Truth about West Michigan's Health Insurance Pool

Wayne Kuipers is holding up state budget.

Legislators have not yet reached a state budget deal to avoid a partial government shutdown beginning Monday, though negotiations continue.

Senator Wayne Kuipers from Holland is holding up state budget talks to secure passage of SB 418, which would attack MESSA's pools. This legislation would not save the state any money. Please contact your legislators and the governor and tell them not to let Kuipers hold a budget agreement hostage to his political agenda.

Negotiations are at a critical stage and your help is needed immediately. Please contact your legislators.

If you phone your legislators, you should know that most are in caucus meetings and cannot be reached personally. Please leave a message with office staff indicating your concerns and support for adequate revenues for public education.

You can make a difference!

So called "Reforms" are bad for education

Contact your legislator on these issues and bills.

•SB 546 and SB 547 would reform the Public School Employees Retirement Act. SB 546 would reduce the state subsidy for retirement insurance and provide for a graded premium subsidy on health benefits. SB 547 would increase the member contribution to the retirement system, mandate that a retiree must work at least 10 years to be eligible for retirement payments, as well as other technical changes. MEA opposes both bills.
•SB 418-421 is a series of bills commonly known as the "MESSA bills." These bills would require release of claims data and four insurance bids prior to bargaining. The release of claims would allow insurers to "cherry pick" healthier groups, which would then drive up the premium costs for existing pools of insured members. MEA opposes this attack on MESSA.
•SB 549 would mandate a common school calendar within an ISD. The current version only requires winter and spring breaks to be the same within an ISD. This version of the bill was not supported by MEA, but we did support removing the ability of ISDs to determine all aspects of calendar and removing their right to schedule common professional development days.
•HB 4975-4976 would require 10 years of service before being able to purchase service credit and stipulates that purchased service does not count toward health benefits vesting. MEA does not support these bills.

Other reforms being discussed include: banning double-dipping by school retirees who return to work; moving all school elections to November; mandating that no school employee be paid more than the governor; and conducting studies on school consolidation and school employee wages and benefits.

Please contact your legislators today. Tell them to resolve our state's budget crisis by investing in education. Tell them to turn down politically motivated "reforms" that balance the budget on the backs of school employees.

** Reminder: Do not communicate with legislators on school time and equipment. Wait until you are away from school to contact your legislators. Thank you.

Insurance Costs

Important dates

September 14 - First pay. Please check your pay stub to make sure you are at the correct column and step.

September 26 - New teacher orientation. If you are a new teacher to Holland, please talk to your building AR and mentor teacher about attending this event.

September 30 - Sick bank donations are due. Please send donation forms to Jon Toppen at VanRaalte School. Talk to your building AR about the new sick bank donation process.

October 11 - Probationary teacher dinner (Holland DoubleTree Conference Center). All probationary teachers are encouraged to attend this dinner sponsored by MEA. Come and learn how MEA can help you through the probationary status.

October 26 - First deduction of dues.

Holland Would Get Nearly 1 Million!

The House of Representatives has finally started to act on the 2007-08 budget.

On the eve of students returning to school, the House versions of the education budgets were passed just prior to sunrise Thursday as part of a 17-hour legislative session that was at the very least rancorous. The House bills call for:

* a $100 per student increase to the foundation grant for K-12 along with other increases for equity payments, declining enrollment and transportation costs;
* a $36.7 million increase for community colleges, made up mostly of catch-up payments from this summer’s cuts and new investment in nursing programs; and
* research universities and other higher education institutions to be split into two different appropriations bills, each calling for a minimum 2.5 percent increase plus additional funding.

What does this mean for Holland Public Schools?

From the GR Press 8/24/2007
"Sixteen of 20 Kent County districts would get the extra $100, and eight would get between $3,400 and $334,000 for declining enrollment. All Ottawa County districts qualify for the so-called equity payments, and Holland and West Ottawa get money for losing students.

Grand Rapids Public Schools would see a $4.2 million boost, while Holland would get nearly $1 million." Read more here.


Please contact your legislator and tell them to properly fund education.

Common School Calendar Bad for Holland

On June 27th, the Michigan Senate adopted SB 549, a bill that would require a common school calendar and interfere with the rights of schools to negotiate regarding this condition of employment. Specifically, this bill requires that each intermediate school district adopt a calendar that each district within the ISD must follow. The common calendar must include AT LEAST the dates for a winter holiday break, a spring break and professional development days. This must be set for at least the next 5 years and must be posted on the ISD website.

There are no provisions for employee or for constituent school district input in the bill. There are exceptions for districts that run year round programs, "international baccalaureate" programs or trimester programs. There are also exceptions for districts that have an existing collective bargaining agreement until the collective bargaining agreement expires.

If adopted by the House of Representatives, this bill would go into effect July 1, 2008.

The Senate adopted the bill by a 20-17 vote, the minimum number of YES votes needed to adopt a bill. The vote was almost, but not quite, a straight party line vote. All of the Senate Democrats voted against the bill except Sen. Michael Switalski (D-Roseville) who voted for it. All of the Republicans voted for the bill except Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton) who voted against the bill. Sen. John Pappageorge was excused for the day and did not vote.

The HEA opposes the bill. It interferes with the rights of school employees with no gain in efficiency or school The supporters claim that this is needed "government reform" and are pushing it as a way of helping to solve the budget crisis of the State.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives where we will continue to oppose it.

This bill will hurt Holland Public Schools. For the past two years, HPS has made changes to it's calendar and PSD schedule to keep teachers in the classroom and save the district money. If this bill passes, it could COST the district. Please write your local representative and tell him/her to oppose this bill.