A message from the Executive Director... he state motto from my home state, North Carolina, is Esse quam videri (To Be, Rather than to Seem). When you join GAE - I believe you belong to an organization that lives by this motto. Whether it is standing up to protect one member, the whole profession, or playing to win for public education, GAE will be leading the way. First - GAE will stand up for you as an individual. My mom was a talented elementary school teacher, and when I was in first grade, I attended her school, but my parents moved me to a different school halfway through the year. It was not until years later that I learned why she moved me. As an educator, she spoke up to the school administration about an injustice that took place in her school. She was retaliated against and moved to another school, and she moved me to another school to protect me. Little did I know that forty years later, I would proudly help lead an organization that works to protect educators from retaliation and injustices on the job like my mom had to endure. By being a member of GAE, we will stand up for you. We took a case to the US Court of Appeals this year to represent one of our Walker County members, Jim Barrett, to protect his freedom of speech rights to speak out on issues at the school board meetings. We won - not only for our member but for hundreds of other educators, parents, and students in the county. Also, GAE is representing Imogine Redwine in a whistleblower case after she was non-renewed in 2014. A Fulton County judge ruled that Ms. Redwine presented a triable issue of fact as to whether her 2014 renewal was pretext for retaliation after she disclosed cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools from 2007-2008 and continued through the grand jury (2013) and her last year at Brown Middle School (2014) while working with the District Attorney's office. The trial is scheduled for January 2018. Stay tuned. These are just two examples of how far GAE will go to protect our members. If they were PAGE members, they would have to pay their own legal bills after they reached a $10,000 cap. For Jim and Imogene, they would have had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to achieve justice. With GAE, they had to pay nothing beyond their regular membership dues. GAE likes to be rather than to seem! Second - GAE believes in standing for the whole - the whole of the profession. With the assistance of NEA, we have active cases against school systems that have waived fair dismissal rights for educators. These cases will impact every educator in Georgia. We also filed a suit against the Atlanta Public Schools to try to reverse their decision to privatize public schools to be run by an outside company. Our Dekalb County members benefited from the legal victory to refund them $150,000 in unfair liquidated damages. This victory will help protect all Georgia Educators. We are the only organization representing educators to file these type of cases. GAE likes to be rather than to seem! Third - GAE plays to win for public education. When local Georgia public schools were faced with a state takeover last year, we took the lead to build a coalition and winning campaign to defeat OSD - Amendment 1. GAE and NEA donated approximately $5 million to the campaign, GFT/AFT contributed $300,000, and PAGE contributed $40,000 in the last couple weeks of the effort. Our members made thousands of phone calls and spoke at hundreds of events. Through our hard work, voters soundly rejected Amendment 1. Which organization do you think plays to win? GAE likes to be rather than to seem! Finally, the key to our success is you - our GAE members. We have a deep commitment to building and developing a member-led organization. Educators should lead their own profession. Our organization has leadership and professional development programs focused on building public education leaders. Whether at the local, state, or national level, we have opportunities available for our members to strengthen their leadership skills. As we move into the season for advocacy, I hope you will get a copy of our 2017-18 Vision for Quality Public Schools and get involved by helping us lead the campaign to improve our public schools. While there are a lot of organizations out there that just like to seem rather than to be, I hope you are proud to be a member of GAE. We have a long history of standing up for the students, parents, and educators in our beautiful state. Thank you for everything you do every day for the children of Georgia. Chris Baumann Executive Director T "The key to our success is you - our GAE members. We have a deep commitment to building and developing a member- led organization." www.gae.org | 5
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