Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/391693
BACK TO SCHOOL 2014 | WEAnews 6 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Welcome to the 2014/15 school year. This is always such an exciting time of year as students return to classes and the fall sports seasons kick off. Everyone is so excited to see all of their friends they haven't seen over the summer and to start the new school year; this may be even truer for the education staff than for most of the students. As you are busy catching up with all of your colleagues, remember to ask them to join you as a member of the Wyoming Education Association. Take some time to explain to them why you belong to the WEA, and invite them to join and become involved in their professional organization. Together we can succeed in ensuring the best education environment for all learners and the best working environment for all education employees. WEA-PACE is a bipartisan effort to support candidates and political campaign initiatives that make a positive difference in our public schools. It is a voluntary contribution, and only members who choose to contribute are members of WEA-PACE. Only PACE contributions are used for donations to political campaigns; WEA dues dollars are never given to candidates' campaigns. WEA-PACE only endorses candidates on education issues. They have to go through a two-step process of filling out a questionnaire and then coming in for an interview. All of the interviews for legislative candidates are done at the local level; the local interview teams then make the endorsement recommendations to the PACE Council, who votes on the local recommendations. The statewide candidates are interviewed by the WEA officers, who make their recommendations on those offices to the PACE Council. You can find a list of the WEA-PACE- endorsed candidates on page 5. All of this work is so that YOU can elect education-friendly candidates. It is critical that you vote on November 4 th . Encourage your family and friends to also vote for WEA-PACE endorsed candidates! I encourage you to get involved at the local level in your local school board races. Find out who is running for the school board in your school district, and make an effort to talk to them about why they are running. Help to set up a public forum so that people can meet the candidates and have a chance to ask them questions. Get involved and make a positive difference in your school, and don't forget to vote on November 4 th . I would also like to encourage you and your colleagues to become members of the Wyoming Education Association's Political Action Committee for Education (WEA-PACE). Kathy Vetter WEA President kvetter@wyoea.org