Clark Hill Attorneys Kurt M. Graham and Barbara A. Ruga to Present “New Evaluation Regulations for Teachers and Administrators” Thursday, November 12, 2015
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Clark Hill attorneys Kurt M. Graham and Barbara A. Ruga will present “New Evaluation Regulations for Teachers and Administrators” on Thursday, November 12, 2015 to the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District (MAISD) and its constituent districts. Graham and Ruga’s presentation will address updates to teacher and administrator evaluations in light of 2015 PA 173, effective November 10, 2015.
The MAISD is a regional education service agency serving the public schools of Muskegon and parts of Oceana, Ottawa and Newaygo counties. The MAISD’s primary mission is to provide leadership and services that enhance the delivery of instruction for its twelve constituent school districts and assisting other public and parochial schools.
Graham is a Senior Attorney in Clark Hill’s Education & Municipal and Labor & Employment Practice Groups. He advises school districts and employers in avoiding liability under various state and federal employment laws. He has significant experience representing school districts and private sector employers in labor relations matters such as the administration of collective bargaining agreements, grievance arbitrations, union organizing campaigns and elections, and unfair labor practice charges.
Ruga is a member in Clark Hill’s Grand Rapids office where she practices in the Education and Municipal Practice Group as well as the Labor & Employment Law Practice Group. For more than 38 years, Ruga has been advising and counseling public and private employers on a wide variety of labor law and employment issues. Ruga has extensive experience negotiating public sector contracts in a context of scarce resources. She has also handled numerous unfair labor practice charges, fact-findings, OCR and EEO claims and related employment litigation. Ruga advocates for prevention through education, and to that end specializes in employee training programs to clients and public school organizations.
A past president of the Michigan Council for School Attorneys, Ruga has been recognized by her peers as a leader in the school labor negotiations field through the prestigious Harlow Claggett award, received in 2007 for her contributions to public school labor negotiations, and is frequently asked to speak at industry conferences throughout the State. In addition, Ruga was recently designated Grand Rapids' 2016 "Lawyer of the Year" for Education Law in the 22nd Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Only a single lawyer in each practice area in each community is honored as the "Lawyer of the Year."
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