Thank you for everything you do each and every day. You do indeed make a difference in the lives of your students!

Greetings, All.

I hope this finds all of you healthy. Circumstances regarding a few issues are changing by the minute, and to avoid confusion and keep all of you in the loop, I am sending you this update regarding the gun control issue as well as some legislative updates.

Gun Control

All of our efforts and our plans are still  “works in progress” because there are three dates that everyone is discussing at the same time. This has become very frustrating, and so we are working around the following:

March 14 – We are organizing early morning walk-ins rather than walk-outs that will take place at the high schools prior to the beginning of the school day. We will provide a guide and each local,  with the help of CEA staff, can plan its own walk-in.  The rationale for not walking out is that we cannot recommend that any of our members do anything that would be considered insubordinate. And so, we hope to show solidarity by including students, teachers, administrators, and parents all together – standing strong to ensure that our schools are safe havens for our students.

We are also hoping to be able to register voters at these walk-ins – parents, students, and teachers.

March 24 – We are waiting to hear more about what is happening in Hartford on that date. Buses to Washington, D.C. are few and far between, bus drivers must sleep at least 8 hours before driving back to Connecticut, and we are still investigating buses to Hartford for that date. We are hoping to have a huge presence in Hartford on that date

April 20 –  We feel that this date is just too far into the future to make anything we do have an effective impact even though NEA, AFT, and NPE are organizing around this date.

Today, February 22, at 10:00 am Don and I have been invited to speak at a CAPSS/CABE press conference at East Hartford High School about this issue.

Please advise members to watch the CEA website, because all information that is pertinent to our activities, including buses, will be posted in a timely manner there.

Legislative Issues

Today, February 22, at 4:30 pm CEA will be hosting a press conference to preface the testimony that Don, Orlando, and I will be presenting before the Appropriations Committee tomorrow, February 22, beginning at 5:00 pm.

We will be testifying about ECS funding, TEAM, charter schools, and bi-lingual education.

Janus v AFSCME

Monday, February 26, at noon CEA will be joining other state labor unions to rally on the steps of the Connecticut Supreme Court – the same day that the Janus case will be heard at the United States Supreme Court. I will be speaking, and Don will serve as the emcee for this event.

So that’s the news that’s fit to print, and I will certainly continue to update all of you. Every day is an adventure!

Sincerely,

Sheila Cohen

President

Connecticut Education Association