Western Slope
National Teacher Day, Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Great Teachers Make Great Public Schools
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."--Henry Brooks Adams
National Teacher Day is a day for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives. On National Teacher Day, thousands of communities take time to honor their local educators and acknowledge the important role teachers play in making sure every student has the opportunity for a quality education.
THANK YOU FOR GOING OVER AND BEYOND YOUR EXPECTIONS TO ENSURE EACH AND EVERY STUDENT IS SUCCESSFFUL.
WGEA Member wins L.S. Wood Trust Award 
The L.S. Wood Teacher of the Year award is in its 27th year and provides a $4,000 grant for one teacher from Garfield Re-2. The instructor receives $2,000 and another $2,000 goes to that teacher's department, team or grade level for purchases designated by the teacher. Rifle Middle School fifth-grade teacher and Association member Tammy is this years recipient. Congratulations to you!!“As an educator, Tammy displays extraordinary commitment and consistency to her students. She understands that the positive relationship a teacher builds with her students can increase their academic and behavioral success,” wrote Nipper. “As an educator, Tammy might best be described as a quiet humanitarian who works tirelessly for the welfare of children.” says RMS Assistant Principal Jenny Nipper
*article courtesy of CEA website and Rifle Citizen Telegram website
Scholarships available for teachers seeking National Board certification
The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) Office of Professional Services and Educator Licensing just announced the limited availability of a new round of scholarships to support teachers applying for National Board Certification with the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).
Colorado teachers can apply for 100 federal scholarships worth $1,250 provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Colorado does not have funds for matching state scholarships, but will reassign all funds remaining from former candidates who have dropped out. These funds will provide a $250 state scholarship to the first 84 candidates to apply. Candidates who apply after the funds are exhausted will be on a waiting list for state funds.
The scholarship window is open through December 1, 2012, or until funds are no longer available. Scholarships are provided on a first-come, first-served basis, but the State reserves the right to fund teachers in low-performing schools first.
Visit CEA page for additional information at:
the story on CEA’s web site
CEA has a new President and Vice-President
The Colorado Education Association elected Kerrie Dallman its new president at its annual statewide delegate assembly. Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of District Twelve Education Association, was elected CEA’s new vice president. Both will officially take office in July for a three-year term.
CEA President Beverly Ingle, who is nearing the end of two consecutive three-year terms as the association’s leader, is retiring from the teaching profession. National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel praised Ingle for her “legacy of leadership” and for “creating an atmosphere where students can do their very best”
“Beverly has been strong and fearless in fighting for CEA members and public schools,” said Van Roekel. “She’s been a major player in making CEA the voice that Colorado school employees both need and deserve.”
Check out these education blogs
NEA Vice-president Lily Eskelsen blogs about education at her Blackboard, as does former NEA Executive Director John Wilson who blogs at EdWeek through his “Unleashed” comments.
Legislative communications:
- Anyone can subscribe to the CEA Capitol Connection blog, updated several times each week with information about education issues at the Legislature. If you subscribe on the Capitol Connection site, the posts will come to your preferred email address. If you don’t subscribe, you can get the latest posts on our web site home page. We hope you will encourage our members to subscribe.
- The CEA Bill Summary is posted on the Member side of our web site. It will be updated periodically for members only. To get to the Member side of the web site, click on Members tab in the top right corner of the site. Once you create a user name and password, you’ll just have to sign in each time you want to go to the Members side. (This is also where we’ll post Election 2012 information and our recommended candidates.)
We encourage CEA Members to get regular legislative updates from the CEA Capitol Connection blog at http://www.ceacapconn.wordpress.com.
TBD: Governor’s statewide listening tour
Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to conduct a series of listening events called To Be Determined (“TBD”). It will be a nonpartisan tour of the state to listen to Coloradans talk about the future of Colorado which the Governor says is “yet to be determined.” The group planning TBD is composed of education, business, political, and community leaders and aims to visit with Coloradans about what it means to live in our state, what their core values are, and what they want our state to become. When we have more information about TBD, we’ll share it here.
Latest on Race to the Top, Round 3
Colorado will receive $17.9 million in Race to the Top Phase 3 funds. Half of thw award is designated for district use and will be allocated based on Title I share distributions. CDE will work with districts to secure their participation in the grant. All districts are eligible to participate.
ANOTHER TRY AT RACE-TO-TOP EARLY LEARNING CHALLENGE FUNDING
Colorado is among five finalists invited to apply for $133M from the federal government’s Early Learning Challenge Fund, a Race to the Top grant program. Colorado is eligible to get up to $30 million because its application for 2011 Early Learning Challenge funding is considered meritorious, even though the state did not win in the first round when 35 states applied and nine states won.
Colorado’s 2011 proposal is aimed at using the statewide Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System (TQRIS) to ensure that children get the highest quality early childhood training; refining assessment systems to ensure early identification and interventions for pre-kindergarten children with high needs; expanding kindergarten entry assessments; and combining state early childhood programs into the Department of Human Services.
Congratulations Debbie Beilman you are one of our monthly website winners, please call our office by May 25, 2012 to claim your prize.
Congratulations Debbie Beilman you are one of our monthly website winners, please call our office by May 25, 2012 to claim your prize.
Article in the Washington Post in regards to standardized testing:
State Board beefing up graduation requirements
As the State Board of Education is working on education effectiveness rules, it is considering new state guidelines for high school graduation requirements.
The requirements are part of CAP4K (Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids), the comprehensive
K-12 law the Legislature passed in 2008. The board must adopt its guidelines by December 15, 2011, by identifying minimum standards or core competencies expected in the future from all Colorado high school graduates.
All 178 local school boards will need to comply with the state guidelines by setting their own graduation requirements, ensuring that they meet or exceed the state's mimimums The local requirements will apply to students enrolling in ninth grade beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
Learn more at: cde.state.co.us/SecondaryInitiatives/GraduationGuidelines.htm
*Article courtesy of CEA Journal Octo./Nov 2011
**Kevin Laduke from MVEA and West Central Colorado UniServ's CEA Board Director voices his opinion on bargaining and has interview with CEA communications. Please click on link to view his interview.***
The Colorado Education Association hosted more than 100 members from across the state in Denver, Nov. 17 – 19, to share skills and knowledge in the science and art of negotiations.
Kevin LaDuke of the MVEA and West Central Colorado UniServ CEA Board Director, traveled from Grand Junction to attend the conference. As schools districts across Colorado continue to grapple with stifling budget cuts, LaDuke says all parties need to work together to make the best educational system for students.
“Bargaining is trying to work together to solve the problems that we have in education now,” said LaDuke in an interview with CEA communications. “It shouldn't be seen as where one position or one group is against the other group. It should be where it's groups working together to try to solve our problems that were having in the workplace, or in the workforce.”
The interest-based system is a method of bargaining LaDuke enjoyed studying at the conference. "It's not one position against another position. It's the two groups coming to a session together to sit down and make it work, not where you're trying to get the largest leverage over the other person, but working together to come out with the best solution,” LaDuke explained. “You tell your story, each side. You both work on options together to come to a great compromise.”
Mary Shelton-Kelley represents bus drivers, food service workers, custodians and other groups in the Boulder Valley Classified Employees Association.
“This year is going to be very interesting for us, we’re looking forward to it,” said Shelton-Kelley of the next bargaining sessions in Boulder. “There's not a whole lot of money out there, so we have to be creative in what we ask for and how we ask for it.
“We need to train people [to bargain] because you can not be in a district, in this position to do bargaining for 15, 20 years,” added Shelton-Kelley. “You need to get new blood in there, you need to get new faces…you need to get people in there who can give new ideas.”
“Our voices matter,” said Greg McQuade, CEA’s director of bargaining at the Association's fall bargaining conference. “We bargain for fair employment practices and improved salaries and benefits because better working conditions for our hard-working public school employees inherently become better learning conditions for our children.”
McQuade, said educators share core values of equal opportunity, democracy, professionalism, partnership and collective action that instill a strong foundation for a successful bargainer.
“As a former history teacher, I arguably taught the most important content there is to know in our world: politics is the system of deciding who gets what, when, and how,” said McQuade. “In a volatile external environment, it is important to be in the place “where” decisions are being made in order to ensure checks and balances are present in the outcome. The “where” for our public school employees is at the bargaining table.”
** article courtesy of CEA website
As you are looking through our website, keep your eyes open for your name stating you are our monthly winner. If your name does appear please call our office at 970-242-6507 to claim your $20.Colorado PEAK wants educators to have information so you can be an extra resource for your students and their families, especially in the current recession.
The recently launched PEAK website: Colorado.gov/PEAK
is an easy way for teachers and school staff to direct families to benefits descriptions, information, and applications.
Colorado PEAK is designed to take families through the screening tool and application form step-by-step. It is private and secure and can be done from the families home, a library, or even the school computer lab. PEAK is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
* Colorado has the fastest growing rate of childhood poverty in the nation.
* Out state ranks 48th for children's health care coverage.
Let’s get a lot more members to “Stand Strong” with members across the nation
The attacks on public education and our members have not stopped. We have to continue to make it clear that we are standing strong for our students, our schools, our future. Standing strong means fighting to defeat the anti-education, anti-union politicians who are undermining collective bargaining; standing with our fellow members who are under attack in many states; pressing to ensure that reforming No Child Left Behind includes educators’ voices; and electing pro-public education candidates in 2011 and 2012.
Make your voice heard. Sign the “I’m Standing Strong for Public Education” Petition right now. And ask the members in your Local Association to sign the petition too. When you sign, you will get our special "Standing Strong" Facebook badge. Post it as your profile picture or to your wall and let people know that you are part of the team standing strong for public education.
Congratulations Debra Houser you are one of our monthly winners. Please call our office by May 25, 2012 to claim your prize.
Do you have student teachers in your building? Are If so, WCCU will pay for their membership to CEA/NEA (as students they cannot belong to the local association) and they receive all the benefits of a full-time teacher.
Congratulations Jason Krueger, you are one of our monthly winners, please call our office by
May 25, 2012 to claim your prize.
Concerned about school funding in
Believe in a Better Colorado is an uprecedented alliance among the state's three largest education associations (CASE, CASB, AND CEA) to inform public school employees and citizens about
Great Education Colorado (GEC) is a non partisan, grassroots organization of public school supporters, which advocates for adequate funding for K-12 education in
www.greateducation.org
CONGRATULATIONS Thomas Theos, you are one of our monthly winners. Please call our office by May 25, 2012to claim your prize.
