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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 |
News
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!
LEARN HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS AND LOAN CONSOLIDATION PROGRAMS GEARED TOWARDS TEACHERS AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES! EM-R is sponsoring a “Degrees Not Debt” seminar which will help guide you through the process of loan forgiveness. Four different types of loan forgiveness programs will be discussed, descriptions of which can be found HERE.
To register for the Monday, November 25 seminar at the RAHS Media Center please complete the google form found HERE.
Dear members,
More than 5,000 of you have attended our Degrees Not Debt training. You told us that applying for loan forgiveness and lowering your payments needs to be easier.
We heard you.
I’m excited to announce that Education Minnesota has launched a new partnership to help you save on your education debt and apply for loan forgiveness.
Minnesota ranks fifth in the country when it comes to education debt and, for many educators, it is a burden that prevents us from buying homes, starting families and building towards a secure economic future.
Meet Summer––a loan forgiveness service
As a member, you now have FREE access to a new service called Summer. The tools on this website make it easy for educators to lower monthly payments and qualify for loan forgiveness programs.
Based on your unique situation, Summer will determine which savings programs you’re eligible for, compare your options side-by-side and help you enroll––all online. The site will even submit paperwork to your school district on your behalf.
Members can also receive assistance from Summer’s team of loan experts via online chat or by email.
We already are seeing this partnership pay off. One of our Education Minnesota members who tried Summer is now on track to save almost $30,000 on her student loans.
To get started, visit Education Minnesota’s signup page: www.meetsummer.org/education-minnesota
Keeping the promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness
We believe Summer can help more educators like you enroll in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
However, we know many educators have applied for this debt relief and were rejected. The American Federation of Teachers is exploring legal action on behalf of members who were wrongfully denied public service loan forgiveness.
If you were denied and are interested in being part of this litigation, click here and answer a few questions.
Qualifying members must meet the following criteria:
- Made 120 payments on their federal student loans.
- Worked in a public or private school, for the government or for a nonprofit organization for at least 10 years.
- Applied for, and were denied, public service loan forgiveness.
This weekend the team from Education Minnesota-Roseville attended the Representative Convention and were inspired and informed about the work of our union. There were speeches from the leaders of the NEA and AFT, the Department of Education and the Governor of Minnesota. It was an amazing weekend.
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