MEA Meeting Notes
Legislative Notes
January 18, 2005
Happy New Year!
From Dr. Peters
P.A.C. / Membership
Lisa Reeves and Dwayne Eason will co-chair the P.A. C. drive. Please, we need everyone’s support. P.A.C. helps with a variety of activities and was very supportive of Southfield last year during our millage struggles. If you haven’t already made a contribution, please see your building representatives. We are striving to have 100% participation.
· Members returning from long-term disability need to complete another membership form. Building reps and members, please be sure that that you take care of this upon the employees return.
· Please let Gary Collens know if you change your name. It causes confusion with the billing.
· Laurie Tunic, representative, reported that Dan Young, a Southfield teacher, is in need of stem cell surgery which is considered exploratory and isn’t covered by Messa. He has raised $30,000 of the $80,000 needed for his surgery. Ted Peters has suggested that we assist Dan Young in his efforts to raise money for his surgery.
Board Seats
There are three Board seats up for election this year; if you know anyone who would make an excellent candidate, please contact Ted Peters or Patricia Haynie. Those who are interested need to register their intent by February 8th. Elections will be held in May 2005.
SEA Website
Christina Cardinal is the SEA webmaster. If you see that there are any corrections regarding reps or info, please email her. Christina welcomes suggestions and ideas for the website as well. Each month, the Legislative Board notes will be posted on the website. Please let other members know to check the website to stay abreast of union issues. Understand that not everything can be posted on the website.
P.I.E. Partners in Education
PIE met and it was a positive meeting and appears to look promising in accomplishing common goals. Dr. Bobbie Hentrel is the Chairperson and Paula Whitted-Lightsey is the Co-Chair.
Anonymous Letters
Members, please refrain from submitting anonymous letters to administration. It is unprofessional and reflects poorly on the membership as a whole. If you have an issue, please address it personally or with your union.
Superintendent Candidacy
Dr. Geltner is an active candidate for the Superintendent’s position. There are other candidates being considered as well.
From Patricia Haynie
New Members Workshop
The new member’s workshop will be held on Thursday, January 27, 2005 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Southfield High School Library. All new member new to the district since August 2003 should plan to attend.
· The subject for the New Members Workshop will be interest based, meaning that the facilitators will use real Southfield issues to use as examples of union procedures.
The Retirement Workshop
The retirement workshop held last week was very successful. About 80 people, (spouses, family and interested employees) were in attendance. Many thought the information was quite valuable.
Coordinating Council
The Coordinating Council met with each local. They are interested in suggestions for workshops for employees from each union. SEA members, if you have any ideas, please contact Pat or Ted.
· There will be advocacy training for the reps in late March.
Retirement
There is a glitch in the Michigan Retirement department’s system. It’s a problem statewide whereas the years of service for some Michigan teachers are inaccurate. You were asked to check your statements from last June. Many found that their statements had gross errors on them. However, this is NOT a district issue, this is a state issue. Those members who are planning to retire THIS year will be serviced first. All others will have to wait to receive a corrected copy of their statements.
The Retirement department is correcting the glitch by hand in-house for all of the districts in Michigan. Please, be patient. They do not want to make any other errors.
High School Exam Days
Several reps from the high schools said that due to the elimination of the half days, it has caused chaos during exams. They are advocating for the return of the half days to the calendar. Once the students have completed their exams, they are taking advantage of unstructured time.
Removal of the half days was an administrative bargaining issue.
Construction, Custodial and Temperature Issues
· If you have concerns regarding the cleanliness of your building, please write a letter to Nowell Henry and copy it to Ted Peters. The custodial staff was cut severely and if your building needs more help, let Mr. Henry know.
· For temperature control, first contact your administrator, then Bill Whelan. Keep a daily log of the temperature changes.