A Letter from USBA's President, Peggy Jo Kennett

Are you a member of PTA? We all benefit from the great work done by this volunteer organization.
 
On May 16&17 I had the opportunity to attend the Utah State PTA Convention. Lots of great information was presented. How fortunate we are to be able to work with this group of dedicated volunteers!
 
Special recognition goes to Maresa Manzione, President of the Tooele School Board and member of the USBA Board of Directors, who also serves as State PTA Region 7 Director. What a great advocate for education!
 
Thank you to Gainell Rogers, who has served as Utah PTA President for 2011-2013. Beginning July 1, Liz Zentner will serve as Utah PTA President. We look forward to working with Liz!

NSBA News - JoDee Sundberg

There are many things happening with the direction of the New NSBA. This is an exciting time to be involved on the national level with a much more proactive response to the support of public education. The attack is coming from many levels from local to national so there is a need for great vigilance to continue to drive a strong public educational opportunity for our children across America.

One of the key elements to reorganizing NSBA to the New NSBA is a structural change. As part of the finance committee we have been reestablishing the resources for developing strategies on how to best serve the states and local districts. Budgets contain numbers but their real story is about priorities. How an organization allocates its funds says a great deal about what is important. The 2013-14 budget makes a bold statement about where NSBA will be heading in the years ahead.
 
NSBA’s greatest work right now is in advocacy. We are seeing some very positive things happen across the country with support to states and districts. One such involvement was the support in Louisiana to defeat their voucher proposals. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the state’s one-year-old voucher program is unconstitutional.
 
The National Affiliate program has been restructured and is now called the National Connection Service, which will be offered by USBA in collaborative efforts with NSBA. This is being done to better serve our board members in Utah. We will have more information from USBA as this becomes available. I would encourage every district to discuss participation in this service as we continue to strengthen public education in our communities, districts, state and nation.
 
Please let me know if there are any questions, comments or concerns that you may have and how I, and NSBA, can better serve you.