Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Jeff Wensing 0:14
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Welcome back to Public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 public school educators OEA represents across the state this time of year, a lot of those educators have one thing on their mind, getting through these last few weeks of school and across the finish line into summer break. But even when school is out for the summer, the learning continues. OEA members have the chance to learn from each other, improve their practices for their students, and do great things together at this year's Summer Leadership Academy on June 22nd, 23rd, and 24th in Columbus. There will be more than 40 unique sessions to meet your professional learning needs, meet and greets with Ohio's 2026 pro public education candidates, oh and Tyler James Williams will also be there as the keynote speaker. Yeah. Tyler James Williams, the actor who plays Gregory on the hit show Abbott Elementary, among other big roles he's had, and he'll be taking questions from OEA members in the audience. No big deal. We will have all of the details about the conference from one of my colleagues who is co-planning the whole thing in just a few minutes, but first, I want you to hear from two of your colleagues. I checked in with two of the many OEA members who are presenting at the Summer Leadership Academy this year to hear more about what they're going to be sharing and why this conference is so valuable for their fellow educators.

Mackenzie Leonard 2:11
Okay, so my name is Mackenzie Leonard, and I am in Van Buren Education Association. So that's VBEA in Van Buren, Ohio. I'm the TESOL program coordinator and the ESL teacher, but I also represent the EL cadre from OEA, which is an advocacy group specifically for multilingual learners. I just want to shout out my high school ESL students. Let's see Diego, Andres, Nee, Civic, and Bruno, I know you guys are going to listen.

Katie Olmsted 2:45
I love it.

Mackenzie Leonard 2:47
Oh, and we are presenting at Leadership Academy on systems of support for multilingual learners and how to help them out from the classroom all the way up to federal government regulations.

Joie Moore 3:03
My name is Joie Moore. I am the president of the Pickerington Support Staff Association and the vice chair of the Ohio Association of Education Support Professionals. And we are presenting this year at Summer Academy on ESP mentorship. But it's mentorship for anybody who is wanting to build members within either their local associations their districts, and we are focusing on leadership or the ESPs at the statewide.

Katie Olmsted 3:30
And I am so excited to talk to both of you a little bit more about why you're presenting these things. But I'm also really excited to talk about Summer Leadership Academy, big picture. You've both been there before, right? Oh, McKenzie, this is your first one.

Mackenzie Leonard 3:47
So I have never been this will be my first time.

Katie Olmsted 3:49
Okay, so Joie, can you tell Mackenzie what you have gotten out of this in the past and what she can look forward to?

Joie Moore 3:57
So being a local leader, something that you can look forward to going to Leadership Academy is a lot of the sessions, but then also the networking that we get to talk to other leaders around the state, and things that you can use, either in your cadre or within your local association and so on and so forth. It's great to build relationships and networking and seeing what's happening around the state.

Katie Olmsted 4:22
I am perfect, and I'm so excited for you to have this opportunity, Mackenzie. So if you haven't been there before, what made you want to get involved with it this year?

Mackenzie Leonard 4:34
Well, I actually, previously was employed by an ESC so I, although I was, you know, an honorary part of the EL cadre. I couldn't be an official OEA member until just last year, but I'm really excited, because I think, I mean, leadership is something I'm always striving to build. And so obviously, being around, surrounded by leaders, and seeing how they're leading. And, you know. Doing whatever they're passionate about, and how they're making their program stronger and systems stronger is just something that's really appealing to me, obviously, and then being in the EL cadre, we're all we're all leaders in our areas and in our settings. So I was encouraged by the group of people in that organization, in that group, and so going to this academy, it just sounds, you know, like a step in the right direction.

Katie Olmsted 5:29
So let's talk a little bit more about what you'll be bringing to Summer Leadership. Mackenzie, starting with you on this one, you said you're presenting on teams for multilingual learners. What do you hope your participants in those sessions take away from that?

Mackenzie Leonard 5:47
I mean, really, what we're hoping is that our audience is a big range of people. We're going to talk about how to put in systems of support for multilingual learners in the general ed classrooms, in a ESL classroom, how we can support them at a building level, in a district level, any person that is coming into contact with a multilingual learner or their family members. We want to make sure that there are systems and policies that best support them and meet their needs based on where they're truly at. So a lot of times, the assumption is that an ESL teacher can kind of, you know, handle all of it, and that we can figure everything out for our ESL kiddos. And that's a lot of times true. We wear many hats, but it really does take a team to make sure that all of their needs are met throughout their entire day.

Katie Olmsted 6:48
And I think nobody understands the importance of the entire village, like our support staff associations. Joie, what can you tell me about what you're hoping people take away from your session about mentorship, and you mentioned it's, it's aimed at the ESPs, but everybody is welcome on this one, right?

Joie Moore 7:13
Correct. So we have a group, everybody who's presenting in our session, actually, Lee's went to NEA headquarters back in October, and we were trained on building a mentorship program. And we actually work closely with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, because this is a program that they started to get ESP leaders within their state. And that's one thing that I don't want to say OEA is lacking, but it is something that I don't think there's a lot of opportunities that a lot of ESPs understand that there is for leadership within our association. They're supposed to be an ESP chair at every district, and we want to make sure that our districts are built strong, and they can support the education support professionals throughout Ohio, and then those of us then that are at the state level, then can call upon those people then to say, "Hey, what's going on in your area?" "What can OEA do to help support our ESPs?" We presented a little bit. We started, this was our kickoff. Was back at AOI. And each of the mentors, I'm a mentor, but I have a mentee, and we are meeting with them via zoom right now. And then Summer Leadership is also their graduation. So then we will have five new ESP leaders in the state of Ohio at the end of Summer Academy. So we're really excited about that as well, and kind of just talking about the program and how we build it, and how your district or within your school district, within your local association, within your district association, how you can build leaders. It doesn't necessarily have to be an education, support professional. It can be any number, but how do we build leaders within our association?

Katie Olmsted 8:49
And I really feel like that's what Summer Leadership Academy is all about. It's about building skills. It's about coming together with people and learning from each other. What are you both looking the most forward to about this opportunity?

Mackenzie Leonard 9:06
I will say just the EL cadres mission is always to identify a need and help advocate for multilingual learners by informing people, by giving information sharing, information sharing resources, giving practical strategies. So I'm excited because a lot of times our audience is us, so ESL teachers are learning from ESL teachers, and that's always beneficial. But I'm excited to have a different audience that isn't necessarily, you know, only TESOL focused that we might be able to have a larger reach, just within our state, be able to see potentially more leaders in their associations, just people that you know might be hearing these things for the first time. So that's exciting.

Katie Olmsted 9:59
Joie?

Joie Moore 10:00
For me, I'm excited to show that our team built this mentorship program that we are implementing already within OEA, but then it's a framework that other people and other leaders within associations districts, then can use it and tailor it to what they need. And it's just something that we're excited to share with all the leaders out there in the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 10:27
Well, I cannot wait to see you both at Summer Leadership. I also am doing a couple of sessions, but I cannot wait to see yours. I think the problem with Summer Leadership for me is there are too many good choices, and I want to do all of them, and I hope everybody else feels exactly the same way. So let's, let's get excited for Summer Leadership Academy, and let's start inventing time machines so we can do all of them all at once.

Mackenzie Leonard 10:53
Absolutely

Joie Moore 10:54
I agree with you on that. I will say Summer Leadership is probably one of my favorite things, too, because it's a little bit more relaxed, because it is during the summer, so people have had a little bit of time to decompress, and then they can really start focusing on issues that they want to work on, then the following school year within their districts and their locals. So I think it's a great time. And then the networking with other leaders around the state, it's invaluable, I think.

Katie Olmsted 11:22
Invaluable, indeed. Joie, thank you so much. Mackenzie, thank you so much. I cannot wait to see you in June.

Mackenzie Leonard 11:29
Thank you so much.

Katie Olmsted 11:34
Registration is open right now for this year's Summer Leadership Academy, the deadline to register is June 1st. And of course, the link is in the show notes for this episode. Before you hop over there, though, I want to bring in one of my OEA colleagues who was working with another one of our wonderful OEA colleagues to put this whole thing together. Take a listen for all the details you need to know.

Daria DeNoia 12:00
Hi, Daria DeNoia, I'm an education policy and practice consultant for the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 12:05
And you are co-planning this year's Summer Leadership Academy with Ellen Adornetto, who is also in the Education Policy Research and Member Advocacy department, EPRMA and you guys, this is the the second time you are doing this conference, right?

Daria DeNoia 12:05
Yes. Second time we're doing it together? I have done it previously solo.

Katie Olmsted 12:31
Okay and this is a lot of work to do solo, so I'm glad you have a buddy to do it, because there is so much going on. What can you tell me about what people can expect from this year's conference?

Daria DeNoia 12:43
Well, like in previous years, it'll be a three day event. It will begin Monday, June 22nd and it will run through the afternoon, early afternoon of June 24th it'll be at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, in downtown Columbus, as it has been for the past year. So we're repeating the location, and they can expect a time to network with their colleagues, a time to relax, time to learn and grow, stretch themselves and really to take advantage of learning opportunities that will not only increase your educational practice, whatever that may be, but also topics and skills and learning that can sustain you as you move into the next school year.

Katie Olmsted 13:37
Yeah. I mean, it's things are things are heavy right now for educators, and I think it is wonderful that that's one of the focuses of Summer Leadership, as people are resetting for the next year to that end, what does that look like?

Daria DeNoia 13:52
So this year, we are focusing on lightening up some of the sessions. We have added a full session block that will occur on Tuesday, from 3:15 to 4:45, every session in that block will focus on care, creativity and wellness for our members. I am so excited about this. We have people coming in to do art. We have people coming in to do movement. We have people that will discuss self care strategies that are centered on observing nature. We have a book talk that will be linked to how you might write your teaching memoir. So I am very, very excited about what this can look like for members.

Katie Olmsted 14:43
Nuts and bolts. What does it look like? What do people need to know about the costs and things like that?

Daria DeNoia 14:50
So Summer Leadership has remained consistent in its cost a $100 registration fee. That registration fee covers everything that occurs at the Summer Leadership Academy. So all events, all summer leadership meals.

Katie Olmsted 15:07
I can confirm that food is pretty good. Just saying.

Daria DeNoia 15:12
It is. We want to make sure that we are feeding you well and it covers double occupancy hotel room. If you have a single room, you will pay half the cost of the room. If you have a roommate, you will that will be covered by us to defray the $100 fee, you can contact your OEA district and inquire about how you might obtain or apply for a scholarship. Every district does that process differently. All of that information is available on the Summer Academy registration website, under the scholarships tab.

Katie Olmsted 15:46
And speaking of the district leaders, they have a session that is open to everyone. What do people need to know about that?

Daria DeNoia 15:53
Oh yes, that is the first night. So after the keynote and the dinner, the district leaders host an annual event. This year, it will be a poker run. I know that this can be confusing for people, because it says district leaders, but it is open to everyone they want. And we want everybody who attends the Summer Leadership Academy to participate in that event. You just have to register as part of your summer academy registration process.

Katie Olmsted 16:23
So district leader event that poker run is open to all?

Daria DeNoia 16:26
Yes.

Katie Olmsted 16:27
Summer Leadership Academy is is open to all OEA members.

Daria DeNoia 16:31
It is open to everyone. If you are an OEA member, you are welcome to join us, and we'd love to have you.

Katie Olmsted 16:37
Why? Why is this such an important opportunity?

Daria DeNoia 16:42
Your dues dollars provide this opportunity for you to come and learn and grow together and to be with your colleagues from across the state. It's so important for educators to have that fellowship and that connection with people, so that you know you're not going through this alone, and so that you can learn and grow with your colleagues, we want you to stay in this career. And part of the way that people stay in any career is to have deep connections. And this conference is part of that union connection process.

Katie Olmsted 17:18
I appreciate so much you connecting with me to help walk me through what is going to be happening this summer. Lot of us are going to be there, and I cannot wait. Thank you so much, Daria.

Daria DeNoia 17:28
Thank you, Katie.

Katie Olmsted 17:33
Again you can register right now for this year's Summer Leadership Academy, and the link is in the show notes. While you're there, you'll also find some links and information about two other exciting summer events for OEA members you won't want to miss. Right before the Summer Leadership Academy starts this year, we are once again having the OEA golf outing. You can sign up to play or watch, enjoy a great day on the links with your fellow educators and win some great prizes in a raffle that benefits the OEA fund, also happening again this summer. OEA's Annual Summer Celebration of Diverse Readers, this free event for families, will be in Dayton this year, on June 13th, at the Lohrey Rec Center on Glenarm Avenue, we're giving away thousands of free books featuring diverse characters written by diverse authors to help young learners see themselves and the world around them in new ways. Again, the details are in the show notes for this episode. On the next episode of the podcast, we are hearing from the 2026 Ohio Teacher of the Year about some of the many things he's done and the lessons he's learned in his many adventures this school year. The school year may be winding down, but we still have a lot of ground to cover in this season of the podcast, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai