TEA Road Trip

TEA Road Trip

March 13, 2014

5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Trousdale County Elementary School

116 Lock Six Rd

Hartsville, TN 37074

Featuring: 

The Trouble with TVAAS

TEA’s 2014 Legislative Agenda

Common Core and PARCC

Shannon Bain, Membership and Affiliations Coordinator

Jeff Garrett, UniServ Coordinator

Plus local teacher stories

Please join us as we address issues

that concern you.

Refreshments will be provided

When you attend, please

WEAR RED FOR PUBLIC ED

Tell Survey

Fellow teachers and association members, please go to the new and improved TEA website and fill out the survey about our new evaluation system.

You don't have to be a member to fill out the survey. TEA is gathering data to help aid Tennessee teachers with the evaluation process.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

New School Year

Yes, this blog has been silent for a year. My apologies!

This new year has started and I wanted to give information through the blog again.

We will be having a regional meeting of TEA on August 23 at Cookeville High School, in the Lecture Hall. If anyone wants to carpool, let me know. I'm presenting information on recent law changes. We will also have a meeting in Manchester on the 29th at Coffee County Central. I'll also be attending that meeting and presenting the same information.  

These meetings will give members information on evaluation, tenure and new laws.

Hope to see lots of SCEA members at a meeting.

Tracy

Contract Ratification

On June 15, we will be voting to ratify our contract with the BOE. When you pick up your paycheck on Tuesday, come down the hall and vote.

Hope to see lots of summer refreshed faces tomorrow!

Update

I know it has been far too long since we've updated our blog.

But I wanted to suggest that if you are a TEA member and you enjoy Facebook, become a fan of TEA.

We will be updating the lastest on contract negotiations and such soon. So check back soon.

NEAMB

That stands for National Education Association Member Benefits. I often get a reminder in my mail box to take advantage of my benefits through the NEA. But I don't always remember to use them. I also know that I have great benefits as a member of TEA and this weekend I took advantage of one!

Last week, I went to get new glasses. I gulped and paid the amount for my spiffy new glasses. They did have a sale, $100 off the glasses but it was still expensive and then I remembered my Access card through TEA. Did I have it with me, NO! But the sales clerk was great and we looked up the discount programs Lens Crafters honors. I couldn't prove I was a member but she told me to bring my card back when I picked up my glasses.

So Saturday, I returned TEA card in hand and the clerk looked up the discount and I walked out with $94 back in my pocket! Thanks to Access/TEA I received a total of $194 dollars off my glasses. The clerk let me know that I could get as many pairs of glasses and sunglasses as my family needed, there wasn't a yearly limit. I was tickled to have money back in my pocket and realized it was almost half of my yearly dues that I had saved with one pair of glasses.

Don't tell me about the cost of membership. I've saved more than the cost of my dues this year by using NEA sponsored California Casualty for my insurance needs and now purchasing new glasses. MORE than my dues! I love it! So be sure you register you card on the TEA website and remember to look for those discounts. I know Target also honors the card, just print out a coupon from the TEA website...I need to go shopping!

More DC Pics

Sorry, I don't have the names of everyone from the Tennessee delegation. Denise will provide them soon and I will update the post.

Sorry for the delay in postings

Most of you know, my mom was very ill this summer and being with her was the most important thing I did all summer! Thanks for the prayers as I deal with the loss of a wonderful mom!

Denise Hackett and Scott Apple were invited to a conference this summer as guests of NEA. The conference was in Washington, D.C. which is the national office of the NEA. Scott claimed all he did was go to meetings, but I have pictures to prove otherwise. They truly represented SCEA well!

From SCEA

Take a Survey

I received this message this morning from our illustrious TEA president Dr. Earl Wiman. So I'm passing it on to those of you who read the blog. Earl said, "Mr. Haslam is a Republican candidate for governor, please take his survey."

Here is the link. Let the candidate know what you think.

Look at your TEACH

At the back of this months TEACH, you will find a lovely article about the Rural Initiative Project. In addition to the article you will see a few familiar faces in the picture. It isn't Denise or I!

Duran asked each local to send members and we are proud to say that Becky H and Bonnie G met us for the day. In addition to our members, you will see the newly elected board member for our district, Beth from Grundy Co. This is the last month of my three year term and it is bittersweet!

I just want to say thanks for all the support.

RIP - Rural Initiative Project

Denise and Tracy are currently in training, we are actually the trainers! Isn't that scary. We are talking about how to blog and how to be involved in political action. We are in Cookeville and we are meeting with a bunch of other education associations.

Currently, there are six other associations at the meeting. We are having a train the trainer session right now and tomorrow morning we will have the big presentation.

Dannise McKinney is presenting on how to present. :)

Whoa Time Flies

This is just a check in so that you don't think we've forgotten anyone!

I can't believe this is the week of spring break. I hope everyone is having a relaxing week. School has just a few short weeks left. TCAPs, EOC, and Gateways are ahead along with proms and graduations.

On May 1 and 2, the TEA RA will take place in Nashville, anyone wishing to attend the RA as a delegate, please contact Denise or me (Tracy). We have a couple of delegate spots open. Typically, we drive down Friday afternoon and come back that evening and repeat the drive Saturday morning. The RA is usually over by 9 on Friday evening and 12 on Saturday afternoon. It is a very educational and interesting experience.

The next AR meeting will be April 7, if you have any questions or want to attend, contact your building AR.

Legislative Meeting

The Smith County Education Association met with Representative Terri Lynn Weaver in January. The association invited Representative Weaver to meet and discuss the upcoming legislation session. We had several questions for Rep. Weaver concerning our 60, 80, 90 campaign. How did Rep. Weaver stand on getting our retired member 60% of their salary as retirement? How did she stand on helping our local teachers receive 80% of insurance paid for by the state? How would she help us work to receiving 90% of the national teacher's average salary?

The group discussed the high quality teachers Smith County has been able to acquire and how these areas were concerns would lead to longevity in our school system, keeping high quality teachers in are area. Our surrounding counties have higher salary bases and a variety of benefit packages. But we are concerned about our county and how to improve our working conditions and benefits.

Representative Weaver was open to our ideas and voiced her concerns with education. Our meeting was during the first week of the legislative session. Since the meeting Representative Weaver has been appointed the House Education Committee. Congratulations Representative Weaver!  She understands our issues and is very willing to listen to our concerns and suggestions.  The meeting was very productive and we look forward to meeting with her again.

December AR Meeting

We had our monthly AR meeting earlier this week. The only thing on the agenda was an update of mediation and a district update with Duran. Denise was kind enough to provide drinks and snacks. We spent most of the meeting catching up with members information and discussing school climate.

The Wilson County Board of Education is sponsoring a Framework for Evaluation workshop in Wilson County on January 22. Duran will be conducting the training which will begin at 4:00 and end at 7:00 P.M. Each participant will receive 3 hours of staff development credit for attending the training. If you would like to attend the training, please contact your AR or email SCEA at the address on the right.

 

Bargaining Cluster Meeting

Tracy represented SCEA at the Bargaining Cluster IV Meeting. Many items were discussed. The teams from local associations in Uniserv District 12 were present. They looked at differentiated pay plans and were updated with the current state approved plans. The teams looked at collective bargaining and interest based bargaining. Interest based bargaining (IBB) is new to our area and we discussed the different approaches of IBB.

AR and Bargaining Meeting

The next few days will be busy for our association. This Thursday, several association members will be attending a bargaining meeting in Cookeville. We will meet with our Uniserv district to discuss topics that are on the bargaining tables in the Upper Cumberland. If you are interested in local bargaining issues and would like to attend, please contact Tracy.

Then on Tuesday, we will have our monthly AR meeting. Every association member is invited to attend. We meet at 4:00 at SCHS, Denise Hackett's room. We hope to have another date for mediation set and will get that information to everyone as soon as we have confirmation of date and time.

Fall UAC Meeting

In early fall, Dekalb, Macon, Jackson, and Smith County Education associations met at the Cornerstone Cafe in Gordonsville. They were joined by several TEA staff members, with Duran Williams hosting. We received updates on local legislation, member benefits, and membership updates. 

  

The associations members had a chance to network and exchange information. We also had a great meal and were able to get updates on the legislature both in TN and Washington, DC.

Education Votes!

It's almost time for the next round of elections - also known as a day off for us! Last month, SCEA hosted a meet the candidate for House District 40. We invited Macon (pictured above) and Dekalb County Education Associations to join us. We met with Terry Lynn Weaver and Cleveland Bain. Both candidates had good things to say about education. 

You know us! We also had to eat. Thanks Duran - he provided the great snacks and CHOCOLATE. 

If you have any questions about NEA and their stance on the national election, please visit http://educationvotes.nea.org/

GO VOTE!!!

State Board of Education

Everything that happens with our core curriculum comes from the Tennessee State Board of Education. Please subscribe to SBE updates at http://info.tnanytime.org/sbe/?cat=3 and contact SBE members directly or express your views to TEA members assigned to contact SBE members. The regularly scheduled SBE meeting dates for the academic year are November 14, 2008, January 30, 2009, and April 17, 2009. TEA staff and TEA State Board Contact Committee members are in attendance at all SBE meetings.

Congratulations Becky Hackett

Earlier this week, Channel 2 name Becky Educator of the Week! We'd like to say "Job well done, Becky!" Here are some pictures of the event. I'm not sure when the spot will air.