Schaumburg Education Association

Good morning, SEA!

Can’t believe we all just experienced our last Monday alarm clock sounding of this school year.  The end of this school year is just right around the corner now.  

Here is the May 18^th Edition of the Monday Message.

There are a lot of SEA events going on today.  First off, your SEA building reps should have let you know about a voting location for today’s last election of the year.  While we know most of our elections were electronic this year, this one is a paper ballot.  It is a run-off election for the bilingual/dual liaison for the 2026-2027 School Year.   Good luck to our two candidates!

After school today we have our last building rep meeting of the school year.  We will be meeting in the PLC from 3:30-5:00 PM.   There will be a presentation from our contract chair, Dan Levin, on filling out contract proposals.  Superintendent DuRoss will also be stopping by.  The 2026 Jason Eliasek Scholarship recipients will be announced.  And lastly, we will be voting on our 2026-2027 SEA Budget.  It’s going to be a jampacked meeting.

Immediately following the SEA building rep meeting, we have our first ever BINGO NIGHT happening in the PLC.  This event runs from 5-7 PM. 

Other info you can find out more about:

• IEA’s Summer Leadership Academy
• IEA Virtual Book Studies – Summer Session
• NEA Member Benefits – new benefit: SHOP & DINE  (you must log-in to access)
• Everyone Belongs: Disability Visibility Library Grants

Looking forward to seeing you at the Building Rep Meeting and Bingo later today! 

Good morning, SEA!

Hope you had a great Teacher Appreciation Week.  Can’t believe how fast the month of May is flying by!

Here is the link to the May 11^th Monday Message.

Are you a crafter or own your own home business?  Registration is now open to all SEA and SEEO members interested in participating in our SEA/SEEO Craft and Vendor Fair benefiting the District 54 Education Foundation on Saturday, November 7^th.  Here is the link to apply.  We will notify participants on how to make their donations to the Foundation in order to participate at a later date.  

Attached to this email are the bios for the last SEA election of the year for the position of the Dual/Bilingual Liaison Chair.  This election will take place next Monday, May 18^th, in your schools.   That is also the day of the last building rep meeting of the year and our SEA/SEEO Bingo Night.  Kelly O’Reilly will need ballot counters to tally the votes during our building rep meeting.  If you are willing to help out Kelly and her team, please let me know.

Also attached to this email are some summer Virtual Book Studies offered by the Illinois Education Association.  In need of more professional development hours?  This is a great opportunity!

If you are going to the District 54 Celebration on Thursday, see you there!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, SEA!

Can’t believe we made it to May already.  That is something to celebrate!  It also means you can start working on your last trimester report cards too, as the report card window is officially open.

Here is the May 4^th Edition of the Monday Message.

Just a few things to highlight:

• SEA/SEEO Bingo Night on May 18^th – Last day to register is TODAY
• IEA’s Summer Leadership Academy  –   Registration is now open
• Nourishing Neighbors – Project to Prize Grant Opportunity

Hope it’s a great week for you and all of the members in your building!

Good morning, SEA!

April is quickly coming to an end, which means our last Walk-In of the year is just about here.  This Friday, May 1^st, May Day, please wear your SEA/SEEO red solidarity shirts and join together outside your buildings before the bell rings.  This will be the biggest walk-in of the year across the state of Illinois. Let’s proudly show our support for public education.  

Here is the link to the April 27^th Edition of the Monday Message.

You will find more information about May Day as well as educators’ participation in various rallies across the area.  Here is a link to an NEA article for rights and considerations for educators engaging in potentially political activity.

Other information in this week’s Monday Message:

• SEA’s Run-Off Election Notice on May 18^th
• SEA/SEEO’s Bingo Night – RSVP here by this Friday
• Save the Date – SEA/SEEO’s Craft & Vendor Fair on November 7^th (crafter and vendor registration coming soon)

May 1^st is not just May Day, but it also has some significance in our SEA contract.  Planning on running a club next year?  Don’t forget to turn in your Club Sponsor Forms (page 41 in SEA’s Contract) by this Friday, May 1^st.  Also, all members should be given notice of assignments for next school year as of May 1^st (page 21).   Most of these conversations already took place, but if not, May 1^st is that deadline.  Thanks!

Good morning, SEA!

Can’t believe I am seeing emails about ABC Countdowns already, and we are down to our final five weeks of the school year!

Here is the link to the April 20^th Monday Message.

This week you will find highlights from last week’s SEA/SEEO General Meeting.  It was great to be able to kick off the end of the school year celebration season with our annual event.  The SEA and SEEO was also able to drop off six full boxes of donations to our District 54 Food Pantries thanks to our members’ generous donations. 

Other information for you:

• SEA/SEEO Bingo Night on May 18^th from  5-7 PM in the PLC  |  REGISTER HERE
• NEA Complimentary Life – Learn More and Name Your Beneficiaries Here

Lastly, the results from last week’s SEA/Region 35 Election can be found here and are attached to the email. We do have an open position for Webmaster, if you are interested, please let me know.  The SEA will be sending out information for a run-off election for the Instructional Liaison for Bilingual Services.  Thank you to Kelly O’Reilly for following up with all of the write-ins and finalizing the results for us!

Good morning, SEA!

We made it to SEA and SEEO’s biggest event of the year, the General Meeting.  If you haven’t heard me say it before, it’s like planning a wedding.  Thank you to SEA Vice-President Cynthia Dressler for working behind the scenes with our planning committee this entire year.  The SEA and SEEO leadership teams look forward to welcoming our members to this event after-school today at 3:30 PM!  See you there!

You should have received your ballot for today’s SEA election. It is listed as coming as an external email from SEA/SEEO with the subject line, Vote now.  If you did not receive your ballot, please contact Kelly O’Reilly (kellyoreilly@sd54.org) to correct the situation.  As a reminder, you are voting for SEA Officers, Building Reps, Exec Board members, as well as additional Region 35 Council members from the SEA.  Consider being a write-in if your school is in need or more reps or for any of the open SEA Exec Board positions.

Here is the link to the April 13^th Edition of the Monday Message.

A few highlights are listed here:

• Registration now open for the SEA/SEEO Bingo Night on May 18^th  |  Register here by May 4^th
• IEA’s Human and Civil Rights Activist Weekend on April 24-25 in Springfield | Register here this week | Contact Lori for a sub the afternoon of April 24
• Last IEA Walk-In of the Year: May 1st

Here is your last chance to participate in the Superintendent Search Survey.  The survey link closes today.

Don’t forget to vote today! 

Good morning, SEA!

Hope you had a nice 3-day weekend.  Here is the link to the April 6^th Edition of the Monday Message.  There you will find the link to slides from last week’s Building Rep Meeting.

The results from last week’s Region 35 Electronic Election are attached and included in the Monday Message.  Thank you to Kelly O’Reilly for her organization of the election. Congratulations on all those SEA members elected! Looking forward to our General Meeting next Monday, April 13^th.  As a reminder we will be running a D54 Food Pantry Drive at this event.  If you are attending our event, please bring an item to donate.  A shopping list of items the food pantry is in need of is attached to this email.  Not attending the General Meeting?  Feel free to give your donations to your building rep or make an donation through the food pantry’s Amazon Wish list or District 54 Education Foundation website.

Hello SEA!

Hope you had a great Spring Break!  There will be a SEA Building Rep Meeting today after school in the PLC from 3:30-5:00 PM.  Jordan Farber, a representative from IEA’s Legal Department, will be doing a special presentation on our first amendment rights as educators. Also, Superintendent DuRoss will be stopping by.  As always, all members are welcome to attend.  We are also having a Region 35 electronic election today.  Be sure to take a few minutes to vote!  The election for NEA-RA delegates is contested, so be sure to look over the candidates’ bios.  If you did not receive your electronic ballot, please contact Kelly O’Reilly (kellyoreilly@sd54.org) as she is the only one that can help with ballots as our election chair.

Here is the link to the March 30^th Monday Message.

You will find a chart that shows the current number of building rep nomination forms we received as of March 20^th.  We still have room for more building reps. I also included how many reps each building is eligible to have based on the number of members we have in each building.  The window to submit your nomination form here is being extended through Thursday, April 2^nd.  

Today is the last day to submit your RSVP to the April 13^th General Meeting.  We hope you can join us!  Retirees, be sure to RSVP using that same link.  We will also be running a D54 Food Pantry Drive on April 13^th.  Please bring your donations to the General Meeting.  Not able to attend the General Meeting?  You can give your donations to your building reps to bring that day.  The full list of what items the food pantries are looking for is included on page 4 of the Monday Message.

This Wednesday, April 1^st, is the next IEA Walk-In.  Please be sure to wear your SEA/SEEO solidarity shirts and meet outside before school on Wednesday.  We have had some great participation over the past several months!

If you are attending the Transfer Fair tomorrow, enjoy making new connections with administrators across the district!

See you at the rep meeting after school!

Good morning, SEA!

Safe travels to your buildings this morning.  I am sure I was not the only one with fingers crossed and checking the phone throughout the night for a snow day today…guess not.

Here is the link to the March 16^th Monday Message.

You will find a brief summary of the Illinois Education Association’s Representative Assembly that the SEA and SEEO sent 22 delegates to.  At this event, one of SEA’s very own, Adriana Caballero, was elected to serve as a NEA Director for the IEA for the next three years.  We are very excited for this opportunity for Adriana to serve in this capacity at the state level and national level!

Next Monday, March 30^th, is the next Region 35 election.  You will be voting for who you would like to represent the SEA at the National Education Association Representative Assembly, as well as candidates for Region 35 Chair, Vice Chair, Early Career Alternate, and Ethnic Minority Delegate and Successor.  The bios are attached for your review. Please note, there are 11 nominations for 9 delegate positions.

Our District 54 administration was told to share with anyone who is being moved what their new assignment is today, Monday, March 16^th.  The district felt it was necessary to select just one day for these announcements to be made in order to cut down rumors and speculations by designating today for those changes to be shared.  We know how fast rumors are spread, so I ask that you to please allow those impacted members share out the changes with colleagues as they see fit.

Lastly, information about the District 54 Transfer Fair is being shared out to those who signed-up after school today.  Though there will not be many open positions listed, you are encouraged to sign up with various building administrators across the district even if they do not have any open positions at this time so that you are getting your name, face, and resumes out to them.  Today  is the last day to sign-up for the transfer fair, so it is not too late.  Be sure to reach out to Diana Peters.  The transfer fair takes place next Tuesday, March 31^st, after-school at Keller. After school activities should be cancelled for members to be able to attend that event.  

If you haven’t already done so in early elections, be sure to go out and exercise your right to vote tomorrow.  Hope you enjoy the day off tomorrow and your spring breaks next week!

Hello SEA!

Here is the link to the March 9^th Monday Message.

This week a group of members from the SEA and SEEO are representing Region 35 at the Illinois Education Association Representative Assembly (IEA-RA) in Rosemont on March 12-14.  You’ll find out who is representing Region 35 here. 

Other information in this week’s newsletter:

• D54 Education Foundation Golf Outing  |  Register here
• SEA/SEEO General Meeting | All attendees including retirees need to register here
• Nomination form to be a SEA Building Rep or SEA Exec Board Member

Last week Terri McHugh sent information out to the district in regards to participation in Focus Groups happening to gather information in the search for a new superintendent.  If time permits, I would encourage you to join one of the groups.  Both the SEA and SEEO have also been invited to participate too.  The SEA Exec Board will participate in a Focus Group discussion at today’s meeting. Immediately following our Exec Board meeting, SEA’s Budget Committee will be meeting at 5 PM and General Meeting Planning Committee at 8 PM (via Zoom).  

That’s all for now, SEA.  Have a great week!