This meeting will cover the new Race to the Top law and how it affects you. Topics will include salary scale, school assignments, formal evaluations, tenure, and more. We encourage all teachers to attend one of these meetings. Check out the attached flyer.

SCEA has received emails concerning the change in the school calendar for this year.  Instead of answering each one, I thought it would be better to address the explanation to everyone.

Stockpiled days – These are the same as snow days.  State laws allow these “stockpiled” days to be used for inclement weather, staff development and/or parent conference.  Sumner County’s current calendar allowed for 2 of our 13 stockpiled days to be used March in the above manner. March 11 as Parent Conference and March 12 as an in-school staff development.

As of today, February 18, 2010, ten (10) days have been used for snow.  Anticipating that inclement weather is not over, the Board approved March 11 and 12 to be used as regular instruction days.  As a result we now have three (3) snow days remaining should it be necessary to use them.  ONLY IF more than 3 more snow days are used will Spring Break be used to make up the days. The necessary number of days needed for instruction will be deducted from the Spring Break starting with Friday, April 16 and counting backwards.

WE ARE NOT WORKING EXTRA DAYS WITHOUT PAY! We would be in school anyway on March 11 & 12.

Even if Spring Break is shortened and we have to work, WE ARE NOT WORKING WITHOUT PAY. At this point stockpiled days would be entirely utilized and the days we had off due to snow were paid days of instruction.  Having to work any days of Spring Break IF NECESSARY replaces the amount of time we were paid during snow days.  This is all about getting the necessary number of instructional days in the school year according to state law.

Hopefully this has cleared up any questions. If not please feel free to call SCEA or email and I will contact you personally.

Mary Pappas, SCEA President

When:       Thursday, January 21

Time:         4:30-5:30

Speaker:    TEA President Earl Wiman

Why:        To play a part in the up-coming election process…to have influence over your work environment.

As you are all aware, some members of the Sumner County Board of Education   have caused concern by voting in a manner not always inclusive of educator  views, suggestions or findings by committees. This August, 6 of the 11 seats are up for reelection.  They are:

Mike Fussell, 1^st District , Don Long, 3^rd District , Rob wheeler, 5^th District , Ben Harris, 7^th District 7, Will Duncan, 9^th district, and David Brown, 11^th district.

If teachers are to have a work friendly environment, professional treatment, and equitable pay as a priority, these goals MUST start with each member on our school board.

Mrs. Cox and Mary Pappas spent Monday speaking to your Representatives and Senators concerning these changes and listened to a three hour overview of the proposed legislation and Grant Proposal to be submitted on January 19, 2010.  The purpose of this meeting is to share with you first hand correct information.

According to the information presented the teaching profession as we know it will drastically change – rules for receiving and retaining tenure will change; your salary schedule will change.  It is a necessity for each and every professional employee of Sumner County to be aware of and address these issues.

It cannot be emphasized enough the importance of your attendance at this meeting.

This meeting is open to ALL teachers of Sumner County.  This is too important not to make everyone aware of what is happening in the legislature.  Please attend and find out what you can do to affect the outcome of this legislation.

Therefore, we have asked them to meet with you on Thursday, January 7th from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at the Station Camp High School cafeteria.  Please make plans to attend and have your questions ready.  We look forward to seeing you then.