Teacher of the Year nominations open Oct. 1-Nov. 15. Nominate a great teacher or teachers from your local for this prestigious award. Education Minnesota organizes and underwrites the program, in which an independent selection panel chooses a teacher to represent the profession in the coming year.
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Hurricane relief resources
As we know, our colleagues, their families, students and communities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee are reeling from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.
Our national affiliates, the AFT and NEA, are assisting affiliates in their efforts to conduct member wellness checks, stay in contact with FEMA and make sure everyone has what they need to recover and rebuild.
We want to make sure our fellow members who have been impacted by Helene know that the support for them comes from members across the country.
Here are some resources for hurricane relief:
GRANT OPPORTUNITIES REMINDER
A number of grant opportunities are available through Education Minnesota and the National Education Association. Clink on the links below for more information!
Classroom Focused Grants – up to $3,000 for project design and implementation
PD Grants for Teachers – Up to $2000 for teachers to either facilitate or attend innovative PD sessions.
IMPACT Grant – up to $15,000 for projects that team up with a local non-profit
NEA Foundation Grants – a variety of grants awarded through the NEA Foundation including Envision Equity Grants, Learning & Leadership Grants, Student Success Grants and a Global Learning Fellowship grant.
Jodi Kyllonen and the 2023-24 cohort of Teacher Leaders wrapped up the 2023-24 Teacher Leader Program on Saturday with a Showcase presentations. We had 5 school board members in attendance as well as Dr. Loeck, Dr. Wilson and Jake Von De Linde.
Teachers did amazing work which will inform the district and Education Minnesota.
Here are the presentations:
Bob Anderson, RAHS Math Teacher “Teacher Compensation: A Longitudinal Study” Presentation | Slides
Mark Jaspers, RAHS Special Ed Teacher “Are We A-B-Seen? Supporting our LGBTQ+ Population” Presentation | Slides
Lucy Mehlan, RAMS Life Science/Computer Science Teacher “Service Learning” Presentation | Slides
Ben Samuelson, FAHS Career/Social Studies Teacher “A Conundrum: Students Come to School but Don’t Stay in Class” Presentation | Slides
Steph Scierka, Central Park Kindergarten Teacher “Consistent Classroom Support to Benefit Students and Educators” Presentation | Slides
Sarah Webb, RAHS Spanish Teacher “Equity & Quality in Two-Way, Dual Language Immersion” Presentation | Slides
EM-R members Dan Beck, Maria Le Selmer, Gregg Martinson, Silvia Vasquez, Myriam Castro-Franco and Lauren Miller attended the 2024 Education Minnesota Representative Convention in Bloomington. The team, along with Todd Richter, our pension specialist, navigated complicated questions of pension reform and the role of Education Minnesota as well as countless other issues and concerns. The team had a chance to shake hands with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. Maria Le, a member of Education Minnesota’s governing board was part of the team that met with Dr. Biden and represented EdMN on stage. The discussion was intense and the EDMN family had more clarity on the important issues of the day at the end of process.
EM-R would like to send a huge thanks to everyone who volunteered, spread the word or voted to help elect all three of EM-R’s endorsed school board candidates. A special shout-out to Heather Rietz (ECSE) and Brooks Hidaka (RAHS) for the many hours they spent coordinating our phone banks and lining up callers. It was clear from the thousands of calls made and conversations had that the residents of Roseville put a huge value on teacher input when it comes to supporting education-friendly candidates!
Click here for a full rundown of the election results.
Every Saturday till election day the three candidates that Education Minnesota-roseville has endorsed will be organizing events to campaign for Todd Anderson, Todd Bogusczewski and Rose Chu. We are going to need all the support we can get to continue targeted door-knocking and lit-dropping across the Roseville area to ensure folks come out to vote!
Sat Oct 14, 10 to noon, Makwa Coffee, 2805 Hamline Ave N, Roseville
Sat Oct 21, 10 to noon, Caribou Coffee, 3354 Rice St, Little Canada
Sat Oct 28, 10 to noon, TBD
Sat Nov 4, 10 to noon, TBD
What is a TRA pension?
TRA is a defined-benefit pension plan, which differs from a 403(b) or 401(k) because you receive a predictable retirement benefit for your lifetime, not an account balance that you might outlive. With TRA:
- Savings are automatic. During your teaching years, a percentage is deducted from every paycheck for your retirement. This is a mandatory deduction based on state statute and there is both an employee and employer contribution for each paycheck.
- It’s easy. Contributions from you and your employer are pooled with all state public pension fund assets. The State Board of Investment manages these assets so you don’t have to.
- Contributions are pretax. This reduces your taxable income.
- Job change? No worries. If you stay employed in city, county or state government in Minnesota, you can keep your contributions at TRA and continue to accrue public sector service credit toward your eventual pension under a Combined Service Annuity.
Contribution Rates
| Date effective | Employer contribution rate | Employee deduction rate |
|---|---|---|
| 7/1/2023 and after | 8.75% | 7.75% |
Vesting
You are “vested” in the TRA plan after three years of service. Once you’re vested, you have earned enough service credit to be eligible for TRA benefits.
The TRA website contains a wealth of additional information but a good starting point would be one of the following links:
*PENSION BASICS*TRA FOR EARLY CAREER EDUCATORS
*TRA FOR EDUCATORS NEARING RETIREMENT
The following four-minute video is also a great resource for understanding how your pension works:
EM-R Pension Specialist Todd Richter will be sending out pension updates throughout the school year. Please contact Todd via email at Todd.Richter@isd623 with any pension-related questions.
Quality teaching and learning begins with a quality school board! EM-R convened a candidate screening committee last week with the goal of endorsing candidates the committee felt best represent the values and goals of our members. EM-R is proud to announce our endorsement of the following three candidates:
Rose W. Chu, Todd Anderson, Mike Boguszewski.
Please be sure to spread the word to friends, family and neighbors to support these candidates! AND, be sure to vote on or before Nov 7th!! #voting matters
If you would like to support the candidates, all three will be hosting a joint door knocking event this Saturday, Sept. 23 from 9 -11. The event will kick off at Makwa Coffee on 2805 Hamline Ave. N. Additional details can be found HERE.
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