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Our honored guests
His last name may be Mild, but this teacher definitely is not. Greg Mild of Northgate Center has been a tireless advocate for the repeal of Senate Bill 5. He was honored with the Association's Outstanding Member Award, presented at the 35th Annual CEA Awards & Retirement Banquet.
Mild made heavy use of social media, including Facebook, to spread the word, and gained hundreds of "followers" who became petition signers. Greg serves as a faculty representative, an OEA and a NEA delegate and will represent teachers next school year on the LPDC.
The banquet, held on May 20, attracted more than 450 guests to the Hilton Columbus at Easton, celebrating our retirees and others whose efforts have gone above and beyond the call of duty in Association work.
Distinguished Service Awards were presented to Bonita Agnew, elementary art teacher at Parsons ES, and Alice Munnerlyn, English teacher at Independence HS, for their tenure on the CEA Board of Governors. Agnew has been a great advocate for elementary specialists and for the arts. Bonita said being involved in the union has been a priority for her. Munnerlyn said, "I came here from a state that isn’t a union state." She credited both CEA President Rhonda Johnson and her predecessor, the late John Grossman, for "broadening her horizons" about the power of organization. "I'm a 'union man,' and you should be a 'union man,' too," she said.
Special service awards were given to Paula Garfield and Courtney Johnson for their work to repeal S.B. 5. Garfield, a special education teacher at Beechcroft HS, has single-handedly collected more than 5,000 signatures on the petitions to repeal S.B. 5. Johnson, who teaches English at Ft. Hayes MEC, has testified before the U.S. Congress and has appeared on national TV promoting the Senate Bill 5 repeal effort.
The Friend of Education Award went to We Are Ohio for recruiting more than 10,000 volunteers to circulate petitions for the campaign to repeal S.B. 5. The We Are Ohio coalition has collected nearly 215,000 signatures so far--well within reach of the 231,149 signature requirement. OEA and We Are Ohio Executive Director Larry Wicks accepted the award on behalf of the coalition.
The Innovator in Education Award was presented to OSU College of Education and Human Ecology for its apprenticeship program ASPIRE, which will prepare more than 600 highly qualified teachers to serve in CCS schools. Dean Cheryl Achterberg told the crowd, "I want to honor all of you. You are serving in a noble profession."
To see pictures from CEA Awards & Retirement Banquet, go to CEA's Flickr page at http://bit.ly/mmybiA.
Outstanding Faculty Representatives
Each year, the CEA District Governors select faculty representatives to be honored for their exemplary work. We salute the following FRs for their service:
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