January 2009

As the incoming President of VAFEPA, I’m proud and excited about this leadership opportunity and for what lies ahead for our organization. With no uncertainty, I pledge to build on the strength of our past presidents to move our organization to even greater success over the next two years. I would like to commend our Board members for their ongoing support to get the work of our organization done and in turn to assist our colleagues across the state. As you are aware, each of our eight regions is represented on the VAFEPA Board and I encourage you to share your suggestions with them.

Despite the dim economic forecast for our nation and our state, there is still a lot of work to be done to support the academic achievement of disadvantaged students as well as their teachers and administrators. Now is not the time to do less but rather in difficult times, we will need to find ways to do more. I hope that your division will continue to support attending our VAFEPA annual conference. We have a strong history of providing outstanding staff development sessions at our conference and with your support this will continue. The VAFEPA Board welcomes the opportunity to hear your ideas and hope that you will contact your regional representatives. More details about the conference will be in the next newsletter.

There is still time for you to register for the NAFEPA conference March 1-4 2009 in Washington, D.C. This is a great opportunity to learn first hand about the reauthorization of ESEA (No Child Left Behind) legislation and to meet with congressional representatives. Last year, we had about 18 participants and were able to go on Capitol Hill to meet with representatives for our Senators and two of our Representatives in the House. Check out the NAFEPA website for more information and the registration deadline. In the months ahead we will present more information in our newsletter on our VAFEPA goals, reauthorization and on the status of the upcoming stimulus bills and how they may impact our state.

Dr. Ernestine Scott
President

Previous messages:
November 2007
October 2007