posted May 13, 2008
Teachers, education support professionals and student teachers who were elected to serve as delegates by TEA's 55,000+ members met at the 2008 Representative Assembly in Nashville this weekend.
To kick off the assembly, President Earl Wiman launched a video celebration of the 25th anniversary of passage of Tennessee's Education Professional Negotiations Act. The video included statements and activities leading up to passage of the legislation's through the present.
Tennessee Rep. Les Winningham received the Presidential Merit Award in absentia. Since it was impossible for him to attend the RA, there was a previously taped message to delegates. Rep. Winningham will receive his award in person at the Summer Leadership Academy in June.
Delegates re-elected President Earl H. Wiman and Vice President Gera Summerford. Their new terms begin July 1 and continue through June 30, 2010. Mr. Wiman is on full-time release from his position, elementary school principal in Jackson-Madison County, while Ms. Summerford teaches math at Sevier County's Gatlinburg-Pittman High School. Other state and regional representatives were elected as well.
Delegates passed the 2008-09 budget and acted to amend 2009 Teaching and Learning Legislative Proposals to strengthen TEA's commitment to programs that enhance instruction for non-traditional and English language learners. They strengthened TEA opposition to any performance-based pay plan that would "diminish the professional status of those education employees who do not receive the additional compensation or in any way suggest that such education employees are not qualified for the positions they hold."
Delegates also approved a new resolution dealing with the Tennessee Value Added Assessment. They added charter schools to private and home schools to the resolution urging that these schools be required "to meet all standards required of the public school system." Delegates also firmly reiterated opposition to alternative licensure that would "reduce or loosely interpret licensure standards of administrative personnel.
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