Interested in joining LEA? Please contact
Clinton Gill, President, at
cgill@lubbockisd.org for more
information! Your dues are only $120 for teachers or $65 for
Educational Support Professionals!
Lubbock Educators Association Praises Mr. Havens Leadership
Lubbock Educators
Association President, Clinton Gill, released the following statement to
the media after the retirement announcement of Mr. Havens.
*For
Immediate Release*
December 5, 2008
Lubbock Educators
Association Praises Mr. Havens
Leadership
The Lubbock Educators
Association is disappointed that
Mr. Havens has decided to
retire, but it is an event that
comes to each of us in our
turn. Mr. Havens has sought to
lead the schools in such a way
that the community could always
be proud of their achievements.
He cares deeply for children and
has always stressed putting boys
and girls first in decision
making. Like any leader who is
effective, he has made decisions
that everyone could not agree
with, but circumstances sometime
demand those kinds of decisions.
He has tried to lead the
schools with the same resources
that the state gave the schools
in 2005, which is an almost
impossible task and certainly
not one that can be accomplished
without giving up a lot of
things. It has been a pleasure
to have a man who is honest,
ethical, and caring lead the
Lubbock Independent School
District. The Lubbock Educators
Association always appreciated
the close working relationship
with Mr. Havens. We understand
that 41 years of service is
certainly enough time to ask of
one man, nevertheless, his quiet
leadership will be missed.
Join Raise Your Hand Texas!
Please take a moment
to join Raise Your Hand Texas! It is FREE and will not take more
than a few seconds of your time. Please go to
www.raiseyourhandtexas.org
and sign up now. This group is solely devoted to supporting public
education and public school educators. Once you sign up, please
pass the website on to your friends and family so they can sign up as
well! They need as many members as possible before the legislature
convenes in January.
August 20, 2008
LEA
President Testifies before Joint Select Committee on Accountability
Today, the LEA President, Clinton
Gill, testified before the Joint Select Committee on Public School
Accountability. LEA was one of only 2 education employee
organizations that testified before the committee. LCTA and
Lubbock AFT did not attend the hearing nor provide testimony. The
testimony of LEA President Clinton Gill is below.
Testimony for Select Joint Committee
on Public Education Accountability, August 20, 2008
Good afternoon committee members. I appreciate
the opportunity to provide testimony this afternoon on
the issue of the public school accountability system.
My name is Clinton Gill and I am the President of the
Lubbock Educators Association as well as a 5th
grade teacher in the Lubbock Independent School
District.
Since
public education is funded by tax dollars, I suppose it
will always be a political football that will be kicked
back and forth. Many people running for public office
have always said they were going to “improve” public
education. I think listening to good educators rather
than to those who might have a special agenda might be
helpful in fulfilling political promises. What concerns
me most as a teacher is the possibility that our
children are sometimes forgotten about while we are
making yearly improvements. While the current
accountability system has done much to improve
instruction in our public schools, it has also had some
negative side effects.
Children
are complex organisms and can demonstrate what they know
in many different ways. For us to have such limited
thinking that one single test can tell us what a child
knows and has learned is unforgivable in a time where we
have many options. If our desire is to know that a
child is getting a well rounded education that will
result in their being a life-long learner capable of
critical thinking and good decision making, then I
believe, we must evaluate our children with multiple
tools. Too much of what is needed in the development of
a child is lost today to the focus of a single test,
whether that test be during the year or at the end of a
course.
In my six
years of teaching, I have seen student after student get
so stressed about the TAKS test that they literally make
themselves sick. They know that if they do not pass the
test, they face many consequences, including retention.
Take a moment to think about how you would feel if it
was your child that had such high test anxiety that they
could not perform well on the test. I have always been
someone that knows the information, but am not a good
test taker. I can assure you that classrooms all across
this state are filled with very intelligent students
that have high test anxiety. Should this test be the
sole determining factor of a student being able to move
to the next grade level? I hope you will take some time
to reflect on that question and come up with an
accountability system that is fair, but without such a
high-stakes test. Fair does not mean doing the same
thing for all students. It means striving to meet the
individual needs of each student. I also believe if
students and schools are making progress from year to
year, they should not be labeled as “Unacceptable” just
because they don’t meet the standard set by someone in
Austin.
If the
agenda of the state is to move from public schools to
privatization of public schools, I believe the current
test system has that agenda on target. However, if the
agenda is to improve instruction in schools, then we
must have a system that does not penalize a good school
that does well in every area but has a low score in one
area. It seems that test results are used more to
highlight a fault in the school than to recognize the
efforts of their success. One area of instruction that
is not successful for one particular group of students
does not mean the entire instruction on that campus is
failing to educate students. I believe we can make
better decisions for our students, for our schools, and
we can stop trying to convince the public that some of
their schools are failing.
Many times
I’ve heard the phrase that money is not the problem.
Well, to a large extent it is. The legislature will
increase the budget of any agency when costs go up
except education. I hope each of you understand that
the costs go up every year in public schools. They make
the same purchases as any other business. The numbers
of students go up every year as well and that is an
expense. I think we need to bite the bullet a little
bit in Texas and acknowledge that what many states are
doing by putting more money into their children’s future
would go a long way in “fulfilling some political
promises.”
Thank you
again for your time. I know the task before each of you
is a very complex one, but I truly hope you will come up
with an accountability system that will be a tool
teachers can use to help children rather than a tool
that merely tries to find out what a child knows on one
specific day.
Respectfully submitted by: Clinton Gill, President,
Lubbock Educators Association/TSTA/NEA, 5th
Grade Teacher, Lubbock ISD
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April 28, 2008
TSTA honors LISD teacher and AJ Editor!
At the 129th
annual TSTA state convention, Beryl Waddell from Brown Elementary, was
chosen as the best Editor of a local association’s electronic
newsletter. In the picture, Beryl receives the award along with Lubbock
Educators Association President, Clinton Gill, from Whiteside
Elementary. The award was presented by TSTA Vice President(on left),
Ann Heuberger, and TSTA President(on right), Donna New Haschke. LEA
President Clinton Gill states, “Beryl does an outstanding job of editing
our local newsletter to keep all LEA members informed on important
education issues at the local, state, and national level. It is an
honor for her work to be recognized as the best in the state!” One
local association is presented with the award each year at the state
convention.
Joe
Hughes, Lubbock AJ Editor, was also recognized at the state convention
with a School Bell Award for Outstanding Editorial on an education
issue. LEA President Clinton Gill nominated Hughes for the award based
on an editorial he wrote in November encouraging support of public
schools during American Education Week. LEA President Clinton Gill
states, “Joe’s always been a positive influence on public education. We
wanted to recognize and thank him for his tireless efforts of promoting
public education in this community.”
February 8, 2008
Lubbock Educators Association Endorses Delwin Jones!
At a press conference Friday, Delwin Jones was endorsed
by the Lubbock Educators Association for his re-election in the House
District 83 Republican Primary. Representative Jones was presented
with a $5,000 check from TSTA's Political Action Committee for his
outstanding support of public schools!
January 8, 2008
NEA
lawsuit challenging NCLB is revived!
Official press release from NEA:
WASHINGTON—On the same day President George W. Bush held
a press conference in Chicago to defend the
failing No Child Left Behind, and on the eve of NCLB’s
sixth anniversary, a federal appeals court delivered yet
another major blow to the controversial law. The United
States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled today
that Secretary Spellings is violating the Spending
Clause of the Constitution by requiring states and school districts
to spend their own funds to comply with the law.
“The court’s message couldn’t be more clear: If the
president is sincere about continuing No Child Left Behind, he
needs to put his money where his mouth is,” said NEA
President Reg Weaver. “The president refuses to budge on
NCLB, his flagship domestic policy, but unless he takes
action it is clearly a sinking ship.”
Six years ago, President Bush promised to fully fund
NCLB. But the president has consistently refused to make
good on his promises. Due to Bush’s recent veto of the
FY 2008 education appropriations bill, there will be a $14.8
billion gap in funding for NCLB programs. That is on top
of the previous cumulative gap of $56.1 billion.
The ruling is a major victory for the National Education
Association and the other plaintiffs – including nine
school districts and nine NEA state affiliates – which
brought the lawsuit in April 2005 to oppose costly federal
regulations that divert money from children and
classrooms to paperwork and bureaucracy. Today’s ruling by the
appeals court reverses the lower court’s November 2005
summary judgment dismissing the lawsuit.
At issue is Section 9527(a) of the law that says,
“Nothing in this Act shall be construed to …. mandate a State or
any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any
costs not paid for under this Act.”
NEA and the other plaintiffs had argued in their
complaint that this section of the law prevents the federal
government from requiring states and school districts to
spend their own funds to comply with the law’s mandates.
The lawsuit does not challenge the laudable goals of the
law or call for its dismantling. Instead, it simply argues
that any federal mandates in this law must come with
tools and resources to get the job done. Otherwise, educators
can’t be expected to do more with less. The court
agreed, holding that the Education Department’s interpretations
of NCLB, requiring that states and school districts
devote their own funds to NCLB compliance, “violate the
Spending Clause.”
“It’s time for the Secretary to comply with the law and
the Constitution,” Weaver said. “If the administration won’t
ensure that states and schools have the federal funds
needed to implement the law, then they must cease with
threats to punish states and districts who cannot comply
due to lack of federal funds.”
The lack of funding at issue in the lawsuit is just one
aspect of NCLB that has come under increased fire recently.
Parents, teachers and lawmakers have called for reform
because of the law’s obsessive focus on standardized
testing, heavy-handed punishments and bureaucratic protocols.
Tell
Congress to repeal Social Security provisions!
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The
U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Social
Security, Pensions and Family Policy, chaired by Senator
Kerry, D-Mass., recently held a hearing on the
Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination
Provision of Social Security, which unfairly penalize
retired Texas educators and other public employees – and
will penalize current ones, unless these provisions are
repealed.
TSTA/NEA
supports S. 206, which would repeal these unfair
provisions. We need your help to convince our U.S. Sens.
Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn to co-sponsor S.
206 or at least to vote for it.
Please contact Senators Hutchison and Cornyn and ask
them to support S. 206. Their contact information
is below:
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House Falls Short on Override Attempt
The U.S.
House of Representatives fell just two votes short of the two-thirds
majority needed to override President Bush’s veto of an education
spending bill Thursday, leaving some of the neediest students without
programs necessary for them to succeed in school. The vote was 277-141.
TSTA Calls for Boost
in Pensions for Retired Educators
“Retired Texas educators haven’t
gotten any pension increase since 2001. And they may not even get the
one-time extra check of up to $2,400 that the Legislature approved but
didn’t fully fund earlier this year. Yet the top investment managers at
the Texas Teacher Retirement System who already earn hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year could reap whopping pay hikes of 100 percent
or more,” TSTA President Donna New Haschke said in a news release issued
today.
“When the TRS
board meets Thursday and Friday, its highest priority should be to fund
that ‘13th check’ for retired education professionals. The system is
supposed to serve its members first and foremost. Only then should the
board consider modest pay raises for investment managers – with emphasis
on modest,” Haschke added.
TSTA
honors Nancy Sharp and Haley Burks for Outstanding Continuous Coverage
of Education Events!
At the annual TSTA
Convention, Lubbock ISD Director of Public Information, Nancy Sharp, and
Fox 34 reporter, Haley Burks, were honored with a School Bell Award.
Journalists from around the state choose the School Bell Award
recipients each year based on very strict criteria. This year, the
Lubbock Educators Association nominated Nancy and Haley for their
Outstanding Coverage of Education Issues. LEA is proud to have a
great working relationship with the local media! Shown above is
Haley Burks (Fox 34), Clinton Gill (LEA President), and Nancy Sharp
(Lubbock ISD Director of Public Information). Congratulations
Nancy and Haley!
Legislative Political Action Team meets with legislators!
(Pictured above L to R: Russell Teeter, Representative Joe
Heflin-District 85, James Harris, Clinton Gill, and Cherie Jenkins)
A
team of local leaders attended the TSTA Legislative Issues conference
January 5-7th in Austin. While there, they learned about many
important issues that will be brought up in the legislative session for
2007. Also, they met with newly elected officials to the House and
Senate. Above, LEA leaders met with Joe Heflin, who recently
won the open seat of Pete Laney. LEA worked very hard on Mr.
Heflin's campaign and came out victorious!
LEA endorsed
candidates win school board elections!
Chris Comer and
Gordon Wilkerson won seats on the LISD school board in the recent
election. Both were endorsed by LEA, the only teacher association
that endorsed in this election! Members of the LEA executive
committee also worked on Steve Massengale's campaign and are excited
that he won the second At-Large seat on the school board. Members
of LEA are very happy to have worked on the campaigns of these three men
as they now guide our school district forward!
LEA/TSTA
honors local reporter with School Bell Award
Fox 34
reporter, Christal Bennett, has been chosen to receive a School Bell
award by the Texas State Teachers Association. TSTA honors journalists
from around the state each year for journalistic excellence in the
reporting of public education news.
The Lubbock
Educators Association nominated Ms. Bennett for an award in Outstanding
Continuous Coverage. The nomination was based on a number of broadcasts
dealing with public education and how the legislature tried to deal with
those issues. Each segment dealt with a variety of topics and how they
would impact students and teachers in Lubbock. Ms. Bennett conducted
in-depth investigations into how proposed legislation could affect
Lubbock and the surrounding communities.
Lubbock
Educators Association President, Clinton Gill, praised Ms. Bennett for
her outstanding work. Gill states, “Christal is always willing to air
stories that will have a true impact on the lives of students and
teachers. Whether the legislature was trying to pass bills that would be
harmful to the educational community or LEA was conducting activities to
make the public aware of important issues, Christal was always ready and
willing to cover the story. We value the close working relationship
with Christal and the entire Fox 34 staff.”
To
activate your TSTA membership card:
1)
Go to www.tsta.org
2)
Click on Member Benefits and go down to Educator Access.
3)
In the upper left corner, you will find a sample membership card with
"9231" typed in. Click in the empty box and type in the rest of
the numbers that are on the front of your TSTA membership card.
(You may have to try it with the zeroes and without in order to gain
access.)
4)
If it is your first time to log in, it will ask you to verify your
personal information. Once you have completed the information,
click on "Next."
5)
Anytime you travel, be sure to go to this site and type in the city you
will be traveling to in order to receive discounts on food, lodging,
entertainment, etc. with your membership card. If it says that a
coupon is needed, click on the link and print out the coupon.
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