Monday, September 14, 2020
Friday, September 11, 2020
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
PCS School Plan For Upcoming Weeks Unfolds
At the PCS School Board Special Session, held at Chatham Middle School August 27, despite recommendations from Superintendent Mark Jones that Pittsylvania County Schools bring students back for in-person classes on a hybrid model beginning in mid-September, the school board voted 6-1 to reject that proposal. The Pittsylvania County School Board opted to continue with remote learning and will reevaluate in two weeks.To read about what happened at the meeting, click this link: https://godanriver.com/news/local/pittsylvania-county-school-board-opts-to-continue-with-remote-learning-will-reevaluate-in-two-weeks/article_13190453-f05f-569e-bd68-214b9d4e77c2.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
ESP’s: Sign Up Now for VEA ESP Virtual Conference, October 9-10
The annual ESP Leadership Conference is a great opportunity for ESPs to network, learn, and expand their leadership skills. If you’re a local President or other leader who works frequently with ESPs, please reach out and encourage them to participate. It’s virtual this year, so no travel required! Topics include legal issues and furlough concerns, collective bargaining, and racial and social justice. Sign up by Sept. 21.
First PEA Meeting of the Year
On behalf of the PEA Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Staff, we are glad to be a part of a new school year with you. Though this year has been very different than any previously experienced, it has offered new ways of learning and leading with our colleagues, as well, as reaching and teaching our students. We know each and every one of you have been diligently working to provide top-notch services to a variety of stakeholders in our school division, not just recently but throughout this entire COVID-19 pandemic. We have been listening to your stories and we encourage you to continue to share them with us and your school board representative. Too, we have a great deal of activity occurring in our state legislature as well as within your local and state Union. With that said, we are postponing our first PEA meeting of the year until Thursday, September 10. The meeting will be held virtually. A virtual invite will be sent to you closer to the meeting date. We look forward to “seeing you” then. We wish each of you a safe and enjoyable Labor Day holiday weekend!
VEA COVID Bill Passes Committee, Budget Work Ahead
Governor Northam called the General Assembly (GA) back into session last week to address the state budget, the fallout from COVID-19, and measures on policing and criminal justice. VEA got its first win when our bill requiring school divisions to post their health/safety plans on their websites passed the Senate Education and Health Committee unanimously. Read more about the bill and other bills under consideration here.
Of huge importance to all educators is the state budget. Increases to K-12 passed during the regular session were suspended when COVID-19 began wreaking its havoc on finances. As the GA deliberates budget, VEA’s position is to maximize K-12 funding—public schools are already underfunded, and the pandemic has increased the needs for students, educators, and schools. Read this report on the budget situation and write your representative right now to demand that K-12 funding be restored.
2020 General Assembly Special Session
Special sessions of the General Assembly often deal mostly with budget items. However, this session, which reconvened on August 18, has over 300 bills filed! The reconvened session enters its second week and the House is meeting virtually to conduct business while the Senate is reconvening in person but social distancing and wearing masks.
An update from Wednesday morning's (8/26/2020) action from David Bailey about workman's compensation due to COVID-19 illness can be found in the two bills listed below. David Bailey works for David Bailey Associates, which is a full-service public relations, government affairs, and lobbying firm located immediately adjacent to the state capitol in Richmond. For 25 years, David Bailey Associates has developed and maintained effective working relationships with legislators and executive branch elected and appointed officials on all sides of the political spectrum.
School board employees were added to Delegate Jones HB 5028 and the bill reported from committee on August 26 on a vote of 18-4. It now goes to Appropriations to find the necessary funding (https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5028+hil).
Senator Saslaw’s SB5066 is expected to be amended to include school board employees (https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+SB5066).
COVID-19 Instructional and Professional Help from NEA
We all need support and information as we tackle a school year unlike any we’ve seen before, and NEA is here to help. Through its “Educating Through Crisis” website, you can find help on topics including digital resources, your legal rights, health and safety, meeting student needs, and more. Find it all here: https://educatingthroughcrisis.org/.
Act Now: Sales Tax Hit Would Cost Our Local School Division Dearly
Your help is needed to make sure legislators fix a “technical” budget amendment that would end up costing local school divisions $189 million in the new school year. The complete story is complicated (brave readers go here), but the gist is that your local school division would lose funds unless the situation is fixed.
Take a minute to contact your representatives and ask them to support Budget Item 145 #6h, which would make sure local school divisions do not lose additional funding from the sales tax change. Let them know that this is no time to be cutting money for students and schools!
Seeking Talent: Propose a Session for VEA Virtual IPD Conference
One of the great strengths of VEA’s annual Instruction and Professional Development Conference is the member-to-member sharing of insight and information. As this year’s conference, “Stay Strong: Building Resilience Together,” is planned, VEA is inviting members to submit presentation proposals. VEA is interested in a wide range of topics and instructional practices. Conference attendees will be meeting virtually this year, so you can do your training without even leaving home. If you need Zoom training, PEA-VEA is happy to provide it. VEA will also provide a moderator to help you manage participants’ interactions in the chat area. Pittsylvania County Schools should be able to provide up to 15 re-licensure points (speak with your building-level administrator/supervisor) — and the Commonwealth of Virginia will provide 15 re-licensure points! Submit your proposals here. VEA has extended the deadline to submit a proposal to September 11.
NEA Survey Could Reach You Soon!
To make sure our Union offers the most appropriate professional support, NEA is working with vendor MSI to survey NEA members and potential members beginning the week of September 6. Several thousand members across the country, a small fraction in Virginia, will receive emails, post-cards and/or calls. This is a legitimate survey to help PEA-VEA strengthen our professional products and services.
DCC, PEA & PCS Partner for National Entrepreneur Day
National Entrepreneur’s Day is an annual event occurring on the third Tuesday of November (November 19) that honors people who have built an empire from absolutely nothing. Radical inventions by brilliant minds have shaped the way we live today, not to mention our future.
In an effort to develop youth entrepreneurship, Pittsylvania Education Association, (PEA), and DCC in partnership with Pittsylvania County Schools, is expanding Danville Community College’s Barkhouser Free Enterprise Small Business Idea Fair. The Fair is being expanded into the middle and high schools; this opportunity will provide short-term, non-credit business planning training to these students. Additionally, interested students would have an opportunity to study entrepreneurship and build a business through DCC’s Venture Creation & Management degree program.
This Idea Fair event is an entrepreneurship competition delivered in a trade show/science fair format. The event has been successfully operated for four years at DCC with strong annual participant growth. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Idea Fair for 2020 would be conducted in a virtual environment. More information to be shared during our PEA September membership meeting.
Note: Minorities and students of color are strongly encouraged to participate.