Educators Elect New Leaders For State’s Largest Education Employee Union

COLUMBUS — May 10, 2013 — Members of the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest education employee union have elected Becky Higgins to a three-year term as President, and Scott DiMauro to a three-year term as Vice President. OEA represents 121,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher education faculty.

Higgins, a first-grade teacher in the Copley-Fairlawn City Schools, was elected during OEA’s Representative Assembly, the governing body of the organization comprised of more than 1,000 elected delegates from local education associations throughout Ohio.

Higgins has 19 years of classroom experience and has held Association positions at both the local and district level. She has served as President of the Copley Teachers’ Association, as Unit NE-4 Representative on Northeastern Ohio Education Association’s (NEOEA) Board of Directors and as President of NEOEA.

Higgins was President of NEOEA during the Senate Bill 5 (SB 5) crisis in 2011. Immediately after the introduction of SB 5, she worked to build a strong base of support for collective bargaining rights in northeastern Ohio and to guarantee a strong turnout from northeastern Ohio voters opposing Senate Bill 5 and Issue 2.

Higgins will begin a three-year term in September as the top elected leader of Ohio’s largest association of public employees. She replaces outgoing President Patricia Frost-Brooks who is term-limited.

DiMauro, a social studies teacher in Worthington, is a 22-year veteran educator with the Worthington Schools. He currently teaches at Worthington Kilbourne High School while serving as President of Central OEA/NEA and as Chairperson of the NEA Standing Committee on Legislation.

DiMauro has served in a variety of leadership positions, including as full-time local president, a member of his local bargaining team, Central OEA Political Action Coordinator and Leadership Development Chair, a member of the OEA Fund for Children and Public Education State Council, Chairperson of the Central Ohio Regional Coordinating Council and longtime delegate to the OEA and NEA Representative Assemblies. DiMauro was one of three labor representatives on the Ohio School Employees Health Care Board.

DiMauro will begin a three-year term in September and replaces outgoing Vice President William Leibensperger who is term-limited.

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — January 30, 2013 — Ohio Education Association President Patricia Frost-Brooks has sent a letter to Governor John Kasich saying it is essential to open up the process of the state education budget and accompanying reform proposals to all education stakeholders.

“I am writing to express my disappointment that you are developing a new school funding formula, a state education budget and a set of education reforms in a process that has included only the select few while excluding groups like the Ohio Education Association, which represents more than 121,000 educators, faculty members and education support professionals,” Frost-Brooks wrote.

“In the past, policy processes that exclude key stakeholders have resulted in extreme cuts to Ohio’s public schools, the diversion of public school funding to for-profit charter schools, online schools and voucher-supported private schools. The budget cuts in the current biennium have narrowed curriculum choices for students, increased class sizes and shifted school funding burdens from the state to local districts,” the letter said.

 

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.