Paraeducator builds membership and a new home

In just over three years since she became co president of her local sup port staff union in Kalkaska, Jessica Davenport has worked hard to rebuild membership numbers that had dropped low enough to put her unit on the cusp of being disbanded.

She faced bigger t han normal chal lenges not long after getting started when the global pandemic made it difficult to get in touch with people within the northern Michigan district. “Just trying to get everybody on board to even have a meeting was probably the hardest thing,” she said.

Davenport cold called colleagues for one on one conversations, and many would not answer an unknown number. “So I’d leave a voicemail saying, ‘I’m not a telemarketer, I swear!’” she said.

She and co president Krystal Tinker have made steady progress rebuilding membership in their local represent ing food service workers, paraeduca tors and transportation employees, especially after they succeeded last spring in getting a new three year con tract with pay increases.

“We were able to get pretty healthy raises for everybody. We also man aged to get all the support personnel extra money,” to address staffing shortages and employee morale with retention bonuses, she added. “That felt really good, because if we didn’t have support staff we wouldn’t have school.”

All of that success came about because of the solid relationships the co presidents have built with admin istrators in the district, said MEA UniServ Director Mary McGee C ullen, who services the unit and helped with negotiations. “Collaboration and trust are essential for positive outcomes,” she said.

About midway through her lead ership tenure so far, Davenport took on another challenge that made big demands on her time — but one with an immeasurable reward at the end. After qualifying for a Habitat for Humanity House, she spent 18 months putting in nearly 250 sweat equity hours on the build.

“I learned to hang drywall and mud drywall. I painted trim and walls. I hung hurricane straps and worked on the flooring. Oh, and I learned to tex turize a ceiling, which is something I will never ever want to do again. The site manager teased me because I had a blister after about 10 minutes.”

Davenport and her son Xavier moved in at the end of December after living for the past six years with her parents in a modest ranch house just up the street from the Habitat home.

The only downside? Missing out on daily meals by her mom, who worked as a cook in the school district for 26 years and also was available to give her tips on being a good union rep from personal experience.

“Having been a school cook for so many years, my mom makes wonder ful dinners, so I’ve had to tell my son — ‘Sorry, Buddy. I know it’s not quite the same,’” she quipped. “But knowing that I’m providing a roof over my son’s head, and that it’s our house — that we own it — is amazing.”

A Title I paraeducator in a fourth and fifth g rade building, Davenport added she loves her job of six years, which involves pulling small groups of struggling students for intensive help in math and reading.

“When you see that light go on in a kid’s eyes when they finally get some thing they couldn’t understand before, it’s such a good feeling,” she said.

But as a single mom — even with child support from her son’s father — she never could have afforded to buy a brand new house without the help of Habitat, which offers families a sub sidized mortgage based on what they can afford to pay.

Her three bedroom, 1.5 bath house is not big or fancy, but she loves the large bedroom closet that she doesn’t have to share. “It’s absolutely beautiful, and now we don’t have to worry about the future.” v

Election procedures required to be followed in the regions comply with relevant federal laws.

Eligible Voters

Voter eligibility listings will be created from information received by the MEA Membership Department from the local associations by Feb. 7, 2023.

Electronic Voting

Members of regions 2 through 18 participate in MEA’s Online Region Elections.

Get involved by voting for your MEA Board members and your state and national delegates anytime between 8 a .m. Wednesday, March 1, and 3:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 15. Sign in at mymea.org/onlinevoting and follow the prompts. Members access the website using the last four digits of their Social Security number. If you have any problems, please contact the MEA IT department at 517‑337‑5440. The phone is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. If you call after hours, please leave a message and someone will get back with you as soon as possible. There will be a continuous ballot for ESP members who will begin with the statewide Region 50 ballot and continue on with their region’s ballot.

Positions elected by acclamation at the December region meetings will be noted on the ballot.

Online election rules and an explanation of the process were forwarded to local presidents and region election chairs the last week of January 2023.

Paper Ballots

All elections conducted by MEA will utilize the MEA I T electronic voting system to allow the opportunity for greater participation in our membership and election integrity. This means paper ballots should not be used at the local level for any March 2023 region elections. If an individual is unable to access the online voting system, a paper ballot may be requested by contacting MEA IT at 517‑337‑5440 or by sending an email to meait@mea.org All members must be in good standing to be eligible to vote.

Absentee Balloting

The region at‑large election is an online election, however, eligible voters who are not able to vote online during the election period may notify their local association president of their need to vote by absentee ballot. The request must be in writing, include the specific reason necessitating an absentee ballot, and be received no later than Feb. 21 by the local association president. Eligible voters requesting an absentee ballot, and complying with the above require ments, shall be mailed an absentee ballot by the local asso ciation election committee. An absentee ballot must be returned by U.S. mail and received by the local association no later than the last day of the election. Late absentee bal lots shall be unopened and set aside as void ballots.