Latest / Public Education Matters / Ideas Worth Borrowing: How Twinsburg EA is turning OEA grants into Local wins
Transcript
- 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 in local associations across the state, locals like the Twinsburg Education Association, who recently started their own podcast. Lexi Sabo & Ian Horstman 0:47 Hey everyone, and welcome to the first episode of Inside TEA. I'm Lexi and I'm Ian. Today, we're talking through the most important takeaways from the February executive committee meeting for the Twinsburg Education Association, especially the things that directly affect members. Katie Olmsted 1:07 That podcast is just one of many ways Twinsburg EA is really getting members informed, engaged and excited. A lot of that work is possible because of the grants TEA has gotten from OEA, and when I say a lot of work, I mean a lot. Twinsburg EA has been able to do so many projects, events and initiatives with OEA grant funding, we actually have 14 people joining us for this episode to talk about it all. It is a bit of a longer episode, but I hope you can sit back and enjoy it and get some ideas about how you can put the OEA grant funding to work in your own local too. After all, as one of the many guests on this podcast told us when we sat down with the group in early March, strong locals don't happen by accident. Let's take a listen. You Kim Fink 2:06 I'm Kim Fink. I am the past president of Twinsburg Education Association. I was president from 2018 to April of 24 and we're here with everyone today. And Mary, did you want to introduce yourself? Mary Bilinski 2:22 Hi, my name is Mary Bilinski, and I have been the vice president of the Twinsburg Education Association for this past year, and we're actually going to be having our elections next week. So fingers crossed. We'll see. But yep, that's me. Katie Olmsted 2:40 And I am so grateful to you, Kim, to you, Mary, and to everyone who has joined for this call. This is definitely a record for the biggest crowd we've had. And I'm so excited, Kim, I do want to start with you. Talk to me a little bit about how these grants got started. We're talking about both the OEA Affiliate grant and the Wellness grant. Kim Fink 2:59 Back in I want to, I have to go back a couple years before I was President, I was vice president for a few years. And, you know, I attended a lot of the OEA functions, the OEA RAs and there would be, you know, some quiet chatter about the the grants that were out there, and how, you know, you could get so much money for your district, and you could do all of these things for your members. But quite honestly, just being vice president was a little overwhelming at the time, and so I really didn't do anything with it until I became President, and I started looking into it to get, you know, to get members more involved. And I just it always seemed like educators were just stretched so thin, which they still are, but they were very disconnected, and they weren't really sure how to get involved. And some of the more seasoned members here on this group can tell you, we didn't have very many building reps. It was kind of a smaller crowd. And we tried to, I was trying to come up with ways that we could get people more involved. And so I wrote the grant. I started with the two year affiliate grant, and tried to move from passive membership to active involvement. And we set up, I think, our first event that we set up once we received the grant, was a bonfire at my house. And, you know, it really kind of broke the ice, and it was a small crowd, but the crowd has been growing steadily since then. We increased the FCPE, which is now the Ohio Fund for Public Education. We tied in a lot of the things with that grant. And then as we did that, I started looking into some other grants, because I thought, well, if we did one, we could try for some of these other ones. And so we did the wellness grant, and we did bingo that got quite a few members involved, wellness bingo. And so that was kind of the birth of this and and I really when I was retiring, because I retired in 2025 and in our bylaws, I could not be president the last year that I was in the district. So I really tried to look for someone that would take over where I left off. And I'll tell you what Mary has done fantastic. You know, she still has me on the committee, so I still feel like, you know, I help in some ways. I hope you guys help. Think I help a little bit, but, but she's really taken it to the next step, and it's been, it's been a pleasure to watch and to see the membership getting more and more involved. And look at all the members here on this committee. I mean, my committee, at my grant committee was, I think maybe five people, and she's grown it, and it's a wonderful thing to watch. Katie Olmsted 5:47 And really, having everyone here truly speaks to what you've been able to do with these grants. Mary, talk to me a little bit about the different types of grants that were written for this school year. Mary Bilinski 5:59 So first, what happened was, over the summer, our LRC Allison Hoffa contacted me and was like, You know what? We have this new thing coming out, the Local Action Plan grant. But first you have to fill out a survey. You have to get some members to come and get do the survey to see what the strength and weaknesses were of our local so during the summer, I wasn't sure if anyone would come. And actually 14 people came, and we filled out the survey, and it was a pretty long survey, but what we realized afterwards was that our member engagement, we needed to increase that. We also wanted to increase our community involvement. So since covid happened, we kind of put a stop to being more out in the in the community, and we just have gotten just bombarded with, like, other things, you know, life in general. So I really wanted to build on what Kim had started, and then just kind of continue it. And, yeah, take it to the next level, and then whoever comes in my place takes it to the next level after that. So but we've had OEA has been very good to us over the years, and especially this year, because we filled out the survey, we got the $2,500 for the local capacity. With that, we were able to write out our action step goals, which OEA graciously gave us $13,150 and that's going to also go towards more of our branding, our communication, our involvement in the community. We also wrote the Wellness grant. So the $1,300 we got as well, and I wrote the 31,150 OEA Affiliate grant, because now it's every year, not just two years. So fingers crossed. We'll find out in May if we got that. And because Kim had written the other the previous OEA affiliate grant, that's just my way of spoiling everybody this year with it. So OEA has been amazing, and they're even more amazing now because I got a call on Monday. I'm one of the panelists for the Mega conference this Saturday, talking about your OEA fund and bringing the fund back in the fund. So I thank you so much. OEA, thank you, Katie Olmsted 8:24 And I cannot wait. I mean, that's really what you guys been doing. You've been putting the fund back in the fund. You've been doing so much. And I we have so many people who have so much to share. So I really just want to dive into how this grant money has been spent, because it truly it's an investment in your local that just pays dividend after dividend after dividend, getting members involved, getting the community involved, growing your power and capacity. And that starts with recognizing our youngest learners. I want to bring in Allison Doyle and Molly Manley to talk about what we were able to do with the OEA Action Plan grant money for that. Allison Doyle 9:02 Hi, Katie. I'm Allison Doyle. I'm a third grade teacher. I have been teaching for 30 years, and have been in TEA for, I don't know, as long as Kim was, I guess, 25 years maybe. As Mary mentioned, we really wanted to start getting back into the community, so we heard that Streetsboro had done this cute thing with kindergarten T shirts. So I'm just going to show you. I know it's just video, but we designed these cute little T shirts, kindergarten style, and then on the back, of course, we branded ourselves and said, courtesy of Twinsburg Education Association, I love it. It's so they're so cute. So we brought them in adult larges, because our whole goal is to have intentionally oversized shirts. And then we delivered them with rubber bands to the elementary building so they could tie them up. And then all of the kindergartners wore them home on the bus on the same day. And, you know, we just were really excited to kind of kick it off at a different event or something. So Molly's going to tell you a little bit more about two things that we did after we passed out the T shirts. Molly Manley 10:09 Hi, I'm Molly Manley. I teach math at the high school, and yes, I was dealing with these little baby kindergartners. It was fun. We had them up at the board meeting so that the board could see the T shirts that they had designed and everything. And at the board meeting, we invited everybody to come to the boys basketball game that Friday. And then at that basketball game on Friday, these adorable little guys came in and lined the court so that everybody could see them in their T shirts, and they high fived all the seniors, um, since it was senior night, so you had the the little guys coming in and saying, hey, here we are, and saying goodbye to the older ones. So it was sweet. And they got out in the community and everybody could see them, and I I had a blast. Katie Olmsted 11:04 I have just cuteness overload, even thinking about it, that sounds so nice. And I love those T shirts. And it's not just about the learners in your school community, though. It's about the wider community. Tiffany and Becky. What can you tell me about how the winter party was benefiting a lot more than just the people in the schools. Tiffany Markim 11:26 Hi, I'm Tiffany Markim. I'm a third grade teacher at Samuel Bissell Elementary in our district. I have been teaching in the district since 2014 and this marks my first year as a representative for TEA and on the grant committee, I'm going to go ahead and let Rebecca introduce herself as well, and then we'll get into our fun winter party. Becky Widener 11:46 Thanks, Tiffany. I'm Rebecca Widener, and I teach sixth grade math and science at Dodge Intermediate School. This is my 20th year teaching in Twinsburg over the past four or five years. I'm not sure how long I served as a building representative, and this year I also joined the grant writing committee for the first time. One of the things I really love about the TEA is how dedicated the people are. In this group of people is very dedicated so many folks working behind the scenes, not just to strengthen our association, but also to connect the community and support a strong educational system in Twinsburg. Tiffany Markim 12:24 So this school year, we hosted our winter party at 1899 located within our community, where members enjoyed great food, a virtual golfing experience, and even a surprise visit from Santa, who handed out naughty and nice gifts to our teachers. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and even those who are unable to attend expressed hope that we would host our party or win our party at the same location again next year. This year, we were proud to give back to our community in meaningful ways through the sale of lottery tickets, we raised $270 for the Cleveland animal Protective League, and with an initial $300 donation used to purchase the tickets, our TEA members also generously donated four huge bags filled with brand new toys for the Twinsburg Hunger Center and the OEA fund makes these opportunities possible, allowing us to continue supporting important causes while also strengthening our association, our membership continues to grow year after year, and we are committed to supporting local businesses by purchasing from them, using their goods for our raffle prizes. Additional raffle prizes were provided through our OEA Affiliate grant, and our attendance at our events continues to increase as well, making our winter gatherings meaningful and a lot of fun. Katie Olmsted 13:44 Part of getting more attendance, obviously, is making sure your members know what's happening, and that's been one of the big thrusts I'm seeing with what you guys have been doing with this grant money. Lexi and Scott, what can you tell me about the newsletter and how that's that's making a difference. Lexi Sabo 14:05 This is Lexi Sabo. I work at the middle school RB Chamberlain, and I think this is my third year as a building rep and and honestly, thinking back to it, I no one really asked me to do the newsletter. I always found, I guess, like a passion for creating things or social media. And I know that, you know, Mary does such a good job with everything, but you know, it's always, you know, helping out, helping people out, because she takes a lot of responsibility and time out of her days to help with our local union. But I just kind of mocked up a couple things. You know, I was looking I had some time during the winter, winter break, so I went ahead and I actually was looking for some examples in the area from other locals, and trying to get some ideas of how, how can we better present this information to our union and make it a little bit more exciting, little bit more I guess, 21st Century, you know, 2026 and on. So I kind of, I well, I utilize Canva, which I think a lot of us are familiar with, since it's a free resource for us teachers, you know, I ended up kind of pulling some things from different places that I liked, and ended up presenting it to Mary eventually, after I was finished with it, and she really liked it, so we kind of just went ahead and I was like, you could do whatever. If you hate it, scrap it. I don't. It doesn't matter to me, like, I'm not going to be offended or anything. But, you know, they end up liking it, and they took it to the next level as well, like adding in Scott's section with, you know, more of the political action things he's, you know, Scott's very knowledgeable about that sector. And then adding a couple things here and there that's involving, you know, our executive committee, and making sure that people are aware of our positions and really aware of our contract as well making it a little bit simple and easy to read. Katie Olmsted 16:30 And this is the OEA Action Plan grant, correct. Yes. Okay, and Scott, what can you tell me about what differences is making in terms of member engagement? Scott Peterson 16:40 Well, I'm Scott Peterson, and this is my 31st year teaching. I teach eighth grade language arts. I've been a building rep forever, and then the last five years, I've been secretary of the union, and we've only had one we've only had one newsletter so far, so but I have gotten a lot of positive feedback about it, and basically what I'm doing for it is I have a column called Politics Corner, and just the idea is to give members who aren't that engaged or new members, just basic information about school funding challenges we face. My first column was about vouchers, and yeah, that's just what I'm really trying to do. And I'm going to add something else as well, I think, to the next one, which is something like a tea like a primer for people who don't know what, like, what is that, you know, OEA RA, like, what does that mean? What is mega conference? What is, what is the fund, actually, you know, things like that, just to try to get younger members engaged and help them be knowledgeable about what we're doing. Katie Olmsted 17:51 Which leads us to the next topic, which is something very close to my own heart. You guys have a podcast now. So, Lexi, you're part of this one. And Ian, what can you tell me about that? Ian Horstman 18:05 Yeah, so actually, so I'm Ian Horstman. I'm a intervention specialist at the middle school here in Twinsburg. This was Lexi's idea entirely. So I'm going to give her all the credit, but she reached out asking if she if I wanted to participate with her, just to kind of give an overview of what we've been talking about at our executive level meetings. So this is my first year as a building rep. I'm learning a ton as we go, and it's great to be able to just kind of give an opportunity for other members to hear what's happening at a higher level and be able to inform them in a way that's really easy for them to listen to. So Lexi took the initiative on this, which is awesome. So again, want to give a lot of credit to her there. Katie Olmsted 18:41 Lexi, you feel like an absolute gem for TEA. Lexi Sabo 18:45 Thank you. I appreciate it. Another thing that I kind of wanted to touch on, too is, you know, what in the in the thoughts of creating this, you know, I wasn't intending it for, I guess everyone more like our building specific. But it ended up, you know, I sent it to Mary again, and she's like, I love this. Can we please send it out? I said, Okay, sure. When, when I started thinking about this, you know, I've been on a podcast kick for, I don't know how long, you know, something that I wake up to where, you know, I put on whatever in the morning try to not scroll and scroll on Tiktok or Instagram reels or whatever to start off my day, but something to kind of, you know, fuel, fuel yourself with things that aren't, you know, I guess you know the how the kids say brain rot. But anyways, so I was like, Well, how about make this information audible and quick and kind of enjoying, you know, an entertainment sort of thing. And I was like, Well, why not just do it as a podcast style, something quick that people can listen to on their morning commute? So that's what we did. We send it out in the morning to our members, and I think a lot of people listen to it. You know, I didn't personally, like I heard a couple people here and there, but Mary did tell me some feedback from the podcast. Katie Olmsted 20:15 I love that, and I love that you are keeping members engaged and keeping them informed, and that's really the thrust of so much of what you're doing with this grant money. You know, on this podcast, we talk a lot about what's going on at the state house. We talk about the politics and how that impacts what's going on in our classrooms. And you guys are doing that in person. You're doing that with this grant money. Dave, Caitlyn, and Kristie, what can you tell me about the OEA Fund Lunch and how you were really informing members about these things? Dave Ockuly 20:48 Hello, I'm Dave. I am a primary school art teacher at Wilcox primary. I wanted to mention during this special occasion that it's not a this or that scenario. There's always time for the opportunity for podcasts, for newsletter, for emails, all that kind of stuff. But there's really nothing that compares, in my opinion, to one on one interaction with members, and really nothing brings them into the room like a nice lunch. So we were able to go ahead and switch from a national chain to a more local restaurant that is local to Twinsburg, and it really gave members the opportunity to both enjoy a wonderful meal and have conversations, not just about please donate to OEA fund, because it's the right thing to do, but to give them more information about how it actually works and what it entails, especially in terms of Ohio politics, when it comes to, you know, partisan issues and things like that. This is completely primarily focused on teachers needs, and that goes beyond the D or R next to someone's name. So we're just looking for people who support teachers in any way possible. So making sure members know that. Again, it's great to see it in the newsletter. It's great to see an email, but to be able to have that one on one contact, I think, is extremely valuable. So that was pretty good. And Kristie Lewis, I yield my time. Kristie Lewis 22:09 Thank you, Dave. I'm Kristie Lewis. I've been a school counselor in Twinsburg for eight years, but I've been an educator for 27 building rep for eight years in Twinsburg. And one of the things I can say about the lunch is it also brings a lot of camaraderie. We have a great competition between our buildings and our district on who's going to get the most number of employees in the in the building to donate. And as somebody who believes in a good old fashioned competition, it was very, very competitive this year. It was very impressive to have a building with 100% involvement. Have another building, although they didn't have 100% they were the actual winners, and there are prizes that are earned. Yes, David, we know don't, don't rub it in our faces. I can't turn my mic off. I apologize. No, no and not at all. It's fun, it's fun, it's exciting, it's competitive, but it's also for good cause. You know, we have to have people in office who believe in public education, who support public education, as Dave said, it doesn't matter if there's a D or R or what they're going to do. Scott speaking to the voucher system. All these things are important, so the lunch brings us in, gives us an opportunity to have these conversations, gives us an opportunity to meet with members that we don't normally see. Gets me out of the office and into someone else's space, which I don't normally get up to the second floor and visit Miss Manley's room, but I had to go get my lunch from there, so that was nice to see, and then I saw a lot of other faces while I was there. It does get you into spaces and having conversations with people you wouldn't normally have those conversations. And OEA has offered us these grants and opportunities to make this happen. So we're very grateful. Thank you, and I yield my time. Katie Olmsted 23:58 Caitlyn, what can you tell me about what that lunch was like? Caitlyn Bonhag 24:02 There's not much else to say. I am Caitlyn Bonhag. I am an Occupational Therapist in building rep. First year at Wilcox, I got to spend the whole lunch hour in there, greeting all the members, making sure they got the correct sandwich that they ordered. And like they said, you know, it's just fun to have that conversation, get to see people face to face, and get to talk about what the OEA fund can do for us. Katie Olmsted 24:28 Now Kristie mentioned that there were prizes involved. Grant funding helped with that as well. Tiffany, you're at Bissell, where they had 100% participation. And Allison, what can you tell me about this too? Tiffany Markim 24:44 So I'll start us off. I'm Tiffany again. So we recently held our OEA fund drive and our free lunch day, and we were excited to share that our district increased its total donations again this year. Last year, we raised $1,319 and this year we surpassed it by raising $1,398. Allison Doyle 25:04 So I'll take over from there. I'm Allison Doyle. At Bissell we are constantly chasing people down when we do elections like everyone votes, we follow them around. We go to their classrooms. So this year, we were like we always finished second in these races. We never win the prizes. So Tiffany and I decided we are going to be a little aggressive, and I will say we had people saying, I don't have any money, and someone else would say, I'll put in $1 for them. We ended up getting 100% of the building to give at least $1 so that we because we wanted these sweatshirts. And it just was kind of a big joke, and it was kind of fun, but it got everybody talking, and it was really fun, and we earned sweatshirts. They're really cute hooded sweatshirts, and they're really fun. So and I would be remiss if my last time talking I didn't say thank you so much to everyone on this committee, and especially to Mary, who has spearheaded us and kept us online and in track, because we've had a lot of meetings, and everybody's given up a lot of their time. When the OEA generously has given us all this money, it has been really nice to use it for great purposes. I'm not just giving people stuff, but getting people together, getting, you know, connected to the community. So I just want to make sure I said that. Katie Olmsted 26:13 And connected to the community, connected to each other. That brings us to our next one. Because, my goodness, the list just keeps going on and on. You were able to bring your members together with their families, fun and engaging again with some some goodies for the families. Gabrielle, what can you tell me about that? Gabrielle Copen 26:35 Yeah, hi, I'm Gabrielle Copen, and I teach eighth grade language arts at the middle school with Scott. I've been a building rep for maybe five years, and this is my second year on the committee, so I really took a back seat with the committee. When I first started, I was like, I don't even really understand what this is all about, but Scott told me to do this. So here I am, but we are kind of spearheaded this family event. We really celebrate our members throughout the year with like individual prizes and building prizes, lunches and cups and shirts and all kinds of great things, but we wanted to do something fun for families, so that is where the family, the TEA family event, came from, and we've taken our members to the Cleveland Monsters game, which is a minor league hockey team in Cleveland, and it has just gotten great feedback over the past. You know, two years, we just went last weekend, so it was a ton of fun. And if you I think almost everybody on here was able to attend this year. So last year, in 2025 we had about 30 members attend, and we bought 95 tickets, so overall. And then this year we had almost 60 members and their families attend, and we had 201 tickets. So we were, you know, we doubled our attendance, which was so exciting. And I think every year I'm learning, like, how to do it better and better, and how to make it more efficient and more fun for everybody. So like this year, we added in gifts for the families with small children. So we bought a little foam hockey puck, made a little snack bag with some suckers and snacks and the pot the hockey puck. And I don't know, we just had a great time. I brought my own kids, and I know other people brought theirs, and parents and whoever else wanted to come. So I know it was a it was a good time had by all, from what I heard. Katie Olmsted 28:23 And really that's it's good for everybody when we can get our families involved. And you know, you spend so much time at school and at work, having your family be part of the wider union family, I think makes a very big difference in people's buy in, I think also just making sure they're well. And so that brings us to the wellness grant part of this. Molly, what can you tell me about that one? Molly Manley 28:46 Hi, Molly again, so Chris, who can't be here tonight, Kuzas. He's a math teacher at the high school with me, and in the past the the wellness Grant was used, and we had a bingo board, and it was filled with things, and people would fill it out and turn it in and you could win a prize. And so Chris and I were like, well, how can we make this so everybody can win, and so no more bingo. But what we did is we took the money and we created Goody stations at each school, so each school is getting a brand new Keurig and pods for their coffee and their tea. And we got cocoa and cider. I've heard people are excited about that. And then we also got snacks, and we got healthy things. We got protein bars, the healthy chips, all that kind of stuff. So just for a small pick me up, so if they wanted to come in, you spill your coffee, you need another. You run out of the house and you forgot your breakfast or your lunch or something. And the hope is that next year we can use this money and expand on what we've already gotten and just continue to put those out there for the people. And just to make them have something where they can relax for a minute and have that wellness. Katie Olmsted 30:05 And speak of the devil. Chris actually was joining us right as you were talking, Chris, you were at the basketball game tonight. Very exciting times. Yeah. What can you tell me about how this Wellness grant has made a difference for the members of TEA? Chris Kuzas 30:20 Just piggybacking off of what Molly said we were lucky enough to get this grant. I mean, thank you to OEA, and thank you to Mary like for getting this money. I just think of when I was a father for the first time and I'd forget breakfast, or if your coffee spills and you need a little pick me up for the day, something like this could be so great, especially for those newer teachers who are rushing and maybe forget something, or those older teachers that just need that extra cup of coffee to keep going. I think these little stations at each school could be a nice little pick me up, just throughout the day for everyone. Katie Olmsted 30:55 It's a recognition that you're humans and you have needs, and that it's it's more than just robots running these classrooms. It's people who need snacks and coffee, right? Chris Kuzas 31:04 Absolutely, yeah, it's, I mean, everyone can use it throughout the day. I know even if I eat breakfast, I get a little hungry after a second block. I just think, What do teachers love? They love free they love free food. They love free coffee. So I think this could be great. Katie Olmsted 31:18 And it really is all great. And again. Thank you to Mary for that, because you have spearheaded so many of these projects with the grants and having this committee come together. What have you seen as the difference this has made for the local? Mary Bilinski 31:35 Well, first of all, I'd like to just say, you know, I'm honored to be here as a first year vice president representing a local of 265 members this year, has been about building connections and increasing member involvement in meaningful ways. With the support of these grants our labor relations consultant Allison Hoffa and the incredible work of our committee members who helped organize events and outreach, we've been able to move from ideas to action, creating opportunities for educators to feel informed, valued and empowered within our union. Katie Olmsted 32:09 What have been some of the challenges to get this going though? Mary Bilinski 32:13 So being new in this role, one of the biggest challenges was balancing leadership with learning. I wanted to move forward confidently, but I also wanted to honor what had already been built. Another challenge was engagement. Educators are busy, and asking them to get involved means making sure partition participation feels meaningful, not overwhelming. There were definitely moments of trial and error, adjusting communication, try new approaches figuring out what resonated. But those challenges helped me grow as a leader. They pushed me to listen more, to be flexible and stay focused on building relationships. Katie Olmsted 32:52 And why are those relationships important? Because you mentioned it's about building those connections. Why is this so important? Mary Bilinski 33:03 These grants are important because member involvement doesn't just happen. It has to be built intentionally. As a first-year vice president, I wanted our union to feel welcoming, transparent and active, not just something people hear about during contact contract time. A strong locals. They don't happen by accident. They happen when you invest in people, when members feel included and informed, they feel ownership, and when they feel ownership, they show up for each other, for our profession and for our students. Growing at 265 members isn't just a number. It represents trust. It represents people believing that our local matters. Katie Olmsted 33:44 It does matter, and the work you do matters, and what you've been able to do with these grants matters. And I thank you so much for joining us for Public Education Matters. Mary Bilinski 33:54 Thank you, Katie. Katie Olmsted 33:57 Our thanks again to all of the Twinsburg Education Association members who joined us for this episode. If you want to see some photos from some of their grant funded events and projects, go to the show notes for this episode. You will also find a link there to an episode from earlier this season with OEA secretary treasurer, Rob McFee talking about the many different grants that are available right now and the changes that are making that grant funding much more accessible to locals, and a little later this season, we're getting more ideas for how locals can put that funding to work. Sitting down with Tallmadge EA to hear what they've been doing with their OEA grant funding, make sure you join us for that conversation and the rest of the conversations we're having this season about the issues shaping public education in our state every day because in Ohio, public education matters. Transcribed by https://otter.ai