Board of Directors Meeting Reports

Board of Directors Meeting Reports (PDF)

President

Another wonderful convention for the books, thanks to the many who came together to make that happen so successfully.  In the most recent California English, written in the airport in Long Beach on my way home, and on CATENet shortly thereafter, I tried to adequately thank all those to whom go the greatest thanks for the success of CATE 2008.  I am sure you join me in thanking those key leaders.

Because this is my last meeting as president, there are additional thanks to be offered, not already mentioned in that article and posting.  Please indulge me:

• Maureen, Past President, for your mentorship in this challenging role.  You had warned me of the intricacies involved; the learning curve is greater than one could anticipate.
• Charleen, VP, for your support and willingness to take on (and renew) your ever-changing role.
• Lorraine, Secretary and mother/sister to me, for your sense of calm, faith, and competence.
• Carol, editor extraordinaire and national leader, for accepting my consistently late CE "Perspectives" with understanding and kindness.
• Joan, Membership Chair, for working so hard at connecting with members, present and potential, to build for the greater good.
• Bob, Bill, and Angus, Men of CATE, for humor and words of wisdom in dicey times, and the reminders of need for balance in all.
• Carrie, Liz, Cathy, Angus, Carmen, Anne, Carol, Barbi, Shelly, Council Presidents, for your commitment to your local councils through hard work, leadership, and coordination.
• Susan, Susan, Tish, Cheryl, Richard, Kathy, Bob, and Carol, MAL's whose service to the Board includes giving input that moves us forward, plus duties at convention as they come up.
• Jayne, Mary Ann, and Martha, very special liaisons from CWP, CDE, and our legislative analyst, for consistently providing the Board and our members with the latest news and opportunities to put our voice into action -- how I relish hearing your rich reports!
• Eddie, Registrar, for your ability to collect and process both attendees and PO's with panache.
• Jim, CATENet moderator, for keeping the volume knob turned up on issues of importance.

Other items:

• I've received lovely notes addressed to CATE Board from many of our Classroom Excellence Award winners, expressing gratitude and humility.
• Resolutions drafted, revised, and approved by the voting body at our Annual Business Meeting were mailed within ten days to the folks for whom they were intended. 
• At this upcoming meeting several appointments will be made, including Treasurer, Resolutions Chair, Policy Chair, and CYRM Representative.  President-Elect Chapman will appoint the MAL position open by virtue of his new office when he returns in the fall.
• It is with heartfelt thanks that we will bid farewell to four Board members at our luncheon: Maureen Rippee, Cathy Cirimele, Susan Karpowicz, and Carol Clarke. 
• I want to remind all CATE Board members, as I have in CE and on CATENet, that your NCTE ballots have arrived and are due by June 1.  Please note that our own Maureen Rippee is running for Secondary Section Nominating Committee, and Jim Burke for Secondary Section Steering Committee.  Please be sure your ballot is mailed far before the deadline.

And finally, thanks to all of you for your kindness and patience.  This organization has been a source of wisdom, camaraderie, and professional adrenalin to me over the past 28 years or so, but never so much as in these past two.  Thank you all very much.

Respectfully submitted,
Michelle Berry
CATE President 2006-2008

Top

Vice President

Charleen Delfino

I planned for the May meeting and setting up the sites and dates to propose for the ’08-’09 year.  Since the CATE budget is tight and school budgets are expected to be especially tight and we cannot predict the outcome of the convention, it is most important that we look for the best deals that we can get. 

The Advisory Committee Conference Call was planned and the minutes from that call was sent via e-mail to all board members.  The minutes from that call are not posted on the webpage.  Thanks to Anne Fristrom for once again making the phone call.

Board Reports from the December and March meetings are posted on the Webpage.  It took a while to figure out how to get them done.  Voting Board Members have their reports posted under “Board Reports” and Reports such as CYRM, CTA, and CWP are list under “Other Reports.” If you bring your report to the meeting as a hard copy, you still must send me an electronic copy within one week after the meeting so that I can get it posted.

I also worked with the web master to get information about the ’08 convention taken off the web page and information about CATE ’09 put up.  We also worked to update items that are posted by councils.  Be sure that you send me information about your council that you want posted.

Worked with CCCTE in the planning for CATE ’09 Convention.  (See the Convention Report)

Top

Past President

Maureen Rippee

Election:

The deadline for voting in the recent CATE election was April 25. The voting response at the annual meeting was great. Because of the later convention dates, the on-line and mail-in timelines were truncated so that the election can be approved at the May board meeting. Totals will be available at the board meeting, and approval of the following offices will be an action item:

        President, Robert Chapman 2008-2010

        Vice President, Charlene Delfino 2008-2010

        Member-at-Large, Middle, Karen Brown 2008-2011

        Member-at-Large, Unspecified, Carol Clarke or Carrie Danielson 2008-2011

        Member-at-Large, College, Cheryl Hogue-Smith 2008-2011

CATE Awards for 2009:

Award forms for Merit, Distinguished Service and Excellence in Teaching will be posted on CATEweb and sent to the Board via e-mail by incoming Past President, Michelle Berry. Distinguished Service nominations should be postmarked by August 31, 2008, or brought to the September Board meeting (check the Presidents’ Handbook for descriptions and protocol for all awards). Council presidents should review the protocol for the awards process, and begin to solicit nominations and documentation by August/September. The Virginia Reid nomination.

NCTE:

Liasons for NCTE will be approved at the May 3-4, 2008 board meeting. Resolutions for NCTE should be submitted by September, 2008. Ballots for the NCTE 2008 election were mailed in April and must be postmarked by June 1, 2008. Please support CATE members who are running for office this year.

NCTE has invited CATE to revise our literary map for showcasing at the 2008 NCTE Annual Convention. The publications committee and Nancy Himil have volunteered to work on it.

Information for NCTE 2008 as is follows:

2008 NCTE Annual Convention
San Antonio, Texas
November 20-23, 2008

Registration Information  Please look for more information about registration and housing in the spring of 2008. Visit the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau website for more information on the city.

2008 Registration Rates

Hotel Information

The range of hotel room rates for the 2008 NCTE Annual Convention is $145-$169 for a single and $145-$203 for a double.  The tax is 16.75% per night.

NCTE awards to be given in 2008: The Teacher of Excellence award was voted upon at the last meeting, and Karen Brown’s nomination process was facilitated by Carol Surabian. The Leadership Development award was also voted upon in February, and Lovelyn Marquez-Prueher‘s nomination process and documentation was facilitated by me. Both nominations were made before the May 1, 2008 deadline.

NCTE/SLATE Intellectual Freedom National Award: One award nationally (can nominate person, group or institution). This award provides recognition for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom, and the nominee can be an educator or noneducator.

NCTE/SLATE Intellectual Freedom State Award: This award provides recognition for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom, and we can submit one award at the state or region level. Affiliates can select a person, group or institution who an be an educator or noneducator. One award can be given each year by each affiliate.

Secondary Section High School Teacher of Excellence Teacher: We can nominate one teacher; however, no grant is given by NCTE.

NCTE Affiliate Excellence Award (deadline is July 15). This award is based on increased membership of 3%. NCTE will inform us in June if we qualify.

NCTE Teachers for the Dream Affiliate Award: Describe program that contributes to recruitment of English language arts teachers of color that targets either high school or college students. This award carries a $750.00 grant.

Affiliate Multicultural program Award: This award is given to an affiliate program involving a multicultural approach.

Affiliate Web Site Award-CATEweb received this award in 2004 & 2006

Affiliate Journal Award-California English received the top award in 2004 and then was recognized in again in 2006.

NCTE Leadership Development Award (NCTE advises to submit a nominee and an alternate): The nominee must be a new leader (teacher of 1-5 years) who has not attended an NCTE convention. This award carries a $500.00 grant. The teacher can not have attended a previous NCTE convention and must attend in 2008.

The following members are leaving the CATE Board after this meeting and we are grateful to them for their dedication and commitment to CATE and its membership: Cathy Cirimele, Susan Karpowicz, Carol  Clarke or Carrie Danielson (depending upon election results; I will revise this for posting), and yours truly. I’m confident that we all will continue to contribute to the profession in myriad of ways, and continue our affiliation with CATE.

I have the pleasure to continue representing the CATE Board through my work with CWP by attending the CWP Advisory Board/Leadership meeting on April 18 in Sacramento. It was a pleasure to talk to directors about the potential of CATE’s continuing partnership with writing project sites; and I will be attending the CWP Improving Student’s Academic Writing (ISAW) June meeting. As I finish my tenure as past president, I would like to thank all of the CATE board members, CWP, NWP, and CATE members for their support and friendship. It has been a pleasure to be an authentic voice for teachers in California for six years.

Top

Secretary

Lorraine Tracey

• The March minutes were edited, copied, folded and mailed to the board members. 
• March minutes were posted through Jeff Wilson on the website.
• Board directory was updated per additions and corrections from March meeting.
• Responded to emails from board members.

Top

Membership

May 2008

• Membership numbers are up from last May from 1660 to 1709—The membership committee will discuss ways to hold on to members and attract new ones when we move to the north with our convention.
• Electronic membership lists were attached to my online report. Did this work for people?
• Brochures available for summer recruiting. Sign up to take them to CWP and other summer workshops. Ask for copies of the presentation that Carrie created for the convention if you want to take it with you.
• Bad address reports for mailings have been reduced to a couple per month. We need to work on email lists now.

Top

CTA

Debra Martinez

New CTA officers elected

President Barbara Kerr will be leaving office at the end of June and retiring from teaching also, the new officers will be:

President-David Hernandez

Vice-President-Dean Vogel

Secretary/Treasurer -Dan Vaughn

The new officers will begin their term presiding over the California caucuses during the annual Representative Assembly meeting.

NCLB/Erase, Rewrite, Reauthorize!

As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that was implemented in 1965, CTA wants to erase the punitive and onerous provisions of the act, named No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by President Bush in 2001. CTA wants to rewrite the law to help our schools and improve student learning.

Things YOU Can Do!

1. E-mail your members of Congress and urge him/her to support CTA's campaign to Erase, Rewrite and Reauthorize ESEA/NCLB. Go to www.CTA.org and click in the "Take Action" section to write your request. It will take you to your Congress person.
2. During the upcoming campaign, be ready to share your story about how NCLB has taken the joy out of teaching and learning.
3. Work with your local school board to pass a resolution supporting CTA;s Erase, Rewrite and Reauthorize effort.
4. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about the problems with NCLB and urge support for the Erase, Rewrite and Reauthorize effort.
5. Commit to participation with your local association in upcoming ESEA reauthorization activities.

NEA's Annual Representative Assembly

This year's annual assembly of approximately 9,000 teachers and support staff will be meeting from June 30-July 5, 2007 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Top

CDE Update

Submitted by Mary Ann Goodwin

Special Education Teacher Professional Development (SETPD) Pilot Project

The California State Legislature appropriated Reading First carryover funds for a three-year Special Education Teacher Professional Development Pilot Program. Competitive sub-grants will be available to local educational agencies interested in professional development in reading for K-3 (priority one), and K-12 (priority two) special education teachers. The three-year grant shall be for training special education teachers in the use of State Board of Education (SBE) adopted reading/language arts instructional programs to teach reading to special education students in K-12. Request for applications for this PD are due May 23 and can be found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/rl/readfirst04.asp

ELA/ELD Adoption Process

IMAP and CRP panel members for the upcoming English Language adoption have been selected. Training for the first three programs was held April 7-10 with publisher presentations on Friday, April 11. Training for Grades 4-8 Intervention programs will be April 21-23 with publisher presentations on Thursday, April 24. Deliberations on all programs are scheduled for July. More information about this process can be found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ cr/cf/index.asp

SB472/AB430

The English Learner Professional Development (ELPD) training for SB 4272 has been passed by the State Board of Education and has gone into law. Potential providers are currently writing and submitting training curriculum for SBE approval. All teachers who have taken the initial SB 472 40-hour training are eligible to take the ELPD 40 hour training that is part of the 80-hour follow-up requirement. Teachers who are interested can soon go to the CDE website under SB 472 for a list of approved providers or contact Eli Johnson at CDE at ejohnson@cde.ca.gov

Pre-K-12 Recommended Literature List

Plans are underway to update the Recommended Literature List, now called the Pre-K-12 Recommended Literature List. Currently History/Social Science and Visual and Performing Arts selections are being added to the list. If funds are available, the Language Arts selections will be up-dated starting fall 2008. When funding is secure, CDE will be looking for members to serve on the selection committee. The current recommended literature list can be found at ejohnson@cde.ca.gov

AB 2117 EL Best Practices Pilot Project

The English Language Learners Pilot Project, authorized by AB 2117 (Coto) (Chapter 561, Statutes of 2006) provides funding to local educational agencies (LEA) to support or expand successful existing programs that serve the academic needs of English language learners (ELL) to learn standards-aligned academic content and acquire proficiency in the English language. The intent of the pilot project is not to compare the effectiveness of instructional methods for ELL, but rather to identify the practices that demonstrate success for ELL in achieving English proficiency regardless of instructional setting. More information can be found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/te/el/ellpp.asp

Top

Central Council

CCCTE hosted a reception for Central Council’s recipients of the CATE Writing Awards and NCTE’s Achievement Award in Writing on April 13 at the Brandeis Hillel Day School.  Brucine Doherty and John Thomas co-chaired the festive event.  Over twenty students, ages ten to eighteen, read to an enthusiastic audience. CATE contest coordinator Bev Kreps gave each student an award certificate.  In addition, students received books and gift certificates to local book stores. Photos of the reception can be seen on Central’s website at cccte.com. Highlights of students reading their work may be seen on YouTube.

Council members are spending most of their energy preparing for CATE 2009. (Refer to Report of co-chairs for more information.)

Submitted by Liz McAninch
President, CCCTE

Top

Fresno Council

The spring has been rather slow. However, Tish Griggs and several of our new board members attended the conference and had a great time.  On Saturday, April 26, Carol Jago came to Fresno and did a presentation on the paper load for about 25 teachers.  We met at a local restaurant, enjoyed listening to Carol's store of abundant knowledge, then feasted on lunch and gelato.  A good time was had by all.  Carol is a treasure that we should share as much as we can before she finally gets tired of us all.  Thanks again, Carol.  You're terrific!

On another note, I will be retiring from teaching in June and Tish Griggs will assume my role as president of FACET.  It has been an interesting two years as president and a rewarding two decades on and off the FACET board.  I have promised to help Tish make the transition, but I'm sure she will be fine.  Thanks to all of you for including me in your work.  

Cathy Cirimele

Top

Upper Council

Upper continues to look for members interested in leadership positions and activity, both at the local and state level.  Upper member Karen Brown, who has served as resolutions rep for Upper for the past two years, has stepped up to the plate and is running unopposed for Member-at-Large, Middle School. 

Several members have expressed interest in serving on a local board.  I am in the process of contacting them to set up a meeting.  Ideas for activities have been put forth, including sponsoring book clubs (student and professional) for Upper CATE members who express interest and apply.  More information to follow.

As always, Upper continues to look at ways to grow this geographically large and remote area of CATE membership.

Respectfully submitted

Shelly Medford

Top

Convention 2009

Charleen Delfino and Elizabeth McAninch

We are very excited about the convention. We are getting wonderful support from the members of Central Council who have volunteered to take on the many chair positions necessary to make this convention a successful reality.  Of course we are looking forward to all CATE Board members to assist us in the myriad tasks that need to be performed.  The CATE Board always rises to meet the challenges and to support each other.

We offer a big thanks to Carol Lecren for extending our theme: Voices at the Epicenter of Change into a wonderful visual. 

Three major speakers are committed:  Gail Tsukiyama, Taylor Mali, and Dorothy Allison. We are looking at a couple of small changes in the schedule but nothing drastic. 

We are working on the following strands that will have more interesting titles by December.

We have set up six strands: 

Graphic Novel

Steinbeck

GLBT

Addressing Cultural Diversity

Technology

Spoken/Written Word (Poetry Slam)

We will keep you informed and welcome your suggestions in all areas.

Top

California English

Carol Jago, California English editor

In ongoing journal news, the March/April issue of California English was published a centerfold of the CATE2008 ballot. Resolutions adopted at the CATE2008 convention will appear in the June issue along with the CATE Professional Writing Contest prompt. Winners of the CATE 2007 Creative Writing contest will – if possible – appear all together in the June issue.

It continues to be the case that the richest issues of California English are often those which tap into an initiative that another group has explored and is interested in spreading the word about their work. I am collaborating with the CSU Expository Reading and Writing taskforce for the September 2008 issue on “Teaching Texts Rhetorically” and with the UCLA Writing Project on the November 2008 issue on literacy coaching. While the call for manuscripts is open to all, it often helps to have a certain number of manuscripts that have been vetted and revised by teachers working together on teams.

Please help me spread the word of our call for manuscripts in any print or electronic communications you have with your local council members. 

California English

Call for Manuscripts

September 2008: Teaching Texts Rhetorically (deadline August 1)

Teachers throughout California are finding innovative ways to use expository reading, writing, and rhetoric to prepare students for college course work.  How does a rhetorical approach to texts foster critical thinking? What kinds of expository materials and themes engage student interest and promote academic literacy? How can issue-driven nonfiction help students develop the practices of fluent readers and writers and provide a foundation for principled debate and argument?  Teachers who have created lessons using the CSU Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC) are encouraged to submit manuscripts.

November 2008: Literacy Coaching (deadline October 1)

Please send all submissions to California English editor, Carol Jago. Articles should be limited to 2,500 words. Please submit manuscripts via email to jago@gseis.ucla.edu.

Top

Legislative Report

Martha Zaragoza Diaz, Legislative Analyst

I. U.S. Education Secretary Proposes NCLB Amendments

Significant new amendments to regulations under the No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Education Act in the areas of high school graduation rates, supplemental education services providers and school choice, among others, were announced by the U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in April 2008.

The proposed regulations are open for public comment through June 23. Spellings noted that the proposed regulations are based on input gathered from visits to nearly two dozen states, which included meetings with governors, state school chiefs and state legislatures. Several of the proposed regulations seek to clarify elements of the law regarding school accountability, reporting requirements to parents and the public, including requiring that states publish data from the Nation’s Report Card – or NAEP – alongside data from their own tests for students. Spellings emphasized that measures of student academic achievement may include multiple types of questions and multiple assessments within a subject area. In addition, a state’s accountability system must ensure the inclusion of all sub-groups of students by adopting appropriate minimum subgroup size.

Building on a growth model pilot program, the proposed regulations would outline the criteria that states must meet in order to incorporate individual student progress into the state’s definition of Adequate Yearly Progress.

Strengthening the provisions of the law on school restructuring is also proposed. Schools in restructuring need the most significant intervention, and a recent study found that 40 percent of schools in restructuring did not implement any of the restructuring options under the law. The proposed regulations will clarify that restructuring interventions must be more rigorous and that interventions must address the reasons for the school being in restructuring.

The creation of a National Technical Advisory Council is proposed. The council would be comprised of experts in the fields of education standards, accountability systems, statistics and psychometrics and would be given the responsibility of advising the U.S. DOE on highly complex and technical issues and ensuring state standards and assessments are of the highest technical quality.

Dropout rates

In order to tackle the growing dropout crisis, Spellings announced the U.S. DOE would build on the work of the National Governor’s Association to establish a uniform graduation rate that shows how many incoming freshman in a given high school graduate within four years.

All states would use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time and how many drop out. The data would then be made public so that educators and parents can compare how students of every race, background and income level are performing.

States will be allowed to use an interim calculation on a transitional basis, but every high school in every state will be required to report new graduation rates for accountability purposes no later than 2013. In the meantime, each state will be responsible for setting a graduation rate goal and for disaggregating data by subgroup to report and determine AYP.

Beginning in the 2008-09 academic year, in order to make AYP, a school or district would have to meet the graduation goal or demonstrate its continuous and substantial improvement from the prior year.

Additionally, regulations to ensure parents are notified in a clear and timely way about their public school choice and supplemental education service options are also proposed. These regulations will ensure that states make more information available to the public about which tutoring providers are available, how these providers are approved and monitored, and most importantly, how effective they are in helping students improve.

To access the proposed regulations, visit www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/proprule/index.html, and visit www.regulations.gov to submit your comments.

II. Governor’s Proposed 2008-09 State Budget

California’s budget deficit is becoming far worse and Governor Schwarzenegger wants everyone to know about it. The governor has been all over the map in his deficit estimates this month. His budget deficit estimates range from $1 billion to $10 billion, depending on who is listening to him. On May 14, 2008, the governor will be revealing his revised 2008-09 state budget with an official deficit figure. This figure is based upon tax revenues received and projected expenses and revenues for the next fiscal year. Aides to the governor state that the deficit could be as high as $20 billion dollars. The latest estimates are based on lower corporate profits, a housing market slump, and an economic decline. The $20 billion dollar figure, according to the Department of Finance, includes a $2.8 billion reserve for which the governor had not factored in before. The governor is using the $20 billion dollar figure to persuade legislators to find new revenues in addition to making budget cuts. Herein lies the problem. The State Democrats are looking into targeted budget cuts (versus across the board cuts to all programs) as well as identifying new revenues such as, decreasing or eliminating various tax breaks available to individuals and businesses, establishing service fees, or increasing tobacco taxes.

The State Republicans have repeatedly stated they will not vote for any budget that includes new taxes. Almost every GOP lawmaker has signed a “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” vowing to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes”. GOP lawmakers state closing loopholes is essentially a tax hike.

The Senate Republicans revealed their proposal in response to the budget crisis on April 29, 2008. They were joined by members of the business community in unveiling their measures that they believe would “help stimulate California’s economy now and provide for financial stability in the future by improving market conditions for consumers and workplace environment for employees”. Proposals include to providing flexibility to employee work schedules and extend deadlines for the greenhouse gas regulations. It is unclear at this time how successful they will be in pursuing these proposals in the legislature.

Although Republicans are the minority in the Legislature, a state budget cannot be approved unless at least 8 GOP members sign off on the proposed state budget. The Republicans have used those votes to block past tax increase proposals. Last year, they delayed passage of a budget by 51 days over the issue of spending, until the Democrats and the governor agreed to additional program cuts.

A very late budget is expected, some political pundits are projecting a signed budget in November 2008 instead of June 15, 2008 as required by law. A late budget would have serious consequences, such as damaging the state’s credit rating, vendors stop getting paid, services for the poor, elderly and the disabled are affected, with some programs forced to suspend operations until the state budget is in place.

Now remember, the governor is proposing to suspend the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee and cut K-12 by $4.8 billion dollars. Pressure must continue to be applied on the Legislature to put all options on the table to solve the state’s budget deficit by meeting with your local legislators and demonstrating to them the drastic impact the governor’s proposed cuts will have on public education.

• Write a letter to the Governor telling him: No more cuts to our students and schools! Click here to e-mail the Governor’s office.
• Write a letter to your local Assemblymember or Senator telling him or her to reject the Governor’s proposed cuts to our students. 

Additionally, the CATE Board should consider passing a Board resolution condemning the Governor’s proposed state budget. CTA wrote such a resolution   (http://www.cta.org/issues/current/Council_Resolution_1-26-08.htm) and can be used as a model to draw upon. I am also including the link to their “Key points on the budget” that can also be used in writing letters opposing the governor’s budget, http://www.cta.org/issues/current/Budget_Crisis_2008-09.htm.

Stay tune for more information on the May Revise as soon as the information becomes available.

Top