Reports to the 2022 Education Minnesota Representative ...

Reports to the 2022 Education Minnesota Representative Convention

Table of contentsPresident’s report 2

Vice President’s report 3

Secretary-Treasurer’s report 5

Executive Director’s report 7

Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning report 10

Retired report 12

ESI leadership report 14

Field Services report 19

General Counsel/Legal Department report 26

Finance/IT/Membership reports 32

Human Resources report 34

Professional Practice, Research and Organizing Department report 40

Public Affairs department report 48

President’s reportDenise Specht, presidentDelegates,

Welcome the 2022 Education Minnesota Representative Convention! For the first time since 2019 we’re gathering in person. We will do the work of our union and remember the challenges we’ve overcome during the pandemic.

It has been two years of chaos, anxiety and stress, but our union has been there for each other. Take a minute to read the reports from all the Education Minnesota departments and you will read stories of commitment, endurance and resilience from the staff who work for you.

At the convention itself, you will hear from our classroom colleagues. Our union is raising up the stories of members more than ever before because we’ve never before had school years like 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Finally, between the official union work, we will find time to talk, dance and celebrate what I’m calling the Great Resilience as our union springs back and demands changes to an unsustainable status quo in public education.

Welcome back to the annual representative convention, Education Minnesota. It ’s going to be a great weekend because we will all be there …

Together,

President Denise Specht

Education Minnesota

Vice President’s reportRyan Fiereck, vice president

Welcome Back/Hello Members,It is awesome to see everyone in person for our 2022 Education Minnesota Representative Convention. I am excited to see the work we are going to do. No longer confined to a box with pixels or volume control we get to display our union pride with our friends next to us.

It has been an interesting year for the role of Vice President of Education Minnesota. The position was held by Bernie Burnham until her historic election to president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. It would dismissive if we did not recognize her accomplishments in the role this year. Hey Bernie, what would you like to share?

From Bernie:Thank you, Education Minnesota members. I’m proud of the time I spent as Education Minnesota Vice President. I’m able to take the experiences we have shared with me and apply them to my current role as Minnesota AFL-CIO President. This year I’m most proud of our work at Education Minnesota around racial equity. Our team, made up of members and staff, has brought forward important discussions that can help drive our work. Education Minnesota’s addition of Athelgra WIlliams as Education Minnesota’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has provided support to help our organization move forward with an equity lens at the table of directors.

I want to personally thank Bernie for leading this organization with grace. Her skills are missed but I am proud to be a member of the Minnesota AFL-CIO with her as our president.

Since joining the team in February it has been quite a ride. In the role of Vice President, I have had the chance to engage and support members in many different forms.

PensionsOur members engaged in member driven movement around pensions. I have had the pleasure of serving as Chair of our Pension Task Force. We have reviewed the strength and needs of our members statewide pensions. Special focus was given to our members renewed call for Rule of 90. As with many changes in statewide topics like this, the work is not quick, but it is important. I am excited to see this work mature and continue to be a statewide conversation on how we retain members and best prepare them for the next stages in their journeys.

Member SupportMoving into Vice President at this time allowed me the chance to support our members in negotiation actions, member engagement or their communities. I well with pride seeing the growth of our locals as they take on the challenges on behalf of our students. The challenges our locals have stepped up to and conquered are no small feat. To see the support that Education Minnesota and its staff were able to provide to our locals in their time of need is humbling. As we look toward the future, I am excited to see the awesome possibilities for our locals, leaders, and members.

Other roles: • Executive Committee• Personnel Committee• Organizing For Settlement Fund• Pension Task Force• Political Action Committee

• Legislator contacts, especially targeting Republican outreach

• Officer IO Visits• Foundation Board of Trustees

In closing it is important to say thank you to all of you and our members. In the years that made us distant our local leaders face real issues in real learning spaces. We have done so by presenting our members and communities. Those solutions may have looked different statewide, but everyone did their best to create opportunities for learning that never seen possible. Whether you were in person or remote with your students you always keep your doing your best. Our members put smiles on for our students. The smiles might have been through tears but you made the best out of your learning.

Secretary-Treasurer’s reportRodney Rowe, secretary-treasurerThank you for attending the 2022 Education Minnesota Representative Convention. The work you are about to do as an elected delegate to this year’s convention is vitally important. Serving as your Secretary-Treasurer and working with the elected leaders and members of Education Minnesota has been rewarding and I continue to welcome the opportunities to visit your locals, your classrooms and your workplaces as we face the educational challenges of today as educators.

It is my pleasure to report to you my activities and involvement over the past year.

Virtual trainings and local treasurer/membership callsVirtual training opportunities were offered to treasurer, secretary and membership chairs throughout the year. I have worked closely with the Finance and Membership departments to help provide trainings related to local finances, creating a local budget, reconciling membership rosters, internal audit committees, federal compliance requirements, membership applications, meeting minutes, and document retention. Since the 2021 Representative Convention, I have had the opportunity to work with the local membership/treasurer contact in about 200 locals or Intermediate Organizations throughout the state through the various trainings that have been offered. In the fall of 2021, I started holding a monthly virtual meeting to present on membership or treasurer topics and answer any questions that the local treasurer/membership contact might have. I have also provided one-on-one assistance to various locals whenever a local requests it.

Newsletters, handbooks and communicationAn electronic newsletter for treasurers and membership contacts is sent out on a regular basis, September through June, which provides locals with relevant information to assist them in their work. The Treasurer’s handbook was last updated in 2019 and is distributed to all incoming new treasurers in the fall or as requested. The handbook for membership chairs is distributed on a yearly basis since it contains all the updates for the transmittal of dues, how they are calculated and the amounts that dues have been set at. Updated resources and a copy of the treasurer and membership handbooks are found in the member portal section on the Education Minnesota website (www.educationminnesota.org).

Budget and Finance CommitteeAs the Secretary-Treasurer, I serve as chair of Education Minnesota’s Budget and Finance Committee. The committee participates in developing Education Minnesota’s annual budget, reviewing the financial statement of activities at each meeting, discussing and reviewing the annual audit, and overseeing the Education Minnesota Investment Policy. Monthly, the committee monitors the critical benchmarks on the financial dashboard which could lead to the need to make adjustments within the current budget.

Dues Review CommitteeThe Education Minnesota Dues Review Committee was convened this past year to do a thorough review of the dues and assessments with a focus on the amount of dues that ECFE/ABE educators are assessed when many of them are paid on a subpar salary schedule. While conducting the review, the committee remained focused on making sure that any proposals are changes that reflect our guiding principles of fairness, equity, stability and building union strength. From the committee’s work, three bylaw proposals were submitted to be considered at the year’s Representative Convention.

Committees and boardsIn addition to the above work, I serve as a member (either active or ex-officio) to the following:• Budget and Finance Committee, Chair• Constitution and By-Law Committee• Council of Local Presidents• Credentials Committee• Economic Services Incorporated (ESI) Board, Treasurer• Education Minnesota 401(k) Advisory Committee• Education Minnesota Employee Pension Advisory

Committee• Education Minnesota Foundation Board of Trustees,

Treasurer• Education Minnesota Insurance Labor Management

Committee• Educational Support Professionals Council of Local

President• Elections Committee

• Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee• Executive Committee• Governing Board• Human Rights Committee• Intermediate Organization Leaders• Investment Committee• Legislative Action Committee• Officer Compensation Committee• Organizing for Settlement Committee, Treasurer• Personnel/Employment Committee• Political Action Committee• RC Rules Committee• Statement of Principles Committee

Member services work• Organizing for Settlement Fund, Assessment Facilitator• Beat the Odds, Children’s Defense Fund Dinner• ESI Golf Tournament Fundraiser Participant• Local Negotiations Rallies and Special Events

• Minnesota Book Awards, Attendee• Nellie Stone Johnson Scholarship Program Board

of Directors

State and national activities• AFT TEACH, Attendee• National Council of State Education Association

- Conferences/Trainings/Presenter• NEA Leadership Summit, Presenter• NEA Representative Convention, Delegate• NEA Secretary-Treasurer’s Role Alike Liaison • NEA Secretary-Treasurer’s Trainings, Presenter

• Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) – Officer Liaison

• St Paul Teacher’s Retirement Fund Association (SPTRFA) – Officer Liaison

• Summer Seminar, Presenter• Teachers’ Retirement Association (TRA) –

Officer Liaison• United Educators Credit Union Scholarship Selection

Committee

Executive Director’s reportCarrie Lucking, executive directorI’ve been the Executive Director of Education Minnesota for 5 months, but I have been in and around our union for 20 years. I am so proud to be a part of this union. As a member for 10 years, local activist, member of the governing board, and general thorn-in-the-side of many; I learned that we are more powerful when we work together. After working on behalf of all of you in multiple roles at Education Minnesota, I see the opportunity to serve as executive director as a one-in-a-lifetime chance to work alongside the officers, governing board, local leaders, staff and members to make a positive difference in the lives of educators and students.

As I told the interview committee when I sought this role, public education is the most critical thing we do in our society. It is at a breaking point. But we also have a unique opportunity to demand better for ourselves and our students as we recover from the pandemic. What does better look like? It can be hard to imagine when reality is stiflingly overwhelming. But our members have told us that better looks like racially just schools where every single student, no exceptions, can succeed. Better is prep time that is preserved, not squandered or taken. Better is classrooms that allow for individual attention; schools that can meet the overwhelming mental health needs of students and staff; ESP jobs that pay living wages; and more. In short, fully funded, fully resourced schools—better education. Call me an idealist, but I believed that this was possible when I started teaching. I still believe it today. I believe it ’s possible because we have strong locals that are supported by talented staff.

I serve as the chief-of-staff for your union. In that role, I work with the talented, diligent, thoughtful, passionate Education Minnesota staff. They are your—and our organization’s—greatest resource. No other organization or union can at the same time help you build a local campaign, advocate for stable annual funding at the Legislature, work to get pro-union school board candidates elected, support your bargaining team in winning important contract provisions, help you pass a referendum and ensure that a colleague gets a mental health leave before they quit their job. We have experts who defend your license. We have lawyers who fight for your right to express yourself and the right of all workers to organize. We have finance staff who help you keep your books and file your 990s. We have field staff who if they don’t know something (they usually do), they will find it. We simultaneously keep up several social media accounts for you to share an excellent lesson idea or when you need a great meme to give you a laugh. Your staff is here to make you successful in all of the glamorous and unglamorous work that you do - for all the big and small feats that you take on.

As a staff, our work is to carry out the mission and vision of our members. The Governing Board set three core priorities for the 2021-22 school year. These goals encompass much of the work we do across the organization. Since January 2022, departments have been working collaboratively to align their work with these organizational priorities. The priorities are:• Priority 1: Racial equity. Co-create equitable schools and antiracist unions that welcome all, no matter their color,

orientation, economic status, religion, abilities or ZIP code.• Priority 2: Full funding. Establish a full and permanent funding system for our schools to have the resources they

need to deliver the education our students deserve from early childhood to post-secondary.• Priority 3: Strong locals. Grow the voice of educators at the local and state level to be powerful, trusted advocates

for public education.

What we have accomplished together living through a pandemic cannot be overstated. Actions—big and seemingly small—of unity, solidarity and strength have bolstered our colleagues and preserved our profession through incredible challenges. As you all adapted—through interruptions, changes in learning models, a critical shortage of grown-ups in buildings, and much more—we adapted too.

We are proud of the work we do with and for you. Below is a non-exhaustive list of some of the accomplishments we’ve made in the past year, but I invite you to read the department reports to get a sense of the rich value of your union membership.

• Racial and social justice:• Continued and expanded the groundbreaking work of our Racial Equity Advocates.• Expanded equity-focused professional development offerings.• Reviewed existing trainings in multiple departments with an equity lens.• Advocated for equity-based changes to Minnesota’s seniority statute, teacher of color support, and proven strategies

to reduce the opportunity gap at the Legislature (some of which we won!).• Expanded our forums for educators of color and supported local educator of color groups.• Examined our current equity work and made strategic recommendations for future work on the Racial Justice

Planning Committee.• Hired a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.• Supported multiple locals in defeating candidates running on anti-equity platforms.• Worked in coalition with Kids Count on Us to advocate for universal access to child care.

• Full funding: • Supported unprecedented member activism during the 2021 legislative session that included thousands of member

phone calls and emails, hundreds of participants in virtual lobby days, 60+ local events or actions in support of school funding and 20,000 petition signatures.

• Shut down the voicemail inboxes of multiple lawmakers with floods of phone calls supporting school funding at the end of the regular legislative session.

• Supported multiple locals in advanced bargaining and bargaining for the common good initiatives to win significant wage increases and/or bonuses, especially for ESP members.

• Supported the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals during their 3-week strike that won history-making victories in both the teacher and ESP contract.

• Organized pressure campaigns, community events and rallies to support raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations as a part of the We Make MN coalition.

• Strong locals:• Supported locals in advocating around COVID safety and leave issues.• Organized six new locals, including two large charter schools, bringing the power of unionism to more education

workers.• Worked with several locals on rallies, school board demonstrations and community events as a part of contract

bargaining campaigns.• Defended members’ rights at the building, district and PELSB levels.• Helped locals negotiate contract provisions and MOUs to deal with the staffing crisis plaguing our schools.• Defended the value of and need for prep time at the local and state levels.• Provided over 20,000 high-quality professional development opportunities just on our online platform (MEA Online)

alone and provided member benefits sessions to hundreds of members.• Embraced and helped locals build power as they were going through tragedies—school shootings, suicides, racial

tensions, anti-LGBTQ movements, attacks at school board meetings, and more.• Supported early career educator retention with two groundbreaking programs, the Early Career Teaching Seminar,

a graduate-credit earning course provided to union members and Educators Leading the Profession, a mentorship platform.

As I write this, I realize that despite incredible adversity, we have made major gains together. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Are the conditions in our buildings and worksites acceptable? Unequivocally no. Do we have far more to do to bend the arc of justice? Absolutely. But far too often, and especially when we are under assault, we forget to take time to recognize how far we have come. This has been an incredibly hard year for our members. As a result, it is an incredibly hard year for our staff and union. But we held one another up. We came through. We are more powerful as a result of our victories and our failures.

I cannot wait to work more for and with all of you.

Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning reportDayonna Knutson, director

Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Staff• Melissa Del Rosario, collaboration lab coordinator • Leah Vaughn, foundation assistant

Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Board of Trustees:• Tucker Quetone, Rochester, Congressional District 1,

Foundation board president• OPEN, Congressional District 2• Valarie McWilliams Jones, Osseo, Congressional

District 3• Lisa Nelson, Mounds View, Congressional District 4• Kamille Wells, Minneapolis, Congressional District 5• Michelle Urevig-Grilz, Minneapolis, Congressional

District 6• Peter Ray, Southwest West Central Service,

Congressional District 7

• Dawn Paro-Strother, Duluth, Congressional District 8• Myriam Castro-Franco, Richfield, At-large• Kent Quamme, MSCF, At-large• Becky Hespen, Osseo, ESP/At-large• Sue Westegaard, Retired• Denise Specht, Centennial (on leave), Education

Minnesota president• Ryan Fiereck, St. Francis (on leave), Education

Minnesota vice president• Rodney Rowe, Worthington (on leave), Education

Minnesota secretary-treasurer

Mission:Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Promoting vision, best practices, and achievement.

Beliefs:• We advocate continuous improvement in education and the practice of teaching.• We believe quality educators are the key ingredient in quality public education.• We believe in access to quality educational opportunities for all Minnesotans.• We believe research-based applications provide the basis for improved teaching • and learning.• We believe Education Minnesota members committing their own financial resources to the Foundation promote

and provide for creative innovations in teaching and learning.

The Education Minnesota Foundation board continues to strive to meet the needs of educators by supporting innovative projects, professional development and programs uniting educators with non-profit organizations to make systemic change. The increased number of applications for grants during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic are proof of the dedication educators have for the profession and the students in Minnesota.

The Foundation provides opportunities for members to be creative and implement new ideas in the classroom and the school environment. Twenty-five Classroom-focused and Second Year Classroom-focused Grants were awarded in 2021-22. These projects improve teaching and learning by expanding the scope and reach of a grantee’s classroom projects

The Foundation supports members’ individual efforts to improve their professional practice. Fifty-three Professional Development Grants were awarded to education support professionals (ESPs), classroom teachers and higher education faculty. These funds allow Education Minnesota members at all levels to engage in professional development. The

National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT) Scholarship was awarded to 10 members. The Foundation awarded two IMPACT grants and one Second Year IMPACT grant that promotes the research, development and adoption of policies and practices that become the basis for systemic change.

Melissa Del Rosario, the Collaboration Lab Coordinator, works with Minnesota’s educators, leadership and community partners to build positive relationships that help create systems and structures that support collaboration, deepen understanding of stakeholders, and provide honest feedback that can lead to better outcomes on a specific project. By building towards the sustainability of these systems and structures, this work helps to ensure collaboration takes place regardless of the personalities of stakeholders and that we reach positive outcomes on a shared goal, project or objective.

Based on feedback from several months of 1:1 meetings, small and large group discussions and staff planning sessions, the Collaboration Lab will now focus primarily on both increasing the diversity of applicants and lowering the barriers for IMPACT grant applications to support these greater systemic changes in our public schools. Members can access this support through three different pathways with Collaboration Lab staff:

1. Members can request consultation prior to completing grant applications,

2. Following an IMPACT grant denial, members may receive consultation and/or coaching to assist with future applications, and/or

3. Exit interviews will now be required upon completion of an IMPACT grant to assist with the sustainability and future of the work.

The next phase of the Collaboration Lab realignment will focus on developing a public relations strategy to ensure these new systems of support are well advertised to the membership.

For more information about the grants and scholarships offered by the Education Minnesota Foundation or the Collaboration Lab, please visit www.edmnfoundation.org. You may also contact Dayonna Knutson, Foundation Director, at [email protected] or 651-292-4834. For questions about the collaborative work in buildings or districts, contact Melissa Del Rosario, Collaboration Lab Coordinator, at [email protected].

Retired reportPresident: Julie Jagusch Education Minnesota Retired tracks three different membership numbers: • Retired – members who have joined through a paid membership or through continuous membership.• Continuous membership – members who joined through continuous membership.• Continuous initial year – members who joined through continuous membership and 2021 was the initial year

of retired membership.

As of Aug. 31, 2021, Education Minnesota Retired had 8,624 members, 1,860 of those who joined through continuous membership and 604 of those who were in their initial year.

Through the Education Minnesota Retired website, Facebook page, monthly Retired Insider e-newsletter, and ACTION newsletter, we effectively communicate with our members. Our website is updated frequently with an events calendar, newsletter postings, conference and meeting registration forms and more. In an effort to communicate more efficiently, Education Minnesota Retired is continuously working to enhance its database of email addresses.

There has been limited activity since the last Retired Annual Meeting due to the continuation of the Coronavirus. We had to cancel our Fall Conference and our Fall Breakfast in 2021. We were able to hold a joint conference with the Wisconsin Education Association Council – Retired in November. This conference was held in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. We heard from NEA - Retired President Sarah Borgman, NEA Executive Committee member Ronald (Duff) Martin, and former NEA Executive Director John Stocks. The next joint conference is scheduled for November 2022 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In September 2022, we hope to hold a Fall Conference at Ruttger’s. However, we wait to see which of our activities we can resume, and when we can resume them. We continue to look for additional ways to better connect with our members.

Retired members continue to be active in the political arena and contribute to the Education Minnesota PAC and NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. Several members of the Education Minnesota Governing Board regularly observe the virtual meetings of the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement and work with the Public Employees Pension Coalition. Members will again be asked this fall to assist in elections. It is important that we continue to elect individuals who are supportive of our issues, such as a stable pension fund, health care and public education. We support Education Minnesota’s campaign for full funding of public education.

The NEA-Retired Annual Meeting was held virtually last summer, from June 23-24. Nine Education Minnesota Retired delegates attended this meeting online and the virtual NEA Representative Assembly in July 2021. Delegates will be attending the NEA Retired Annual Meeting and the NEA Representative Assembly this coming June and July in Chicago. These meetings will be hybrid, with some delegates attending in person and some attending virtually.

In addition, Education Minnesota member Roberta Margo is a member of the NEA-Retired Executive Committee, member Judy Rohde represents NEA-Retired on the NEA Board of Directors, and member Walt Munsterman serves on the AFT Retired Program and Policy Council.

I want to thank the leadership of Education Minnesota, President Denise Specht, former Vice President Bernie Burnham, Interim Vice President Ryan Fiereck, and Secretary-Treasurer Rodney Rowe for their support of our organization. Vice President Burnham served as our liaison to the active organization and attended most of our events. The work of all members who have volunteered their time, including Retired Governing Board members, committee chairs and committee members, is very much appreciated. Additional thanks to all of our members who attended our virtual meetings and functions this past year. Without members, there would be no Education Minnesota Retired.

The assistance from Education Minnesota staff -- Shelley MacDonald, Christine Thornborrow, Stephanie Berg and Deborah Skog -- is very valuable to the operation of Education Minnesota Retired. Their support helps our organization move forward.

Retired Governing BoardEffective April 23, 2022• President: Julie Jagusch• Vice President: Wes Tessman• Treasurer: Bob Millette• Secretary: Sharon Kjellberg• Past President: Larry Koenck• Retired District 1a Director: Cathy Stringfield• Retired District 1b Director: Diane Larson• Retired District 2a Director: Wes Hanna• Retired District 2b Director: Vacant• Retired District 3 Director: Dan Larson• Retired District 3 Director: Elaine Rothman• Retired District 4 Director: Joan Beaver• Retired District 4 Director: Judy Rohde

• Retired District 5 Director: Myrna Doran• Retired District 5 Director: Pixie Pixler• Retired District 6a Director: Bob Nystrom• Retired District 6b Director: Susan Witt• Retired District 7a Director: Roger Josephson• Retired District 7b Director: Jayne Schwalbach• Retired District 8a Director: Roberta Margo• Retired District 8b Director: Jan Cummings• At Large: Jeanne Brown-Kruesel• At Large: Walter Munsterman• At Large – ESP: John Lipke• At Large – Higher Ed: Vacant

Committee chairs• Bylaws: Walter Munsterman• Communications: Myrna Doran/Lori Nord• Finance: Bob Millette• Legislative Action: Joan Beaver

• Membership: Judy Rohde• Nominations and Elections: Jayne Schwalbach• Program: Lois Wendt• Statements of Principal: Wes Tessman

Education Minnesota Retired staff• Shelley MacDonald• Christine Thornborrow

• Deborah Skog• Stephanie Berg

ESI leadership reportPeter Eckhoff, ESI board chair Shelley MacDonald, ESI executive directorThe 2020-21 fiscal year was another extraordinary year for members and ESI business partners. Although there was a return to classrooms, the pandemic still continued to challenge educators. Cue member benefits and our ability to help members save time, money and provide peace of mind when their professional lives are so complicated. ESI and its partners continued to work with and through local leaders, field staff and directly with members to provide much-needed resources to meet their needs. Inquiries and planning for an earlier retirement, as well as questions about mental health resources, were top of mind for educators.

MissionESI remains committed to empower members to maximize their hard-earned dollars, plan for their future and protect themselves and loved ones by providing member-only programs and services. Using the bargaining power of more than 80,000 members, ESI negotiates discounts and special benefit options on programs for members, thereby strengthening their connection to the union. The member-led ESI advisory committee regularly reviews programs and provides valuable insight and feedback to ensure programs are relevant and meet the needs of all members. ESI also helps members find value in benefits provided by the national unions, AFT and NEA.

Support, commitment and partnership with Education MinnesotaAlthough ESI is self-supporting, the revenue generated from members participating in benefit programs goes right back to members and the organization in the form of programming, education and contributions. ESI makes significant contributions to Education Minnesota to enhance events and the overall member experience. • Identity theft recovery plan for active members, compliments of ESI ($63,000)• Advertising support: ads in the Educator, local and IO calendars/desk calendars ($23,000)• Educational seminars for members all across the state • ESI rents office space in several EdMN field offices so EFS Advisors can conveniently meet with members in the

locals they service ($77,000)• ESI makes an annual contribution to the Education Minnesota Foundation from funds raised at the annual charitable

golf tournament ($42,000 - $849,000 since the tournament’s inception in 1993)

Financial strength In fiscal 2020-21, participation in member benefits generated $1,289,536 in revenue, offset by $804,281 in expenses and $143,243 in income taxes. ESI remains well-poised to continue to support Education Minnesota and individual members through contributions, service and consumer education.

Financial overview

FY 2020-21 FY 2019-20 FY 2018-19

Total Revenue 1,289,536 1,063,353 1,187,000

Total Expenses 804,281 768,403 814,000

Taxes 143,243 85,249 170,000

Net Income 342,012 209,701 266,000

Member-driven, member-approved programs The ESI advisory committee is comprised of members from each Education Minnesota election district and all membership categories. The committee reviews programs and makes recommendations for sponsorship. In order to determine whether a program is worthy of sponsorship, the committee uses such selection criteria as price, value, integrity of the company providing the product or service, the company’s commitment to members and the organization and more. At the January 2021 meeting, ESI advisory committee members reviewed four existing programs: Tradition Mortgage, the PerksConnect online discount program, and the Travelers and Liberty Mutual auto and home insurance programs. All of the programs were recommended for continuous sponsorship. The committee also met in April 2021 to discuss the role of the committee in bringing benefits direct to members via the member benefit ambassador program.

Ambassadors provide local level engagementThe member benefit ambassador program was launched in 2019 when ESI teamed up with NEA Member Benefits to become the first state to pilot the ambassador program. Member ambassadors see the added value of member benefits as a way to engage members. Initially, there were four ambassadors promoting member benefits in their locals, including Barnesville, Dakota County United Educators, New London Spicer and Osakis. Recently, the ambassador program has expanded to include ESI advisory committee members since they represent all parts of the state and all membership categories.

Ambassadors provide opportunities for members to learn about ESI, NEA and AFT benefit programs. Through 10-minute member benefits meetings and convenient electronic enrollment for complimentary benefits such as the identity theft recovery plan, ambassadors play a critical role in shining a spotlight on the added value these programs provide to members. In addition to ready-to-go links, flyers and short benefit highlights prepared by ESI and NEAMB, ambassadors have been quite creative. ESI creates opportunities for ambassadors to share their creative messaging with one another and also provides a suggested calendar of topics so it ’s as easy as possible for the ambassador to share with their colleagues. With the return to more in-person meetings and events, opportunities to engage will increase.

Retirement readiness

Forty-five EFS Advisors located across Minnesota stand ready to help members plan for retirement. Advisors encourage early career educators to begin contributing to 403(b) accounts and help them understand the importance of budgeting and saving with through tax-deferred accounts. Members closer to retirement are generally interested in learning

about their pension options, how to coordinate with supplemental savings/investment plans and what to expect from social security. EFS Advisors can also assist members with life insurance, legacy planning, college savings planning and more. Members have opened over 39,000 accounts with EFS Advisors since the program sponsorship in 1989. Almost 950 accounts were opened in the 2020-21 school year.

Another way members learn about planning for retirement is through ESI’s financial and retirement planning seminars. While normally held at Education Minnesota field offices, these seminars have gone virtual for the last two years. Redeveloping our seminars to work well in a virtual setting was a much-needed change and continues to be well received by educators. Member feedback shows they appreciate the condensed and convenient one-hour virtual format. When we return to in-person seminars, we will continue to offer some virtual sessions to reach more members when and where it ’s convenient for them. So far in the 2021-22 fiscal year, we have already provided 38 virtual seminars.

Work in progress

Meeting members’ needsIn 2021, ESI set out to develop a new communication strategy based on data obtained from member surveys and focus groups. The overall goals are to ensure we are doing our very best to meet the needs of all members, and not only have confidence in the programs we offer, but also the way in which we communicate their value to members. With that in mind, a request went out to Education Minnesota members—looking for member volunteers to be part of a series of focus groups. There were many interested members and the (virtual) seats filled up quickly. Volunteers represented teachers, ESPs and members of color, as well as urban, ex-urban and rural Minnesota.

The data coming out of the focus groups has shed some light on communication preferences, including the method and frequency with which members want to hear from us. Additionally, there was a clear consensus among focus group participants that peer-to-peer recommendations and testimonials are more valuable than any other source. This confirms that our work with the member benefit ambassador program is moving us in the right direction.

Colleague-to-colleague engagement In the coming year, we will continue to expand the member benefit ambassador program in hopes of creating excitement around member benefits. There are so many examples of members saving money, saving time and wishing they would have known about ESI programs sooner. What better way to know a program provides value than by hearing about it from a colleague/friend? That is what we have heard from members recently in focus groups. With that in mind, we are going to use the recommendations from actual members to foster colleague-to-colleague testimonials.

Through regular communications and sharing of best practices, ambassadors will be empowered to share with their colleagues how member benefits can help members in their personal and professional and lives and further strengthen their connection to the union. We will pay close attention to what is working, what the member benefit ambassadors are finding in their locals in terms of needs that aren’t being met and assist members when and where they need help.

Using a racial equity lens ESI will use a racial equity lens when approaching all of our work. From our staff who work directly with

members, to those representing our advisory committee, to the companies who offer programs to members - it is important that we seek to understand our own frames of reference, the potential bias in these frames

and their impact on expectations for and relationships with members we are working with. Additionally, ESI will work with all sponsored program providers to ensure their program offerings are designed to meet the needs of all members. We will examine barriers that may exist when it comes to participation in member benefit programs and work to provide solutions. Some initial steps of the plan include: • Cultural competency training for ESI staff and business partners.• Focus groups – subsequent work to identify barriers with programs and seek out additional programs to meet needs.

• Committee representation – work toward diversity among member representation.• Review current programs and identify potential barriers.

Created in 1973, ESI is the member benefit arm of Education Minnesota, created to offer products and services to enhance members’ economic status by providing programs of exceptional value. As a for profit subsidiary of Education Minnesota, ESI is self-supporting and all ESI revenues inure to the benefit of the membership and the organization.

ESI staff• Stephanie Berg, office and events specialist• Shelley MacDonald, executive director• Deb Skog, office and events specialist• Christine Thornborrow, marketing director

Field Services reportRob Gardner, directorThe Field Services Department works directly with local leaders and members to empower them through advocacy and organizing. We connect members, leaders and locals with statewide Education Minnesota programs and resources.

Field Services supports locals in membership recruitment and retention efforts, including assisting locals with developing and implementing member recruitment activities and member engagement plans. Field staff and field office professional staff assist locals with membership processing and rosters as well as help support local membership contacts.

We deliver training to leaders and members on a wide variety of topics, with a focus on building local union strength. Field staff and organizers lead trainings on member rights advocacy, contract negotiations, organizing skills and tactics, and leadership development. Staff also deliver trainings on special topics and areas related to educator relicensure credits.

We work with bargaining teams and local settlement teams to help negotiate collective bargaining agreements. We help locals defend their collective bargaining agreements through member rights advocacy and organizing. We advise and represent members to uphold their rights.

We support locals in their issue organizing and member engagement efforts. We organize new locals. We advise local leaders on education issues and help with professional development. We coordinate Education Minnesota campaign and lobby efforts with locals and Intermediate Organizations.

As of this report, we represent: • 471 locals of licensed pre-K-12 members in public and private schools, education districts and state residential

schools. Within the 471 locals we have: • Six charter school locals.• Four private school locals. • 111 education support professional locals.

• 39 local chapters, covering 47 campuses, in our Minnesota State College Faculty state affiliate. • One faculty union at UM-Duluth and UM-Crookston.

Since last year’s Representative Convention, Education Minnesota has added the following new locals:• Brainerd Confidential Employees ESP. • Great River School Union (charter school).• Hiawatha Academies Workers Union (charter school).• Ortonville ESP. • Springfield ESP. • West Central Education District.

We also had one local—Grand Rapids Secretaries Local #4849—decertify in September 2021.

Over the past year, Field Services has undergone significant changes in the department, both in terms of structure and staff.

In Fall 2021, as the result of studies of our field and organizing programs, Education Minnesota decided to move three organizing specialists from the Policy and Professional Practice department to Field Services. At the same time, the Education Minnesota Governing Board authorized the hiring of three additional organizing specialists. This reorganization will better support locals in their organizing efforts, as well as streamline and coordinate the work of field staff and field organizing specialists.

Field staff and organizing specialists are starting their collaborative teamwork with 49 locals across the state, with a goal to help the locals develop additional capacity to engage members on issues of local importance. These are longer-term projects aimed at creating sustainable structures, develop leaders, and build power within our locals..

In addition to this longer-term capacity-building work, field staff and organizing specialists—often along with communications staff—work to support locals on more immediate, short-term projects. For example, if a local is experiencing challenges in bargaining, a staff team may be assembled to assist the local in identifying immediate needs and working to address the challenges.

The department has also seen a number of changes with staff due to several retirements and transfers over the past year. An asterisk (*) below indicates the staff member is new either to the specific assignment or new to Education Minnesota staff since last year’s Representative Convention.

Leadership team• Rob Gardner, director of field services • Sarah Derdoski*, manager of field and organizing • Dan Rivera, manager of field services • Sara Schumacher*, executive assistant

Field offices

Anoka• Jennifer Adriaens, Field office assistant • Anna Dougherty, Field staff • David Hoaglund, Field staff • David Kundin, Field staff • Becky Marshman*, Field office assistant

Apple Valley• Teresa Gregory, Field office assistant • Cheryl Rosheim, Field staff • Aaron VanMoorlehem, Field staff

Bemidji • Andrea Johnson, Field office assistant • Vanessa Pulkrabek, Field staff • Kevin Young, Field staff

Brooklyn Park • Dorothy Abellard*, Field office assistant • Beth Anderson, Field staff • Duane Anderson, Field staff • Jillian Anderson, Field office assistant • Paul Seeba*, Field staff

Detroit Lakes • Libby Erickson*, Field staff • Rhonda Hopkins, Field office assistant • Michelle Jensen, Field staff • Blake Plankers, Field staff

Duluth • Kathleen Adee, Field staff • Evan Sandstede, Field staff • Melinda Thibault*, Field office assistant

Hibbing • Joe Cerar*, Field staff • Sarah Hron, Field office assistant • Evan Sandstede, Field staff

Mankato • Scott Allen, Field staff • Jan Anderson, Field staff • Donna Leff, Field office assistant • Brian Triplett*, Field staff

New Brighton • Barb Palma, Field office assistant • Jeremy Swensen, Field staff

Rochester • Bret Behnke*, Field staff • Kathy Erie, Field office assistant • Linda Pfeilsticker*, Field staff • Karen Martinez*, Field office assistant • Curt Rock, Field staff

Southwest Metro • Luke Fernholz, Field staff • Marie Fernholz, Field staff • Dennis Fischer, Field staff • Christeen Gotsch, Field office assistant • Eric Herrmann, Field staff • Deb Johnson, Field staff • Bonita Jones, Field staff • Taylor Marinkovich, Field office assistant • Katy Tharaldson*, Field staff

St. Cloud • Rose Lendt*, Field staff • Emily Mateo, Field staff • Jodi Meyer, Field staff • Sandy Miller, Field staff • Alexis Nelson-Sivertson* Field staff • Kari Rehrauer*, Field staff • Monica Sturm, Field office assistant • Clara Waddell, Field office assistant • Deb Zinda Hanson, Field office assistant

• Windom • Alicia Entinger, Field office assistant • Brian Michelson*, Field staff • James Schmidt, Field staff

Woodbury • Alyssa Mueller, Field staff • Wendy Nelson, Field office assistant • Kevin Nielsen, Field staff • Tony Vega, Field staff • Steve Winge, Field staff

MSCF (Minnesota State College Faculty) • Molly Adams*, Executive assistant • Renate Behrendt, Field office assistant • Kari Ann Cruz, Field staff • Charles Dykstra, Field staff • Matt Ryg, Field staff

Field Organizing Team• Amy Derwinski, Organizing specialist• Jesse Dykhuis*, Organizing specialist• Sam Jasenosky, Organizing office assistant• Kris Klein*, Organizing specialist

• Bridget Moore, Organizing specialist• Ilissa Morrow*, Organizing specialist• Caitlin Reid*, Organizing specialist

Part-Time Field Staff ProgramThe Education Minnesota Part-Time Field Staff program is designed to provide training and hands-on field staff work experience under the guidance of current field staff mentors. Part-time field staff employees continue to work full time as teachers or ESPs while working up to 300 hours per year for Education Minnesota.

Each part-time field staff commits to a two-year appointment. Currently, part-time staff include: • Erin Azer, Woodbury office • Richard Bettini, Apple Valley office • Bret Dahlseid, Detroit Lakes office • Janie Gholston, Southwest Metro office • La Shawn Hankton, Anoka office

• Russ Hinrichs, Detroit Lakes office • Kari Peterson, St. Cloud office • Scott Robinson, Mankato office • Sumair Sheikh, Duluth office • Kelly Sokolowski, Woodbury office

Intermediate OrganizationsIntermediate organizations (IOs) are regional networks of locals—both ESP and teacher—working together on issues of common interest. Education Minnesota has 20 IOs across the state. Each IO has a unique voice, reflective of the geography, size, and history of its locals. The IOs are:• Cannon Valley UniServ • Central Area Council • Central Lakes United • Education Minnesota Central • Education

Minnesota Western North • Education

Minnesota Western South

• Great River Area Council • Great Southwest United • Hiawatha Valley Teachers United • Iron Range Service Unit • Kramer Brown • Lake Superior Service Unit • Metro Area Council

• Metro West • Mid-Minnesota United • Minnesota Valley UniServ • Northland United • Northwest Metro Area Council • South Suburban United • South Central Minnesota UniServ

IOs promote strong, effective locals. They foster solidarity among locals, and they provide support systems that allow members to develop at the local, regional and state levels. The IO philosophy is driven by the belief that locals will achieve their objectives most effectively by acting in unison with other locals.

Each IO has an assigned field staff and field office assistant who work to support the IOs’ leaders and activities.

This year, as the pandemic continued, IOs expanded how they schedule meetings and events. Many IOs have adopted a blend of in-person, hybrid and virtual meetings to meet member needs, and IOs have promoted union skill-building and professional development both through in-person drive-ins and seminars as well as through MEA Online. One positive learning from the pandemic is the need to adapt and diversify how we offer members entry-points to union work, and IOs are on the leading edge of this evolution.

Higher Ed: Minnesota State College Faculty (MSCF)

MSCF and Membership Minnesota State College Faculty (MSCF) is the exclusive representative for the college faculty at the two-year public colleges in Minnesota State. MSCF includes faculty who are instructors for technical programs, liberal arts/general education, farm and small business management programs, librarians, and counselors. MSCF has approximately 4,400 faculty members in the bargaining unit at this time. Contract language requires that 70 percent of faculty statewide have full-time permanent continuing appointments, while 30 percent are in temporary appointments. As of March, the MSCF overall membership rate is 63.9 percent, and is down from 66 percent the previous year.

Campaign, Political and Governmental Relations

MSCF conducted a virtual lobby week during the 2022 legislative session. The virtual kick off began with a town hall-style event on MSCF legislative priorities and messaging, how to best use meeting time with legislators, and how to lobby effectively. The kick off town hall was followed by several days of members holding meetings with their area legislators.

Governance and Leadership MSCF leaders have been meeting virtually since the beginning of the pandemic. This includes two Delegate Assemblies (DAs). The DA is the highest level of governance within MSCF and involves approximately 200 delegates from chapters across the state. In addition, as of the writing of this report, the election for MSCF president and MSCF secretary was in process.

Member Rights, Organizing and Negotiations MSCF has been pushing back on the new course delivery modality of “hyflex.” The MnState system created this course delivery mode during the pandemic without bargaining the terms and conditions with MSCF. This has been identified as a priority for the organization and they have filed a class action grievance, in addition to bargaining proposals defining the work and compensation.

MSCF has seen an erosion of faculty counselors on two-year college campuses over the past decade. In many situations, counselors who have either retired or been laid off have been replaced by psychologists, social workers, and other mental health providers. While MSCF acknowledges that these professionals can be important in meeting the needs of students, MSCF asserts that counselors play the essential role at the campus level. As a second priority to the aforementioned “hyflex” assignments, MSCF has forwarded this matter to the Education Minnesota legal department for arbitration.

MSCF is negotiating its next contract and has met with the employer’s bargaining team on multiple occasions over the past year. In this round of negotiations, MSCF enlisted NEA resources in support of its efforts at the bargaining table. An audit of MnState fiscal data compiled by the NEA-Higher Ed division revealed that the MnState system has enhanced its financial resources by over 20 percent since 2018. Additionally, an NEA costing spreadsheet, coupled with close scrutiny of the fiscal data provided by MnState at the bargaining table, has shown that the employer routinely overestimates the costs associated with MSCF bargaining proposals.

To effectively engage members in the bargaining process, MSCF has developed Bargaining Action Teams (BATs) on campuses across the state. One result of this process has been much more widespread and decentralized engagement with contract negotiations. MSCF members generated 360+ letters from faculty to the Minnesota State bargaining team to demonstrate the priority and urgency of faculty contract proposals. Organizing to support bargaining is ongoing.

University Education Association The University Education Association (UEA) represents faculty at the University of Minnesota Duluth and Crookston campuses.

Membership Membership is holding steady at 58 percent. The local hosts several meetings with potential members to share with them the value of joining the UEA. Membership applications continue to come in throughout the year.

Negotiations UEA settled a two-year contract in August 2021. They fought a good fight and had some victories that they intend to build upon in 2023. The local continues to advocate for term faculty employment stability and a professional salary.

Member Rights UEA emphasizes member rights and grievance processing as part of their recruitment efforts. Several issues reach the executive committee each year and they are fully discussed and processed.

Organizing UEA continues to focus on recruitment and retention of members. In June 2021, the Organizing and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committees participated in a full day of training facilitated by several Education Minnesota staff. Each committee left with a plan for the 2021-22 academic year.

Social Justice The DEI Committee has a spring union labor film series scheduled with an emphasis on how unions have lifted the wages and working conditions for all workers. They are focused on amplifying underrepresented members in the local.

Education Minnesota Aspiring Educators The Education Minnesota Aspiring Educators (EMAE) program consists of 4,667 individuals currently enrolled in a teacher preparation program at a Minnesota college or university. While the program traditionally boasts closer to 6,000 members, declining enrollment in teacher prep programs nationwide has most certainly impacted the program in Minnesota as well.

Aspiring educators typically join the program as a matter of course, as one of the benefits of membership is no-cost liability insurance—which is a student teaching and practicum requirement for most colleges and universities. However, as is the case with all union memberships, there are many other benefits that program staff work to engage aspiring educators in.

The program’s structure mirrors that of a traditional union, with an elected statewide council and chapter (campus-based) presidents. The council typically holds five official business meetings each year, and two additional informal social gatherings.

The council also hosts two conferences each year—one in the fall and one in the spring. The spring conference will be April 8-9 in the Twin Cities area. The conference will include a heavy focus on gathering information from members about how the EMAE program can better respond to and serve their needs as aspiring educators—information program staff will use to inform strategic planning for the program for the coming year.

EMAE members build their leadership skills and participate in several leadership opportunities, including the Education Minnesota Representative Convention, NEA Aspiring Educator Conference, NEA Representative Assembly, and the Teacher of the Year committee. The EMAE staff team is working to continue its engagement with chapters and advisors by providing training on campuses. The entire EMAE program is excited for the opportunity to connect face-to-face when we can safely return to some semblance of normal.

Organizing For Settlement FundAs defined in Education Minnesota’s Constitution and Bylaws, locals may access funding through the Organizing for Settlement Fund to support locals’ efforts to negotiate strong collective bargaining agreements.

To access funds, locals must first request an assessment meeting by submitting an email to the Education Minnesota president. Following the assessment meeting, the local submits a written assessment and organizing plan to the Organizing for Settlement Fund Committee for consideration.

As locals settle their contracts, they submit receipts and documentation to Education Minnesota within 60 days of ratification in order to have 80 percent of eligible expenses converted to a grant, subject to Organizing for Settlement Committee and Governing Board approval.

There are currently 105 locals in various phases of the Organizing for Settlement Fund process (from initial assessment meeting request to funds outstanding for settled contracts). There are 89 active loans that total $2,084,461.06. While all locals with loans from the 2019-21 cycle have settled contracts, several loans are still active; the various pandemic school closings and learning model transitions have slowed the submission of some documentation needed to transition loans into final grants.

Settlement Assessment Historical Data

Fiscal YearNumber of

Assessment Meetings

2009-10 79

2010-11 27

2011-12 51

2012-13 36

2013-14 50

2014-15 75

2015-16 41

Fiscal YearNumber of

Assessment Meetings

2016-17 77

2017-18 37

2018-19 67

2019-20 46

2020-21 55

2021-22 (to date) 30

Locals Receiving Organizing for Settlement Loans During the 2021-23 Contract Cycle• Aitkin • Anoka Hennepin • Austin • Bagley• Barnum • Blue Earth • Buffalo • Cambridge Isanti • Cannon Valley ESP • Chaska • Chatfield • Cloquet • Crosby-Ironton • Delano • Dillworth-Glyndon-Felton • Duluth • Eden Prairie • Edina • Elk River • Ely • Fergus Falls • Forest Lake ESP

• Fridley • Goodhue • Grand Meadow • Grand Rapids • Grand Rapids ESP • Greenway • Houston • International Falls ESP • ISD 917 ESP • ISD 917 • Jordan • Kenyon-Wanamingo • La Crescent • Lake City • Lake City Para• Lake Superior • Lakeville • Litchfield • Luverne • Mankato • Maple Lake • Martin County West

• Martin County West Paras

• Milaca • Minneapolis ESPs • Minneapolis Teachers • Minnetonka • Minnewaska • Montevideo • Moorhead • Mora • Mounds View • MSCF • New London-Spicer • New London-Spicer ESP • New Prague • New York Mills • Nicollet • North Branch EA • Osseo • Osseo ESP • Pine Island • Plainview-Elgin-Millville

• Rock Ridge • Sartell • Sauk Rapids-Rice • Shakopee • St. Croix • St. Croix River Ed. District • St. Louis County • St. Louis Park

ESP SPARK • St. Michael-Albertville • Stewartville • UEA - Crookston • Waconia • Wayzata • West St. Paul • Willmar • Worthington • Wright Tech Center • Zumbrota Mazeppa • Zumbrota Mazeppa ESP

General Counsel/Legal Department reportDavid Aron, general counsel

Legal department staff:• Deb Corhouse, staff attorney• Allison Cossetta, legal assistant• Cedrick Frazier, staff attorney• Tracy Janiak, legal assistant• Paula Johnston, staff attorney

• Sarah Litz, legal assistant• Meg Luger-Nikolai, staff attorney• Jonathan Reiner, staff attorney• Eva Wood, staff attorney

OverviewThe Education Minnesota legal department provides a wide variety of legal services to members and locals, ranging from job protection matters to contract enforcement and unfair labor practices, to defense of public sector union rights. Our robust training and learning sessions on legal issues help members and staff identify and manage situations as they arise. We focus on working closely with other department staff to provide prompt and accurate information, consultation, and advice to members, locals and affiliates. We provide legal support in all areas of Education Minnesota’s work, such as legislation, negotiations, professional development, organizing, vendor transactions and public campaigns and elections.

Member and local representationLast fiscal year (Sept. 1, 2020-Aug. 31, 2021), staff attorneys represented both individual members and locals/affiliates in more than 284 cases, compared to 354 in 2019-20 and 326 in 2018-19. These cases included:• 115 contract grievance cases, challenging violations of the collective bargaining agreement by an employer.• 37 licensure (boards of teaching, nursing, and social work) investigations• 4 long-term disability appeals• 10 unfair labor practice cases, many related to school districts refusals to bargain over the effects of their school

reopening plans on terms and conditions of employment• 22 unemployment appeals

The legal department also referred 19 members to outside counsel for representation in criminal investigations and 31 investigations of alleged maltreatment or neglect. The vast majority of allegations investigated by the Minnesota Department of Education and law enforcement do not result in findings of maltreatment or criminal charges. These outside attorney services are available to members at no charge as another benefit of union membership.

Although many of the grievances in which we represent locals are resolved through negotiated settlement agreements, the legal department also represents locals in binding arbitration when a favorable resolution to a grievance is not possible. In other cases, we defend members’ rights through legal actions in court, or unfair labor practice charges with the Minnesota Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). The following is a non-exhaustive list of cases we our department worked on during the 2020-21 membership year:

Fair Share Fees: Hoekman v. Education Minnesota, lawsuit continues While almost every court in the country to hear a post-Janus fair share fee refund case has dismissed the case, the lawsuit against Education Minnesota by three former members remains on appeal with the Eighth Circuit, which heard oral arguments Feb. 16, 2022, and will issue a decision this spring or early summer. Briefs are due in August. We have been successful at every stage of this litigation so far. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals from at

least five different appellate courts. NEA and AFT have assisted Education Minnesota by financing outside counsel to represent all the unions in this case.

Union Leave: Huizenga v. Anoka Hennepin Education MinnesotaIn December of 2020, three Anoka County taxpayers filed a lawsuit against the Anoka Hennepin School District as well as Anoka Hennepin Education Minnesota over a CBA provision giving the local up to 100 days of union release time. The plaintiffs argued that the leave violates the First Amendment, PELRA, and the gifts clause of the Minnesota Constitution because the local reimburses the District for the cost of a substitute teacher, whereas the plaintiffs argue that the reimbursement should be at the teacher’s daily rate of pay, plus benefits. On June 18, 2021, a federal district court dismissed the case, holding that the plaintiffs do not have standing as taxpayers to challenge the expenditure of funds in a manner in which they disagree absent a specific and unique harm. The plaintiffs have appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard arguments March 17, 2022, and will issue a decision this spring or summer. NEA and AFT have helped pay the costs of this litigation given the potential national impact.

Prep time: Union victory in EM Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton v. ISD 2164Education Minnesota represented the EM DGF local in challenging the District’s denial of additional preparation time under Governor Tim Walz’s Executive Order. The Court held that the District violated the order and needed to comply immediately. Education Minnesota also worked with the local and affected teachers to compensation claims for the period from March 15 until May 3, when the order was issued. On July 8, the District and the local reached an agreement to pay affected teachers a total of over $22,000.

Prep time: Favorable settlement in Rock Ridge Public Schools In a similar case to the one above, the local filed a grievance to challenge lost prep time in this newly consolidated school district, which was formerly Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert Public Schools. The District agreed to pay over $70,000 in compensation to staff who were denied the additional prep time to which they were entitled under Governor Walz’s Executive Order.

Severance: Union victory in MFT v. Minneapolis Public Schools After winning in arbitration, district court, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the School District challenged MFT’s victory in a severance case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. On June 15, the Court denied review, meaning that the teacher will finally receive her post-retirement severance contribution to her healthcare savings plan. Education Minnesota is working with the local on resolving severance claims for other similarly situated teachers who retired from MPS after being placed on ULA or taking leaves of absence to work in other districts.

Discipline: University Education Association (UEA) member settlementThe Legal Department worked with our Field Staff colleague to negotiate a significant financial settlement in the case of a UEA member who was unjustly suspended and subjected to a troubling performance improvement plan. The plan required the member to complete tasks that were demeaning and personally distressing. The member no longer wanted to work for UMD, so the settlement removed the suspension from the employee’s file and replaced it with a resignation. In addition, we negotiated a lump sum payment to the member in an amount equal to two years of salary and the dollar value of benefits that would have been earned during that two-year period (including retirement contributions). In total, the member received over $180,000. A settlement of this nature is rare, but was it warranted due to the egregious nature of this employer’s conduct.

Amicus Brief: Victory in Legal Challenge to State Employee ContractsEducation Minnesota worked with leaders from MSCF, SRSEA, and other state employee unions to submit an amicus brief in Koran v. Showalter, a case filed in state court in December of 2020 by two Republican legislators over pay increases for state employees. The plaintiffs, Sen. Mark Koran (North Branch) and Rep. Marion O’Neill (Maple Lake),

argued that by approving the pay increases in the contract even though the Senate set certain conditions on whether the pay increases would take effect, the State acted contrary to state law and exceeded its authority. In July of 2021, the Court held that the raises were valid because the legislature had in fact voted to ratify the state contracts. The plaintiffs have appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Education Minnesota will continue to monitor this case along with MSCF and SRSEA.

Layoff: Favorable Settlement for Education Minnesota EdinaFollowing three days of mediation, Education Minnesota Edina reached a $65,000 settlement for three laid-off ECFE teachers where the District failed to follow contract language in handling their layoffs.

Two Successful Challenges to Excessive DisciplineEducation Minnesota’s Legal Department worked with our colleagues in the field department to secure two recent victories in cases where continuing contract teachers were proposed for immediate termination by their school boards. For privacy reasons, we are not sharing details of these cases, but both involved excessive discipline for long-term employees who had no disciplinary history based on a single event. In both cases, the arbitrators applied Minnesota law and determined that the educators’ conduct warranted some discipline but not termination.

Unfair Labor Practice: Pine Island Education AssociationIn Pine Island, Education Minnesota helped the local resolve a dispute without a formal unfair labor practice charge after the District attempted to treat licensed school nurses as though they were not part of the teacher union. The District gave teachers some benefits that it did not provide to other staff, including cell phones, but also deprived them of a duty-free lunch and preparation time, in violation of the contract. The legal department advised the local and field staff on a ULP and grievance strategy to keep the nurses in the bargaining unit and get them their duty-free lunch and prep time. The local pursued an informal approach and secured the duty-free lunch and prep time for the nurses going forward. The parties are still bargaining their 2021-23 contract which may also include other benefits important to the nursing staff.

Unfair Labor Practice: St. Paul Federation of EducatorsEducation Minnesota represented SPFE in an unfair labor practice against St. Paul Public Schools. The local elected to leave the district’s insurance plan, which included an HRA, and move to PEIP effective Jan. 1, 2021. In August of 2020 the district unilaterally extended the deadline to submit requests for HRA reimbursements until June 30, 2021. It refused to negotiate with the local over the extension and refused to provide information the local requested regarding members’ HRA accounts. The hearing officer concluded that the decision to extend the deadline for the HRA was a mandatory subject of bargaining, and the district committed an unfair labor practice by refusing to negotiate the extension with the local. The hearing officer determined that the district committed another unfair labor practice by refusing to provide the local with information relating to the members’ HRA accounts.

Unfair Labor Practice: Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Education AssociationA long-time teacher and union leader (he had been negotiations chair), began raising concerns about the district’s lack of COVID-19 mitigation protocols almost as soon as they got back to school in August of 2020. The superintendent couldn’t handle the criticism and did the following: placed him on a protracted admin leave; gave him a bogus and truly stupid reprimand for “harassment” (i.e. taking picture of mask violations and non-existent social distancing), placing him on a partial ULA after cutting his extremely popular CTE course, and refusing to release a schedule so we could see if a recall was possible. So, in summary, they violated PELRA, OSHA, the Whistleblower Act, and the contract (often). The legal department worked with field staff to file a grievance, a layoff challenge, an unfair labor practice, and an OSHA complaint. We were able to reach a global settlement that included the withdrawal of all discipline from his file and a financial settlement of $10,000. The teacher was able to secure employment in another district at a higher salary.

Unfair Labor Practice: United Teachers of South Washington CountyIn response to the arrival of COVID-19 to Minnesota in the spring of 2020, the District canceled all extracurricular activities contracts. After cancelling the contracts, the district decided arbitrarily to pay an amount of 1/3 of the contract to each individual. UTSWC filed a grievance stating that the unilateral cancellation of the contracts was in violation of the CBA and that the contracts should be paid in full. The District refused to engage in the arbitration process so UTSWC filed a ULP claim. PERB validated the claim and assigned the case for a hearing. In the interim the District agreed to settle the matter by increasing the payout of the contracts to 50 percent.

Supporting educators and students through the COVID-19 pandemicAs is the case with our members and local leaders, COVID-19 and the myriad of challenges it has posed for schools, students, and educators has dominated our department’s work since March of 2020. Education Minnesota’s attorneys and other staff formed a “Coronavirus Rapid Response Team” to support staff, locals, and members in the following ways:• Interpreting Executive Orders and MDE Guidance related to the pandemic• Writing and updating FAQ documents regarding educator and student rights• Answering member and staff questions related to distance learning, contractual issues, employment rights, safety,

and vaccines• Helping individual members with health, safety and workload concerns seek relief through the grievance process

and other remedies• Advising Education Minnesota staff and locals on changes to election procedures, convention rules, and vendor/

hotel contract practices in light of the pandemic

Throughout the pandemic, we have been in frequent communication with the Minnesota Department of Education and education stakeholders advocating for safe working environments and manageable workloads for our members. We greatly appreciate all the additional effort and sacrifices our members and union leaders have made to ensure that students have the best learning opportunities possible during unprecedented times.

Supporting the Three Organizational Priorities Set by the Governing Board

Racial EquityThe Legal Department’s work on racial equity is both proactive and reactive. On the proactive side, attorneys and support staff have been updating our legal trainings to incorporate racial equity concepts into their professional practice. For instance, our training on student and staff safety includes information about the school-to-prison pipeline, ACES, and how implicit bias may shape educators’ perceptions of student behavior. In our training on educator speech rights, we discuss educator’s protections when challenging policies or actions that harm BIPOC students.

We have continued to represent and advocate for our members facing opposition or scrutiny from parents and administrators based on their advocacy for racial and social justice. Although we have a duty of fair representation to members facing discipline, this does not mean unions have an obligation to challenge any and all discipline, especially in cases where the member was afforded due process and the discipline is supported by just cause. When we do represent members accused of racial bias or insensitivity, we work to help them understand the impact of their conduct, even if they did not intend to cause harm. In some cases, that has involved connecting them with racial bias training and/or Education Minnesota’s cultural competency training. In other cases, staff attorneys have helped facilitate restorative justice approaches to repair harm caused by a client’s behavior. We are in the beginning stages of developing training about state and federal anti-discrimination laws educators should know.

The proposed education amendment to the Minnesota Constitution also raises racial equity issues that the legal department and other Education Minnesota staff have been grappling with in recent months. Although the amendment is being promoted as a solution to Minnesota’s persistent racial achievement and opportunity gaps, we have determined

that it would make those disparities worse, since quality is defined by student test scores and the legislature’s obligation to fund public schools through taxation is removed. We are finalizing an article about the proposed amendment that will be released this spring. We are also involved in working on a large number of legislative proposals to advance racial equity, including the increase teachers of color act, the layoff equity bill, and increased support and funding for full-service community schools.

Full fundingSince the legal department is responsible for representing locals in contract grievance arbitration, we see firsthand the effects of underfunding on school districts, our members and students. Many of the grievances we handle are the direct consequence of districts seeking to avoid contractual obligations due to financial pressures. Defending the contracts negotiated by our members helps ensure that funding shortfalls are not absorbed entirely by our members with respect to their compensation and benefits.

Staff attorneys work closely with lobbyists in helping develop and advocate for proposed legislation that addresses the economic needs of our members. Because we see how these laws play out in schools, we have a unique perspective on where they fall short and how they might be strengthened. For example, we have contributed to legislative proposals related to guaranteeing due process time of special educators, paid training for paraprofessionals, and ensure that ESPs receive unemployment benefits during the summer.

The legal department supports a variety of Education Minnesota’s lobbying efforts related to full funding, and we will participate in efforts to elect pro-public education legislators and constitutional officers in 2022. Staff attorneys presented at the 2022 Virtual Political Conference, including a session titled, “Why the Attorney General Race Matters to Educators,” which covered the ways in which the office of attorney general shapes the labor and employment rights of educators and the legal rights of Minnesota students. We recognize that the stakes are extremely high in this election, and we are committed to helping elect all of Education Minnesota’s endorsed candidates.

Strong localsThe bulk of our department’s work involves ensuring that all locals in the state have the legal support they need to defend their members’ contractual and statutory rights. We provide advice and consultation to our colleagues, locals, and the broader labor and legal community in our state in the following ways:• Thousands of calls and emails providing support to field staff and members on matters ranging from the issues

listed above to staff development, prep time, workload, past practices, social media use, harassment, non-disclosure agreements, personnel files, equipment costs, teacher development and evaluation, compensation, health insurance, retirement/deferred compensation benefits, sabbaticals, First Amendment rights and everything in between.

• Ongoing guidance and training to local leaders, governance and staff regarding a variety of labor, employment, and education law topics, including the 2021 school law conference, “A Focus on Resilience and Renewal,” which was held virtually on Nov. 17, 2021.

• Education Minnesota attorneys continue to be recognized for their expertise and are frequently asked to train attorney groups at the state and national levels.

• One of our attorneys serves as the governor-appointed union representative on the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as well as the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) advisory committee.

• Education Minnesota attorneys are active in various sections and committees of the Minnesota State Bar Association, and participate in the state-affiliate attorney networks sponsored by the AFT and the NEA.

• Staff attorneys help advise and represent Education Minnesota as a stakeholder in licensing policy decisions made by Minnesota’s Public Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB).

Staff attorneys also collaborate with Field, Negotiations, Organizing, and Public Affairs staff in helping locals negotiate competitive, racially just contracts that adapt to a changing public education landscape. We advise locals on the

drafting of contract proposals, the implications of district proposals, and the provisions of PELRA that govern collective bargaining, including unfair labor practices and strikes.

Committee supportThe legal department also advises and supports Education Minnesota’s standing committees and independent boards, including:• Representative Convention Committees (Constitution and Bylaws, Credentials, Elections, Rules)• Education Minnesota Retired• Economic Services Inc. (ESI)• Education Minnesota Political Action Committee• Education Minnesota Legislative Action Committee• Ethnic and Minority Affairs Committee• Education Minnesota Governing Board

Financial Support from AFT and NEABoth AFT and NEA reimburse a percentage of the time Education Minnesota attorneys spend representing members and locals. For the 2020-21 fiscal year we received:• $163,943 of case expense reimbursement from the NEA;• $52,042 in special COVID advice reimbursement requested from NEA (still pending); and• $70,781 of case reimbursement requested from the AFT (still pending)• Access to the wide array of AFT and NEA legal resources, including research memos, conferences and advice and

counsel from their staff attorneys.

Our partnerships with the AFT and NEA on legal matters have been particularly important in light of all the legal issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also been crucial in responding to the Hoekman and Huizenga lawsuits, discussed above, since these cases are part of a larger national trend of attacks on educator and union rights.

Our commitment to members• Provide high-quality representation and education to our members and locals• Honor public education and public sector unions• Offer intentional support to enrich both member work and member professional development• Value and respect each of the members and locals who become our clients

This has been a year of extraordinary challenge and uncertainty. We are in awe of the courage, perseverance, and innovation demonstrated by educators in every part of this state. We are proud and appreciative of you—our members—and hope that you value our work to uphold the legal rights and dignity of every single educator and student in our schools and campuses.

Finance/IT/Membership reportsMichael Roehl, chief financial officer

Accounting/finance department staff:• Inella Jack, controller• Rose Tuiyott-Lewis, compliance coordinator• Sean Hebble, accounting specialist

• Tao Liang, accounting specialist• Heidi Morris, accounting specialist

The accounting/finance department had another busy year, with roughly half the work being performed remotely as the pandemic continued. The accounting/finance team worked on documenting current processes and cross-training staff. We continue to expand the number of vendors being paid through ACH with an ongoing goal to convert the majority of recurring vendors to ACH. We are working with locals to receive ACH authorization for payments being sent to them—this helps with freeing up the treasurer’s time that would have been spent making deposits at the bank for funds coming from Education Minnesota. We continue to maintain high standards of segregation of duties, complying with IRS and DOL requirements, and submitting all of our regulatory filings on a timely basis. Our team members also assisted in training local treasurers on the use of Quickbooks.

The accounting team continued proper stewardship of dues paid by Education Minnesota members. Education Minnesota completed eight audits with our external auditors, Harrington Langer & Associates. The audits include the Education Minnesota financial statements and its four related entities: Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; Economic Services, Inc.; Education Minnesota Properties, Inc.; and the Education Minnesota Political Action Committee, along with three benefit plans. In addition to providing opinions on Education Minnesota’s various financial statements, the auditors continue to provide “best practice” advice, through management letter comments that are used to implement and help strengthen Education Minnesota’s internal financial controls. The audit firm also provides tax services and assists Education Minnesota in timely filing of IRS forms 990 and 5500.

Information technology department staff:• Matt McKnight, enterprise architect• Mel Shroyer, information technology administrator• Shaun Kats, information technology specialist

The key word for this last year was transition. After over 20 years of working together (the longest of any department in Education Minnesota), two of the three members of IT took a well-deserved retirement. We were lucky to interview a number of desirable candidates and ended up hiring Mel Schroyer to replace Patrick Mattocks and Shaun Kats to replace Maria Johnson. Both have extensive experience in Microsoft and excellent customer support skills.

Besides the day-to-day tasks that keep Education Minnesota humming along, some of the other transitions that the IT Department is rolling out:• Replacing all OPS desktops with laptops to enable greater flexibility for staff to work remotely if needed.• Researching and providing professional staff working from home with home printers• Updating staff cell phones.• Setting up ‘drop-in’ locations for staff in our offices to plug in and work.• Beginning the upgrade/transition to our current phone system.• Implementing the process for staff to be able to change their passwords remotely.• Preparing for Multi-Factor Authentication.• Training our staff on cyber dangers through online courses.

• Continuing to train staff on remote tools such as Teams for video conferencing.• Rolling out a help-desk type ticketing and remote support system to enable quicker response to staff, particularly

remote staff.

In addition, there are a number of projects researching possible improvements such as Wi-Fi splitting, cloud maintenance and remote install of needed programs.

Membership department staff:• Michelle Johnson, membership dues accounting supervisor• Joanna Etshokin, membership specialist• Bethany Faith, membership specialist• Cindy Smith, membership specialist• Mara Trelstad, membership specialist

The membership department is in its second year of utilizing Join Now. Join Now is the online member sign up portal for potential members to become union members. Join Now is an essential tool in getting members to join the union during an era of a pandemic and the information age. For the second consecutive year, Education Minnesota led the nation of state affiliates in Join Now member sign ups in the 2021-22 membership year. Join Now greatly improves the efficiency to get a member into the membership database versus using a paper application.

Education Minnesota has seen an increase in potential members and a decrease in active members since the Janus decision in 2018. The membership department along with the field office assistants are continuously updating rosters for both active and potential members. The accuracy of the roster list helps locals contact potential members to sign up for membership.

Human Resources reportShane Patrick, directorThe Education Minnesota human resources department includes activities in the areas of human resources, facilities, safety, security, wellness, shipping/receiving and the print shop. They operate under the direction of:• Shane Patrick, director of human resources and facilities management

The human resources department consists of the following staff:• Cindy Arntzen-Haffely, human resources generalist • Sarah Litz, legal assistant (shared .20 FTE)

The facilities services include the following staff:• Robert Perez, facilities supervisor• Ameen Ford, custodian• William Anderson-Mattocks, custodian

The print, production and shipping/receiving include the following staff:• Robert Lorence, print, production and mailing supervisor• Robert Afflerbaugh, production technician• Joseph Hensel, production technician

The HR department is responsible for Education Minnesota’s staff and labor relations activities, including recruitment, staffing and retention, personnel policies, performance management, job classification and compensation, benefits, regulatory compliance, risk management, safety, security and wellness. Education Minnesota has currently has 172 staff employees comprised of two bargaining units: The Education Minnesota Professional Organization (TEMPO), the professional staff of Education Minnesota; and United Staff of Minnesota (USM), the office professional staff as well as two non-bargaining management groups: Associate Executive Staff (AES) and Executive Staff (ES). Employee counts are currently:• Officers – 3• TEMPO – 94• USM – 49• AES – 11• ES – 11• Temporary/On-call – 4

Committee supportThe HR department provides leadership and support on standing committees, community partner groups and internal staff committees, including:• Education Minnesota Governing Board• Education Minnesota Personnel Committee• Representative Convention Planning Committee

(internal)• Insurance Labor Management Committee (internal)• Wellness Committee (internal)• Building Reopening Committee (internal)

• Safety Committee (internal)• All-staff Retreat Planning Committee (internal)• Job Evaluation Review (JDQ) Committee (internal)• New Staff Induction Committee (internal)• OPS Professional Development Committee (internal)• Quarterly Connection (internal)

• Pension Advisory Committee (non-voting member)• 401(k) Advisory Committee (non-voting member)• Capitol Hill Area Community Partner/Good Neighbor

Group (community)

• Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board (advisory)• TEMPO and USM Labor Management Liaison

Turnover and recruitmentSince April 2021, Education Minnesota has hired 41 new employees and had an additional 10 internal transfers to fill vacancies. These hires included full time, part-time, temporary campaign staff, temporary project staff and temporary employees.

Education Minnesota has a rigorous, equitable and compliant recruitment process. In the last year, that process included 67 job postings and over 630 applications for employment. The turnover rate from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021 for Education Minnesota is 28 percent. This is higher than what we have seen historically due to Education Minnesota offering an early retirement incentive. Approximately 65 percent of the turnover was from retirements.

Recruiting the best employees to engage and support our members is a top priority for the HR department. USM positions are posted internally for five days prior to external posting to encourage employee growth and support the philosophy of promoting from within. Our external job postings are sent through a community and diversity outreach program connecting our jobs with active and passive job seekers from our community partners. The community and diversity outreach partners receive jobs that match criteria they specifically requested and share the positions with appropriate members of their organizations. Community partners include a network of more than 500-plus community and diversity partners that include: • Business professionals• Diversity organizations• Historically black colleges and universities• Professional/technical groups

• State workforce agencies• Universities and colleges• Veterans groups• Women’s groups

Labor relationsThe HR department is responsible for the day-to-day administration and compliance of the two internal collective bargaining agreements for TEMPO and USM. The current collective bargaining agreements are two-year agreements that began on Sept. 1, 202, and expire on Aug. 31, 2023. The human resources director is an essential part of the negotiations team for management and participates in negotiations for both bargaining groups.

CompensationEducation Minnesota HR works in tandem with the finance department on the biweekly processing of the payroll, benefits, timekeeping, and leave accruals for employees. In addition, human resources maintains the system and processes for the evaluation of internal compensation for all staff.

Insurance BenefitsThe HR department provides administration of thirteen insurance and welfare plans offered to 170 benefits eligible employees. The HR staff collaborates with representatives from the employee groups and officer team on an insurance Labor Management Committee (LMC) to secure benefits that take proactive measures against the ever-increasing costs.

Education Minnesota’s staff medical insurance premiums remained static for 2022 after we saw a marginal decrease in premiums (-2.91 percent) for 2021. Dental insurance premiums increased. All other benefit premiums remained unchanged from 2021.

The HR department also administers benefits continuation to separated employees and retirees. Currently this is 73 individuals. The amount of former employees participating in benefits continuation is up from 59 individuals just one year ago. This increase is attributed to the offering of an early retirement incentive program to staff groups.

Pension administrationThe HR department provides administration for annuitants of the Education Minnesota Employee Pension Plan. Education Minnesota employs Securian Financial for the processing of monthly pension annuities for just over 220 retirees.

WellnessThe employee wellness program operates under the direction of the human resources department but is a fully employee-run group. The wellness program fosters a safe and healthy work environment and provides opportunities for employees to develop healthier lifestyles.

Risk management, Safety and SecurityThe HR department has an active role in risk management at Education Minnesota, which involves safety and security as well as regulatory compliance. The HR department conducts audits of our workplaces, develops written policies and implements practices that combine to help mitigate risk in the workplace. In compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, Education Minnesota tracks and reports incidents that occur on Education Minnesota property. In 2021, Education Minnesota had one reported workplace incident which did not result in lost time or lost wages.

Since March 2020, Education Minnesota has continued managing a work environment in compliance with the CDC, Federal and state mandated or recommended guidelines providing the safest possible work environment which also allowed for staff to work from home or remotely. Education Minnesota formed an internal committee with representatives from the employee groups of TEMPO, USM, AES, ES and officers to assess the status regarding Education Minnesota’s building opening and serve as an advisory committee on best practices during COVID-19. In March 2022, Education Minnesota ended extraordinary workplace flexibility as COVID-19 waned, and many staff returned on a more full-time basis in Education Minnesota offices. COVID-19 response will continue to be monitored.

The HR director also leads an internal staff committee as a guide to the organization in reviewing incidents and making organizational suggestions for the improvement in the safety and security of all Education Minnesota buildings. In addition, the HR director conducts worksite visits to ensure safety compliance in each of our 15 offices throughout Minnesota.

In the fall of 2021, HR/Facilities Management contracted with the Crisis Prevention Institute to offer virtual coursework and training to employees on de-escalation. At this time 47 staff people have enrolled in the class and 35 staff people have completed the coursework.

Facilities managementFacilities management monitors the day-to-day building operations as well as plans major capital improvements, ensuring the maintenance of Education Minnesota’s buildings. All Education Minnesota-owned or leased buildings operate in compliance with state and federal regulations. In order to ensure the functionality, safety and long-term sustainability of Education Minnesota properties, we must continually evaluate and maintain them.

Facilities Management has been instrumental in ensuring a safe work environment for employees of Education Minnesota who needed to access the headquarters building during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since April 2020, several facilities related projects have occurred. The following is a list of projects completed in 2020-21:• Heating and Cooling and 41 Sherburne building:

• In late spring 2021 (FY21), District Energy was invited to survey the mechanical side of our HQ facility to see if our building would be a good candidate for their heating services. We are continuing to work with District Energy for a possible joint agreement in spring of 2022.

• In late spring 2021 (FY21), there was a re-evaluation of our annual mechanical contract for our heating system maintenance with K. Pearson Mechanical, in which we were able to compare proposals of three different mechanical companies. In 2020 (FY20) we moved from a per service method to a paid service contract with an annual savings of approximately $70,000. We are fortunate that our current Facilities Supervisor, Robert Perez, is a licensed Boiler Engineer and is able to perform the daily operations and inspection of our boilers and HVAC system which helped us reduce our costs. The net change by switching mechanical companies was a reduction of $45,576 per year or 63%. The cost of this contract with Horwitz Mechanical for 2021-2022 is $26,424 per year.

• In late summer 2021 (FY21), Horwitz Mechanical conducted an inspection of Variable Air Volume boxes, zone valves and VAV drain valves. Six VAV drain valves and three zone valves were repaired or replaced with updated valves. The cost was $2,237

• Since September, year-to-date (FY22) repairs which are not included in our annual maintenance contract with Horwitz Mechanical (includes items such as leaking valve replacements, boiler gas leaks, leaking condenser unit, plumbing associated with the HVAC system, repairs on the HVAC equipment, replace exhaust vent, etc.) have amounted to an additional $28,339.

• In March 2022 (FY22), we will be replacing a heat pump that failed on boiler #2 in January 2022. The cost of the replacement and installation is $11,000.

• Other maintenance at 41 Sherburne• In mid-summer 2021 (FY21), there was a remodel of Conference Room IV. The remodel included adding a wall

to separate the storage area and make the conference room more appealing. The entire room received a fresh coat of paint. At this time Conference Room I also received wall touch-up repairs and a fresh coat of paint. The cost of this project was $6,600.

• In mid-summer 2021 (FY21), we replaced the existing security camera system and door access control system at the HQ building. The existing system’s technology needed updating. We added additional perimeter cameras to monitor activity on the exterior of the building. This added extra security around our building and remote access, which allows us to access doors and cameras from an account on any device. We went through the RFP process and selected Verkada to replace the existing system from Identisys. The cost of this project was $56,885.

• In mid-summer 2021 (FY21), there was a survey of the trees surrounding the HQ building and parking lot. Seven trees in total were found to be dead or diseased and were cut down. The cost was $3,560.

• Field office maintenance• In mid-summer 2021 (FY21), there were updates to the St. Cloud office. All furniture was removed and new carpet

was installed. The entire area was painted with a new color and all furniture was re-installed. The cost was $17,120.• In mid-summer 2021 (FY21), the exterior windows of the HQ building were washed. The cost was $1,977.• In late summer 2021 (FY21), Facilities lead the effort to install portable air purifiers in all field offices. This was to ensure

a healthy air flow throughout the office space. Total cost for the 37 units covering all offices was $37,275.• In early fall 2021 (FY22), the Wilmar office was closed. Robert Perez, Facilities Supervisor, was instrumental in working

with Field management, IT and the Print and Production Supervisor to move or repurpose materials, electronics, copy machines, and cabinets which were transported to HQ and other offices for use. Associated costs in addition to staff labor were under $4,700.

• In mid-fall 2021 (FY22), there was a cubical update in the Brooklyn Park office to provide social distancing ahead of the reopening. The cost was $2,422.

• Currently (FY22), facilities is working closely with the Field Management team on the closing of the Hibbing Office. The cost is yet to be determined, but estimated to be approximately $10,000.

Capital improvement planThe Education Minnesota headquarters building is actually two buildings conjoined. The original east-end structure, building one (1), or 41 Sherburne, dates back to 1956. The west end of the building, building two (2), or 55 Sherburne was an addition built in 1969.

In the next five years, there are two major capital improvements in the planning process. The first project involves the boiler and air handlers units in building two (2), and the second is the entire rooftop tear off and replacement. We will also have two capital maintenance projects, landscaping and elevator repairs, that will take place at 41 Sherburne.

We have readjusted the Capital Improvement plan as reported the last two years. The window replacement project for the west building (55 Sherburne) has been put on hold indefinitely at this time. In consultation with the CFO, we have determined that the rising cost of labor and materials and the overall scope of the work result in an overall cost and return on investment that no longer make this project viable in the next 5 years. As a temporary fix in 2018 and 2019, we sealed a total of eighteen (18) windows on the inside and outside. We will continue to evaluate and maintain on an as-needed basis and monitor for further consideration.

There are currently two boilers that provide heat to the entire HQ complex dating back to 1969. At this point, the boilers have lasted longer than their projected “life expectancy.” After extensive surveying and inspection, the boilers need replacement.

The Governing Board approved a motion by the Budget and Finance Committee to allow the officers to approve one of 3 options with a capped expenditure of no more than $500,000 to replace the boiler project. Education Minnesota is strongly considering moving its heating service to district energy, which is not only more cost-effective, but also uses renewable energy.

Timelines for replacement could vary, but members should expect completion by September 2022.

In addition to the boiler projects, Education Minnesota is slated to improve landscaping on the exterior of the 41 Sherburne building.

The final major capital improvement to the Sherburne building that the Governing Board approved in February of 2022 is improving the elevator. In December of 2021 we received an inspection of the elevator from KONE Engineering Company. The inspection report provided a breakdown of repair and upgrade costs that help ensure reliable operation and regulatory compliance. The maintenance and will be phased through FY22, FY23, FY24 and FY25 as follows:• Beginning in June 2022 (FY22) the elevator will receive compliance upgrades as well as required maintenance

including the installation of a wireless emergency phone. Cost is estimated to be $5,500.• In the fall of 2022 (FY23) we will be looking to replace the main hoist way, drive, elevator door assembly as well

as upgrades that ensure ADA compliance. The estimated cost for this maintenance and replacement is $96,000.• In the fall of 2023 (FY24) we will complete controller upgrade to the system with an estimated cost of $88,000.• In the summer of 2024 (FY24) we will look at completing elevator interior upgrades. This will involve the physical

presence (interior panels) as well as the electronics panel. The estimated cost is $38,000.• In spring 2023(FY23), and subsequent to the replacement of the current heating solution for the Education

Minnesota headquarters building, we will need to update the building’s internal HVAC regulatory system. This update will be necessary (regardless of the heat sources selection) and will include the replacement of the pneumatic thermostats located throughout the building with electronically controlled digital units.

The roof on Education Minnesota’s headquarters building is aging and annual maintenance is required. The last time the roof was replaced predates 2000, and we estimate it to be in 1991. The latest round of repairs were performed in

mid-October 2018. In late July 2020, a full inspection of the roof was performed. The headquarters building will need the roof replaced by 2025. In addition, modifications are required to bring the roof-space up to OSHA compliance for safety.

The tentative schedule for the roof replacement project will occur over the summer of 2025 and is projected to include four (4) phases. The phases are as follows:• Phase one (1): Beginning late early spring 2025 (once the snow melts), we will begin the RFP process for a union

contractor. Included in the scope of the RFP will be hiring a commercial roofing contractor and a heating and air specialist. Governance will have representation on the project and be part of the bid selection process. The project is subject to Governing Board approval.

• Phase two (2): In late spring 2025, we anticipate we will begin with the implementation of logistics for the project; this includes finalizing timeframes and preparing the project plan for communication. Permit filing will occur during this phase as will design approval by the Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board

• Phase three (3): Also in late spring 2025 and through fall 2025 (or the run of the project), weekly communication to staff and visiting members will be released. The removal and reinstallation of the existing rooftop will have varying impact on staff during with noise level increasing at times. In addition, the deconstruction and construction will have a significant impact on parking and entrance accessibility.

• Phase four (4): In the early summer (June) 2025, the deconstruction/construction project will begin. The project should take eight eight to 12 weeks, depending on weather.

Estimated project cost to replace the 16,338 sq. ft. roof of the Headquarters’ Building in 2025 will be approximately $396,000.

Mail room and print shopEducation Minnesota has a full print shop located in the headquarters building. During non-pandemic times, the print shop produces in excess of 500 print products annually for the various departments of Education Minnesota, many locals and several union affiliates. In early 2020, the print shop received an upgrade, including the replacement of the two largest print production machines. The print shop has remained in operation during the pandemic with a rotation of production staff working in the building to ensure the continual production of needed materials. Much of the success for the print shop’s ability to remain functional during the pandemic is the online ordering system we implemented in 2018 used for print production requests. The online ordering system houses our digital production library and is remotely accessible by staff. In addition, the shipping and receiving of essential materials continued to occur, as did the processing of daily mail and bulk mailings.

Professional Practice, Research and Organizing Department reportSarah Derdoski, directorThe Professional Practice, Research and Organizing Department includes the following staff: • Allison LaBree, manager• Wanda Cone, executive assistant to the manager• Organizers:• Londel French, organizing specialist: racial equity

• Jesus Ramierz, organizing specialist: community engagement

• Leah Vaughn, office assistant

Negotiations:• Andrea Cecconi, negotiations specialist• Maureen Fourre, office assistant• Adam Janiak, negotiations specialist• Education Issues:• Melissa Del Rosario, education issues specialist

• Sara Ford, education issues specialist• Justin Killian, education issues specialist• Jonathan Kim, education issues specialist• Elizabeth Petterson, office assistant• Jessica Wilson, education issues specialist

Foundation:• Dayonna Knutson, foundation director• Melissa Del Rosario, collaboration lab coordinator

• Leah Vaughn, office assistant

To build a more vibrant union—a union to which all members want to belong—we must have multiple tools to engage members at the local and state level. The Professional Practice, Research and Organizing Department works to support local member engagement and organizing as well as provide pathways for member engagement in programs related to social justice, professional and traditional unionism.

From professional development to policy analysis, getting a grant to improve classroom practice, developing new skills as educators, supporting locals in contract negotiations, and much more, our job is to ensure that every member—those who are currently involved and those who are yet to see how valuable our union is—can see their values reflected in the work of their union.

The professional practice, research and organizing department’s main successes in 2021-22 include:• Early Career Leadership Fellows (ECLF) Cohort V includes 30 fellows who have engaged in multiple 1:1 conversations,

identified issues, and made plans to address the top issue(s) identified by their membership. ECLF Coaches and Fellows recently attended a mid-year convening where members from each of the four locals collaborated on their projects by identifying potential obstacles and solutions to building local, effective action.

• Educator Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) produced two papers in the past year, one on charter school accountability and one on early childhood care and education, the first EPIC paper developed in partnership with another organization (ISAIAH). EPIC is now in the middle of an exciting project designed to elevate the voices of educators about what COVID has taught us. Our advisory team of 20 members from around the state has been busy collecting educator stories, identifying themes, and listening to the experiences of their colleagues across the many roles that educators take on. The paper will be released later this spring. To date, EPIC has released nine papers that were driven by over 110 member advisors.

• Education Minnesota’s Minnesota Educator Academy (MEA) provides the highest quality, member developed and delivered professional development to Minnesota educators. Professional development is currently delivered either asynchronously on Education Minnesota’s online learning portal, MEA Online, via Zoom, or in person, with masks

required. Over the two years, over 45 courses have been published and there have been over 20,000 enrollments in these online courses. Professional development is regularly requested by locals in various formats to meet the needs of all members.

• MEA Facing Inequities and Racism in Education (FIRE): Education Minnesota has started their fifth Racial Equity Advocate cohort. In addition to expanding our member engagement, we have over 10 staff that have joined the team to help support our members’ efforts. FIRE has played a key role in helping locals start equity teams in addition to supporting communities with ongoing racial injustices.

• The Early Career Teacher Seminar (ECTS) is a course in partnership with Metropolitan State University that provides early career teachers in their first five years of teaching with support in creating work/life balance, instructional strategies, classroom management, building relationships with students, families and colleagues, cultural awareness and an understanding of the roles of building professionals. This semester’s seminar has anew cohort structure to allow for greater participation of our early career educators during this very trying year. Through panel discussions, collegial support and coaching, the 38 participants will learn strategies to refuel, reenergize and reframe their passion for teaching and student success.

We are here to engage Education Minnesota members in an active, vibrant union that has strong community partnerships. We nurture a culture of organizing and empowerment within Education Minnesota locals and affiliates. While our staff deal with many issues every day, we never lose sight of the fact that Education Minnesota’s strength lies in its members, and it is our job to help members, locals and affiliates find that strength and put it to use for our members.

Below is a more detailed accounting of activities of the professional practice, research and organizing department this year.

Engaging members in professional practice – Minnesota Educator Academy (MEA)

MEA member professional development – primary contact: Jessica WilsonAs of September 2021, MEA PD is being offered asynchronously on MEA Online, synchronously through Zoom technology, and in person with COVID mitigation protocols in place to ensure safety for trainers and members. Diversifying our modes of instruction has helped provide an effective professional development experience for our members all over the state.

Education Minnesota’s online learning platform, MEA Online, went live July 1, 2020, and approximately 10,000 members are actively taking online trainings. We offer all relicensure trainings, as well as some related to bargaining and negotiating, organizing, and racial and social justice. MEA Online also hosts recordings of some of the MEA Conference trainings which took place on Oct. 21, 2021. Cultural Competency was the first course published on MEA Online and has consistently been the most popular.

MEA Online is currently in the process of transitioning from a standalone portal to becoming a subportal under NEA. This will be a great benefit to our members; although MEA Online currently boasts approximately 40 courses, members will have access to a plethora of even more high quality asynchronous professional development.

In addition to our asynchronous offerings, many locals request online PD days using MEA Online. Field staff, local presidents and staff work together to provide assistance for locals who are interested in an MEA Online PD day. Other locals have received professional development sessions on Zoom.

All trainings are created through collaboration between members and staff, with a focus on providing our members with critical knowledge and tools to support all students. Although Education Minnesota is able to safely provide in-person professional development again, MEA Online is a tool that will always be a part of the MEA program, as an equitable and effective learning platform to provide quality PD for as many members as possible.

Professional Advocacy (ProAC) Committee – primary contact: Jessica WilsonThe ProAC Committee has focused their efforts on online professional development programming during the 2020-21 year but transitioned the focus to health insurance in the 2021-22 year. Throughout this school year, ProAc members

have shared their own experiences with health care, learned about various health care and insurance options, developed a member survey, and more. Their last meeting of the year took place on Saturday, March 26.

Early Career Teacher Seminar – primary contact: Melissa Del RosarioBeginning in August of 2019 as a part of an NEA Great Public Schools Grant, the Early Career Teacher Seminar is a course in partnership with Metropolitan State University providing early career teachers who are within their first five years of teaching a graduate credit earning course aimed at retaining them in the teaching profession. Members get support in creating work/life balance, instructional strategies, classroom management, building relationships with students, families and colleagues, cultural awareness and understanding the roles of building professionals.

This semester’s Early Career Teaching Seminar has a new cohort structure to allow for greater participation of our early career educators during this very trying semester. Two separate cohorts of the Early Career Teaching Seminar began in January and are being taught simultaneously by two Education Minnesota members. The 38 participants from across Minnesota are all in their first five years of the profession and have excitedly committed to five full-day Saturday professional development sessions during the Spring 2022 semester. The syllabus will cover a wide range of subject areas relevant to early career educators with topics ranging from resiliency-building to cultural competency to trauma-informed instruction to LGBTQ+ support and advocacy. Upon completion of the semester, members will receive three graduate credits from Metro State University and 12 CEUs from Education Minnesota.

Educators Leading the Profession – primary contact: Melissa Del RosarioBeginning this fall, Education Minnesota began piloting an educator-led professional support program for new teachers called Educators Leading the Profession (ELP). ELP was founded by seven education unions in the Midwest, including Minnesota, to ensure early career members receive professional support and guidance to solve the growing problem of teacher retention. The mission of the program is to enhance and improve the quality of public education by empowering new teachers to succeed in their profession. Through on-site mentoring, virtual instructional coaching, and training through an asynchronous training platform, new teachers receive support and guidance from both a mentor within their building and a content-focused coach outside their local.

There are currently 27 new teachers from Northfield, Osseo and Farmington and 23 coaches and mentors from across Minnesota piloting this program. Each of these participants is provided with a stipend, training and support to better understand their role within the program. Both ELP and the Education Minnesota liaisons also conducted mid-year check-ins with all Minnesota participants and found that virtual instructional coaches and new teachers were able to establish helpful, consistent mentoring routines. The current plan is to continue this pilot into a second year, so all current participants will maintain the same relationship with both their matched building mentor and virtual instructional coach during the 2022–23 school year.

Engaging members as policy leaders

Educator Policy Innovation Center – primary contacts: Sara Ford and Justin KillianEPIC advisory team members participate in intensive policy workshops during which they share research findings and professional experiences in order to build education policy recommendations. They also then serve as advocates for those policy recommendations, testifying, offering interviews and communicating with other Education Minnesota members. All the papers are available in the advocacy section of the Education Minnesota website.

EPIC released two new papers early in 2021. The first calls for a large-scale overhaul of Minnesota’s birth-4 care and education system and was completed in partnership with ISAIAH’s Kids Count On Us coalition. The second is a paper on disrupted learning as it relates to the collective tragedies of 2020 and 2021. To date, EPIC has released nine papers that were driven by over 110 member advisors. The current EPIC project is driven by an advisory team of 20 members from across Minnesota, who are gathering educator stories related to the issues the pandemic has illuminated in our schools. That paper will be published later in the spring of 2022.

Support and influence the Public Education Licensing Standards Board or PELSB – primary contact: Sara FordPELSB’s role in statute is to uphold standards for teacher licensure and for teacher preparation programs. Both roles attract considerable controversy at nearly every turn, and we urge PELSB at every turn to uphold high standards on both accounts, keeping research-driven best practices and a focus on the needs of diverse students at the center of debates. COVID has created a crisis for districts who are unable to sufficiently staff their buildings, and instead of addressing the reasons so many teachers are leaving the profession, administrative groups and legislators have turned that tension into tremendous pressure to lower standards for teacher credentials just to get people in the door without any attention paid to why they leave, including teachers of color, who leave at higher rates than white teachers do.

We are also working with PELSB to find ways to diversify our teaching workforce. Most of the proposals related to this critical problem have to do with getting teachers in the door, with efforts at recruitment exceptions made for particular credentials. We continue to advocate for the state to fund teacher preparation pathways for people of color. If you or anyone in your local wants to be involved in these issues, please contact [email protected].

Engaging members in racial and social justice

MEA FIRE: Facing Inequities and Racism in Education – primary contact: Jonathan KimThis year marked the beginning of our fifth racial equity advocate (REA) cohort. We were able to kick-off in-person in November and held our first official training (virtually) in January, reviewing how members can get involved with shaping and refining our equity professional development. We will be meeting in March to reconnect and learn how to navigate building equity teams locally in addition to learning out to hold space for conversations centering equity.

With the help of Becky McCammon, FIRE has hosted two virtual all-REA reunion spaces. At both gatherings, we were able to have participants from all five REA cohorts present—it was an amazing opportunity to hold space for these incredible educators to start building community between each of five year’s cohorts. We plan to have reunion spaces monthly for the remainder of the school year.

Last spring, staff involvement within FIRE expanded to a total of 14 staff members. These staff, coming from various departments and teams, have been collaborating monthly on how to best support members across the state who are invested in equity work. Many FIRE staff members attended a restorative circle training series that started in January and will meet monthly between now and May. Another project that the FIRE team is exploring is a racial and social justice conference that will be “hosted” by REAs (Racial Equity Advocate). We hope to share more information in the coming months.

Racial Equity Organizing – primary contact: Londel FrenchMembers of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee (EMAC) and members of the ethnic forums continue to meet to collaborate with members of the Racial Justice Planning Committee (RJPC) to examine the Affirmative Involvement Plan (AIP) and reconcile the goals of the RJPC and the AIP. A retreat schedule for the end of February was put on hold due to COVID, but the group continues to meet virtually to move the work.

The forums have also continued to host member events and opportunities. The League of Latinx Educators held a virtual gathering at the end of January and the African American Educator Forum continues its book study groups having recently finished Caste and are now reading When We Are All Free.

Events of the past year have been particularly challenging for our BIPOC members and the students with whom they work. Education Minnesota continues to host safe space healing circles for all BIPOC members with community healer Kamisha Johnson, LGSW, Self-Love Sorceress, Healing Advocate, Psychotherapist. Her lens focuses on Racial & Healing Justice work. Which she does through curating spaces that promote self-love, racial justice/equity and inclusion, and most importantly healing. Kamisha has a passion for healing the community by focusing on mental health and trauma using healing-driven modalities. Her goal is to continue Courageous Conversations on the stigma of Mental

Health, trauma in the Black community, and other systems that oppress marginalized people and offer tools for healing in the process.

Engaging members and stakeholders in collective bargaining and negotiations

Collective bargaining – primary contacts: Andrea Cecconi and Adam JaniakThe negotiations department welcomed a new staff member this year with the hiring of former field staff member Adam Janiak following the retirement of Mark Schmiesing.

The negotiations department engages in direct assistance to locals at the bargaining table in a variety of ways including financial and audit analysis, health insurance advocacy and bargaining support, creating new salary schedule options, pension advocacy with members and policymakers, developing organizing plans around protracted negotiation and offering any other assistance requested. The bulk of this year’s work in the department has been direct assistance to field staff and locals in bargaining and organizing around contracts.

As of this writing, two-thirds of teacher locals have settled contracts for 2021-23.

Average salary schedule improvement for 2021-23 teacher contracts was steady throughout and we can report numbers of 2.22% in 2021-22 and 2.17% in 2022-23.

Our locals continue to be in impact bargaining nearly full-time since the onset of the pandemic to address critical issues around health and safety protections, leave, changes in schedules and learning models, coaching and extracurricular activities changes, and many other local issues. We anticipate that bargaining the impacts of COVID-19 will continue in regular negotiations.

Common issues for this bargaining session have been related to workload, mental health supports, recruitment and retention of educators, and competitive economic settlement of salary and insurance.

ESP (Education Support Professional) Contract Bargaining: Currently, about half of our ESP locals have a new negotiated agreement in place. There are several new locals that report that they are working toward a first contract. Of locals that have settled a recent contract, most reported that they are tracking the general trend of teacher settlements or improving on their teacher settlement.

Our lack of data on ESP wages, settlements, contract terms and other basic data continues to be a problem for our department and locals; we are working on building a better infrastructure to gather and maintain data on ESP locals and contracts to better support ESP unions in future.

Q-Comp and TDE (Teacher Development and Evaluation) – primary contact: Andrea CecconiThere continues to be a waitlist of for Q-Comp funding at this time due to a failure by the Legislature to lift the appropriation cap. Department staff have worked directly with leaders in many locals to make changes to plans reflecting the reality of the pandemic. We continue to work directly with the Minnesota Department of Education to address issues as they arise.

Negotiations resources and training – primary contacts: Andrea Cecconi and Adam JaniakOver the last year, negotiations training has taken place online, either via Zoom or via MEA Online. We are in the process of moving as many courses as is practical to offer asynchronously in our professional development offerings catalogue.

We anticipate many more bargaining trainings taking place in person in coming months, especially over the summer and into the fall as preparations for the next round of bargaining escalate.

The negotiations department has also been holding monthly training for newer Education Minnesota staff members on important topics related to negotiations.

Health Insurance Basics and Beyond – primary contact: Adam JaniakAs a result of numerous health care issues facing members, staff have developed a core training to help members better navigate this complex issue. This training has four major components.

1. Group health insurance: What it is, how it works and the various components and terminology of health insurance.

2. Legal rights and responsibilities: Laws that deal with health insurance.

3. Side-by-side comparisons: How to make comparisons between health insurance plans.

4. An effective insurance committee: How to utilize your insurance committee to its maximum potential.

The goal of the training is for members to navigate and maximize their health care rights and responsibilities.

The Public Employee Insurance Program (PEIP) – primary contact: Adam JaniakThe Public Employee Insurance Program (PEIP) is a state of Minnesota health plan available to cities, counties and school districts. PEIP leverages off the state employee plan and uses the negotiating influence of their size to offer very low administrative costs and multiple network carriers to our member groups. The “pool” allows groups of all sizes to work together to increase their leverage. PEIP was created by the state Legislature in 1990. In 2011, cities and counties were added into what was the “school pool.”

The current PEIP pool insures more than 52,000 lives and includes locals in 155 school districts/locals and 255 other city and county groups creating greater pooling strength for more public employees. Many of these districts received the PEIP bid because of HITA (Health Insurance Transparency and Accountability) and exercised the right to unilaterally go with PEIP due to the PEIP legislation. This demonstrates how these two pieces of legislation work in concert to help members meet their health care needs. On average, the pools of Education Minnesota locals entering PEIP have experienced rate increases averaging 3.8 percent per year for the past 13 years. We continue to educate members about the unique characteristics of PEIP, the renewal success it has experienced and supporting the pooling concept. We also continue to advocate the use of the PEIP legislation as an avenue for locals to exercise their unilateral right to select PEIP.

We will hold member education meetings about the PEIP plan for locals that are considering whether to seek or accept PEIP bids in preparation for the next round of bids.

While the voluntary PEIP pool is not a permanent solution to the health insurance crisis, PEIP has shown promise in providing some rate stability, as well as bringing meaningful competition in the health insurance market. This offers some relief to members whose rates have continued to climb in a relatively closed market, dominated by a few providers.

Education Minnesota Pension Task Force – primary contact: Adam JaniakThe Education Minnesota Pension Task Force is tasked with gaining understanding of the current state of the Minnesota pension plans and possible changes that will benefit educator recruitment, retention, retirement flexibility, member benefits and our statewide education system. They will create a Statement of Principle and priorities for educators, locals and our state organization to advocate for at the Legislature.

Members who are passionate about pensions from across the state were invited to join the task force and look at the three educator pensions, PERA, TRA (Teacher Retirement Association) and SPTRFA. Vice President Ryan Fiereck is the chair of the committee and leads the creation of principles and priorities to use in the current and future years legislative sessions. The task force has a goal of completing their initial work by the end of April.

Engaging member constituencies

Early Career Leadership Fellowship (ECLF) – primary contact: Melissa Del RosarioThe ECLF Collaborative began Cohort V this past fall. There are 30 fellows from four locals who are working with a local leader coach to engage in a yearlong experience designed to engage early career educators to grow as leaders,

provide them skills and resources to engage other early career educators and identify and plan for a change, and activate them to become formal and informal leaders in their local, state and national unions. The ECLF Collaborative is grounded in the Teacher Leadership Institute competencies, with a focus on overarching, instructional, policy and association leadership.

All ECLF programs have held monthly local meetings facilitated by an ECLF coach based on the ECLF curriculum and developed a Sounding Board in which each fellow identifies an organizing group of at least five other early career educators to engage in 1:1 conversations throughout the year with an emphasis on comprehensive unionism. Each local team also works to develop a Leadership Engagement & Action Plan (LEAP) to seek a desired change identified as a priority by the early career educators in their Sounding Board conversations.

Through these sounding board conversations, the Cohort V fellows have identified the need for improved staff morale, established routines for parent communication, teacher retention and increased counseling support. ECLF Coaches and Fellows also recently attended a mid-year convening where members from each of the four locals collaborated on their projects by identifying potential obstacles and solutions to building local, effective action. Each local will now continue to work with local leaders and district officials to refine their LEAP, define success, and develop and outreach and engagement strategy through the end of the school year.

Degrees, Not Debt – primary contact: Andrea CecconiThe Degrees, Not Debt (DND) program has had an exceptionally successful year. In May 2021, Minnesota became the 15th state to pass a Student Borrower Bill of Rights (SBBOR) after six years of legislative advocacy from our union. The SBBOR created regulatory authority for the state on loan servicing companies within the state Department of Commerce. Borrowers now have guaranteed protections that Commerce can enforce related to requirements that servicers provide timely information to borrowers, notice of transfer of loans, communicate loan balances. We are working to include a new position in the Department of Commerce for a Student Loan Advocate who can provide direct support to borrowers in matters of borrowing, repayment, forgiveness, and other needs of borrowers.

The Degrees, Not Debt program has been having a great and incredibly busy fall and winter. After the Biden Administration’s Oct. 6 announcement of temporary expanded criteria to address long-standing concerns with the administration of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, the Degrees Not Debt team began to work on updates for members and direct support to ensure that as many members as possible can take advantage of this opportunity. Members have until October 2022 to work to get payments made on all federal loans since 2007 on any repayment plan to be counted towards the 120 payments that qualify borrowers for loan discharge. Working directly with our national partners at the American Federation of Teachers whose lawsuit directly resulted in the enforcement capacity for this expanded forgiveness option, we are working to gather stories of those members whose hard work has paid off and are seeing discharge of their debt.

Since that time, our team has conducted webinars on expanded PSLF forgiveness reaching more than one thousand E-12 and higher education members. We have provided direct support and guidance to hundreds of members on their next steps in accessing this program, including to connect them with application assistance by our team or via the nationally recognized program Summer, which supports our members based on their membership with AFT.

We are receiving word on a weekly basis of loan discharges taking place under the new PSLF rules and are working with members daily to get them the loan forgiveness they have earned.

Coalition Work – primary contact: Jesus Ramierz

EPIC Universal Childcare and Early Learning Campaign

Education Minnesota and ISAIAH’s Kids Count on Us Coalition have partnered together on the EPIC Early Learning Paper. Our team met monthly with each other to develop the key components of the EPIC paper and to build the

foundation for a strong Universal Child care and Early Learning Campaign. The paper was finalized in November and officially released in January 2021.

Throughout the past legislative session, our Early Education EPIC team worked tirelessly to get lawmakers to pass our legislative proposals around early care and education. While our proposals were not passed, legislators opted to form a taskforce to explore and draft recommendations. The EPIC team reconvened this fall to explore how we can grow and strengthen our coalition to continue to pressure taskforce and cabinet members to collaborate with us in co-creating new and aligned recommendations that we can advocate for during the 2023 legislative session. Education Minnesota has been working closely with Kids Count On Us/ISAIAH organizers to develop a strategy around advancing the legislative proposals of the project. This initiative is unique as it requires collaboration across several Education Minnesota departments.

This project has also led Kid Count On Us to explore unionization of their partnering childcare centers, and they recently applied for the MN AFL-CIO’s Lift grant to fund an organizing pilot to target receptive childcare center.

Ethnic Studies

Over the past three years, a diverse coalition of students, community groups, and educators, has championed an Ethnic Studies campaign and have worked tirelessly to get legislators and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to adopt legislation that mandates it for all schools. Education Minnesota has partnered with the Ethnic Studies coalition in support of the adoption of the social studies recommendations that include an ethnic studies strand. Once those studies are adopted, we will continue to work together over the next coming months to build broader support for the Ethnic Studies legislation in the House and Senate.

Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) Campaign – primary contact: Jesus RamierzLaunched in 2013, Education Minnesota members and community partners are working together to expand the full-service community schools’ model at the state and local level. Full-service community schools focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement. They bring the community into the school and integrate them into the fabric of everything that happens. Schools become the community center, the clinic, the connection to critical social services and much more, depending on the needs of the families that school serves.

Since the launch, we have been able to establish more than 20 FSCS’s across the state, and leaders and staff from those sites came together to form the Minnesota Network of Full-Service Community Schools to advance the expansion of FSCS’s across the state.

With the allocation of $5 million dollars this past legislative session earmarked for strengthening existing and growing new full-service community schools, Education Minnesota has helped staff and local leaders understand and apply for funds to use in their communities. We have worked with our FSCS sites to let them know about these funding opportunities. FSCS coalition identifies ways to work together in a non-competitive manner so that these grants can be utilized by FSCS sites that are in desperate need and/or districts that are fully ready to launch a FSCS site. Leading up to the deadline for applications this fall, we worked with our negotiation specialists to host an informational meeting for our local leaders and staff to know how they can also secure FSCS funding through contract negotiations and/or through collaboration with FSCS sites and/or district leaders.

Additionally, we worked with Education Minnesota Foundation to host a grant writing workshop for our FSCS coalition partners, local leaders, and district leaders who are planning to apply for the FSCS state grants. The window for applications closed in early October and in January it was announced that 11 Minnesota schools received the 2022 ARP Full-Service Community School grant.

Public Affairs department reportKathi Micheletti, director• Ashley Behrens, public affairs office assistant • Matt Blewett, public affairs office assistant• Megan Boldt, public affairs specialist• Anna Brelje, political action coordinator • Benjamin Broze, public affairs office assistant• Wanda Cone, executive assistant to the director • Sarah Cooke, digital content coordinator• Doug Dooher, public affairs specialist• Kevion Ellis, lobbyist• Katie Humphrey, political organizer

• Brit Hiedeman, public affairs office assistant• Jim Meyer, political organizing specialist• Kaitlyn Peterson, public affairs office assistant• KateLynne Snyder, lobbyist• Kieren Steinhoff, public affairs specialist• Eric Widi, art director• Chris Williams, press secretary• Paul Winkelaar, membership mobilization specialist• Kong Xiong, political organizer

2021 Legislative SessionGov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature approved an education budget that includes the largest single increase in the per-pupil formula in 15 years, a meaningful step toward fully funding our public schools.

The 2021 budget increases state funding by $554.9 million over the next two years. Public schools will see $462.9 million in new per-pupil aid over the biennium—a 2.45 percent increase in the first year and 2 percent in the second. The budget also includes increased funding to maintain pre-K spots, attract and retain teachers of color and help special education students and English language learners. Educators and parents successfully blocked attempts to include private school vouchers in the deal.

This would not have happened without hundreds of members sharing their stories with legislators about what their students need to succeed. More than 700 educators met with more than 100 lawmakers in the 2021 session as part of Education Minnesota’s lobby day program, and dozens more testified in committees. Over 20,000 members and community allies signed a petition supporting fully funding public schools. Over 60 locals held an event or action in their community highlighting the need for school funding. While it shouldn’t take unprecedented member advocacy to get the resources our students deserve, our action made a real difference this year. It can and will be a solid foundation for further member advocacy in the coming years.

The final education bill, combined with the American Rescue Plan funding dedicated by Gov. Tim Walz to education, makes this one of our most successful years in recent history. The majority of our priorities received some funding, including full-service community schools, trauma-informed and other professional development training, and teacher mentoring.

We also significantly increased our communications to members by hosting timely, virtual updates at the end of the regular and special legislative sessions.

In addition to the education bill, the Legislature also dedicated $250 million in direct financial support to frontline workers who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. A nine-member working group, consisting of three members of the House of Representatives, three members of the Senate, and three members appointed by the governor, were charged with making recommendations by Sept. 6, 2021, on which workers would qualify for payments and how those payments would be disbursed.

The legislation was vague on distribution requirements of the funds, but Senate Republicans were successful in requiring that any recommendation must include long-term care workers. In addition, the legislation required that the working

group members must consider factors -- including a frontline worker’s increased financial burden and increased risk of virus exposure due to the nature of their work.

Despite meeting for several months, the Frontline Worker Pay Working Group has yet to reach a consensus on how to disburse the dedicated funds. This work continues during the 2022 legislative session, with the governor and House Democrats proposing increasing the fund to $1 billion, which would give $1,500 to an expanded list of workers.

At a minimum, our objective is to ensure our education support professionals are included in the eligibility criteria, and if expanded, our teachers and college faculty who taught in-person during the pandemic.

2022 Education Minnesota legislative agendaThe Legislative Action Committee reviewed the legislative agenda for the 2022 session.

Education Minnesota’s 2022 legislative agenda includes:• Fully funding public education, which includes increasing the general education funding formula and tying it to inflation,

fully funding special education, hiring more support staff for our schools, lowering class sizes, providing additional mental health supports for students and educators, expanding access to full-service community schools, ensuring stable funding for educator pensions, and creating mentoring, induction and retention incentives to attract people of color to teaching and keep them in the profession.

• Ensuring our educators have time to teach by increasing and protecting prep time and giving special education teachers dedicated time for due process paperwork.

• Improving living and working conditions for our education support professionals by requiring schools to pay them $25 an hour, ensuring that they are eligible for pandemic hero pay and unemployment insurance benefits; helping them get high-quality, affordable health care; and requiring schools to offer paid training for paraprofessionals who work with students.

• Returning to Minnesota’s high standards for teaching by fixing the state’s tiered licensure system and requiring anyone teaching in pre-K, school readiness or any other early childhood program in a public school to have a teacher’s license.

• Protecting workplace freedoms by expanding the scope of bargaining subjects for teachers and education support professionals, permitting Tier 1 teachers to join the teacher bargaining unit and deleting the exclusion of ECFE and ABE teachers from coverage under the continuing contract and tenure rights laws.

The state of Minnesota has an historic budget surplus of nearly $9.3 billion. Governor Walz and education supporters in the Minnesota House have proposals that make significant, multi-billion dollar investments in our schools and campuses. However, the Minnesota Senate majority refuses to make investments with the surplus, instead pushing harmful tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. We have a big surplus, and the Legislature and governor have a big choice about what to do with it. We need to work together to demand the resources that we need to effectively educate students at all levels of their education.

Elections – 2021 referendumsSince 2015, Education Minnesota has stepped up its game in supporting locals, school districts and Vote Yes committees. Prior to 2015, we provided financial resources, lists, design and printing. Our staff work with locals and Vote Yes committees to help build campaign plans and strategies, create targeted lists thru the VAN, provide phone bank technologies, write scripts, create and design mail pieces and many other services that locals and Vote Yes committees would not otherwise have access to.

These extra resources and services have resulted in a significant increase in referendum victories. In 2021, with staff, members and the public still operating under pandemic conditions, referendum results improved over 2020. Education Minnesota members and Vote Yes committees were more involved in referendum campaigns than they were in 2020. Though still navigating COVID-19 issues, the increase in volunteers on Vote Yes committees made a huge difference. Education Minnesota assisted locals and Vote Yes committees in 44 referendum elections and successfully passed

questions in 29. That’s a 66 percent win rate. Results did not reach pre-pandemic win rates of 76 percent, but we are making progress.

The following locals took advantage of resources from Education Minnesota:• Fairmont, Lakeview• Red Rock Central• Staples-Motley• Park Rapids• South Koochiching• Annandale, Byron• Cannon Falls• Roseville• Nicollet• AHEM

• Aitken• Bemidji• Stillwater• Floodwood• Shakopee• New London-Spicer• Eastern Carver County• Brandon-Evansville• Princeton• Lake Superior

• Lake Park-Audubon• Breckenridge• Central District• Cambridge-Isanti• Kenyon-Wanamingo• Blooming Prairie• North St. Paul• Wheaton• Butterfield-Odin• St. Michael-Albertville

• Greenbush Middle River• Le Sueur-Henderson• Monticello• Prior Lake-Savage• Albert Lea• St. Peter• South

Washington County.

If your local has a referendum coming up, please contact Jim Meyer, political organizing specialist, at [email protected] or 800 652-9073 X4813.

Congressional Action Teams2021 was another very slow year for the Education Minnesota Congressional Action Teams. Congress is not very active due to the pandemic, and a lot of time and resources were spent on validating the 2020 election and dealing with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. We hope to return to a somewhat more normal program in 2022, when Congress will be able to get back to issues of governing over dealing with a pandemic.

Federal PAC FundraisingThe Education Minnesota federal PAC fundraising program, Turn Up the Heat, continued to be strong in 2021 despite the pandemic.

For the AFT COPE PAC, the following locals were responsible for raising $195,636 in 2021:• Dakota County United Educators• Duluth Federation of Teachers• Education Minnesota-

Grand Rapids• Education Minnesota Lakeville

• Education Minnesota-Osseo• Minneapolis Federation

of Teachers and Education Assistants

• Education Minnesota-Mora

• Robbinsdale Federation of Teachers

• South St. Paul Teachers’ Association

• St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

For the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, we raised $46,796 with the following locals raising $21,072 via payroll deduction in 2021:• Education Minnesota-Alexandria• Education Minnesota Brainerd• Burnsville Education Association• Caledonia Education Association• Centennial Education Association• Chaska Education Association• Education Minnesota-Detroit Lakes• Dover-Eyota Education Association• Eden Prairie Education Association

• Farmington Education Association• Education Minnesota-Hastings• Education Minnesota-Kingsland• Education Moorhead• Mounds View Education

Association• Education Minnesota-Park Rapids• Education

Minnesota Plainview-Elgin-Millville

• Education Richfield• Rochester Education Association• Education Minnesota-Roseville• St. Cloud Education Association• St. Croix Education Association• Staples/Motley Education

Association• Stewartville United Educators• Winona Education Association

Locals interested in starting a federal PAC fundraising program should contact Jim Meyer, political organizing specialist in the Education Minnesota Public Affairs Department, at 800-652-9073 ext. 4813 or [email protected].

2022 campaignThe Education Minnesota Political Action Committee and Education Minnesota staff completed a strategic planning process in 2021 to plan for the 2022 elections. This planning process included multiple polls of members and voter file and membership data analysis. The PAC established the following goals:

1. Protect Gov. Tim Walz.

2. Protect pro-public education House majority.

3. Protect pro-union Minnesota Attorney General.

4. Win pro-public education majority in Minnesota Senate.

5. Win and maintain pro-public education/pro-racial justice school board majorities.

Core strategies and tactics include:• Strengthen the capacity for local unions/campuses to support worksite political organizing and worksite relational

persuasion and GOTV programs at approximately 1,200 targeted worksites, by investing in 100-plus stipended local union campaign coordinators. (These positions are titled “Local union GOTV leaders.”)

• Carry out a robust member-centered endorsement process for governor and attorney general. • Increase the number of shifts we contribute to partner political programs. • Center the race-class narrative and a pro-revenue/full funding agenda in every part of our program.

An application process for GOTV leader positions began in November 2021. The campaign kicked off with a virtual political conference and candidate forum with Gov. Tim Walz on Jan. 29, attended by hundreds of Education Minnesota members from across the state. An additional leadership training conference was held on March 5 for campaign leaders.

Two gubernatorial candidates sought the Education Minnesota endorsement. The PAC board endorsed Gov. Tim Walz for reelection. The PAC will be considering endorsements for Attorney General, Secretary of State and State Auditor this spring. All members will be invited to participate in screening events with the candidates.

As in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns, worksite leaders will be leading a relational voter engagement program. Recruitment and training of worksite action leaders is underway, with comprehensive resources and information available on the campaign website, www.edmnvotes.org. Worksites will be participating in social and educational activities this spring and fall to educate members on the issues at stake in the 2022 elections, the candidates’ stances on education and union issues, and voting information.

Our permanent political organizers, along with temporary campaign workers, will work to coordinate and support local GOTV leaders in get-out-the-vote efforts within their local and worksites.

2021 school board electionsEducation Minnesota supported more than a dozen school board campaigns across the state, including campaigns in White Bear Lake, Dakota County, South Washington County, Alexandria, Inver Grove Heights and Anoka-Hennepin. The stakes of last fall’s school board elections were very high, with multiple school districts seeing slates of candidates opposing so-called critical race theory and running on anti-education platforms. In almost all cases, all or all-but-one of these problematic candidates were defeated. However, it is clear there is a coordinated, well-funded effort to take over school boards in Minnesota. It is critical that locals pay attention to and be involved in their school board elections.

Member communicationsOur communications to members and to the public continue to evolve as people consume information in different ways.

Our art director and team continue to support the union’s activities by creating print and digital materials, including training handouts, campaign/lobbying information sheets and materials to support the MEA conference and the Representative Convention.

Education Minnesota’s official publication, the Minnesota Educator, continues as a bimonthly magazine. The print edition of the Minnesota Educator is mailed to all members, and the online version is available on Education Minnesota’s website.

Education Minnesota continues to increase the ways we communicate with members through email. E-newsletters include the weekly Presidents Insider, the weekly Capitol Connection during the legislative session and the monthly PD News. E-newsletters are also used to share news with those interested in attending events or sharing a specific message, such as the MEA conference, Representative Convention and during the election.

We also have newsletters for specific groups within our membership, such as Negotiations News, which relates bargaining news and updates, and our Membership and Treasurer newsletter.

Video messages have become a large component of how we do Education Minnesota’s member communication. Videos on campaign issues, legislative updates, conference highlights, member award winners and more are produced by Education Minnesota staff and shared on our YouTube channel, Facebook page, e-newsletters and other social media channels.

During the pandemic, we greatly increased our use of Facebook Live videos, especially for press conferences. The videos are broadcast live, but stay available for later viewing on our Facebook page.

Website In November, Education Minnesota launched a new and improved website after more than a year of work and member input. The new site includes a refreshed and modern design, with an improved search function and easier accessibility on mobile devices. We also reorganized and expanded our content offerings and made it easier for members and local leaders to find the tools and resources they need to succeed. Site visits are up since the launch, and we already embarking on new projects to improve bargaining data and other valuable Member Portal resources.

Social media Education Minnesota continued to expand our reach and organizing efforts on social media in the past year. We now have a TikTok account, have significantly grown our presence on Instagram, and our Twitter page continues to do very well. We now have more than 28,000 followers on Twitter—much more than many other state affiliates and opposition groups. Our Facebook page is now followed by more than 24,000 people—a 30 percent jump in the past 12 months. Pinterest continues to be another bright spot for us on social media, and our Flickr account features nearly 6,500 photos from local and state events. We use YouTube to house our current TV ads and videos related to our campaign and other Education Minnesota events.

Hustle and Action Network/Every ActionEducation Minnesota uses the peer-to-peer texting platform, Hustle, and the email campaign platforms Action Network and Every Action. Hustle allows us to connect directly with members and have conversations about upcoming events, legislative issues or actions to participate in at the local level. Action Network and Every Action allow us to create petitions and letter writing campaigns for locals to use with their school boards and community and for members to write to their legislators on key bills and issues.

Mobile appEducation Minnesota’s free mobile app is available on all iOS and Android devices—including tablets. This tool is for members to stay informed and connect with their union. App features include: up-to-date union news and events, a digital membership card with scannable QR code, digital versions of the Minnesota Educator and much more.

Paid advertising campaignIn 2020-21, Education Minnesota continued our paid media efforts with our “Believe in ‘We’” campaign. Public affairs staff worked with our advertising agency, Flint Group, Education Minnesota leadership and members to research and develop new kinds of advertising to respond to a changing market. A mix of media, including TV, online and social media, has proved to be efficient and successful—with an ever-growing emphasis on social media channels to reach our audiences. While our primary audience continues to be parents with school-aged children, there is also a need to engage younger members and communities of color, as well as potential voters throughout Minnesota.

In early 2022, we executed a digital ad campaign featuring our members doing heroic work during the pandemic, leading up to and through the start of the 2022 legislative session. Some of this campaign was paid for by a grant from the NEA. The campaign was having such a positive impact, we extended the ad buy to include broadcast and cable television. Later in the 2022 session, we’ll run ads in support of our legislative agenda as we push for more funding and resources for schools.

As part of our paid media campaign, Education Minnesota has sponsored the Minnesota State High School League for 13 years, promoting the well-rounded education that comes from extra- and co-curricular activities. Our ads appear on the fall and spring television broadcasts of state tournaments, as well as online and in the print programs for every MSHSL tournament.

As indicated above, we are adjusting the emphasis of the media campaign to reflect more online presence and less TV. The rationale for this adjustment involves efficiency, flexibility and affordability—online advertising allows us to target our audience better (down to the ZIP code if necessary) and allows us to adjust as we go, changing targets and using the most effective ads for each audience.

The specifics of our online strategy include:• Banner ads purchased on 100 top websites.• Pre-roll video (video advertising that runs before actual online videos).

• YouTube, Hulu, other streaming services (Adults 35-49 are the largest consumers of online video).• Use of social media to expand the campaign “brand” (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and audio services

such as Spotify).

Also in 2021, the Public Affairs Department continued a “subsidy” program whereby Education Minnesota pays $400 per local, per year, toward the cost of community outreach activities, including ads, flyers, billboard messages and other promotional materials. To date, more than 260 locals have taken advantage of the subsidy program.

Local crisis/bargaining assistanceWorking with field staff and local leaders, the Public Affairs Department has provided ongoing assistance to more than 90 locals during bargaining and for general communications assistance. Department staff assisted locals by crafting

messages, helping organize rallies and other events, writing press releases, preparing members for media interviews, and drafting flyers, ads and letters to the editor. Education Minnesota provides communications support for locals on a variety of issues, including elections, bargaining and organizing around critical needs for educators and students across the state.

Public affairs staff have worked extensively to provide communications support for the SPFE local as it approached a strike, and MFT 59 as its teacher and ESP units went on strike in March 2022.

Communications and political staff worked with locals to turn back anti-equity school board candidates running across the state in 2021, particularly in the suburbs. Levy referendum campaigns advised by Education Minnesota also were highly successful—about two-thirds of them passed. This included referendums that were approved after being rejected previously in many districts, including Eastern Carver County, Shakopee, Stillwater, Floodwood and Aitkin.

As contract negotiations continue across the state, staff are helping more and more locals with their bargaining communications so they can reach a fair contract settlement with their districts that honors educators’ work.

We are ready and willing to help with locals that need assistance

2021 MEA conferenceThe Minnesota Educator Academy conference was held Oct. 21 with both hybrid and in-person classes taking place, with COVID-19 protocols in place to make it a safe event.

The in-person conference lineup at the Saint Paul RiverCentre featured more than 60 workshops, including seminars covering student mental health, technology, classroom management strategies and more. Members earned relicensure credits, were able to network with peers and check out dozens of educational exhibits. Many of the in-person sessions were also streamed online so educators across the state could access the content as well.

Featured speakers included Seema G. Pothini, an author and national speaker, who talked about using student voice to help educators recognize, respond to and address racism and bias in the moment. Minnesota Teacher of the Year Natalia Benjamin spoke about creating welcoming spaces for all students.

All streamed sessions are now available for members to take asynchronously on MEA Online.

2021 news media relationsEducation Minnesota actively works to promote the reputation, image and policy recommendations of educators through outreach in the news media. The views of the union president on state education policy are widely sought by media throughout the state. President Specht shares those views through interviews on television, radio, podcasts and newspapers. Education Minnesota also helps coordinate multiple media interviews with members across the state. Throughout 2021, much of the news in education surrounded the pandemic, keeping educators and students safe and the mental health of students and staff in schools and on campuses. Issues such as staffing and sub shortages were the focus of a statewide media tour called “At a Breaking Point: Educating During COVID-19” featuring President Specht and members.

Minnesota State Fair boothEducation Minnesota decided to cancel its State Fair booth in 2021, due to the lack of COVID-19 safety protocols at the fair. Given the proximity to the start of the school year, our location inside a building and the large number of member volunteers who run the booth, we felt it was not a safe choice to be there. We look forward to this August and being back at the Great Minnesota Get Together!

Minnesota Teacher of the YearEducation Minnesota hosted the 57th annual Teacher of the Year program in 2021, resulting in the selection of Natalia Alvarez Benjamin of Rochester. Because of restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the last two

recognition/naming ceremonies for Teacher of the Year have been smaller affairs, taking place in the summer outside the state Capitol.

A selection panel representing Minnesota leaders in education, business and government chooses the Minnesota Teacher of the Year from the pool of candidates. Panelists review candidate portfolios, review video submissions of semifinalists and interview finalists in person.

The Minnesota Teacher of the Year represents the profession as an advocate for education and spokesperson for teachers. That person makes presentations, meets with policymakers and attends frequent meetings.

The call for nominations for the 2022 program produced nearly 250 nominations and resulted in 77 candidate applications. The Teacher of the Year program continues to highlight great teaching and teachers and results in numerous positive news stories and public appearances throughout the year.

The selection panel met virtually again in March to select semifinalists and then finalists for the award. The 2022 recognition ceremony is planned for May 1 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre, where a new Teacher of the Year will be named.

41 Sherburne Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103 651-227-9541 800-652-9073 Fax 651-292-4802

www.educationminnesota.orgEducation Minnesota is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers,

the National Education Association and AFL-CIO.

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