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Once again, our friends at Embry Women’s Health will be conducting free drive-thru COVID-19 testing in the parking lot of Hamilton HS this weekend (Saturday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23). Testing slots are available in 5-minute increments as early as 7:00am and as late as 11:00pm. Use this link to book your testing appointment.

California Casualty is sponsoring a Facebook Live virtual training opportunity for educators at 4:00pm on Friday, August 14th for all NEA/AEA members. This training will feature lesson planning and virtual learning tips from Casey Boehm of Organize and Educate. Find the event here on Facebook.

On Tuesday, August 18 at 4:30 pm, AEA and local associations IDEA, REA and MESPA will be hosting an Employee Rights Q&A focused on our Educational Support Professionals. AEA General Counsel Jarrett Haskovec will be on the call to answer questions, and a Spanish translator will be present, as well. You can join the call on Zoom, or join via phone by dialing (346) 248-7799 and entering meeting ID 988 3622 7567.

Embry Women’s Health is offering free drive-through COVID-19 testing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (August 7-9) in the parking lot of Hamilton High School. Online appointments can be made in 5-minute increments from 7:20 a.m. on Friday until 11:25 p.m. on Sunday. For more information and to book an appointment slot online, visit bit.ly/hhscovidtest.

Over the summer, CEA formed dozens of task forces that examining the challenges of reopening schools through the lenses of particular educators and students. Huge thanks to all of our members who worked over the summer to create a comprehensive document detailing challenges and recommendations that reflect the voices of our educators. You can now view the combined CEA Reopening Task Force Document online.

We’re heartbroken at the news that Chandler High School coach Kerry Croswhite passed way tonight from COVID-19. The entire CEA family sends its love to his wife, Laurie, the rest of his family, and everyone in the CHS Wolves community.

Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek are all holding city/town elections (City or Town Council, as well as mayoral) on Tuesday, August 4. CUSD has schools in all of these cities, and if you are a registered voter who lives in one of these cities, we encourage all of you to study the candidates and vote in these important elections. Although CEA is not formally recommending any candidates, we are providing their responses to a CEA candidate questionnaire that was sent to every candidate. You can find these responses and more information about these elections on our 2020 City Election web page.

Have you been putting off signing an Invest in Ed petition? Are you still holding on to that petition you picked up a while ago? It’s time to get this done! CEA is holding our final Invest in Ed petition event this Saturday, June 27 from 7:00-11:00 AM at Veterans Oasis Park. As always, we’ll be socially distancing and sanitizing so everyone can help us get Invest in Ed on the ballot in a safe manner.

If you can’t make it Saturday but still want to sign or hand in a petition, there are several other opportunities for you to do so across the state. Visit the Invest in Ed “Turn in Your Petition” page or the Invest in Ed events page for a full list of these events, and help us make history in Arizona!

We received more information tonight from our CUSD Governing Board and Governor Ducey on what school reopening may look like (you can also watch tonight’s board meeting to view the discussion around our reopening). This is obviously a fluid, constantly changing situation, but your union has been busy putting together critical information to help us navigate it.

As mentioned earlier, CEA’s survey results have been shared with the Governing Board and with district administration (thanks to those of you who made your voice heard by responding to that survey). With input from members across the state (including some CEA members), AEA has also released their New Vision for Arizona Schools Task Force report, which contains a bold vision of what our schools can and should look like in a post-COVID world. Finally, NEA has released their All Hands on Deck: Initial Guidance Regarding Reopening School Buildings report, which includes science-based and health-focused guidelines for schools to reopen in a way that meets the needs of students and educators. You can also find many more resources regarding the impact of COVID-19 on our schools at NEA’s Educating Through Crisis website, as well as AEA’s COVID-19 update page.

We encourage you to read through these resources and discuss them with fellow CEA members (and non-members) at your site. Together, we will work to ensure a safe, quality learning and teaching experience for our community.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to our school reopening survey. You can now view a summary of the survey results (these results have been shared with Dr. Casteel this morning).

The CUSD reopening plans will be discussed at tonight’s Governing Board meeting. The study session starts at 4:30pm, followed by the regular meeting at 7:00pm. We encourage everyone in the CUSD community to study the agenda and supporting documents, as well as view the meeting live on YouTube.

We know this is a very difficult time right now, so please reach out to your Site Representative or Executive Board if you need anything. We also hope you’ll consider joining our reopening task force subcommittees to continue the conversation about what school will look like when we reopen.