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Minnesota News
Estelle Timar-Wilcox

As Minnesota schools begin annual October break, just what is 'MEA weekend'?

A yellow public school bus pulls to a stop.
The MEA conference is always held in late October. Educators have had several weeks of the school year to get settled and get to know their students.
Hannah Yang | MPR News 2021

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Most kids in Minnesota are heading into a long weekend as public schools across the state close for “MEA.”

That acronym, and the October break, are a longstanding annual tradition in Minnesota. But for people who didn’t grow up in the state — and maybe for a few people who did — it might be a bit confusing.

We spoke with the organization behind MEA to learn more about why so many students have these days off.

What’s MEA? 

Dating back to 1861, schools in Minnesota have traditionally closed on the second-to-last Thursday and Friday in October so educators can gather. The centerpiece is now a professional development conference. Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, hosts the annual event.  

The name MEA dates back decades — the conference used to be hosted by the Minnesota Education Association, until it merged with the state’s other teachers union in 1998. But the acronym stuck, so it’s still called MEA. Technically, it now stands for the Minnesota Educators’ Academy.  

Monica Byron is the vice president of Education Minnesota.  

“It’s a great time for educators to take time to reflect on their professional practice [and] to be able to take time for their personal wellbeing so that they are the best for their students and their communities,” Byron said.  

The conference typically includes resources for educators, several speakers, and chances to network. The conference offers relicensure credits, which teachers need in order to keep their licenses up to date. 

Participation in the MEA break isn’t mandatory, and Byron said some school districts do stay open — but they’re few and far between.  

What does the conference look like this year?  

This year’s conference is on Thursday at the St. Paul RiverCentre. It’s open to Education Minnesota union members and to students studying to be teachers.  

Byron said Education Minnesota expects about 2,000 people to attend, including a record number of students who are planning to go into education.  

The event is slightly scaled back from the two-day, open-to-all conference that it was before 2017. Byron said the decision to limit it to union members was due to the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, which ruled that unions couldn’t collect dues from non-member employees. 

“This conference … is solely paid for by Education Minnesota and planned for by Education Minnesota, so this is dues dollars at work,” Byron said. “So after that decision, we made the decision to ensure that members were getting what they were, in essence, paying for.” 

Byron said it was scaled back to one day due to feedback from attendees.  

This year, the conference includes a keynote speech from motivational speaker Brittany Wagner, followed by workshops and panels throughout the day.  

Why October?  

The conference is always held in late October. Byron said it’s an ideal time of year for the conference: Educators have had several weeks of the school year to get settled and get to know their students. 

“This time of year offers them time to come to the professional development conference, be able to learn some new skills, gain some knowledge, and then be able to go back next week and apply those skills with their students right away,” Byron said.

And she said students and families have come to appreciate the tradition. MEA weekend brings some of the busiest days of the year to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, as families head out of town — and officials expect this week to be no different.  

“I think this is a great time for the students to be able to have a break in their learning,” Byron said. “A lot of our families, because of the rich history of the MEA conference, look forward to this time to also take a family break. So it’s pretty ingrained in the history of Minnesota to have this conference at this time.”