August... It's August already! YRE: you are back in school. I hope to see you some time in August for a visit.

I was able to escape this heat in Monterey at the President's Conference. Besides being able to cool off, I learned a lot about Campaign 2005, mostly against Prop 74, 75, and 76. Check out the CTA website (www.cta.org) and the Alliance for a Better California website (www.allianceforabetterca.org) for more info.

I went to a couple workshops on Special Education, the reauthorization of IDEA 2004 and the changes it will bring (good ones actually!), and a session on legal issues, bargaining, and Campaign 2005 issues. It was a fantastic week.

Plus, at the dance, I boogied with David Sanchez, Vice-President of CTA and saw President Barbara Kerr do the YMCA. So my week was complete!

Sunday, five of us will be attending the CTA Summer Institute at UCLA. Two members will be trained in School Finance (helpful for bargaining!), one will be trained in Bargaining, one in SAIT/Program Improvement related issues, and I will be attending two half-week sessions, one on benefits and one on organizing. We're looking forward to learning a lot from these sessions, and bringing back valuable information to everyone.

Speaking of conferences, CTA has a number of great conferences that you are eligible to attend. They are:

Region 1 Leadership Conference, Oct 14-15, Burlingame Rural Issues Conference, Jan 13-15, Las Vegas Good Teaching Conference, Jan 20-22, Oakland Urban Issues Conference, Feb 24-26, San Jose Equity/Human Rights Conference, Mar 3-5, Southern California TBA Good Teaching Conference, Mar 10-12, Hollywood

If you are interested in going to any of these conferences, check out the CTA website (www.cta.org) for more info and then let Daniel Rodriguez (your new treasurer) know you want to go. He will keep a list of interested folks and I will appoint attendees from that list.

Another topic that has come up in the past few weeks has been the CLAD letter from Ron Hawkins that almost 200 of you received. Ron advised me that he was going to send out a reminder letter about ELL certification. If you haven't done so already, GET THIS CERTIFICATION. You get reimbursed for some of the costs, you earn units to move over on the salary schedule, and you don't have to renew it.

I sent to the letter to CTA to check to see if they can outright terminate your employment for not having this certification. My guess is they cannot. But, they CAN protect ELL certified people from being laid off based on district need. So, if you don't have your ELL certification, you could be laid off before a less seniority person with certification. It's just a smart thing to protect your job and get it.

CLAD will be switching to something called CTEL. I don't know all the details on CTEL but I believe it is earned by test only. Contact the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to find out.

YRE: Hope you have a great few weeks of school! The rest of you: enjoy your August anticipating what the new school year will bring.

See all of you at the Back to School Breakfast at Travis Park.

Brenda