Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1449741
CTA President E. Toby Boyd and Secretary- Treasurer Leslie Littman at State Council. A panel on community schools, clockwise from top left: CTA Vice President David B. Goldberg, Kampala Taiz-Rancifer (Oakland EA), Grant Schuster (Anaheim Secondary TA), and Ingrid Villeda (United Teachers Los Angeles). measure, were proposed by those seeking to privatize public education and profit off neighborhood schools. Fortunately, most of these initiatives have been with- drawn, but their proponents promise to bring them back in 2024. Boyd said we will be ready to take them on. " While we face a multitude of chal- lenges, it's not as if we don't have the tools, the skills and the knowledge to address them. We just need to make sure we use them, and the first step is to orga- nize," Boyd said. "We have the means to address the challenges we face, and orga- nizing will be key." A panel of educators led by CTA Vice President David Goldberg discussed the transformative p ower of c ommunity schools and the more than $3 billion investment from the state that could see a third of public schools become com- munity schools in the coming years. A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources with an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, leadership, and com- munity engagement, leading to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. "Our students deserve more than just to survive. Another world is possible," said Goldberg, noting that more information is available at cta.org/communityschools. "Community schools are the antidote to a system that puts our students' needs last." (Read "Building the Heart and Hub," our October/November 2021 stor y on c ommunity sch o o l s in Cali forni a , at cta.org/educator/communityschools.) State Council elected members to the following of fices: Kisha Borden , CTA Board of Directors District P; Angela Der Ramos, NEA Board of Directors District 4; Maritza Avila, NEA Board of Directors District 5; Wil Page, NEA Board of Direc- tors District 6; and Ruth Luevand, NEA Board of Directors District 13. S t a t e C o u n c i l 's n e x t m e e t i n g i s scheduled for March 25-27, in person in Los Angeles. Purr-fect! S H O U T O U T T O Los Gatos Elementary Teachers Association, whose creative logo incorporates gatos (Spanish for cats) and makes us smile. Is your chapter logo something we should note? Send it to editor@cta.org, with "logo" in the subject line, or let us know at #logoCTA. 50 cta.org CTA & You