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Welcome
Happy New Year, Region 10 ATPE members! Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and enjoyed the days off to refresh and prepare for the "road" to the STAAR test. I want to encourage you to become or stay politically involved. Public education took a beating with the extreme decrease in funding, and there is lawsuit about public education funding working its way through the courts. We must stay informed and active in order to let our legislators know that we will do everything at our disposal to make sure they do not forget about the students of Texas. I encourage each of you to learn your legislator’s name, address, office phone number and office email address, and even the names of his or her staff members. Communication is key to keeping public education at the forefront of issues being worked on by our Legislature. ATPE Governmental Relations can help you with whatever information you need to open a line of communication with your representative and senator. As this is an election year, we need to do all we can to get out the votes for public education. Mesquite ATPE will be offering a deputization class in February. This class will train anyone who volunteers on how to handle voter registration cards. If you are not trained as a Deputy Registrar, all you can do is hand out cards. However, as a trained registrar, you can have people fill out a card, give them the receipt and take or mail the cards into the Dallas County office. Please note: This training is for Dallas County only. If you live in another county, contact your county's registrar office directly and ask to be trained as a registrar. If you know people in Dallas County, however, it's not a bad idea to attend the Mesquite training so that you can register them. PIT is coming! PIT is coming!
Mark your calendars for Feb. 4! Region 10 is hosting a Political Involvement Training (PIT) Saturday, Feb. 4, at Siciliano’s Taste of Italy in Garland. The meeting will start at 11 a.m. with lunch provided. ATPE Governmental Relations Director Brock Gregg will be our guest speaker and will share vital information on the upcoming primaries and how to prepare for the elections in November. Presidents, please contact your members and let me know how many will be attending from your local unit at bubbajr2004@sbcglobal.net. I will need have a headcount by Feb. 2nd, so please get the word out and send me your numbers before then. Hope to have a packed house. Last region meeting
Our last region meeting will be held at 9 a.m. March 31 at Walnut Glen Academy. Region committees will complete their work for the year. Scholarship, Local Unit of the Year, Campus Rep of the Year and Educator of the Year applications are due to me by March 2. Please spread the word as we want to award all possible awards and present them at convention. Region 10 Convention
You should be receiving an email from our region secretary, Melissa Duffey, with information about our region convention. It will be June 9 at the Hilton in Rockwall. The email will feature a link to the hotel for those who would like to make a reservation to stay Friday night before the event. The hotel is situated in a mall of shops and restaurants on Lake Ray Hubbard. More information will be forthcoming, so check your emails and the region website regularly. At the bottom of this Web page is the calendar of events and forms for the awards/scholarships. Everything to prepare for the rest of the year is here. Print off whatever you need and be aware of dates and deadlines. Thanks for all you do for the students and educators of Texas. We could not do it without you. Hope to see you at the region events and convention! Carl Garner
Region 10 ATPE President
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