Greetings from the President…Linda Pringle
Well, the switch back to a 7-course model and a traditional schedule has impacted all of us at the secondary level even more than we imagined it would. As one fellow teacher said, "I can’t believe I managed to function in this schedule most of my teaching career. I can’t seem to get anything done the way I want to either in class or in planning or grading like I used to be able to do."

Maybe we didn’t get "spoiled" by the block schedule, so much as we were able to accomplish more on that schedule than we can in the limited time we now have. We may not have realized just how many things had to be shortchanged when we were on this schedule before; now we do. There isn’t time to accomplish everything that we want to accomplish these days.

That being said, I apologize for some CCEA "beginning of the year" items not being as well done as usual. We simply have not had the time to get everything done on our usual time schedule. Not only are our secondary teachers stressed for time, our elementary teachers are, too. We appreciate your patience as we sort things out and get back into the swing of things. Dues should start coming out of checks soon.

Your officers have been meeting with Dr. Mossman regularly since school began. We have expressed concerns over the secondary grading policy "glitch", teacher morale over various issues, and the district’s need for a bond to pass to alleviate some of our problem areas. If you have a concern that needs to be brought to the superintendent's attention, let us know.

Do you have your phone tree in place to call your legislators? Do you know who your legislator is? (See www.capitol.state.tx.us to find out)

The time to act is now.

We expect EDUCATION REFORM to be on the legislative agenda in the spring (after the primaries are over). We hear they may not bother with funding, but will be trying to pass all those "home rule" type bills that we fought against last spring.

We are having another legislative update meeting on Oct. 23 at 4:30 at Brookside Intermediate in the teaching theatre. We urge you to come with your questions and ideas on what to do. Invite others, members or not, to come to this meeting, also. We need everyone to be aware of what to expect and how to impact our legislators on educational issues. It will take us all. Please join us in making a positive impact on education in Texas.

CCEA will be providing long distance phone cards to use when making calls to your legislator as we lobby for public education in our state this session. TSTA makes it even easier to call with the new method used last spring. Way to go TSTA!!!

TSTA/NEA: FIGHTING FOR TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS SINCE 1880

316 West 12th Street, Austin, TX 78701 * 877-ASK-TSTA * ©2007 Texas State Teachers Association