15-B Insider -- October 2005

Cyndi Austin -  Uniserv Director - caustin@mea.org
 Judy A. Pullen - Uniserv Field Assistant - jpullen@mea.org 

"Over the past few years, the many challenges that we have had to face at the State level have prevented us from focusing our efforts on local development. This year, however, we are going ‘back to basics’ at MEA and targeting our efforts and our resources toward helping every local in the State develop into a full capacity local. One that is vibrant, relevant, strong and dedicated to member service." -- Lou Battaglieri, MEA president

Advocacy in bargaining is one of the core services for which members pay. Our local bargainers need to be well-educated in areas such as bargaining, advocacy, and labor laws and need to receive ongoing training and updated information. For this reason, your local MEA 15-B in coordination with MEA 13-A in Big Rapids is holding a first–time "Bargaining for Full Capacity Locals" Conference covering the basics in bargaining for our members. Experienced trainers from all over the State will come to Cadillac and train beginners and advanced bargainers in a day and one-half workshop. If this intensive bargaining training conference is successful, we hope to continue it on an annual basis.

The conference will be held at McGuire’s Resort in Cadillac beginning Friday afternoon, October 28^th and continuing through Saturday, October 29^th. There will be training on being a spokesperson, bargaining health insurance, issue management and much more.

If you are interested in more information about building full capacity locals, you can go to http://www.mea.org for more information.

October 18- 20 Statewide Staff Meeting – Cyndi out of the office
October 25-27 Women’s Staff Training – Cyndi out of the office
October 28-29 Bargaining for Full Capacity Locals Conference
November 2 & 3 MESSA & Bargaining meeting – Cyndi out of the office
November 7–10 CORE Training – Cyndi out of the office
November 14 Crisis Committee Training – MEA office
November 15 SBSIT – Cyndi out of the office
November 21 Coordinating Council Meeting – 7:07 p.m.

 

Or should we now call it "No time left behind"? It seems like the NCLB issue was far into the future not so long ago. Now time is just about gone, but there is still hope. The United States Department of Education released additional ESEA flexibility guidelines for highly qualified teachers on March 15, 2004. The new flexibility will allow Michigan to expand the number of teachers who will now meet the NCLB highly qualified requirements without additional coursework or testing.The document is now available as a result of review by the State Board of Education. The new flexibility offers rural teachers (about 1/3 of Michigan’s teachers) new options. Often teachers in theses areas are required to teach more than one academic subject. This new flexibility is designed to recognize this challenge and provide additional time for these teachers to prove they are highly qualified. Eligible rural districts are those that have 600 or less average daily student enrollment or 10 or less persons per square mile and have a U.S. census designation of either category 7 or 8.

Science teachers, like rural teachers, are often needed to teach in more than one field of science. The Michigan Department of Education has determined that middle school and high school experienced/veteran and new teachers who hold a Science (DX) or the new Integrated Science (DI) endorsement, based on having completed a major, meet the NCLB highly qualified designation for each of the individual subjects covered by the endorsement. Those teachers who hold either endorsement, based on having completed a minor and passed the MTTC general science subject examination, are also considered highly qualified under NCLB. Only a teacher with the general science endorsement can be assigned to teach a general science class.

The same holds true for social studies teachers. The MDE states that teachers who hold the Social Studies (RX) under the same requirements above (bolded) are deemed highly qualified. Only a teacher with a social studies (RX) or social science (CX) endorsement can be assigned to teach a general social studies class. An additional clarification was made for Special Education teachers. A middle school or high school special education teacher who is appropriately certificated for his/her special education assignment and responsible for direct instruction in any of the core academic subjects may be considered highly qualified if he/she has taken and passed the MTTC general elementary education examination. For "highly qualified" changes and deadlines go to: http://www.mea.org/design.cfm?p=5236.  To determine if you are highly qualified, start by checking your state certification. To do this go to https://mdoe.state.mi.us/teachercert/  on the Web and follow instructions to check on your certificate. Next, go to http://www.michigan.gov/cepi/0,1607,7-113-986_10478-103931--,00.html to review the State Board of Education definition for identifying highly qualified teachers.

In a huge victory, the deadline for paraprofessionals to meet the "highly qualified" requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act has been extended from January 8 to June 30, 2006. The extension, long sought by NEA, was made public in a letter to Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID) from Deputy Secretary of Education, Raymond Simon. As a result of the change, the timeline for paraprofessionals working in Title I schools will be the same as that of teachers. We urge you to spread this good news as widely as possible to ensure that our paraprofessional members are made aware of this development and of the Association’s advocacy on their behalf. The letter is posted at: http://www.nea.org/esphome/para-deadline.html

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