Herricks Teachers' Association

Take Action L.I. Continues to Battle

TALI is a way to become involved and affect change in what is going on in education. Here is some information for us to get familiar with it and get involved to make a change!

The TALI Message

The war against high-stakes testing and the Tax Cap continues to be the focus of Take Action Long Island (TALI). On October 17, TALI held its Public Education at a Crossroads 2.0 forum. PTA and Union leaders from Nassau and Suffolk Counties were brought together to discuss high-stakes testing, Common Core, and the Tax Cap. Guest speaker Jeannette Deutermann, creator of the Facebook page Long Island Opt

Week's Events 10/21 - 10/27

Last week's TALI event, "Public Education at the Crossroads 2.0" was well attended by about 100 Long Island Union leaders and PTA presidents. I had the pleasure of attending the event with four of our Herricks PTA presidents. Presenters focused on the topics of the Tax Cap, high stakes testing and their affects on public education. The informative and spirited discussion provided participants with much insight into the current changes that are affecting public education as well as suggestions on how we can work together to help our students and communities.

Below is the list of this week's

Week's Events 10/15 - 10/30

After a little over a month of school, Herricks students and colleagues are very busy educating and attending a number of Fall events.

Below is the list of this week's events which will have HTA representation by some or all of us.

Best,

Nidya Degliomini

President

Herricks Teachers' Association

Meetings and Events for Oct. 15 - Oct. 20, 2013

Tues., Oct. 15:

*HTA Executive Council 3:15 p.m. C.C. Room 111

*HTA Governing Board 4:00 p.m. C.C. Room 208

Wed., Oct. 16:

*PNC Meeting with Special Ed., Reading, etc. - 4 p.m. H.S. Cafeteria A

*HTA Special Meeting With Coaches - 6p.m. H

ALERT! Commissioner King CANCELS Town Hall Meeting

We want to alert you to news about how the State is responding to the "Town Hall" meetings they had and future scheduled meetings.

Looks like parents & communities are starting to get what's really going in education.

We have been informed that last night that after receiving sharp criticism from the public at two upstate town hall meetings, Commissioner King has concluded that holding further meetings would be "unproductive." Therefore, the town hall meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. in Garden City on October 15 is cancelled.

It is unknown whether the 3 p.m. public meeting with the Commissioner

Board of Education Meeting Information Update

Dear Colleagues,

Below is a quick synopsis of the BOE meeting on Thurs., Oct 10, 2013.

* The State provided the estimated Empire Health Insurance rates for Jan. to June 2014 last spring at 11.2%. A new estimate was received and confirmed at 4% from the State.

* This overbudgeted amount resulted in the BOE deciding to increase staff as follows:

***one full-time teaching assistant to be assigned on an as-needed basis by the principal in Grade 5 at Searingtown.

***one full-time teaching assistant to be assigned on an as-needed basis by the principal in Grade 3

Common Core & High Stakes Testing Town Hall Meetings & Open Forum

In the next two weeks there will be three events of significance concerning the Common Core and high-stakes testing that you may be interested in attending.

No tickets are required for these events. People can just show up.

A flyer for the PTA-Commissioner King events and a letter providing details of the Assembly forum are attached.

On Tuesday, October 15, from 7:00-9:00 p.m., Commissioner John King and/or other SED officials will conduct a town hall meeting at Garden City High School to discuss the Common Core. This is one of a series of such meetings arranged by the NYS PTA.

As a request from