Sometimes, as teachers, we all get busy. And in this case, that lead to a lack of updates on our webpage for most of this school year. Pages should now be updated. Please read on for a brief synopsis of important things that haven taken place this school year up until today!
NEA Grant
Jeanette Omarkhail, HCEA President, and Dr. Marsha Drake, Chief Equity Officer for Hamilton County Schools (HCS), collaborated to write a grant to benefit new teachers of color. The grant was accepted, and for the next three years HCEA will be working with HCS in pursuit of this worthy goal. The grant entails supporting new teachers of color with mentors, training, social activities, as well as state and national conference attendance opportunities.
Membership Blitz!
At the start of this school year, TEA visited and conducted a membership blitz that resulted in 150+ new members to the association!
Constitution Updates
Throughout the fall semester, the Constitution Committee met to work on updating the constitution to current practices. The committee presented their suggested changes to the Board, and then to the Association Representatives. Discussion spanned multiple meetings across many months. In December, the membership voted and approved all changes.
PECCA and the MOU
In fall of 2021, we voted to keep the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)…and lost. This past fall, educators once again voted — and this time we had enough votes to trigger the PECCA process! In January, HCEA hosted listening sessions (in person and virtually) to find out what issues matter the most to teachers now. The PECCA team is now working collaboratively to create our new MOU going into effect for the 2023-2024 school year and lasting three years.