RCEA Scholarship 2020 Winners

In the previous post, I mentioned that the RCEA Officers were able to use saved money to give out RCEA Scholarships to three high school students who had applied. The three recipients are:

Caden Hogen (TAHS) who is looking to become a music educator. He has been accepted to several different colleges, but has not made a decision on where he would like to attend.

Ashley Schoenhardt (SHS) who is looking to become an elementary teacher (preferably First or Second Grade). She will be attending Eastern Mennonite University in the fall.

Gregory Weeks (ERHS) who is looking to become a social sciences teacher at the high school level. He will be attending JMU in the fall. 

Congratulations to all the winners and best of luck to them as they look to begin their college careers!👏

RCEA Information Update

Hello RCEA members!👋 It has been a while since I posted an update to the blog! I do apologize for not keeping this up to date; but, I hope you have read all the e-mails I have sent out! 😊
With the closing of schools due to the coronavirus, we have all had some big changes to go through. I thank all of you for everything you are doing for your students! Due to the virus, the VEA Convention, which delegates you had voted on were going to in March, was cancelled. With that, the RCEA Officers met via an e-mail and phone conference and decided to also cancel our annual Retirement Banquet. It was a decision we found hard to make as this is when we recognize ALL the retirees from Rockingham County and our RCEA Scholarship winners. But, we knew this was what we needed to do.
However, since we had already sent out applications for our scholarship, the officers met and decided to use some saved money to be able to give to those high school students who applied. We heard back from three high schools; and, were able to give out three scholarships! Each recipient will receive $500.00 to help them as they continue their education. The RCEA Officers are looking at different ways to raise money in the coming year for the RCEA Scholarship. We thank you for the donations you have given in the past; and, hopefully we can do this next year!

BE SAFE!

NEA's Certification Bank Information for Paraprofessionals

ATTENTION PARAPROFESSIONALS!

NEA just released a new micro-credential perfect for paraprofessional-teacher teams to study, document and be credentialed for the study! Check out "Building Winning Teams: Effective Paraeducator-Teacher Teams" or other courses on more than 100 topics! Click here to get started: https://nea.certificationbank.com/NEA/CandidatePortal/CategoryDetail.aspx?Stack=BWT&fbclid=IwAR0G6Gti3821m7D9E1QSRo-I80bMq116UceY3u64-pigVXHSqYxh9xLq36I

NEA ESP of the Year Award Nominations

NEA Education Support Professional Award Nominations 

The NEA will present its 29th Annual NEA ESP of the Year Award at the 2020 NEA ESP National Conference on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at the New Orleans Marriot! All nominations for this award must be sent electronically. To get the required forms go to http://nea.org/espoty. A link to the forms needed and the guidelines are attached here http://www.nea.org/home/46497.htm. The deadline to receive nominations is Monday, December 9, 2019. For questions contact Lisa Connor at (202)822-7529 or lconnor@nea.org.

RCEA Member Meeting September 10, 2019

The RCEA held a member meeting on September 10, 2019 at the UniServ Office in Harrisonburg. At the meeting several topics were discussed including how to increase membership. One idea was to look into sponsoring a breakfast or lunch for the new teacher orientation. We also discussed how the "other" group (Virginia Professional Educators) was able to put their information into teacher mailboxes. Nancy Basset, RCEA President, contacted Dr. Oskar Scheikl,  school superintendent, and asked if the RCEA could have permission to distribute our information as well. We received permission!! So, be ready to see packets of RCEA/VEA/NEA information showing up in mailboxes!

Also discussed were upcoming VEA Events. So, mark your calendars with the following dates:

VEA Pre-Legislative Workshop and Dinner: Wednesday, October 23, at the Verona United Methodist Church beginning at 5:00pm. Names of those attending were due September 20th. 

American Education Week: November 18-22, 2019. There was discussion on what gifts to get for members this year.

VEA Lobby Day: January 2020. Those attending the VEA Pre-Legislative Workshop will receive the date. Anyone going will need to make an appointment with their local Delegate and/or Senator in Richmond.

VEA Convention: The Convention will be in Hampton, Virginia this year. The local associations can send 1 delegate for every 33 members.

Next Member Meeting: November 12 at 4:00pm at the UniServ Office in Harrisonburg.

RCEA at New Teacher Orientation on August 8, 2019

The RCEA Officers will be at the New Teacher Orientation at Spotswood High School on Thursday, August 8, 2019 at 2:45pm. Come and visit with the officers after our presentation and find out what some of our plans are for the year! 

RCEA/RCPS 2019 Spring Retirement Banquet

On Thursday, May 23, 2019 the Rockingham County Education Association and RCPS hosted their annual Spring Retirement Banquet. At the banquet, Dr. Doug Aldefer helped to hand out retiree gifts; Bea Crantz from the Valley Retired Educators gave a rousing speech to those in attendance; and, Lauren Strawderman recognized the RCEA Scholarship Fund winners (photo of the winners is below).
Other special guests included Renee Read, School Board member; and, Nancy Bassett, RCEA Secretary, provided entertainment playing the piano. Tynecia Mitchell catered a wonderful meal for all the guests; and, everyone had an enjoyable evening! Thank you to all who donated to the RCEA Scholarship Fund; and, congratulations and best wishes to all RCPS retirees and our RCEA Scholarship Winners!

                            Jenine Jarrar, Abigail Olmstead, Mychaela Randall, and Logan Dofflemyer