Tornado Destroys Mena Middle School

Thursday's tornado damaged Mena Middle school so severely that it will have to be condemned.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students who attend the school will be relocated  to an old middle school in Hatfield, 12 miles away. Sixth graders will go to Dallas Avenue Baptist Church in Mena. Classes are expected to resume this week, and will continue at the temporary locations for the remaining six weeks of the school year.

The two tornadoes that struck Mena Thursday killed three people and damaged or destroyed up to 1,000 homes.  AEA is presently trying to determine whether any members or their families sustained physical injury.

The Mena Education Association is asking for donations to help those in need. Donations can be sent to the Mena Education Association (MEA), P.O. Box 1752, Mena, AR 71953. These donations are not tax deductible.

Connie Comeaux, UniServ director for southwest Arkansas, said that the Mena schools' superintendent and several school board members, including the MEA president Paulette Crawford, had to take shelter in a vault inside the superintendent's office during the storms. The group was attending a school board meeting that night, and had to take shelter twice, when sirens went off. The building, which is across the street from the middle school, received extensive damage but will be repaired.

Health Insurance Funding May Reduce Insurance Premiums
The $15 million boost to school employee health insurance funding may go further than originally expected, according to a report in the Sunday, April 12 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This may reduce school employee health insurance premiums.

Employees currently pay $180 a month for the employee-only plan and $773 a month for the employee-family plan. The article says that Jason Lee, executive director of the State and Public Life and Health Insurance Board, expects that these costs may drop when the new plan goes into effect in October. Originally, the funding was expected only to prevent the premiums from increasing.

However, such a reduction is not yet guaranteed. The Board will meet Tuesday, April 21, to set insurance premium rates and discuss other issues that can affect the cost of the premiums.

AEA President Dan Marzoni said that the chance for reduced premiums is encouraging. He said that if younger teachers with fewer claims participated in the plan, everyone would see even lower premiums. He also said that he'd like to see the federal government become involved in health insurance reform.

The $15 million in insurance funding was the result of efforts by House Speaker Robbie Wills, Rep. Bill Abernathy (D-Mena), Rep. Curren Everett (D-Salem), and Rep. Bruce Maloch (D-Magnolia) during the 2009 legislative session, which recessed Thursday, April 9. They located funding that became available from an underestimate in the local property tax revenue generated from the 25 mill Uniform Rate of Tax dedicated to public schools.

Three Schools Added to Fiscal Distress List
The Arkansas Board of Education has classified the Mammoth Spring, Mansfield and Osceola school districts as being in fiscal distress because of rapidly declining financial balances during the past two school years.

These districts have two years to regain financial stability using state-approved financial improvement plans. Otherwise, the state Board of Education will consolidate or otherwise take control of the districts. Each school must also obtain state approval before incurring any debt, including hiring employees.

Nine other school districts are also in the state's fiscal distress program: Concord, Decatur, Gentry, Greenland, Hartford, Hermitage, Mineral Springs, Murfreesboro and Westside Consolidated.

AEA Internet Voting Service is Back Up
The online voting service is now available on  the AEA Web site.

Please be sure to cast your vote in the statewide race for AEA Secretary-Treasurer/NEA Delegate. Go to http://www.aeaonline.org/ and click on the "click here to vote" box. It will take you to the voting service.

Votes may be cast until 5 p.m. on April 21. All Active AEA members (Professional, Educational Support Professional, and AEA Life) are eligible to vote.

Have your ACCESS membership card and social security number close at hand so you can enter the last eight digits of your AEA membership number and the last four digits of your social security number.

If you have login problems, please call 1-800-632-0624 or 501-375-4611, extensions 115, 101, or 103.

Together we can, and together we will build a great public school for every child.