President's Message - September 2017
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you all had a wonderful summer although I can only imagine it was challenging given the budget woes across our state. I know some of you are still trying to fill positions vacated by resignations, retirements and for the shortage areas such as mathematicians, science, and world languages, to name a few. Not to mention, the late and unexpected resignations that occurred in late August. I hope you remember that there’s an agreement between Connecticut’s superintendents, allowing you to hold your teachers through September 30, 2017, for any resignations that occur after August 1st of each year. (A copy of this agreement will be on our website soon).
Executive Board – The new slate of officers for the 2017-2018 school year hail from several school districts. They are: Kimberly Hunt – Secretary (Southington); Chris Wethje (East Hartford); Don Winnicki (North Branford); Carole Pannozzo - Treasurer (Shelton); Christine Flynn (Rocky Hill); Colin McNamara – Vice President (South Windsor); Regina Terrell (CREC); Shuana Tucker (New Britain); and Terrell Hill (Windsor). We are in the final stages of hiring an Administrative Assistant to support the work of CASPA.
TOPICS NEEDED – We’ve discussed numerous ideas for our meetings and we would like to encourage you to offer suggestions for potential speakers and topics that you believe will help you in the field. We are also working closely with the State Department of Education and they are very committed to partnering with us to increase opportunities for open dialogue on relevant topics.
AASPA – The 2017 conference will be held in Arizona on October 17-20, 2017 and I understand that a few members of CASPA will be in attendance. I am sure this will be a great learning experience and look forward to hearing from them upon their return. Our very own Regina Terrell from CREC is the Region 3 representative and I know she will represent us well. CASPA was able to negotiate a donation to the conference through the Rocky Hill Sheraton Hotel for a three day/two night stay and this will be auctioned off at the national conference. The executive board also voted to make a monetary contribution to the national conference to support scholarships for Minority candidates entering the field of education.
YEARLY DUES – Please remember that your annual membership expires on October 31, 2017. You must re-register to CASPA for this year. The new dues, voted on during our annual meeting is $250.00 per person. Guests to our quarterly meetings pay $50.00 each
UPCOMING MEETINGS – Finally, please remember to register for the meetings on October 27, 2017, January 19, 2018 and March 9, 2018. These meeting will be held at the Rocky Hill Sheraton, 100 Capital Blvd, Rocky Hill, CT 06067. We are thrilled that Sarah Barzee, Chief Talent Officer at the SDE and Dale Bernardoni from Fund For Teachers will be our presenters at the October meeting. If you’re having difficulty registering, please contact Nancy Sudhoff at nancy.sudhoff@yahoo.com. We have many exciting topics and look forward to seeing each of you during the course of the year. All the best in this new school year.
Respectfully,
Claudette J. Beamon
President
