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Mark your calendars!

Plans are underway for Education Support Professional (ESP) Day, our annual celebration of ESPs, happening on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 during American Education Week! NEA recognizes ESPs and their amazing contributions to our students, schools, communities every day.  If you have plans to celebrate the day in your building, take a snapshot and include a caption and email it to Arlene.criglar@ieanea.org to be featured in the December 14 edition of the ESP Insider.

Don’t forget, you also have an opportunity to recognize ESP coworkers not only on the annual ESP Day but every month!  Today’s challenge is for you to nominate 1 or more ESP members, co-workers for an ESP STAR Award. Click here for the form it only takes a few minutes to complete and submit. 

Thank you for all you do everyday for our students, schools, and communities!!

Patti Hyzy Paraeducator Sycamore Trails Elementary School District U-46 Educational Assistants (DUEA) IEA Region 63 Patti continues to grow in both her profession as a paraeducator, as well as her association work. She supports some of our youngest learners in early childhood through the district’s play-based program. She is a strong building rep for our members and a go-to person for other buildings that have early childhood programs. Patti currently serves on our local association board, bargaining team and is the community connection committee chair. In her most recent effort, Patti assisted in collecting more than 500 toiletry items for the Community Crisis Center. Congratulations Patti!

J.P. Quirk Paraeducator Kenyon Woods Middle School District U-46 Educational Assistants (DUEA) IEA Region 63 J.P. serves on the DUEA bargaining team. He consistently goes the extra mile to meet the needs of the students in his building and is willing to help wherever needed. Recently, J.P. had a “novel” idea of how to enhance the hallway across from the school library. He purchased decal-type locker covers that look like the spines of classic literary works. J.P. secured funding for the project through the school’s and his own resources. After spending many hours trimming and applying the “books” to the lockers, the hallway looks amazing! The completed project serves as a reminder of the joys of reading. Congratulations J.P.!

Nominate a deservine ESP today at https://ieanea.org/forms/esp-stars-nomination-form/

Bring your voice to the table

ESP Ethnic Minority member(Remainder of term to 2023)
Eligibility: All IEA-NEA members who are employed as Educational Support Professionals in a school district and/or combination of school districts are eligible to participate in the election.

ESP Suburban Alternate/NEA RA successor delegate (Remainder of term to 2023)
Eligibility: All IEA-NEA members in Regions 26-36, 39, 41-43, 46, 50, 52, 55-59, 64 and 67 are eligible to participate in the election.
Nominations are due Oct. 13 by 4 p.m. The fall election nomination form is available online at iea.org/about/elections.

I encourage everyone to celebrate and recognize the many Indigenous communities and cultures that make up our great country. Our history is important! Who has lived where you live? Don’t know…? Do a quick Google search. It’s amazing all of the rich cultures and stories of people that lived before us. Happy Indigenous People’s Day.

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Burroughs Education Scholarship Sponsored by Woodruff Johnson & Evans Law Offices Opportunities for College-Bound Seniors

BURROUGHS EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP: $2,500 FOR COLLEGE

The Burroughs Education Scholarship is named in honor of Dr. Stacy Burroughs. Dr. Burroughs has dedicated his life to education. During his teaching career in Indiana, he taught music to middle and high school students. He later went on to supervise student teachers working toward teaching degrees at the University of Illinois in Springfield.

For the last 38 years of his career, he represented and helped educate teachers and support professionals on behalf of the Illinois Education Association (IEA). In 1985, the IEA Representative Assembly nominated and hired Dr. Burroughs as the first IEA Educational Support Professionals Director. He held this position until he retired in 2010. As the ESP Director, he worked to bring recognition to the contributions that support professionals—such as custodians, bus drivers, and cooks—made to the education system across the state.

This scholarship recognizes the dedication and hard work of school employees by assisting their children in their educational pursuits.

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

·         Be a graduating high school senior heading to college

·         Have at least one parent or legal guardian who is a school employee

Additionally, the scholarship is awarded based on academic achievement, career goals, and character.

Applications will be accepted October 1, 2021, through January 31, 2022.
The winner will be announced March 2022.

For more information and to fill out the online scholarship application visit our website: https://woodrufflawyers.com/giving-back/scholarships/

Prior Scholarship Recipients: 

2021 Scholarship winner Lauren Hagy

2020 Scholarship winner Mo Park

2019 Scholarship winner Olivia Howard

2018 Scholarship winner Megan Ng

Kindest regards,

Vickie Douglas, Marketing Director / Client Development Officer

• IEA is working with our labor partners to introduce legislation addressing the use of sick time being used for COVID-19 purposes.  Educational employees returned to work in-person and should not be required to use their own, limited sick time to quarantine or isolate.  Employer provided paid administrative leave is appropriate in these circumstances.
• IEA is asking local IEA presidents to call their State Senators and State Representatives to advocate for these paid administrative days.  Some locals have been successful in negotiating paid administrative days or other MOUs with their employers.  Other locals have met with administrations entirely unwilling to consider any other option than employees using their own sick time.  Since the presidents are the ones involved in the negotiations with their administrators, you are best positioned to explain why a statewide policy for paid administrative days used for COVID-19 purposes is needed.
• Please click here for the talking points to guide the conversation.
• Please click here to enter the address of your school building to find your State Senator and State Representative.  We recommend that you search for the address of one of your school buildings in order to obtain the State Senator and State Representative for your school district, community college or university.

I am so excited to be able to participate in this years virtual One Conference. I hope to see you soon!!! If you registered for the conference you should have received links to your personal email to join the sessions that you registered for. If you have any troubles, please contact IEA Connect at https://ieanea.org/ieaconnect/.

Your ESP Council tirelessly advocates for ESPs throughout Illinois. The ESP Council has brought the inequity of the current dues structure within the IEA bylaws to the IEA Board of Directors. Our IEA Executive Board has heard us; they agree and have created an IEA ESP Dues Structure Subcommittee to review the current bylaw, collect data and research, and submit a more equitable ESP dues structure bylaw that better supports our ESP members. This proposed bylaw will be voted on at next years IEA RA in April.

There are amazing educators on this committee, including 3 ESPs currently on your ESP Council.

Your Voice Matters! Join your ESP Council to support and advocate for members.

We have two vacancies on the ESP Council – An election notice mailer went out to ESPs regarding these vacancies:•

ESP Ethnic Minority member (Remainder of term to 2023)

Eligibility: All IEA-NEA members who are employed as Educational Support Professionals in a school district and/or combination of school districts are eligible to participate in the election.

ESP Suburban Alternate/NEA RA successor delegate (Remainder of term to 2023)

Eligibility: All IEA-NEA members in Regions 26-36, 39, 41-43, 46, 50, 52, 55-59, 64 and 67 are eligible to participate in the election.

Nominations are due Oct. 13. The fall election nomination form is available online at iea.org/about/elections.

Nomination form: https://nom.election-america.com/iea

You won’t want to miss this conference!! This no cost, amazing conference is planned by ESPs for ESPs!! Registration closes soon!

IEA Higher Education, Education Support Professionals, and IEA Retired members, please join us for the 2021 One Virtual Conference.

This year’s virtual conference will offer opportunities for professional development, informational sessions, and a keynote session featuring NEA ESP of the Year, Kimberly Scott-Hayden. We will also be recognizing IEA Retired Hauge Award winner, Gayla Dial, IEA ESP of the Year, Debra Ward-Mitchell, and IEA Higher Educator of the Year, Jim Grimes.

Elective sessions begin Friday, October 1 and will conclude with the keynote session on Saturday.

Registration is open to IEA members only. Please check elective descriptors for availability of Professional Development Hours (PD-Hr.)

REGISTRATION

Conference Overview | Elective Descriptors | Elective Schedule