Newsletter October 1998, Page 1

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Legislative Update --- Exemplary Programs --- Teacher of Year --- Model School --- Fair View Peer

President's Letter

With this first newsletter I want to welcome each of you back from what I hope was a safe and relaxing summer. I am sure each of you found many new tasks to complete when you arrived at your job assignment. The students we serve may have given some indication about being "down" because school was starting again but the vast majority of them really thrive from the stability your programs offer them in their daily lives. Most of the students in continuation schools had already dropped-out of the traditional high school in one way or another and now they have expressed their confidence in each of you by showing up and trying. Many times I have told groups of students "Thanks for being willing to trust adults one more time".

Continuation schools save lives every day. The creative instructional methodology found in so many classrooms provides students with another opportunity to gain control of their future and become competitive in the job market. The Governor has acknowledged that continuation schools are the first "safety net" in California's drop-out prevention mechanism. We are one very integral and highly sophisticated component of the nation's largest variety of educational delivery systems available to high school age students. We serve nearly 110,000 students in the 540+ continuation schools throughout California. Many of these schools have been recognized by the California Department of Education as Model Continuation Schools because they have met 61 Quality Criteria developed by the CDE and CCEA. More and more continuation schools are becoming accredited by WASC which gives additional value to their diploma of graduation.

Your Executive Board is ever present in Sacramento lobbying for our students and schools. We have been successful with maintaining our present level of flexibility and gaining respect and admiration for the success we have with our students. We continue to battle for more equitable funding amongst continuation schools and more adequate funding for the effective programs in place throughout the state. We are active within the current development of Assessment and Accountability Standards and are monitoring the progress of current related legislation. We continue to strive for higher levels of communication with the CDE and appreciate the opportunities provided to us to serve on committees that are studying a variety of issues relating to secondary education.

Our new website is something we can all be proud of. The address is; www.cceanet.org Please take the time to visit this website and I think you will be very pleased and very proud. There is a vast amount of information already available and we are adding to the website and establishing more links all the time. It's a great way to see how far reaching CCEA is and learn the many aspects of what I believe to be a superior professional organization. You will find a discussion forum, state conference information, membership information, local district officers, state officers, homepages from many of our schools, professional resources, newsletters, forms, links to the CDE and much more. Go surfing and check it out!

Please make an individual effort to join CCEA this year as a professional member. The cost is still only $35 and the connections you gain to a network of professionals are priceless. Our annual state conference continues to grow and for each of the past two years we have seen over 600 participants. This is the largest staff development opportunity for continuation professionals in the state. You will be pleased to learn that most of the workshops and seminars are provided by our own members; the talent within CCEA is awesome!

Please join the organization and feel welcome to contact your Executive Board and other professionals through local seminars, the state conference, institutes and the website. So many of our schools are the only one in their district and the opportunity to network with other schools in similar areas is a resource I would recommend you use. Good luck with this school year and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at this year's events. Thanks for all you do!

[ CCEA Home | Newsletters Page ]
Legislative Update --- Exemplary Programs --- Teacher of Year --- Model School --- Fair View Peer