My name is Lamikco "Meka" Magee, and I am a middle school teacher. For 20 years I have served students in secondary and higher education. As a graduate of Springfield Central High School, I believe that our public education system is the best in the country. During my journey in the education profession, and raising my four children along the way, I have earned an M.Ed. and a Juris Doctor degree. I am a proud military veteran, having served on active duty in the United States Air Force. As a trained mediator, I think about collaborative processes for decision-making. In my present role as a local president, I believe in servant leadership with strong member involvement.
We deserve to work in an environment that brings us joy and must use our power to create the type of spaces in which we thrive and spread the joy we create to our students, colleagues, and the community. With over 100,000 members, we are the largest union in Massachusetts, and our voice is immensely powerful. We have the capacity to be a great resource for our affiliates to access the knowledge they need to bargain for better working conditions. The MTA needs a data-management system that local presidents can access to facilitate bargaining.
Although I work in preK-12, I have a healthy respect for what community colleges contribute to educating our youth. Professional staff need to be valued as the glue that holds these institutions together. As a former instructor in continuing education, I know the work of part-time staff is valuable, and we need to recognize and support them. I appreciate all that you do. Community colleges are a crucial resource for our residents and deserve the full support of the MTA to increase funding.
After graduating from STCC, a community college, my oldest two children attended UMass Amherst. Massachusetts has a strong public university system and with the powerful voices of union members we can make it better. I would like to see all students in Massachusetts have the opportunity to attend college for free. Student loan debt has financially crippled three generations.
We have the capacity to gain the attention of all of the stakeholders in education, to make them listen, to push forth the voices of our members, who demand better working conditions and better learning conditions for our youth. We must end high-stakes testing and the use of MCAS as a deciding measure of educator effectiveness. Massachusetts has the greatest public education system in the country, and that’s because we are vigilant. And because we are vigilant, we know there’s more work to do. We know that we must be united in our voices to fund our schools, dismantle institutional racism, and demand that our students be respected as individuals, all worthy of a great public education.
As a member of our profession, I think about the different ways in which participation in government improves our working conditions and student learning conditions. I was a delegate from my town to my political party’s state convention and wrote an amendment to the party platform for standards in law-enforcement credentialing. Police interact with students in our schools. They make life-and-death decisions while serving the residents of Massachusetts. These public officers deserve to be, and must be, well prepared by educators to serve and protect. The strength of the democratic process allowed this worthy amendment to pass.
For over a decade, I have been actively involved in my local, the MTA, and the National Education Association: Emerging Leaders and Next Generation Leadership, NEA’s Teacher Leadership Initiative, the Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee, the Public Relations/Organizing Campaign Committee, the Bylaws and Rules Committee, the Strategic Plan Review Task Force, and the Task Force on Race. I have been a delegate to both the MTA Annual Meeting and NEA Representative Assembly.
My service record demonstrates my dedication to the teaching profession and reflects my values. I serve as an Executive Committee member on the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. The CAEP sets the standards for most of the educator-preparation programs in the country. I traveled in 2019 for the U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Scholarship Travel Abroad to Tanzania program with a group of American educators. There we worked with Tanzanian educators to develop a curriculum that offers an authentic view of African cultures. My many safaris abroad, immersed in cultures where I do not speak the language, have expanded my perspective on what educators must do better to serve our English Language Learners. I would love to see an MTA initiative for our members to travel abroad.
These are certainly challenging times, and we need strong leadership. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had over 100 members involved in negotiating our Memorandum of Agreement to ensure the health and safety of our members when we returned to in-person learning. We live with heavy hearts after the murder of George Floyd.
Our local amended our bylaws to include antiracism training for our leadership and collaborated with the district to offer antiracism training to members. This has been a tough two years for employees in public education. School districts in other states are forced into shorter school days and other drastic measures due to the teacher shortage in the nation. In the midst of this shortage, our local fought for higher wages for ESPs and won.
I make it my business to boldly lift my voice to move educators forward within the MTA and wherever the voice of an educator needs to be heard. My vision is to unite the MTA and truly release the power of this organization. I recognize and appreciate the contributions of those who paved the way for us, our retired members. I will listen to all of our members and work together with you to understand your needs and use MTA power and resources to make sure your work is valued and you are compensated for what you bring to our profession.
