Education Support Professionals On the Front Lines in Fight for School Modernization

By John Rosales After a particularly snowy night in January, paraeducator Lynn Witts found herself zigzagging around water buckets the next morning as she walked the hallways at Polson High School in Montana. “The snow melted and we had buckets everywhere,” she says. While winter brings it share of snow and ice to challenge the [...]

Healthier Lunches Coming to Schools

By John Rosales New standards for school meals released on Wednesday  by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will help ensure healthy nutritious food served to every public school student in an effort to bolster their health and academic success. This effort was kicked-off with an appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama at Parklawn Elementary School [...]

A Boot Camp to Promote Healthy Food in Schools

By John Rosales The rigorous culinary training that Donna West attended in Aurora, Colorado, involved much more than cooking classes. West is a lunchroom and child nutrition manager at Brownwood Elementary School in Scottsboro, Alabama. For five long days spent in a high school kitchen and classrooms, West and two dozen other public school food [...]

The Persistence of Privatization

By John Rosales Person by person, block by block, school by school. Since Spring 2009, about two dozen custodians from Maine School Administrative District 75 (MSAD 75) have beat back the lingering threat of privatization. They have sat with one neighbor at a time, spoken at numerous school board meetings and labor organization events, started [...]

NEA Leaders Wrap Up Back-to-School Tour, Salute Education Support Professionals

By Sara Robertson and Alain Jehlen Education Support Professionals (ESPs) in Orlando, Florida, are being crushed financially, caught between state mandated salary cuts and increased health insurance costs. Yet despite their economic plight, student safety is still a major concern. Those are the messages NEA President Dennis Van Roekel heard from some 60+ Orange County [...]

Leadership In a Small Town

By Alain Jehlen Before Sam Phillips started fighting for grown-ups, he fought for students. Phillips is an American Indian and a utility maintenance employee in the Potter Valley Community Unified School District, a rural K-12 district with fewer than 300 students 130 miles north of San Francisco. His own daughter had disabilities and he felt [...]

Gas Prices Tighten the Squeeze on School Budgets

By John Rosales It’s the latest evidence that rising fuel costs are straining school transportation budgets: fewer field trips – with some paid for by students, no idling of the engine in front of buildings, and definitely no sweetheart stops. “That is an added stop you make for a student’s convenience because their house is [...]

Bullying Prevention: It Can Start with ESPs

By Meredith Barnett From her post in Leslie Middle School’s office, Debbie Pavon knows what to do when she spots one of her “frequent fliers.” That’s what this education support professional (ESP) calls students who land again and again in the principal’s office for being disruptive. Sometimes, they’re bullies. Other times, they’re the ones who [...]

North Carolina Bus Driver and Teacher Assistant Named 2011 NEA ESP of the Year

By Lance Fuller In front of a banquet hall at the WashingtonHilton, Ernest “Jameel” Williams graciously accepted the 2011 National Education Association Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year Award on Friday night surrounded by about 1,000 fellow ESPs, state Association staff and others from across the country. A bus driver and teacher assistant from [...]

Let’s Move! Campaign Celebrates a Year of Healthier School Lunches

By Cindy Long It’s been one year since First Lady Michelle Obama urged schools to serve healthier meals as part of her Let’s Move! Campaign to fight childhood obesity, and school lunches are already looking a whole lot leaner.  Food service professionals — longtime advocates of boosting nutrition levels in school meals — are doing [...]

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