Category: Uncategorized

Congratulations! You did it! The Illinois Senate passed the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill (HB2778) 53-1 and the House 92-23! Here’s what it means for you:It requires districts to provide COVID administrative days to any school or college employees abiding by the vaccination or testing orders to be used for all COVID-related absences like quarantining and testing, so employees will not have to use all of their accrued benefit time during the pandemic.Provides paycheck protection for hourly employees. This means if a school or higher education institution has to close because of an emergency, hourly employees would still receive their full paycheck.Members made more than 1,600 calls to their Representatives over the past few days, urging them to pass the bill and those lawmakers listened. Now, there’s just one more hurdle — getting the governor to sign it! Please take a moment to email Gov. J.B. Pritzker and ask him to sign HB2778 immediately. The law is retroactive to the start of the school year.

Take Action

Thank you for all you do every day on behalf of students in Illinois. And, thank you for taking the time urge the governor to sign this bill into law on behalf of your fellow educators and education employees across the state of Illinois. Great job!

Do you or your children have college student debt? Join us this Thursday for information on how you may be able to cancel your students debt. Don’t miss this extremely valuable information.

Education Support Professionals
Micro-Credential PLC: ESP Cultural Competency

IEA, in partnership with NEA, is offering our IEA Education Support Professionals (ESPs) an opportunity to participate, AT NO COST, in a virtual Professional Learning Community (PLC) to support successful completion of a NEA ESP Micro-Credential. Developed specifically for and by ESPs and supported by IEA and NEA. Connect with and get support from ESP colleagues as you learn
about and apply cultural competence in your daily work with students, families, community members, co-workers, supervisors, administrators, and others in yourschool community.

-One-hour virtual weekly PLC meetings guided by a trained
facilitator

What’s involved?

• Tuesdays from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. CST
  -Beginning November 2nd ——- Ending on December 21st
  -Cost is FREE to IEA ESP Members!
  -Commit up to 1 hour per week of time on your own time to
  complete related tasks
• IEA ESP Members will receive a $240.00 stipend fortheirfull
  participation includes: attendance and submission of CCMC
  -Pursue andearnanESP Cultural Competency Micro-Credential

Click for more information:

We are fighting to pass the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill (House Bill 2778) in the Illinois legislature and we need your help calling our state representatives now and telling them to vote in favor of our bill. We only have three days to do it – during veto session Oct. 26-28.   The COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill:Requires districts provide COVID administrative days to any school or college employees to be used for all COVID related absences like quarantining and testing;Provides paycheck protection for hourly employees. This means if you’re an hourly employee and your school or higher education institution has to close due to any COVID-related reason, you would still receive your full paycheck.To Take Action, click the button to complete a short form and then receive a call from E.A. Advocacy to connect to your state representative. It’s that simple!

Take Action

Here’s a sample script for you to use when you are connected to your State Representative’s office:My name is YOUR NAME. I am an educator in YOUR CITY. I support House Bill 2778, the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill. I encourage you to pass this legislation to protect the benefits and rights of all hard-working school employees.Vote “Aye”, and help us pass the bill over to the Senate;Co-sponsor the bill;Speak in favor of the bill during debate. Thank you for helping get HB 2778 passed!

We are fighting to protect your benefits and wages during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why we introduced the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill. Learn more in this special IEA Legislative Update from President Kathi Griffin or go to IEANEA.org/Covidprotectionbill

Education must be affordable and accessible to all. Yet for too many of us, the higher education costs to become educators has meant years and even decades of student debt. This system is working for the student loan providers and banks, but not for us. It is time to cancel our student debt.

Join student debt experts and education support professionals (ESPs) to discuss how we can cancel our student debt. Just last year, NEA experts worked with members to obtain over $1 million in forgiveness and put even more on the path to forgiveness. Find out how you can join that group and how we can join together to fight for student debt relief for all of us.

Oct 28, 2021 6:00 PM Central Time Zone

Click link to register: https://nea-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2X-EHY2wREG-ygNMNwA9nQ

We stand with our Chester Support Personnel members! They are fighting for a fair contract. Education Support Professionals are the bedrock on which students receive a solid educational experience. Without our amazing ESPs school wouldn’t happen….learning wouldn’t happen. Thank you for all you do for our students, buildings, and communities!

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.