SEA Snapshot: Steering Through the Week
Can you believe we made it to November already? Hope you enjoyed all the Halloween festivities in your schools! Now we have a day off tomorrow to look forward to. If you haven’t participated in early voting already, be sure to go out and vote tomorrow.
We are just one week away from our Tacos and Trivia Night. If you are attending, please RSVP in the next couple of days as I need to finalize the food order and number counts. Hope to see you at the SEA/SEEO Craft and Vendor Fair this weekend!
Supporting the District 54 Food Pantry Through Our Donations
Next week, the SEA and SEEO will be making our annual member donation and we have chosen the District 54 Food Pantry as our recipient. We will be increasing our donation to $2 per member this year.
Today we will kick off a weeklong donation drive to accompany our financial donations. Your SEA building reps will be putting out a box for you to drop off your donations. Here are some of the items the pantry is most in need of:
- Colgate toothpaste
- Toothbrushes
- Deodorant (Degree or Lady Speed Stick)
- Quaker instant oatmeal
- Campbell’s chicken noodle soup
- Spaghettio’s
- Kraft Mac & Cheese
- Puffs Kleenex
- Nutrigrain bars
- Cheerios, Trix, or Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
- Baby wipes
Or feel free to donate to the food pantry via their Amazon Wish list. All donations are shipped to District 54 and divided among the four pantry locations. Here is the link to the Food Pantry Wish List.
SEA & SEEO Tacos and Trivia Night – Monday, November 9th
Let’s get ready for another Tacos and Trivia Night! All SEA and SEEO members are invited to attend our annual member appreciation event taking place on Monday, November 9th, from 5-8 PM in the PLC. We typically have this event to kick off American Education Week, but we moved it up one week due to parent-teacher conferences. Dinner will be from 5-6 PM followed by trivia. Start forming those teams of 4-6 people! You can have multiple teams from each school. Or, you can also choose to be put on a team with people from other schools. Not interested in trivia? It’s okay, come join us for the TACOS! Please RSVP here by November 4.
SEA Spirit Wear Store – Live through 11/23
Need to grab yourself more SEA or Solidarity Gear? Our SEA webstore is now open today through November 23rd. After the webstore closes, all orders will be shipped to the SEA and distributed in December. With it being a negotiations year, we would love to see our members wearing SEA gear on Wednesday, as well as on any of IEA’s Walk-ins. Thank you to Kelly O’Reilly for get this Spirit Wear store thru Waist-Up organized for us!
IEA Walk-In This Friday
This Friday, November 6th, is the next day we would love for all SEA and SEEO members to wear red and participate in IEA’s monthly Walk-In. This event is meant to show our solidarity and support of public schools, educators’ rights, and fully funded education programs. For more information, check out IEA’s Walk-In website. Thank you in advance to our SEA building reps for helping out and sending photos!
2026 EMELT – Ethnic Minority Emerging Leadership Registration
It’s not too late to register for IEA’s EMELT (Ethnic Minority Emerging Leadership Training). This year’s theme is ‘We Are Not Waiting For Leaders; We Are Becoming Them!’ This event will be held November 13-15, 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Springfield from 5:00 pm Friday to noon on Sunday. All IEA members are welcome to participate. EMELT has been designed to cultivate new ethnic minorities who are emerging association leaders and to provide information on education topics. The IEA is proud to include Dr. Bettina Love and Kisa Marx as their keynote speakers on Friday evening. Please visit the EMELT website for a tentative agenda and to register. Here is the EMELT Hotel Reservation link. You can receive funding from the SEA or Region 35 to attend. Contact Lori for more information about funding.
SEA/SEEO Craft and Vendor Fair – THIS SATURDAY!
It is finally here! Our 4th Annual SEA/SEEO Craft and Vendor Fair on Saturday, November 7th from 10 AM – 4 PM. This event serves as a fundraiser for the D54 Education Foundation and takes place in the PLC. We have over 30 crafters and vendors registered for our annual event. Be sure to let your friends and family know about our event. We will be raffling off TONS of gift cards and baskets donated by our participants and members of the D54 Education Foundation. A concession stand will also be available throughout the event. Hope to see you there!
NEA Member Benefits – Complimentary Life Insurance
Every active member of the SEA/IEA/NEA has Complimentary Life Insurance. NEA Member Benefits pays for this and renews it every year that you remain an active non-retired member. Please be sure to visit their website www.neamb.com/start and register your beneficiary or update your beneficiary if anything in your life has changed.
You’ll receive four levels of coverage
- $1,000 of life insurance
- Up to $5,000 of Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage; $1,000 per year benefit up to maximum
- $50,000 AD&D benefit for any covered accident that occurs on the job or while serving as an Association Leader†
- $150,000 Life Insurance benefit for unlawful homicide while on the job
If this is your first time visiting their website, then you will need to create a free account. Please use your personal email address as your username. If you run into any challenges, please contact the Member Advocacy Team at 1-800-637-4636.
Weekly Contract Reminder – Bus/Door Duty
Before/after school supervision is a shared building responsibility by the certified and classified staff and should be handled in a professional manner. Each staff member is expected to fulfill the equivalent of forty (40) minutes of before/after school supervision per week. Educators who have daily bus duty for their own students, at the Early Learning Center or in Instructional Classrooms, will be exempt from shared building bus duty. – Page 21
Upcoming Events
- Monday, November 2: SEA Exec Board Meeting, 3:30-5 PM in the Board Room; Region 35 Council Meeting 5-6:30 PM in the Board Room
- Monday, November 2 – Monday, November 9: SEA/SEEO Food Pantry Donation Drive
- Tuesday, November 3: Election Day – No School; be sure to VOTE! Check out IEA’s Voter Guide here
- Friday, November 6: IEA Walk-In, wear your SEA/Solidarity Red Gear; End of Trimester One
- Saturday, November 7: SEA/SEEO Craft and Vendor Fair, 10 AM – 4 PM in the PLC
- Monday, November 9: SEA Building Rep Meeting, 3:30-5 PM in the PLC; SEA/SEEO Tacos and Trivia Night – 5-8 PM RSVP here
- Wednesday, November 18 – Thursday, November 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday, November 23 – Friday, November 27: Thanksgiving Break
