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CEA and the CUSD Department of Equity and Inclusion are proud to present a screening of the film Harriet on Wednesday, November 20 at Alamo Drafthouse in Chandler. Doors will open at 6:00 pm for gathering and seating, with the film starting at 6:30 pm. At the conclusion of the film, Perry HS social sciences teacher John Prothro will lead a post-film discussion.

This film is rated PG-13 so children will need to be accompanied by an adult. Unlike typical showings at Alamo Drafthouse, seating is not reserved, so you will want to arrive before 6:30 pm to select your seats. You also need to purchase tickets through our Eventbrite ticketing page, not Alamo Drafthouse (tickets are $11.25 apiece including fees). You won’t want to miss this special screening and discussion!

Don’t forget … the deadline to apply for our Members to Member grants is this Friday, November 22 by 12:59 pm. After the deadline passes, the Grant Committee will meet to evaluate the applications and select grant recipients, who will be announced in the coming weeks. For full details on how to appy for this grant, please visit our grant page.

It’s football season and bond election season … and we’re going to take advantage of both by being present at CUSD football games to distribute information on our upcoming bond election! If you can come and spend just an hour before kickoff handing out information, we can reach thousands of interested CUSD stakeholders! Please consider showing up at 6:00 pm for one (or more!) of these games:

• October 11: Basha HS at Hamilton HS
• October 25: ALA at ACP Erie
• November 1: Hamilton HS at Chandler HS

Remember that if you’re a CUSD employee, you can get into the game for free with your ID badge … so come support the bond and then stick around to support your favorite CUSD high school!

Our CEA Special Election is currently underway. In this election, members will vote for the following positions:

• CEA Vice President of Membership (2-year term)

Voting will be conducted online through Tuesday, November 19. Be sure to make your voice heard in this important election! Check out our election page for full details on how to vote.

Are you a new educator at CUSD this year? Please consider joining us for our first annual New to CUSD Educator Night on Thursday, September 19 from 4:00-7:00 pm at The Local in Downtown Chandler! This event is open to CEA members and non-members alike who are new to CUSD, and is a great way to network with fellow new educators as we near the end of the first quarter. The Local has been supportive of public education, and we are glad we get to support them back with our business (and take advantage of their food and drink specials). There will be raffle prizes, too! Please RSVP on our Facebook page so we can plan accordingly.

The 2019 NEA Representative Assembly is underway in Houston, and five of our members are giving up a week of their summer to represent you at the national level:

There will be a lot happening this week in Houston, and we encourage everyone who is curious about what goes on at the RA to follow our Twitter and Facebook pages for updates throughout the week.

To celebrate the end of the school year, CEA will be holding a Family Social this Sunday, June 2 from 6:00-9:00 pm at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. This happens to be on a night in the park’s Summer Concert Series, so plan on staying around to hear Beatles tribute band Paperback Writer at 7:30 pm. Bring your own outdoor activities and food, or purchase food at the park! For full details, visit our Facebook event page.

Every year CEA awards up to four $500 scholarships to graduating high school seniors who are children of CEA members. We are proud to announce the recipients of this year’s scholarships!

• Joshua Hattaway (son of CEA member Joline Hattaway) is graduating from Casteel High School
• Grace Bender (daughter of CEA member Anne Bender) is graduating from Chandler High School
• Joshua Murray (son of CEA member Jolene Murray) is graduating from Queen Creek High School
• Lia Felix (daughter of CEA member Myra Thompson) is graduating from Perry High School

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It took all day, but the budget passed out of both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Wednesday night. While this budget does increase education spending, it comes nowhere near addressing the severe funding issues our public schools still face (teacher shortage, class sizes, counselor/student ratios, outdated resources, etc.). Adding insult to injury, the money is there to make a much more significant investment in education, but lawmakers would prefer to pass a tax cut that voters aren’t asking for and invest money in the “rainy day” fund when it’s been pouring in our public schools for years.

Today the budget will be heard in caucus, then in Committee of the Whole, and then head to a final vote on the floor. We had some real heroes at the Capitol yesterday testifying before committee and making our presence felt, but we need even more as we approach the finish line. The budget vote is expected to be extremely tight, and everyone has an opportunity to make a difference:

• contact your legislators NOW and ask them to hold out for a budget that truly invests in our students
• get down to the Capitol today after work so our leaders see we’re paying attention (it will be a long night!)
• check back at AEA’s Facebook page and arizonaea.org/budgetwatch throughout the day for updates

From Stephanie Parra (AEA lobbyist):

Today, around 4:00 pm, the House and Senate introduced budget bills to be heard in Rules committees. House Bills (HB) 2747-2756 and Senate Bills (SB) 1548-1557 will next be heard in Appropriations committees tomorrow morning (May 22). House Appropriations is scheduled for 10:00 am and Senate Appropriations for 9:00 am. This is the only opportunity the public will have to weigh in on the state budget. This budget does not restore education funding our students need, and, instead, provides nearly $400 million in new permanent tax cuts.

We expect budget negotiations to continue tomorrow as they don’t have the votes necessary to pass them on the floor. House is adjourned until Thursday at 9:00 am, which means we won’t see any final votes until Thursday. We need you in these Appropriations committee meetings tomorrow! Thank you to AEA members and #REDforED activists who have joined us in the gallery; your presence is keeping the pressure on our elected officials.

In addition, House Rules also allowed Representative Townsend to resurrect her dead bill attacking teachers’ free speech. Contact your legislators tonight to oppose HB2032 and be sure to sign into the Request to Speak (RTS) system to voice your opposition.

Check arizonaea.org/budgetwatch, as well as AEA’s Facebook and Twitter pages for updates!