A number of contracts ago, EM-R negotiated a 2% match for a Health Care Savings plan as part of the benefits package found in your contract. The Health Care Savings Plan allows you to invest money in a medical savings account while employed. The plan is administered by the Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS) and is a TAX-FREE Account! More of your money works for you in an HCSP account because you don’t pay income taxes on contributions or reimbursements. Details of the plan can be found in this document and also in the three minute video linked below. Click HERE to login and check the balance of your account. If desired, you are able to re-allocate the money in your account into different types of investment options. Information on the different options can be found HERE.
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2021 Share My Lesson Virtual Conference
All of the sessions from Share My Lesson’s 2021 virtual conference are now available on demand for free. Check out the remarkable lineup of webinars to support your upcoming needs, including how best to reopen schools safely, support social and emotional recovery and learning recovery, strengthen a foundation of anti-bias education, increase civic engagement and incorporate trauma-sensitive practices.
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| Professional Learning OpportunitiesThe Culturally Responsive Dilemma, Wednesday, April 21, 6-7:30 p.m. ET Educators are being asked to be culturally responsive, but sometimes it seems like just another layer added to existing structures, which may not support culturally responsive constructs. So how can educators survive these mandates and still meet the needs of students? Let’s explore these challenges during our next session in the new teachers series. The AFT’s Rosalind LaRocque, a senior associate director in the Educational Issues Department, will host the session to help you discover ways to overcome these challenges. |
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One of the many things Education Minnesota ESI Member Benefits provides for members are informational seminars. With the Covid-19 pandemic, we have transitioned our seminars online. We will be holding a When Can I Afford to Retire seminar for locals serviced out of the Woodbury field office on Thursday, April 22, 2021 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM. This session will focus on those with a TRA pension. When thinking about or planning for retirement, we encourage members to do the following: 1) Attend an ESI seminar, topics to be discussed are listed below. 2) Schedule a meeting with a TRA and/or PERA counselor to provide you with individualized options. 3) Schedule a meeting with a financial advisor to help you in making the decisions that are the best for you. If you don’t have one, check out our sponsored partner, EFS Advisors. You can find your local advisor here. |
| Register today |
Topics to be discussed include: Pension education Learn how benefits are calculated Understand defined benefit pension plans Financial planning What can you expect from Social Security? Tax-deferred and tax-free savings Asset allocation and asset management/diversification/performance and fees 403(b) match and severance payment options |
Safety Guidelines – Ed MN recently updated the COVID safety guidelines for classrooms. EM-R has worked with the district COVID Coordinator to refine these to reflect Roseville’s implementation. Please read the bottom of the document for steps to take if you feel any of the guidelines need addressing in your classroom.
Vaccinations – Yesterday, Education Minnesota sent Gov. Walz and Commissioner Ricker the following letter requesting the state revert to a system that prioritizes educators doing in-person work and those with underlying health conditions for early vaccination access. EM-R continues to have conversations with union leaders across the state regarding this issue and we have also encouraged Superintendent Sicoli to raise the concern with the state-wide superintendents’ group in hopes that pressure from multiple fronts will reinstate some type of prioritization program.
COVID Related Sick Leave – as you may be aware, the 80 hours of paid sick leave allowed under the FFCRA Act for COVID related illness/quarantine expired on Dec. 31. As an alternative, EM-R has negotiated an agreement with the district that will allow anyone who has exhausted their own sick leave to use up 80 hours from the Sick Leave bank for quarantine or COVID related illness. If the Sick Leave Bank becomes depleted EM-R will send out an email requesting donations to cover our colleagues in need who have exhausted all of their sick leave.
-Dan Beck, EM-R President
The American Federation of Teachers and Education Minnesota-Roseville are seeking educators interested in collaborating with colleagues across the district and nation to join theAFT Teacher Leaders Program.
We are looking for 10 members to join the 2020-2021 cohort. The cohort members will spend the year collaborating with other teacher leaders, elected officials, activists and policy experts to delve into educational issues that continue to threaten our profession. For additional details please click HERE. Thanks to Jodi Kyllonen for assuming the role of facilitator for this year’s cohort!
Education Minnesota will hold its annual MEA conference virtually this October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Details can be found HERE.
The 2020 MEA conference will feature live sessions via webinar on Thursday, Oct. 15. There will also be new relicensure course offerings on Education Minnesota’s online learning platform LearnUpon for members to complete at their own pace.
We hope everyone’s school year is off to as good a start as can be expected considering the circumstances. Please take a moment to review the EM-R Leadership Roster in order to know who your building reps are. Please use your building reps as your first point of contact for union issues. For more in-depth issues or ones that require a greater degree of discretion please reach out to your Member Rights Advocate listed on the roster.
EM-R leadership continues to meet with district admin multiple times per week. Recent topics for discussion have included on-going safety concerns, district communication, blended learning-related issues, medical accommodations for DL, and TDE among many others.
Education Minnesota-Roseville educators were selected to participate in the American Federation of Teachers Teacher Leaders Program. The program supports educators over an academic year in learning about educational issues both local, statewide and national and culminates in an action research project and showcase. The topics were broad and interesting and the results will be beneficial and impactful for future policy decisions both at ISD 623 and elsewhere.
The showcase is at this link.
Here are the topics that were researched by our Teacher-Leader cohort:
Stanefski, Kay and Eustis: Cell Phone Policy |Presentation |Research Summary
Dodge and Stahlman: Co-Teaching | Presentation | Recording
Gibson & Castro-Franco: Educational Funding Equity| Presentation
Kyllonen: The Effect of Year Around Schooling | Paper|Presentation
Jones & Perchyshyn: Timed Tests for Adult Education Literature Review| Presentation
EM-R is sponsoring two separate financial seminars later this month that will take place in the RAHS Media Center. Both will be put on by financial advisors from Ed MN ESI.
Seminar 1 – Managing Your Money So You Can Plan for the Future
Tuesday, Jan 21, 4:15 – 5:15 RAHS Media Center
Refreshments Provided
Seminar 2 – When Can I Afford to Retire?
Thursday, Jan 23 4:15 – 6:00pm RAHS Media Center
Box Meal Provided
See attachments for details and registration link. RSVP required for each seminar!
