President’s Message

Greetings TASPA Members! The roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines have offered school districts great hope for a full return to the physical classroom. The fact that these immunizations have an efficacy rate of 95%, based on comprehensive trials, increases our optimism for a return to normalcy. The CDC states that the vaccines are highly effective at protecting against symptomatic and severe COVID-19. I suggest that the physical classroom will never resemble what we left behind so abruptly in March 2020. It will be better equipped to serve the needs of all students with technology and fortified by stronger teacher-parent partnerships. By necessity, all of us took crash courses in the use of an array of technology-based platforms and applications. We have been dunked into the deep waters of the virtual. Because of this unintended educational experience, teachers will return to their campuses well-equipped to deploy what they learned during this crisis and be better prepared to complement faceto-face instruction with technology. During the first week in May we celebrate “Teacher Appreciation Week”. On behalf of Human Resources personnel statewide and the TASPA staff we would like to express gratitude to all the teachers for the meaningful work they do every day to ensure the success of each and every child especially during this pandemic. Teachers are meaningful partners in the raising of our community’s children. They collaborate with parents and caregivers to keep families informed and contribute to a school climate that makes our students feel welcomed, safe, and valued.

New and exciting things happening at TASPA! Dr. Lolly Guerra and staff will be relocating the TASPA office to a new location in the next few weeks. TASPA members are continuing to receive information and updates pertinent to human resources related to pending and newly enacted legislation through weekly updates, or virtual workshops. We are gearing up for the Summer Conference to be held at the Kalahari Resort on July 14-16, 2021. We are excited that this will be our first face-to-face conference in over a year! In the fall, we are also planning the Support Staff Conference on October 4-5, 2021 at the Kalahari Resort. Please make sure to plan ahead and register early for these conferences. I would like to encourage everyone working in Human Resources to obtain or update a TASPA membership in order to not miss out on vital information and opportunities related to our HR field.

Hope to see everyone soon. Stay healthy and safe!

Martha Carrasco