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Ohio's public schools serve 1.6 million children - 90 percent of students in the state! What happens in the classroom has impacts far beyond the walls of the K-12 school building or higher ed lecture hall. So, on behalf of the 120,000 members of the Ohio Education Association, we're taking a deeper dive into some of the many education issues facing our students, educators, and communities. Originally launched in 2021 as Education Matters, Public Education Matters is your source for insightful conversations with the people who shape the education landscape in Ohio. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on Public Education Matters? Email us at educationmatters@ohea.org
Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.
Jeff Wensing 0:15
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:26
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Public Education Matters, the last public education matters episode of 2025 as we get ready to head out on our winter holiday break, I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the public school educators OEA represents in communities big and small across the state, these educators make their public schools better every day, and their local associations help them in that work. Strong unions make strong schools, strong communities and a stronger Ohio for all of us. That's why OEA has several local affiliate grant programs to help build local capacity and build member engagement with the organization at the local, state and national levels. And right now, we're seeing some changes to those grant programs to maximize what they can do with some application deadlines coming up in January and February for a few of those local affiliate grants and some others from the OEA Foundation. We sat down with OEA Secretary-Treasurer, Rob McFee to learn more. Let's listen to our conversation as Rob walks us through the different grants that are available. What's different about some of them this year and the difference they are making in hundreds of locals across our state.
Katie Olmsted 1:53
Rob McFee, OEA secretary-treasurer, thank you for sitting down with us and talking to us about the affiliate grants. What do people need to know?
Rob McFee 2:03
Well, first Katie, I just want to say thank you for this opportunity, because in my desk in my office upstairs, this is like one of my favorite things to do, because we're putting resources in the hands of our members, and they get to do some amazing things with it, not only to help their members, but to help their students, to engage with their community. It's really just a great projects to be part of. So working with grants has been a lot of fun.
Katie Olmsted 2:29
What are those grants?
Rob McFee 2:31
Well, I'm glad you asked, because we got a bunch of them out there. I guess I'll start with kind of our traditional grants that we've had for several years. The ones that we're working on right now are a one year special project grant. So one year special project grant is for up to $2,400 and it's for locals to apply towards pretty much any special projects they might have in mind. Some of our locals have used it to buy t-shirts or merchandise for their members. Some have used it to get food for their union meetings to kind of encourage people to show up. Some have used it for a year end socials, things like that. However, for this one year special project grant, you do have to keep in mind there's a few restrictions that we do have. So one thing is, in order to be eligible for this and you have to send a delegate to the district and state, RA, Representative Assembly. And of course, we're trying to build capacity. We're trying to make our local stronger. And we strongly feel that you have to be part of that governance structure in order to have a strong, functioning local. So our goal is stronger locals. We have a stronger OEA. So one of the requirements is, you do have to send delegates to your district RA, into the state RA, you have to hold an OEA fund drive every year. So one thing we need to do is get our members to realize that everything we do is political, and we lobby a lot for educational issues in the state. That takes money, unfortunately. So our OEA fund is our political action committee. That's where we get our money to do that. So for a local to be eligible for the grant, we want them to show at least that they're attempting to hold these fundraising drives as well.
Katie Olmsted 4:10
A quick asterisk on that one. Everything we do is political, but it is nonpartisan. So you're not saying you have to support a specific candidate, none of that. All we're saying is make sure that we're using our voice to advocate for pro public education, pro labor leaders.
Rob McFee 4:27
That's an excellent point. I'm glad you brought that up, because we do support candidates on both side of the aisle. We support pro education candidates in general, and we were very active, involved in our recent school board races, where we had a lot of success for getting locals to help, you know, get a friendly school board that would, it would help that. So.
Katie Olmsted 4:45
And that's a podcast episode all on its own. I totally I interrupted. Let's go back.
Rob McFee 4:50
No, no, you're good.
Katie Olmsted 4:50
So you have to send delegates. You have to have these fun drives. What else?
Rob McFee 4:55
There is a little bit of restriction on the number of gift cards because we don't want locals just taking the cash and giving it to all their members, like a dues rebate or something like that, or, you know, just using gift cards as a way to kind of get around that. So we do have a limit on how many gift cards you can give out, so it's 10% of the grant, or up to $500 so like, if you want to use gift cards as an incentive or as a prize at a drawing, or you want to you know, every month you're going to draw for a membership, just a reward card. You can do that, but there's some limits on how much you're allowed to do that with.
Katie Olmsted 5:28
And that's it comes down to the intention of it. It's about building capacity, getting people involved. This is your dues, dollars at work, but we're putting them to work. We're not just giving money out.
Rob McFee 5:43
Excellent way to put it and to frame it. And then one of the other restrictions on there is that, in the past, for whatever reason this was all set up before Iowa came around, was you were not allowed to use any of these grants for expenses to attend the RAs, so your district RA, the state RA, the national RA, you could not use those cleanses, and I think it's pretty obvious why we would also include that you can't use it to buy alcohol, so bummer. Well, you can use it to buy the appetizers while somebody else buys the alcohol. But anyway, I'm just saying.
Katie Olmsted 6:15
Okay, so those are the special projects, grants, and those are a one year term on those?
Rob McFee 6:20
We have two of those. We have one. That's a one year grant. In particular, we had about 24 locals participate in that this year. So when it was for $2,400 if you are a larger local, you can actually get up to 5000 and we base it by how many members you are. But if you have 800 or less, it's for 2400 the two year special project grant has the same restrictions that I just talked about, but you get the award two years in a row, so you will get $2,400 for the first year of it and $2,400 for the second year of that grant.
Katie Olmsted 6:49
Which is really a good way to build momentum on the success.
Rob McFee 6:52
And we only had three locals who were taking part of that two year grant.
Katie Olmsted 6:57
Interesting, okay.
Rob McFee 6:58
And then I'm going to transition into the kind of the bigger dollar grant that we have that's called the Effective Local Grant. So it's called the Effective Local Grant because when it first started, it was through a program through NEA, so the National Education Association and they used to do something called a Building Effective Local Survey was called The Bell Survey. It was a bubble sheet with about 200 questions on it. It was ridiculously long. They would send it out to local presidents. Local presidents were supposed to distribute it to their members. Then they would collect all those surveys, mail them back to NEA. NEA would grade them for lack of a better word, and identify strengths and weaknesses in the local based on the member responses, and it was called The Bell Survey. So that bell survey then when it identified strengths and weaknesses, turned into then you could apply for the Bell Grant, so you would get the resources where you could address those issues. Now, NEA no longer does the bell survey, so we're still using the name, but there is no survey anymore. So our effective local grant, we had 49 locals participating in that this year, and the amount of the grant is based on the average teacher salary. So if you take the average teacher salary, multiply it by 45% that's how much money would be available for the grant. So for example, next year, the average teacher salary is just a little under $74,000 multiply that out, the grant would be worth $33,259 for locals to participate has the same restrictions as the other grants I talked about, but you can do some bigger projects when you have money like that.
Katie Olmsted 8:38
Yeah. What kind of projects would the effective local grant enable you to do?
Rob McFee 8:42
Couple examples is some locals do, like a building lunch for their members, for like a member appreciation type thing. I know in some locals, they've made contracts with food trucks, and they have different food trucks come to their different site locations, so members can come out and you can get a meal like that. Some teachers, some unions or locals, use it to welcome their new teachers. And they have a new teacher luncheon at the beginning of the year and kind of introduce them to the union. This is what we're about. Take them out and wine them, dine them a little bit, and just welcome them.
Katie Olmsted 9:05
Well, not wine them.
Rob McFee 9:06
True.
Katie Olmsted 9:07
Just dine them.
Rob McFee 9:10
And some of our locals would trying to build support in the community. They would purchase, like, one of those outdoor tents, and they would have tailgate parties outside of the football games. So they would actually bring in grills. They would purchase hot dog buns and hot dogs and working with their local school district, you know, whatever they're out doing, and they would hold tailgate parties just to show support in the community. And they give out, like tchotchkes at the thing and like the kids love those little tiny footballs that they could throw around and stuff like that. So really, all about just bringing the community together. One of the things that my local would do with this grant is we would hold an executive committee retreat every year so. So we would invite all our executive committee members, and we would take them to an off site location, and we would pay for their hotel rooms. We'd pay for their food. Sometimes, maybe there'd be a little entertainment involved, like maybe we'd attach it to a Guardians game tickets or something like that. And then we would bring in LRCs and staff from OEA to give trainings the next day, the trainings maybe would be on grievance procedures, or how do you represent a member in a meeting? Things like that, trying to get the executive committee just to have more knowledge and build strength and build confidence and hopefully foster some new leadership, so.
Katie Olmsted 10:35
So this is a grant that is, again, an existing grant, or is this one of the new ones?
Rob McFee 10:37
This is an existing grant.
Katie Olmsted 10:40
Okay.
Katie Olmsted 10:41
But.
Katie Olmsted 10:42
We're gonna get there. Sorry, I keep getting ahead of myself.
Rob McFee 10:46
No, that's okay, because it's actually a very good transition. So that's a grant that we've normally have done for two years. So when you applied for that grant, it was called a Two Year Building Effective Local Grant. So I mentioned earlier that grants around $33,000 you get $33,000 first year, and an additional $33,000 a second year. So gave you a lot of resources you can kind of build for the future that way. But now let's transition to our local capacity grant. So two years ago, in the spring RA, the delegates set aside a substantial amount of money of $3 million to be used for a grant program. Took us a little bit to get it off the ground, but we got it off the ground this year. So talked about our one year special project grant. We had 24 locals taking advantage of that two year special project grant we had three locals taking part of that in this effective local grant, we had 49 locals taking part of that good we started the local capacity grant. You know, how many locals we got going, Katie?
Katie Olmsted 11:47
How many?
Rob McFee 11:48
444 locals took part of our local capacity grant. I am so excited about the opportunity that we have here.
Katie Olmsted 11:56
I mean that is, that is just such an astounding uptake in this. And that's the whole point, is getting members involved, getting this, these resources, into members hands. I want to get into what the local capacity grant is. But when you, I mean, you said this is your favorite part. What was that like for you seeing that number just start to build up and build up and build up?
Rob McFee 12:17
It gives me goosebumps, even just telling you about it right now. It's, I mean, my goal is to get as much money as we can in hands of our members so they can do some amazing things. And we were able to take off some of the restrictions that we've had for other pieces, other grant programs that we had. And one of the other things I'm kind of excited about is I told you about how the building effective local grant got started, got started with that survey from NEA. So you had to have input and use that input to drive the grant. Well, that survey went away. That input went away as well. So the grant was really just whatever the grant writer would write it for. This is good. So our local capacity grant, we kind of are going back to that, trying to get some input. So the first step of the grant is for the local to complete what was called the Local Capacity Toolkit. It's a kit that has, excuse me, I think I have eight different areas that you're going to ask questions about. Fill out a rubric. And the goal is to sit down with a team from your local not just have the president fill out the grant and write it based on what they think. But to have maybe some of your officers, maybe have some of your elementary teachers, some of your middle school teachers, have a team of people sit down and hopefully with the work of your LRC as well, because your LRC should know your local pretty well. So you have that communication where you sit down and you go through this toolkit, and I'll give you some of the things that are in there are contract negotiations, organizing and planning, community organizing and engagement, communication, government structure, finance, political action, leadership, development, all these categories on the toolkit. You identify the areas that you're strong in, maybe that you can improve in, and then just by completing that toolkit, having that conversation, which should take a couple should take a couple hours, OEA sends you a check for $2,500. That $2,500 check has no restrictions, so you can use it for anything. So what I said before that, you couldn't use the grants to go to one of the RAs, well, that's a problem from some of our smaller locals. Some of our small locals don't have the resources get hotel rooms and pay for mileage and pay for food to send delegates to an RA.
Katie Olmsted 14:25
Right.
Rob McFee 14:26
Especially for some of maybe our ESP locals, don't have those resources. Well, now you get a check for filling out this toolkit for $2,500 that can go a long way to fund people to go there. In the past, you weren't able to use the grants to purchase office equipment, like a laptop computer. So we have a lot of locals who are doing all of their local work on the school districts platform.
Katie Olmsted 14:48
Yeah.
Rob McFee 14:48
Well, there's no privacy, there's no security. Obviously we recommend they don't do that, but our previous grants, you couldn't use that money. Well, this $2,500 for filling out the toolkit. Go ahead purchase a laptop for your treasurer, purchase a laptop for your president, if that's what your local identifies as a need. So I think that that exciting piece of locals, really being able to have the freedom to use that money was the impetus of getting this grant started, and then having those conversations, to me, are, from my standpoint, the most important part.
Katie Olmsted 15:17
Right, it's a focus group where you are truly hearing the voices of members about what this local needs. So we have more than 400 locals that are using this grant right now. Any standouts for how that $2,500 check was used for any of them?
Rob McFee 15:33
To be honest, we don't really get a report back because there is no restrictions on how you can use it. It's really for the locals decide. But that's a good segue into the second part of the grant, because that's just the opening step. So the exciting thing about that grant then is to have those conversations, identify those areas where you think you might be able to improve or do something. Well also then you can write a plan. You can say, this is how we would like to address this issue. And the second part of the grant is we'll give you up to $50 per member, up to $30,000 to accomplish that plan. So the 2500, no, we don't know how that's going to be used yet. The other part of the grant, to be honest, we don't have the data back yet, so we're waiting on that. The locals have until July 31st next summer, to turn in those receipts to kind of let us know what they were doing. Those plans are being approved out in the field by the regional directors. So I don't see them in my office, but I'll see them all when they come through in July. So we're kind of in this evaluation phase right now.
Katie Olmsted 16:42
Right.
Rob McFee 16:42
Does that make sense?
Katie Olmsted 16:43
And we're in a transition phase. This is, this is based on what that new business item had you do. It also means we're transitioning away from some other things. I know. The technology grant is one where there's a pause on that I'm talking to December 10th. December 11th podcast episode is about educators who used our technology grant so just to be clear, that one's off the table for right now, but there's so many other grant opportunities on the table that really, locals can't afford to leave on the table because it's there, and we've made it easy.
Rob McFee 17:18
I think we have. But like I said, we're in this evaluation phrase where time, where that $3 million that was set aside by that spring RA for this local capacity grant was meant to be a one time thing. But my push as secretary-treasurer is, if we engaged 444 locals, why is this a one time thing? Maybe we ought to look at this and say, This is what our members need. So what we're doing, instead of doing the two year effective local grant, like we have four years.
Katie Olmsted 17:47
That very few took part in.
Rob McFee 17:49
49 locals this past time.
Katie Olmsted 17:50
Yeah.
Rob McFee 17:51
We're for this year, because this is the year that application is up again. So locals right now are preparing that grant, which will be due by January 31st we are making that just a one year effective local grant. And the reason we're making one year is because we want to get all the data back that you just asked me about for the local capacity grant. We'll be getting that throughout the course of this year through the summer, and then we want to sit back and say, what do we need to do going forward? Should we continue our effective local grant program? Should we instead maybe move to a local capacity grant, or should we kind of maybe merge the two, and kind of take some ideas from both, so we just don't have that information yet, but my goal is to, you know, if we have 444, locals taking advantage of this resource, that, to me, says something, and it says, This is what our members need. This is what our members want, and I think that makes us a stronger organization. Now, you did mention the technology grant, and we'll say we had very few locals taking part of that, but real quick, the technology grant was a program to help our locals get off the platform that their school districts were using.
Katie Olmsted 18:56
Which is exactly what this grant gives you the opportunity to do, exactly.
Rob McFee 19:01
So they kind of overlap, right? But the grant, the technology grant, really, was just to purchase either Microsoft 360 business, 365 business, or Google workspace, which are monthly subscriptions for the platform. So you get an email with it, you get access to Google Forms with it or but it was a monthly access. It was either 6 or $7 a month. So that was to get you off your school districts, Google Forms. This is get you off your school district, Microsoft products. But it was always meant to be just a transition, like for one or two years, and then your local has come up with the funding to determine how they want to continue that, right? Well, I think we, this past year, we spent $4,000 on that program. So it was not a not very many locals were taking part of it. We've got out the message. We've told our locals, I talk about it, my treasures workshops, get off that platform if you can. But we just feel it's kind of run its course, especially with the new grant, because now you cannot not only purchase your own Microsoft products or Google products. If you need them, you can also get the laptop to go along with it.
Katie Olmsted 20:04
Exactly. So in the last little bit of time we have, we've talked about these local affiliate grants. We haven't really touched on the foundation grants. What can you tell me about that?
Rob McFee 20:15
Well, I will say because I know we're short on time, but the website that we have from ohea.org. Has a page on there for under affiliate resources that talks about our educational foundation grants. We have four different grants from the Educational Foundation. We have one that's called a Diversity Grant. So diversity grants are to promote programs that appreciate and promote diversity equity and just a respect for humankind in the classroom. And those grants are for up to $3,000 a piece. And we have also have an innovation grant. These grants are for educators who want to come up with creative ways to learn and in projects in their classroom. One that I remember from last year that we approved was for building drones. So we they use the money to purchase drone kits, and they talked about the engineering and how to build them, and what it took with their students. And those grants are for up to $5,000 each. And then we also have what's called a Whisper Grant, and this is the one that gives the committee tears when in the room, because we hear some stories about kids who are in need, families who are in need. And this is a grant designed to give direct assistance to individual students or a group of students. I know we've used them for students who just couldn't even afford a pair of glasses, high glasses, and we use the grant to buy them those glasses to help them be more successful in school. Could be a student who maybe couldn't afford a wheelchair, but they needed one. So these are called Whisper Grants. Those. The other two grants are due February 14th. If you want to apply for a diversity grant or an innovation grant, those are the ones where the teacher is planning and coming up with that program. The Whisper Grant is a little bit different. We approve those all year round, and just the need is all year round exactly. You don't know when it's going to come up, but really it's just a great program. The committee gets together and they talk about them, and it's just a really good thing that we can do to help our members do some good in their community.
Katie Olmsted 22:16
And really that's the point of all of these things. The grants are to help our members do good, whether it's in the community direct assistance to students, or if it's direct assistance to public education, by having stronger locals, these grants help get that done.
Rob McFee 22:32
Exactly. And that's why I said it's probably the most fun part of my job that I have.
Katie Olmsted 22:36
And it has been so fun sitting down with you today. Thank you so much.
Rob McFee 22:41
Thanks, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 22:41
You can find the links to learn more about all of these grants, both the local affiliate grants and the grants from the OEA foundation in the show notes for this episode. You can also find my email address there. Please let me know what you think of the podcast and what you'd like us to do with it in the future. As I mentioned at the top of this episode. We're taking a couple weeks off for the holiday break, but we will be right back here with a new episode on January 8th. For that, we're sitting down with the leader of a group called Communities in Schools to talk about how they're working in public schools across the state to address challenges, especially challenges around chronic absenteeism. Make sure you subscribe to public education matters on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss that conversation or any other episode in the future. Because in Ohio, public education matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai