Over the past few years, our district has dedicated much effort to meeting the state’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee, resulting in a third-grade passage rate of 86.7 percent for the 2018-2019 school year. Columbus City Schools has implemented a variety of strategies to raise the reading achievement of our third graders, including more time for reading instruction and intervention in the daily elementary schedule, offering professional development for teachers, enlisting reading buddies from the community, developing ELO and Super Saturday opportunities for struggling readers and creating summer enrichment bags for students. CEA has joined hands with the district in this effort through our annual CEA book drive. For the fourth straight year, our focus will be on providing a new appropriate-level book in the district created summer enrichment packets for third grade students. Our campaign kicked off Thursday, February 6th and ends Tuesday, March 31st. Please support our campaign by donating two new books appropriate for children reading on the primer through third-grade reading level. A suggested book list has been given to your FR for your review. At the conclusion of the campaign, there will be a drawing to win one of three $100 VISA gift cards. To be eligible for the drawing, donate at least three new books to the campaign. Give the books to your FR, or building campaign chair, and ask for a drawing entry form. You will receive one entry for every three books donated. The more books you give; the more chances you have to win. Complete and send the entry form to Teri Mullins at the CEA office no later than Thursday, April 9th. The drawing will be Monday, April 20th. For more information regarding this campaign, contact Teri at CEA (614 253-4731), or at tmullins@ceaohio.org. Thank you for your support of our third graders. Together we can assist our students in reading improvement and meeting the standards.
The Capital District will be holding elections for the President and Vice President positions. The Declaration of Candidacy form must be filed with the Elections Chairperson prior to 4:30 p.m. of the deadline date of Monday, March 30, 2020 or bear a U.S. Mail postmark no later than midnight of the deadline date. Forms should be hand-delivered or mailed by U.S. Mail Service. No guarantee can be made for school mail service.
CEA Spring Elections–Our Association’s annual elections are fast approaching. The following positions will be filled: CEA President, CEA Vice President, Governors for Districts 1, 4, 5, and 10, Middle School Governor-At-Large, 2020 NEA Local Delegates, 2020 NEA State-At-large Delegates, and 2020–21 OEA Delegates.
Declaration forms are available and are due at the CEA Office no later than 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7. Voting will begin on Tuesday, Mar. 3, and will end on Tuesday, Mar. 17. Ballots will be collected and tallied by the Elections Committee on Wednesday, Mar. 18. Call or text Neil Moore at (614) 264-2188 with any questions.
CEA is proud to announce the first-ever CEA Foundation Mini Grants available to ALL CEA members. The CEA Foundation’s mission is to empower CEA members to design and implement innovative opportunities that will ultimately lead to higher achievement for all students. There are three mini grants for members to choose from:
• Early Educator Mini Grant–20 total grants up to $300 each (for teachers in Years 1–5 of their career)
• STEM/STEAM Mini Grant–10 total grants up to $600 each (open to all CEA members)
• General Mini Grant–25 total grants up to $320 each (open to all CEA members)
Grants cover one academic year, and there will be one application window per semester. This will allow members time to reflect on the needs of their classrooms, programs, and students served. Members are eligible to receive one Mini Grant per year.
These Mini Grants are separate from the Teacher Dream Grant and all CEA Mini Grants are funded completely through the CEA Foundation. Only CEA members are eligible to apply for the Mini Grants. Your application and all supporting documentation is due no later than 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2019. Second Semester applications are due Mar. 13, 2019.
For more information, and an application form, click HERE.
On October 1, 2019, CEA President John Coneglio and third grade teachers delivered copies of an open letter to the Columbus City Schools Board of Education regarding serious concerns with a recent change to requirements for the placement of third grade students on Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plans (RIMPs). The union asked the district to immediately rescind it’s ill-informed directive, designed to avoid deductions on the flawed state report card, which will incorrectly label a vast majority of third graders in the district as “off track” and “reading deficient”.
Copies of the letter were signed by a majority of Columbus City Schools third grade educators.
Over the past few years, our district has dedicated much effort to meeting the state’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee, resulting in a third-grade passage rate of 86.7 percent for the 2018-2019 school year.
