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While the annual SCTA Representative Assembly (RA) is the statewide business meeting of the association, this year’s event had many added attractions.  As a result, RA was emotional, informative, motivating, controversial and most of all fun!

 

Face It...Teach! was the theme for the weekend.  Workshops were presented to inform members about issues in education that all future educators must "face."  This included:

In addition, a workshop titled, Eight Building Blocks for Chapters, was offered to assist members in building and sustaining their local chapters and provide resources available to SCTA members.

 

RA was held in sunny San Diego at the Hawaiian-inspired Red Lion Hanalei Hotel on April 26-27, 2003.  During registration, participants could watch a video chronicling some of the rich history of the San Diego area.  During lunch, Ballet Folklorico, a local children’s dance team presented several traditional dances from different regions of Mexico while Patricia Cueva, dance team coordinator, explained the history and meaning behind each of the dances.  A heartfelt "thank you" to the children who performed so beautifully and the parents who support them.

 

In the afternoon, each local chapter had the opportunity to share their accomplishments and activities from the past year.  In addition some minor changes were made to the SCTA statewide constitution and bylaws.

 

During this time, there was a lively discussion about how best to address the issues and concerns of "under-represented minorities."  Discussion centered around the possibility of adding a position to the SCTA Executive Board or changing the responsibilities of the two Ethnic Minority Representatives.  As a result of this discussion, a task force was created to explore and define under-represented minorities within SCTA (i.e. persons with disabilities, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members, etc).  The task force is charged with reporting on this issue at the SCTA Fall Leadership Conference to be held November 8-9, 2003.

 

Saturday evening ended with an awards banquet.  Reg Weaver, NEA President inspired and motivated the audience with tales of his career in education.

 

On Sunday, SCTA Executive Board officers for 2003-04 were elected.  Nineteen members declared candidacy for seven offices.  As a result, all but two positions were contested.  RA ended with three emotional and fun PowerPoint presentations created by Shauna Aragon - Poverty and Education, The Power of the Dream: SCTA’s 65th Anniversary and Face It...Teach: The 2003 SCTA RA.

 

Meet the SCTA Executive Board for 2003-04:
(left to right - officer terms begin June 26, 2003)
Nam Nguyen, SCTA Communications Editor
Shauna Aragon, SCTA Secretary-Treasurer
Monica Masino, SCTA Executive Vice President
Rhonda Lewis, SCTA Ethnic Minority Representative
Angela Itoge, SCTA Ethnic Minority Representative
Jaymie Dean, SCTA Southern Vice President
Leo Solis, SCTA Southern Vice President
Melissa Martin, SCTA Northern Vice President
Joshua Hardwick, SCTA Northern Vice President
Rudy Jimenez Ortiz, SCTA President