CAT Tracks for May 25, 2004 THE END IS NEAR...

...and you thought I meant the end of the school year!

Actually just wanted to get your attention for a friendly REMINDER from your local professional development committee - LPDC. The first group required to meet the "new" recertification regulations only has one year left to do so! CHECK YOUR CERTIFICATE EXPIRATION DATE! Yeah, you had 5 years to do so...but that was 4 years ago! Time flies when your having...Nah!

And...they changed the rules! Well...with an assist from a federal judge in the Corey H decision. You absolutely MUST meet the special education requirement of 24 CPDUs (prorated for the first two groups). According to our calculations, "Group A" (whose certificates expire on June 30, 2005) must obtain 17 CPDUs in special education - out of the 120 total CPDU requirement. "Group B" (whose certificates expire on June 30, 2006) must obtain 22 CPDUs in special education. "Group C" (whose certificates expire on June 30, 2007) must obtain the full 24 CPDUs.

ALSO...all the CPDUs in the world won't get you recertified unless you TURN THEM IN! If you have obtained CPDUs towards recertification - and if you haven't, you better get started...yesterday - obtain a "Claim for Credit" form, complete it (including the "reflective statement"), and turn it in to Brenda Jones at the Central Office. She copies them and distributes them to the LPDC members for review/approval. (Be sure that the Claim for Credit form is the new type that provides for claiming special education CPDUs.)

If you have any questions concerning any of the above, feel free to contact any member of the LPDC. Teacher representatives on the 7-person committee are De De O'Shea, Suzan Partridge, Deborah Hammel, and Ron Newell.

And returning to the original subject line...YES!...it's true...TGIS!