Tag: Education Support Professionals

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ONE Conference Wrap Up!

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After a year of planning, the 2024 ONE Conference has come to an end. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make it a success! So many great presenters, speakers, volunteers, and IEA staff have worked tirelessly to pull it together.

I want to thank everyone who was able to take the time out of their incredibly busy schedules of work, family and other responsibilities to come and learn, collaborate with fellow support staff and to build upon your union work. We hope you felt welcome and celebrated because what we do IS tough. The contributions of education support professionals in our schools/universities are essential to our students and to our communities. Without education support professionals…learning doesn’t happen and One Job Should Be Enough!

Don’t forget, we deserve rESPect, and Together as One, we will make it happen! If you haven’t joined rESPect, join today, www.iearespect.org

Signup to bring your voice to our rESPect table. Click to register to attend our monthly rESPect steering meetings. Second Thursday of each month, 5:30-7:00pm.

#ieaespcouncil #IEArESPect #OneJobShouldBeEnough #ONEConference2024

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Undo Tier 2 Tuesday

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It’s Tier 2 Tuesday! Tier 2 does not just impact teachers, but also higher ed, clinicians and education support professionals (ESPs), like Carl.

When Tier 2 was created by lawmakers, it seems they did not consider what a retirement age set at 67 would mean for maintenance workers, custodians and grounds workers whose work could include heavy lifting, or physical education teachers or educators who work with very young children. Learn more: UndoTier2.org

May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'I work as a maintenance employee and I have noticed at age 64 it 64itis is hard to keep the pace needed to satisfy my expectations. I need to remove myself from this profession to save myself from an injury, but due to the reduced benefits under Tier 2, will have to e working to support my family. CARL TASCONE Maintenance Lincoln-Way HS Education Support Professionals UNDO TIER TIERG 2 . PE 082024 ETE-OOKA 2024'
Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

You’re invited – ESP Council Virtual Meeting – June 22nd

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Dear Education Support Professional,

You are cordially invited to join us as we come together to bring ESP voices to the table. 

Join us virtually and share your successes, challenges, hopes and dreams and help us as we advocate to improve ESP wages, health insurance, pensions and job duties to retain and recruit new staff.

**Virtual Event** All ESPs Welcome
Saturday, June 22
(For those who have already signed up, this meeting has been changed to Virtual Only)
VIRTUAL Meet & Greet
9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
VIRTUAL Roundtable
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Click to register
Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

Thank you! We can’t do it without you!

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Thank you to everyone who attended our last rESPect steering meeting of the 2023-24 school year this past Thursday evening. At this meeting we focused on evaluating our successes and our challenges, and we reviewed our goals to make sure our targets haven’t changed. We are doing so many things right and we are having great successes…but there is ALWAYS room for improvement. One of the biggest takeaways for me is team members wanting more…more opportunities for engagement and to take on more leadership roles. YES!, that is what we need. This is your campaign and your voice and leadership will drive this campaign to the finish line.

Reminder – There is NO rESPect steering meeting in July.

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IEA Spring Election Results

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Welcome to our new Education Support Professional Council Members! We are truly excited for you join us as we collaborate and advocate for education support professionals throughout Illinois!

A HUGE thank you to those amazing council members whose term is ending. Your skills and voice have been essential to elevating ESP issues and building a foundation of rESPect.

2024-spring-election-resultsDownload
Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

Call to Action – Undo Tier 2

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In 2010, the Illinois General Assembly hastily created a “Tier 2” of separate, lower pension benefits for public school and public university employees hired after 2011. We are asking our members to take action now to change this.

Since then, the drastically reduced benefits for “Tier 2” workers are further diminished due to inflation, meaning they can’t keep up with rising costs like grocery and drug price increases. Many education employees cannot collect Social Security, and these pension benefits are their sole source of retirement security. You can see the negative effects of Tier 2 reflected in the shortages of both educators and Education Support Professionals (ESPs) in schools and universities across the state. The shortages mean an increased workload and sometimes overwhelming working conditions for everyone working in our schools and at our colleges and universities.
This problem was created by politicians failing to pay into the retirement system, and it’s them we should be holding accountable, rather than punishing educators.  
From April 15-18, please join Illinois public employee unions in a week of action. Contact your lawmakers and tell them they must take action to fix Tier 2 pensions. You can write your lawmaker here. Or, you can dial 507-497-1665 to be connected to your legislators by phone.
ACT NOW!
This action is the first step to push legislators in Springfield to ensure that all school employees have a fair, secure retirement and we can retain essential teachers, adjuncts and higher ed staff, Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and all public school and university employees.  All educators deserve an equitable retirement. 

Stand up for your colleagues. Help us Undo Tier 2. 

Remember, we are stronger united! And together we are IEA!