaign Statement

Being the youngest of five children was rough, but it would have been worse without the protections of the bargained contract my father had as a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324. I saw the struggles it took to win those contracts when I would join my father on the picket lines

Heather Schulz

when negotiations would stall, then seeing the power of the collective action win a strong union contract and wage increases!

I have been a member of MEA and NEA since before I signed my first con tract, joining the Students of Michigan Education Association (now AEM) in college. After securing my first contract, the first question I asked was, “Where is my union rep?” and I signed up that day for active membership.

In 2017, I got a job in Battle Creek Public Schools and jumped into lead ership quickly, becoming a bargaining team member, building representative, District Collaboration Team member, and eventually, president of the BCEA in 2019. Since becoming president, I have worked to lift the voices of all edu cators and bring together the leader ship of the ESP groups in the district to work collaboratively for the benefit of all members and students.

I am also a founding member and the Male/Non‑Binary Co‑Chair of the MEA

LGBTQ+ Caucus to help provide sup port and resources for members to better the educa tional experience for LGBTQ+ staff and students statewide.

Since being elected as an NEA State Director at the MEA RA in 2021, I have served as a Co‑Facilitator on the NEA Board Think Tank on Reimagining the Future of Public Education where I thrive to bring the voices of all mem bers to truly re‑envision what public education should be for our students and educators. I have also presented at multiple MEA and NEA conferences on supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools and most recently EA and ESP collaboration.

My calling has always been to ensure all voices are heard. From my class room, to my district, community, state, and national levels, I know the power of the union as activists, mentors, and pro fessionals for all educators!

Candidate for NEA Director

Heather Schulz has been a middle school science teacher in the Lakeview Public Schools (St. Clair Shores) since 1997. Throughout her career, she has served in leadership roles in her local association: Crisis Chair, Secretary, and Vice President. Currently she is the President of the Lakeview Education Association and a del egate to the MEA and NEA Representative Assemblies. In addition to local positions, Heather has served on the MEA Budget and Finance Committee, Statewide S&R, and MEA‑PAC. Currently she is Region 6 President, alternate to the NEA Board of Directors, and member of the MEA Board of Directors.

Campaign Statement

As the daughter of two Michigan public school educators, I have been tuned in to the rewards and challenges of our professions since I was very young. As a young adult, I realized that working to

improve public education, both as a pro fession and for the students that attend public schools, was a passion that would drive my life. When I made the decision to become a teacher, it put me on a path of learning, leadership, and advocacy that has continued to this day. After more than twenty years of advocacy and leadership in my school district, my local association, and the MEA, I look forward to an opportunity to be a voice for Michigan educators and our stu dents as a member of the NEA Board of Directors.

Public schools continue to face issues around funding, safety, and equity for all students. Public school educators con tinue to face issues around: recruitment and retention, evaluation demands, and collective bargaining rights. I believe that my experiences as a 26 year vet eran educator, union leader, parent, and someone that is engaged in the com munity give me credibility and a unique perspective to influence decisions about

each of these issues at the national level. I look forward to collaborating with lawmakers and col leagues from around the country to move policies forward that will ensure quality public schools for all.

Each time I have taken a step on my leadership journey, I have done it intentionally and with respect for the skills needed to hold the position. I am confident that I have the skills and personality to do the job of an NEA director. As an NEA director, I will lift up the voices for all of the tremendous Michigan educators and students. I will leave space for the voices of others that have different experiences than me. I will listen, and learn, and get smarter about things that I don’t already know. I will be thoughtful, and intentional when making decisions. I will represent the members of the MEA with integrity.

MESSA provides comprehensive autism coverage

April is National Autism Awareness Month , a time to raise awareness about the importance of providing every person with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) every oppor tunity to thrive.

All MESSA health plans provide comprehensive coverage for members and covered dependents, including applied behavioral analysis, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, with no annual limit to benefits.

The evaluation and treatment pro cess for ASD can be complicated, with many steps, appointments and forms to fill out. We know it can feel

overwhelming, but we are here to help you every step of the way.

Our Member Service Center is staffed with knowledgeable experts who can help you locate an approved autism evaluation center, walk you through the process for getting started and answer all of your questions related to your MESSA benefits. No question is too big or too small. We’re here to help, and we want to help.

If you need assistance — with ASD coverage or any other benefits issue — please call us at 800‑336‑0013. You can also connect with us via live chat through the MESSA app or your MyMESSA member account. v

By Ross Wilson, MESSA Executive Director

Nominations Sought for ESP Caucus Executive Board

Nominations will be accepted this month at the MEA Representative Assembly (RA) for three positions on the MEA ESP Caucus Executive Board with three year terms and an interim position:

Director by Classification

• O ffice Personnel

(one position; Sept. 1, 2023–Aug. 31, 2026)

• Transportation

(one position; Sept. 1, 2023–Aug. 31, 2026)

• Maintenance

(one position; Sept. 1, 2023–Aug. 31, 2026)

• Food Service

(one position; immediately–Aug. 31, 2024)

Elections to the ESP Board will take place at the MEA R A in East Lansing on April 21‑22, 2023.

Candidates must be members in good standing of MEA/NEA. Direct questions to ESP Caucus Elections Chairperson Jim Sparapani at jsparapani@att.net

Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the MEA/ ESP Caucus meeting on Friday, April 21. Candidates will be given up to three minutes to address delegates, and a table will be provided for distribution of a candidate’s brief biographical sketch before the meeting starts. Campaign materials may not be distributed or worn inside of the MEA ESP Caucus RA meeting room. v

After threats and abuse, Rochester member rebuts school board trustee’s claims

When MEA member Amy Rever‑Oberle experienced a mishap on a field trip with 150 sixth‑grade band students and 30 adult chaper ones from Rochester Community Schools, she handled it, got everyone back to school early, and let adminis tration know what happened.

Over the next few days, the princi pal responded to a few parent ques tions, and life moved on. But the incident reemerged two months later when a newly elected school board member raised a question about it on social media and then appeared on a nationally televised talk show to demand answers.

The one place where the soon‑to‑be‑seated school board trustee, Andrew Weaver, did not seek to learn details of the incident was at the school or from the teacher.

“He went on ‘Fox and Friends,’ and one of his quotes in the beginning of the interview was, ‘How did we get here?’” Rever‑Oberle said. “And it makes me furious because he never asked me. He never asked my princi pal. He took a story and just ran with the absolute media circus it created.”

Early last November, Rever‑Oberle took her sixth‑grade band students to watch a Detroit Symphony Orchestra performance and eat lunch in the city’s Greektown neighborhood — her first field trip since the start of COVID.

In the past Rever‑Oberle had taken students to PizzaPapalis for lunch, but the restaurant permanently closed amid the pandemic, so she

took recommendations from fellow band directors and settled on Niki’s Pizza, advertised as a great place for special events.

Rever‑Oberle sched uled the visit, knowing her large party arriving at lunch rush would be seated in an overflow area upstairs. Little did she know until arrival, however, that area was a bar and nightspot, closed during the day, which contained some metal poles.

The first pizzas were arriving from the kitchen. “Obviously this was not the ideal location, but we made the best of it,” Rever‑Oberle said. “Not all of our food was ready — they had prearranged to bring it out in shifts — so we got the kids in and situated.

“Some parents are giving me that look of What’s going on? I’m like, ‘This is clearly not my plan, but we’ve got to feed the kids.’ Everything was paid for, and we were on a time crunch with four buses, so we got them fed and out of there, and we arrived back at school half an hour sooner than planned.”

Meanwhile, Weaver was elected Nov. 8 to a partial two‑year term on the school board after three years of protesting COVID masks and library books. On Jan. 5, a friend warned Rever‑Oberle about Weaver’s Facebook post, which referenced the poles and Greektown policing infor mation to imply the trip was unsafe.

Days later, Weaver’s Fox appear ance spread stories across the globe

saying a Rochester teacher took students to an adult entertainment venue, which the owner insists it is not. “He said just enough to make it fit the dark, scary — and false — narrative that teachers are evil, rather than seeking the truth,” Rever‑Oberle said.

She and the district began receiv ing abusive phone calls and messages from all over the world. For days, office secretaries were forced to hear hateful callers spewing vile names and personal threats. Extra security was brought in to the middle school, and still Rever‑Oberle felt unsafe.

Worried she would be fired, a group of her seventh‑grade students orga nized themselves over an online video game and all came to school wearing their band shirts. “It was so sweet, I almost cried,” she said.

Since then the fallout has chilled her colleagues who now question if they’re willing to do field trips, which don’t always go as planned, she said. “People are afraid if they handle things as they come, and it doesn’t fit a cer tain idea of what should or shouldn’t be done, they will be pilloried for it.”

Rever‑Oberle still worries what might happen at public appearances she makes. All of that is why now she’s telling her story and pursuing remedies with the help of her union: “I feel like we have to make a stand and say we’re not going to roll over and let people keep doing stuff like this.” v

You deserve THE BEST

As a nonprofit founded and governed by public school employees, we at MESSA understand the challenges and stressors facing educators and school support staff — especially these days. Here’s what we’re providing to give you peace of mind:

• Excellent mental health coverage for you and your dependents.

• Complimentary access to MyStressTools to help you manage stress and anxiety.

• Free worksite wellness programs to help improve your physical and mental health.

Learn about these and other member-exclusive programs at messa.org or call us at 800-336-0013. We’re here to help.