EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATORS MEMBER TO RECEIVE THE CALIFORNIA CASUALTY AWARD FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE
East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators member Crystal Williams Gordon has been selected to receive the 2015 California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence. Gordon is among 39 public school educators who will be honored at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala to be held in Washington, D.C., on February 13, 2015. The gala attracts nearly 1,000 of the nation’s leaders from public education, philanthropy, and the private sector.
From the 39 state awardees, five finalists will be selected to receive $10,000. At the conclusion of the Washington, D.C. gala, one finalist will be named the nation’s top educator and receive an additional $25,000. The NEA Foundation and the National Education Association jointly present the awards.
“We give these awards annually to honor and promote excellence in education. Educators like Crystal are critical to their students’ academic success, and they deserve national recognition,” said NEA Foundation President and CEO Harriet Sanford.
LAE President Debbie Meaux awarded Gordon with the association’s annual teacher of the year award — the LAE Teacher Image Award — at the 2014 LAE Representative Assembly; association leaders then nominated her for national recognition. Winning the award has given Gordon the opportunity to travel to Peru next summer. During her 10-day trip, she’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the country’s education system.
FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK
Debbie Meaux, President
As we say goodbye to the summer and hello to the start of another school year, we look ahead to months filled with success and accomplishment. I hope you had some time to relax and decompress during your much-needed time off. Let me be the first to welcome you back to your classrooms and to the start of a promising new school year.
This summer began with an ending: the closing of Louisiana’s 2014 Legislative Session. You can rest assured that members of the LAE Lobby Team were at the Louisiana State Capitol in full force, interjecting a vital voice into the discussion — the voice of public school educators. Several important developments resulted from this year’s busy session. Teachers will see the continuation of a small, but needed, pay boost for the 2014-2015 school year. Education retirees can expect to begin receiving small cost-of-living adjustments in their retirement paychecks. A committee to study the reliability of the value-added method will reconvene in order to help balance the fairness and validity of the state’s teacher evaluation system.
Our battles surrounding fair due process rights finally caught the attention of Governor Jindal and his staff who worked with LAE leaders and other education stakeholders on a piece of legislation to correct the flawed aspects of the law governing due process dismissal procedures (Act 1). After weeks of negotiations, the legislation passed a process that we can live with; however, we still have strong philosophical issues with certain aspects of the law. LAE leaders will continue to work to correct the flawed aspects of Act 1 and any other laws affecting public school employees.
We can now turn our focus away from politics and back toward the most important issue at hand: providing Louisiana’s children with the best educational opportunities possible. We want to help you do this in the 2014-2015 school year, which is why we’ve made it our goal to focus on providing you with quality professional development opportunities in the coming months. The leaders of the LAE want to help you become knowledgeable, strong thought -leaders in your profession. LAE leaders are currently in the process of organizing a one-of-akind professional development opportunity set to take place on Saturday, October 18, 2014. The training, Educating the Whole Child: A Toolkit of Best Practices for Great Louisiana Public School Educators, is designed to introduce you to best practices being employed in today’s classrooms. Special guest speakers Dr. Kate Dickson from The Danielson Group and Robert Schaeffer from The National Center for Fair & Open Testing will join us for this one-day event. I hope you will mark your calendars and make plans to join us for this exciting opportunity!
As we embark on the 2014- 2015 school year, I hope you will continue to support the LAE by being a champion for the association. Your membership offers strength to our association. Your support places us in good standing with the public, and this will help us in our efforts to make an impact on our communities. Your continued professionalism, care, and love for Louisiana’s public school children has been — and continues to be — my beacon of hope. Continue to stand strong with the LAE and help us promote the change needed to strengthen public education for all children in our state. I will continue to stand ready to be a sentinel for you and your needs as a Louisiana educator. I promise to continue to fight for the appropriate measures that will reward our public school employees for the phenomenal work being done in our exceptional neighborhood schools.
In Solidarity,
Debbie Meaux
2014 LOUISIANA LEGISLATIVE SESSION RECAP
Louisiana’s 2014 Legislative Session brought many ups, downs, and successes for the LAE. The education budget for the 2014-15 school year will continue to see the increases from last year due to the approval of the 2014 MFP Resolution (SCR 55). The increase in the MFP per pupil base will rise to $3,961 for the first time in six years. The overall state budget continues to rely mostly on unrealized revenue and onetime money, which will cause an even larger problem in future years unless lawmakers come up with a plan to raise additional revenues to sustain vital services like higher education, K-12 education, and health care. State aid to the higher education system in Louisiana has been cut nearly $700 million since 2008. Concerns remain surrounding the approved budget’s continued expansion of the state’s controversial voucher program, which will increase again this year to pay tuition for students to attend non-public schools.
BESE’S SECOND ATTEMPT AT MFP PROPOSAL WINS LEGISLATIVE APPROVAL
A $3.6 billion financing plan to pay for Louisiana’s public schools for the 2014-15 school year received final legislative approval. The formula, known as the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP), sets a base perstudent funding level of $3,961 and pays for 695,000 students. The plan approved for 2014-2015 will increase spending for public school programs by $15 million – this includes costs for career education courses and special education. Also rolled into the permanent formula is a $70 million boost that lawmakers gave to school districts through last year’s general fund appropriations, in addition to dollars to cover an increase in the number of public school students.
The Senate Education Committee derailed the first proposed plan after Senator Conrad Appel objected to BESE’s inclusion of an automatic growth factor that could have locked the legislature in to boosting the per-student payment by 2.75 percent annually in later years. BESE stripped the language in a revised plan addressing several concerns LAE Lobby Team members had surrounding the original proposal’s language. Some of the major revisions to the plan included restrictions on the use of increases in MFP funding to include teacher pay raises; adding a requirement that charter schools be subject to the 70% instructional expenditure requirement; and clarification on career development allocation language for traditional public schools and charter schools.
In the spirit of compromise, the LAE is pleased with the majority of the revisions to SCR 55. We remain concerned about the 2.75% provision and the ability of the language in the MFP to provide increases in future years.
Downloads
Learn More
Membership Has Its Rewards
