The purposes of this Association are to:

  • The purposes of this Association are to:
  • A. Promote and protect the interests, rights, and welfare of the retired educators of the Stevens Point area in conjunction with the Wisconsin Retired Educators’ Association (WREA).
  • B. Monitor and work to improve the benefits for retired educators and other members of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS).
  • C. Encourage Association members to maintain membership in the Wisconsin Retired Educators’ Association (WREA).
  • D. Develop working relationships with local service organizations whose main emphasis is on aging groups and with organizations sharing goals similar to those of the Association.
  • E. Inform Association members about and advocate for educational and other relevant societal issues.
  • F. Inform members of activities in the area provided for senior citizens.
  • G. Encourage Association members to be active participants in community affairs on an individual basis.

2022 January Newsletter


 

Stevens Point Area Retired Teachers’

Association

 

January Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



January 10, 2022

Park Ridge Restaurant

3425 Church St.

Stevens Point, WI 54481

 

11:00 am. Socializing

11:15 am. Lunch 

11:30 am. Business Meeting

12:30 pm. Program Speaker

 

SPARTA OFFICERS 

President: Santha Bickford                                 Vice President: Vacant

Treasurer: Janet Langton                                 Co-Secretaries: Dave Blado, Lauren Isberner     

Data Manager: Sherrilee Wallermann                                                      Immediate Past President: Joyce Chekouras    

Emeritus Past President – Elbert Racko

 

Happy New Year, everyone from the President! Doesn’t it seem like two steps forward and one step back with this Covid? I’m sorry that we had to cancel our meeting in January! The folks at Park Ridge Family Restaurant were very understanding! I’m definitely going to try to give them some business whenever I can. I’m sure this has been a tough time for them too!

We had an Executive Meeting Dec. 28 and not only made the decision to cancel on the 10th, but also vowed to look into how to schedule Zoom meetings in case the situation comes up again. All of us on the committee have experience attending Zoom meetings, but none of us has organized and led one. If anyone reading this has that experience, we would appreciate hearing from you. I’ll keep you updated on this project! Does that sound like a New Year’s resolution?

And speaking of New Year’s resolutions, I have another for us. For some time I have been thinking that we need to make an effort to keep in touch and encourage our members who are facing serious illness, a change of living circumstance, or other tough times. Some of us are making weekly phone calls and frequent visits. My resolution is to get better organized with this. Suzanne Fee and Mary Beth Anday currently serve as our Sunshine Committee. If you learn of someone who could use a card or a phone call, please call Suzanne, Mary Beth, or me. I also plan to have cards available for signing when we meet again. This is one of those things that doesn’t really require a lot of effort or time and can be so meaningful. However, if I don’t put a reminder on my calendar and dedicate a time to the task, I have trouble getting around to doing it. Please help me out!  There’s New Year’s resolution #2! 

Lynne Kagelmann, our “inside connection “with WREA, has been busy as usual. She sent such cute and clever cards to members whose dues were due that it is tempting to pay late just to receive one! She reports that the state office is preparing a Retirement Seminar to be presented in a Zoom format for teachers planning to retire this year. We have tried to host this for local teachers in odd-numbered years, but because of Covid, it was not done in 2021. I would like to get it scheduled for early March if possible. 

Do you remember in the days before Covid we had District meetings in the spring?. This year it will be a little different. Instead of individual districts meeting, they will combine in geographical groups. Our Spring Conference will be held the last week in April at Elkhart Lake. Lynne will be sending us the details! 

Another item that I want to call to your attention is in your WREA News published each quarter. Remember that one of the major goals of our state organization is to support education and educators in Wisconsin. We join the state Administrators’ Association and the Association of School Boards to hire an excellent legislator, John Forrester, to lobby for us. Our Executive Director, Diane Wilcenski, joins him. In each edition they publish a concise, one-page legislative update on items pertaining to education in Wisconsin. In my opinion this is a very valuable service and a great way to keep us all in the loop! If you’ve been skipping over it, please take a look! 

We had planned to begin lining up folks to help move our books to the new facility in January, but that, too, has hit a little snag! Delta Dental is having some supply-line problems related to the Pandemic Pandemonium and it now looks as if they won’t be moving so soon. Save your muscles! We’ll surely need them when the time comes!

Happy New Year, all of you! Here’s our Resolution Number 3: Let’s do all we can to keep SPARTA strong in 2022.

Meeting Minutes

STEVENS POINT AREA RETIRED TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION

 

REGULAR MEETING:  On Monday, November 8, 2021, SPARTA gathered at the Park Ridge Family Restaurant under a big sign, “Thank You Veterans,” with a slideshow presenting the High Ground Veterans Park near Neillsville.  Twenty two were present, including veteran and featured speaker, Portage County Executive Chris Holman.

 

Members applauded Carol Colby, who created the slideshow. Kudos also to Judy Zimmerman and others responsible for the white table decorated in remembrance of service and sacrifice. As the only veteran present at the meeting, Jerry Kasdorf received a free lunch from an anonymous donor.

 

President Santha Bickford directed attention to another November celebration—Thanksgiving—by expressing gratitude to a long list of those contributing time and talent to SPARTA. Special mention goes to the brochure Sherrilee Wallerman for crafting an attractive SPARTA brochure for new members and for her ongoing expertise in designing our newsletter. 

 

OFFICERS’ REPORTS: Treasurer Jan Langton reported expenses of $1,019, including a memorial for Anton Anday, and showed a spreadsheet balance of $17.362.05.

The Secretary’s Minutes were revised to clarify the time projected for SPARTA’s next book sale.

(Correction: She hopes the spring sale will follow in May.)  Charlene Laurent moved approval of the Minutes as amended; Fran Vollrath seconded.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

Book: Nancy Kemmeter reported that Delta Dental is scheduled to move in late January/early February. When the moment for SPARTA to transfer some 8,000 books from storage arrives, volunteers will be needed. Recruiting will start at the January meeting. As for book and other donations, Nancy advises saving them until at least March.

 

Grants:  In addition to past support, such as the $500 donated to the Historical Society, the Committee will distribute $2,000 in grants during 2022. Under Janet Swiston’s leadership, the projects we most need to support will be chosen, hopefully in conjunction with the January meeting.

 

Membership: Lynne Kaglemann is sending postcards and notes to recruit new members and to remind old ones to renew. So far 49 have paid their dues for 2021-2022; there are three new members.

 

Legislative: As a follow-up to her September report, Christine Neidlein stated that the effort to recall School Board members failed because of lack of signatures. SPARTA thanks Joyce Chekouras for her watchful updates on state legislative matters. Members are urged to contact our state representatives as issues arise.

 

Historical: Christine Neidlein will now be responsible for collecting photos and articles for the scrapbook. SPARTA thanks Eileen Payne for her dedication and skillful compilations over the years.

 

Sunshine: The Executive Committee is considering expanding the opportunities for the Sunshine Committee by including thank you notes, get-well cards, etc. to members, especially those no longer living at home or who have experienced a recent setback or change. Of course, this will involve adding at least two more members to the committee. Feedback would be appreciated.

 

Social: As a continued precaution against COVID, no big bus trips are planned for the spring and possibly summer.

Eileen Payne hopes next fall will present opportunities for fun activities.

 

Retirement: Lynne Kagelmann will be working with WREA to plan a state level meeting in 2022, probably via Zoom.

 

OLD BUSINESS:  

CONSENT AGENDA

 

A motion to approve a consent agenda was made by Lauren Isberner and seconded by Mary Zinda. 

 

Volunteer Hours: Members are urged to continue recording volunteer hours. An individual volunteer log form, with categories and examples, is printed in the September Newsletter.

 

American Education Week:

Packets for Education Week were distributed to those acting as liaisons to local schools.

 

FORMAL PROGRAM: “A New Tour of Duty”

 

Veteran, interpreter, educator, farmer, conservationist, husband and father, now Portage County Executive, Chris Holmen wore—and continues to wear—many hats. From an immigrant family, he went from "the only white kid over the age of six"at a Navaho reservation, to teaching Arabic in the Army, to a Masters in geography education, to becoming a farmer with a family, and finally to his present position in county government. Along the journey—both before and after his military experience—education has played an important role, each new turn posing challenges, each teaching or reinforcing important lessons about communication. Sprinkled in Holman’s remarks are two quotes from a hero of his, Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey: "A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others” and “Teachers are the one and only people who save nations.”

 

Next Meeting:  Susan Zach will present “Cultural Commons” on January 10th.

 

Motion to Adjourn:

Adjournment was moved by Eileen Payne and seconded by Mary Zinda.

 

Treasurer’s Report

November-December 2021

 

Expenses:

AEW candy                                           172.49

Nov. Speaker’s lunch                            14.00

Nov. stipend-PC Literacy Council        100.00

Nov. veteran’s lunches                         25.00

Community Foundation,

            Jim Krems                               100.00

Printing                                               113.42

Storage Unlimited

            Dec. and Jan.                           210.00

 

                                    TOTAL             734.91

Income:

Anonymous donation for Vet. 

            Lunches                                   25.00

SPARTA dues

            12X19                                      228.00

            Life                                          150.00

 

                                    TOTAL             403.00

Flow-through:

Donation to scholarship fund             100.00

WREA dues                                         300.00

 

NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS ON OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION

From the Legislative Committee  

(Joyce Chekouras’ desk)

 

 Recalling how important it is to teach critical thinking skills early in a child’s life

I’m convinced more than ever that that nurtured ability offers hope for the future.

That ability must be employed to overcome being “hoodwinked” into believing falsities.  Oligarch’s expensive use of think tanks have provided multiple ways to bring down our Democracy by hoodwinking the masses so that too many believe the absurdities.  As Voltaire said, “Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.” We all learn by using critical thinking skills taught early in life.

 

With the onslaught of “talking points”, etc., all of us need to discern what is the

Truth.  We see the use of “gas-lighting”, “Orwellian speak”, “what aboutism” and

“lying” being used daily in the press and beyond.  The purpose is to undermine our

Democracy in an effort to create an authoritarian form of government – of, by and for the oligarchs that support it – and privatize critical public sectors, such as education, as much as possible. Knowing this we can be proactive in supporting legislation that supports our public sectors in an effort to improve them for us all.

 

Wisconsin has and continues to be the “petri-dish” for the nation.  We’re all too familiar with the Act 10 destruction and how it has demeaned the teaching profession and quality of Wisconsin public education – once known throughout the world as a top public school system in the USA.  Incidentally, it was the brain research done by Wisconsin University System that was used throughout the world in developing the best teaching methods – especially in reading.  That’s what Scandinavian countries referenced for their teaching methods and the International Reading Foundation used in their scientific journals. 

 

Diane Ravitch, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education in the early 90s and is now historian of education, educational policy analyst and research professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development has an excellent blog where we can find daily, often heartwarming, articles that discuss updates in educational, legislative issues that concern us all.  The following is an example:

                  

  Who Demoralized the Nation’s Teachers?   

 

Who Demoralized the Nation’s Teachers?

By dianeravitch 

December 28, 2021 //162

 

Who is responsible for the widespread teaching exodus? Who demoralized America’s teachers, the professionals who work tirelessly for low wages in oftentimes poor working conditions? Who smeared and discouraged an entire profession, one of the noblest of professions?

 

Let’s see:

Federal legislation, including No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

George W. Bush; Margaret Spellings; Rod Paige (who likened the NEA to terrorists); the Congressional enablers of NCLB; Sandy Kress (the mastermind behind the harsh, punitive and ultimately failed NCLB).

 

Erik Hanushek, the economist who has long advocated for firing the teachers whose students get low test scores; the late William Sanders, the agricultural economist who created the methodology to rank teachers by their students’ scores; Raj Chetty, who produced a study with two other economists claiming that “one good teacher” would enhance the lifetime earnings of a class by more than $200,000; the reporters at the Los Angeles Times who dreamed up the scheme of rating teachers by student scores abd publishing their ratings, despite their lack of validity (one LA teacher committed suicide). 

Davis Guggenheim, director of the deeply flawed “Waiting for Superman”; Bill Gates and his foundation, who funded the myth that the nation’s schools would dramatically improve by systematically firing low-ranking teachers (as judged by their students’ scores), funded “Waiting for Superman,” funded the Common Core, funded NBC’s “Education Nation,” which gave the public school bashers a national platform for a few days every year, until viewers got bored and the program died; and funded anything that was harmful to public schools and their teachers; President Obama and Arne Duncan, whose Race to the Top required states to evaluate teachers by their students’ scores and required states to adopt the Common Core and to increase the number of charter schools; Jeb Bush, for unleashing the Florida “model” of punitive accountability; and many more. 

We now know that ranking teachers by their students’ test scores does not identify the best and the worst teachers. It is ineffective and profoundly demoralizing.

 

We now know that charter schools do not outperform public schools, as many studies and NAEP data show.

 

We now know that public schools are superior to voucher schools, and that the voucher schools have high attrition rates. 

 

We now know that Teach for America is not a good substitute for well-prepared professional teachers.

Who did I leave out?

We have long known that students need experienced teachers and reasonable class sizes (ideally less than 25) to do their best. 

Given the vitriolic attacks on teachers and public schools for more than 20 years, it almost seems as though there is a purposeful effort to demoralize teachers and replace them with technology. 

 

For an update on current legislation go to wsaa.org where our partner lobbyist has the most current legislative news.

 

 

Book In-Take Day

No In-Take Days

Until Further Notice

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic

 

SPARTA WEBSITE

www.spartanewsandnotes.com

-       Meeting agendas

-       Meeting minutes

-       SPARTA updates

-       SPARTA newsletters  

 

Send website information to our webmaster:

Janet Langton – jlangton@charter.net

 

Committee Members 2021-2022  

Program Committee: Eileen Payne, Mary Zinda, Santha Bickford    

Coordinators for Power of Attorney for Health Care Committee: Santha Bickford, Bob Bowen, Jerry Kasdorf

Data Committee: Sherrilee Wallerman, Janet Langton, Jack Allgaier    

Retirement Committee: Judy Zimmerman, Sandy Schroeder, Santha Bickford    

Membership Committee:  Lynne Kagelmann, Sally Dehlinger    

Legislative Committee: Joyce Chekouras, Christine Neidlein  

Social Committee: Eileen Payne, Mary Moore, Barb Clementi, Sherrilee Wallerman  

Health Committee: Jerry Kasdorf, 

Historical Committee: Eileen Payne   

Book Committee: Nancy Kemmeter, Janeen Kwarciany, Nancy Mezyk, Janet Swiston, Mary Marks, Charlene    Laurent, Fran Vollrath, Elbert Rackow; Sally Dehlinger   

Sunshine Committee: Mary Beth Anday (Jan-Mar), Suzanne Fee (April-Dec.) Arvy Crawford, Santha Bickford 

Grants Committee: Janet Swiston, Nancy Kemmeter, Janeen Kwarciany, Nancy Mezyk, Mary Marks, Charlene Laurent, Fran    Vollrath, Elbert Rackow, Eileen Payne

 

New SPARTA Directories will be available at the March 14th meeting.

 

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