Archive for the ‘Public Meetings’ Category
Rural Education Matters – Public Announcement
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April 27, 2010
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Legislature Voting to Include Charters in MPSERS
Please contact your elected officials and maintain charter autonomy & flexibility Members of the state legislature will be voting THIS WEEK on SB 1227, a bill which intends to reform the public school employee pension system and save school districts millions of dollars. However, the version of the bill passed by the State House of Representatives this morning MANDATES the inclusion of all charter school teachers into MPSERS, regardless of who hires them!
As a charter school advocate, you know this language would be a huge detriment to the charter school movement. There are currently 454,000 active and retired teachers in MPSERS, and this bloated retirement system is in serious financial trouble. The employer contribution necessary to support MPSERS is going up to 19% of total payroll this year, and the House-passed version of the bill will force roughly 4,000 non-participating charter schools teachers into the system to help foot the bill. The cost of bailing out this pension program could bankrupt charter schools and leave charter students and families without educational choices.
Help MAPSA save your charter school’s autonomy and financial future! We need you to contact your Senator and Representative TODAY and let them know:
Please click here to contact your state Senator and State Representative — and let then know you care about this issue!
You can help to protect the independence and quality of your charter school!
Use your voice to keep charters with CHOICE |
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The Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA) has been the unified voice of the public charter school movement in Michigan since 1996. MAPSA represents over 110,000 students, 5,000 teachers, dozens of authorizers and more than 50 education service providers working in 243 public charter schools in the state. MAPSA assists the state’s public charter schools in their mission to deliver achievement, choice and accountability through our advocacy, communications, technical assistance and professional development services. For additional information, please visit www.charterschools.org MAPSA
215 S. Washington Square, Suite 135 Lansing, MI 48933 517.374.9167 p | 517.374.9197 f www.charterschools.org |
This e-mail was sent from Michigan Association of Public School Academies (mapsa@charterschools.org) and forwarded to REM Newsletter Subscribers.
Thank you to everyone that has been with us through this venture. It is an exciting time for St. Helen.
Be sure to visit Rural Education Matters Online.
Meet the new School Board Candidates April 29, 2010 7 pm at the Richfield Township Building
Next Board Meeting is on 5-6-2010 at 7pm at the Richfield Township Hall
Don’t forget to get out and vote for School Board Trustees and Millage Renewals on May 4th. Absentee ballots are available at the township hall.
So the meeting with the RAPS School board has come and gone. Thank you very much to everyone that attended. In addition thank you to the RAPS board not only for listening to what we had to say but for showing a sincere interest in the Roscommon County community by asking additional questions.
We did share the announcement of REM being awarded the phase 1 grant money from the State of Michigan and we did present them with a semi-formal offer to lease and/or purchase the school building. They formed a committee to investigate and discuss the potential of a sale or lease and we hope that they will recognize the value in this arrangement to everyone involved. The board was receptive but cautious and very cordial.
Of course we will continue to put plan B into place as a fallback as we all know that any group of individuals can be unpredictable. Plan B of course consists of other arrangements for our school facilities.
We hope to have news for everyone at our next regularly scheduled public meeting. Again thank you for the great turn out.
Just a reminder that the school board meeting is tomorrow. We have an important announcement regarding our grant application, We also intend to encourage the school board to sell/lease us the existing school building.
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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| Time: |
6:00pm – 9:00pm
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Roscommon
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All future Rural Education Matters Community Meetings will be held on the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Richfield Township Hall.
We will continue to post updates regarding our charter school application and all related subjects as they happen.