Happy Spring! I am excited to come to you this week before Spring Break as your newly re-elected BEA President. Full election results will be coming soon through your building reps! As always, we will continue to build relationships, seek relevancy, and obtain results. We must continue to work together for our students, our District and our Association.

Did you know that the BEA has some outstanding bowlers? Yes, bowlers! The BEA and the MEA (Meridian Education Association) held the 1st Annual “Compete For Kids” bowling event on March 8th. Guess who won!?!? Yep, the BEA! This wasn’t just any ‘ol bowling event though, we raised $370 for the IEA Children’s Fund. Stay tuned for the next Children’s Fund activity…look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you for your membership. Thank you for your voice. Thank you for working so hard every day for your students, your schools, and our profession. I appreciate you! Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you!

Stephanie Myers, BEA President

stephaniemyers@boiseea.org

The NEA ESP Conference is the premier professional development opportunity for Education Support Professionals across the nation. The goal of this conference is to enhance the skills and knowledge of ESP members to positively impact student achievement, build community relations, organize members, advocate for educators, build stronger locals, and help our members do their jobs better.

Boise Schools:
Allison Gordon is the Library Media/Tech Support for the district and is a member of the BEA ESP Steering Committee and this will be her second year representing ESP's from Boise at the IEA Delegate Assembly. This will be her third year in the district, the two previous years as the librarian at Lowell Elementary. Her focus will be learning new ideas for increasing membership, outreach and support for the ESP's in Boise. Allison hopes to use technology to help share the information from the conference across the district, and possibly the state.

Gena Harris is a Title I paraprofessional at Hawthorne Elementary, where she has been for the last 17 years. Gena will be presenting at the conference this year. Her focus will be on Critical Thinking Questioning Strategies: A guide to Higher Level Thinking for the Common Core. Participants will explore the appropriate levels of questions using Bloom's, Costa's and Webb's Depth of Knowledge models of higher level thinking.

Nampa Schools:
Stacie Aspiazu-Johnson currently works in the Emotional Disturbed and Behavioral program and the previous 8 years working as a special education paraprofessional in the Extended Resource Room. Stacie is currently on the Executive Team of the Nampa Education Association as Membership Chair. She is also the Region 8 Vice President and has sat on the IEA Board of Directors as a sub for Region 8. Stacie has and is very passionate about the ESP's rights and equality and is hoping the conference will be able to provide ideas to help motivate and unionize the ESP's.

Cascade Schools:
Linda Jarvis lives and works in the small and rural area of Cascade Idaho working with Kindergarten through 3rd grade students as a Title I Paraprofessional. Linda has been supporting and working in her school for 13 years, an important and integral part of the education team. Linda hopes to learn more about impacting student achievement and to help strengthen the positive relationship with her school and parents. Learning new ideas and collaborating with other ESP members will be a helpful part of this process.

Bonners Ferry Schools:
Jessica Vickers is a special education paraprofessional working diligantly for the past 7 years. Jessica has been working at the largest elementary school in Bonners Ferry, serving almost 400 students and working with all grade levels, Kindergarten through 6th grade. Jessica is also lucky enough in her small community to have her three children attending her school.

Last November the Tech 101 newsletter premiered. Created and edited by the Instructional Media Center (IMC), the newsletter highlights several programs, websites and databases that are available and mostly free for educators in the Boise School District.

Tech 101 is a monthly newsletter that is emailed out from your school librarian or principal. You can check out videos, links and pictures about excellent digital resources. To check out the Tech 101's archive page, click here. The most recent issue can be found directly below.

We're holding another and much needed diaper drive for the families at the Marian Pritchett School for the entire month of April.

We're looking for diapers in the following sizes:
3-6 and 4T

Diapers, pull-ups and of course wipes are all needed and appreciated. Check with your building reps for more details.

Click here for a flyer.

Make sure to find and Like us on Facebook for updates, information and photos about the BEA/ESP. https://www.facebook.com/ESPBoise

Want to show some association spirit? Than click here to go to our online site to order a new ESP, originally designed, shirt and mail your check to the IEA/BEA building through the school mail.

ESP Steering Committee Meetings:
April 3, 2014
May 1, 2014
June 5, 2014

Rep. Council Meetings:
March 17, 2014
April 28th, 2014
May 19th, 2014

School Board Meetings:
March 10, 2014
April 14, 2014
May 12, 2014
June 9, 2014
July 14, 2014

Spring Break
March 24-28, 2014

Memorial Day - No School
May 26, 2014

Last Day of School - Early Release
June 4, 2014

-BEA President, Stephanie Myers
-BEA Executive Director, Kathy Yamamoto

-Chair, Gena Harris, Hawthorne
-Rachelle Bernard, DSC
-Debra Brown, Horizon
-Mary Gordon, Whitney
-Bev Harrigfeld, Horizon
-Jeanine Rishel, South
-Allison Gordon, Ft. Boise
-Nick Stienmetz, F & O
-Kathy Pierce, Hillside

Newsletter Editor:

-Allison Gordon

Email: info@boiseea.org
Website: www.boiseea.org
Location: 620 N 6th St, Boise, ID 83702
Phone: (208) 345-4450
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ESPBoise