IEA Education Support Professional Council Meeting Update

This past Saturday the IEA Education Support Professionals Council met from 9:00-2:00pm to collaborate and advocate for education support professionals throughout Illinois. A wide variety of topics were discussed.

• rESPect Campaign: Advocating to bring the changes we need for ALL Illinois ESPs.
  • We need to make sure we better recognize higher ed ESPs as we grow rESPect and advocate for change.
  • All rESPect resources have been translated to Spanish and ready for download on the rESPect website.
• ONE Conference: reviewed feedback of attendees, so many great comments. We also discussed ways to improve for next year.
• IEA ESP of the Year: made improvements to our application to better align with NEA ESP of the Year application. The nomination December 15th deadline is quickly approaching.
• ESP Insider: Next ESP Insider will be coming our December 19th. If you have a story you would like to share about someone or something happing in your local, send it to Arlene Criglar arlene.criglar@ieanea.org no later than December 11th. We would love to hear what’s happening in your local or region!
• IEA RA: planning for our Open Hearing and ESP Engagement – nomination forms are due soon for you to be able to attend the Representative Assembly. Reach out to your local election chair or union executive board member for more information.
• NEA ESP Conference: March 22-24, 2024 Las Vegas, NV Caesars Palace 3570 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109 Click the link for more information! Amazing experience!
• Bylaw/Legislative Committee:
  • reviewed/updated council bylaw language
  • began preliminary review IEA Bylaws and Legislative platform to make proposed ESP language improvements
• Member Connections Committee:
  • plan for new items for welcome gifts for new locals, ESP Celebration, and IEA RA
  • discussed improvements at welcome table for ONE Conference and IEA RA

It is an honor to spend our Saturday to represent you. You have five council members who bring ESP voices front and center at Illinois Education Association monthly Board of Directors meetings and you have three council members who sit on the IEA Executive Board of Directors where we bring ESP voices front and center. Included in those, we have one National Education Association (NEA) Board of Director at Large on our council. So when I say Illinois ESP voices are being heard…I mean, Illinois ESP voices are BEING HEARD.