Legislative Alert from ACE of Florida

2010 Legislative Alert # 5
From the Desk: Valorie Boyd, Executive Director
Date: March 19, 2010

RE: Potential Legislation Impacting Florida’s
Retirement System

It has come to our attention that there is some potential legislation being discussed that would impact the Florida Retirement System. House Bill 1319 was filed last week related to the Florida Retirement System and other governmental retirement systems to scale back government retirement benefits and corresponding costs in a number of ways.

House and Senate committees have had a number of workshops where reducing the cost of retirement benefits to the state and local governments has been discussed, including reduction in benefits and requiring employees to make partial contributions.

Attached is a link to HB 1319 and I encourage you to take a look at this bill.

http://www.flsenate.gov/data/session/2010/House/bills/billtext/pdf/h131900.pdf

HB 1319 Governmental Retirement Systems; Designates act "Public Employee Retirement Preservation Act"; requires certain public employees to contribute an additional specified percentage of their gross income for certain purposes; provides requirements for certain retirement system or plan actuarial reports & experience studies; provides for closing of certain plans; provides maximum retirement benefit for certain retirement system or plan members, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2010

Below are a few items of the bill which are of concern. The line number is also listed so that you may find the information easier in the bill, which is 50+ pages.

Line 110: 1 percent contribution of salary to FRS for new hires

Line 250: Overtime, accumulated annual leave excluded from “compensation”

Line 271: Average final compensation no longer includes accumulated annual leave and no longer based on highest five years, but now average annual compensation over creditable service

Line 448: Reduction in annual multiplier from 1.60 to 1.44 percent for regular class

Line 623; 731: Normal retirement ages and ages for DROP eligibility are increased

You are encouraged to contact your legislators to have your concerns heard. Stay vigilant on this issue.

P-E-P for Persistence and Putting P-E-P into Your Teaching

Deb Hutto from NWFSC did an awesome job at both of these trainings. Participants now understand more about persistence and that it's not just keeping our students in class it is keeping them motivated and focused as well. Thanks, Deb for the wonderful information and startegies shared.

It's February

Hey Region 1!
Can you believe that is it February? This year is flying by. I hope you are all doing well. Just wanted to make sure that you all knew about all of the exciting professional development opportunites that your Region 1 RTC has planned. Some of them don't have official marketing titles yet but I wanted you to know that they are coming.

TABE 101 Certification Training
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sign-in/Networking 8:00 - 8:30 CST
Workshop 8:30 - 4:00 CST
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

P-E-P* for Persistence
*Passion-Encouragement-Practice
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CST
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CST
NWFSC Chautauqua Center
908 W. Hwy 90
DeFuniak Springs, Florida


GED Math with Melinda Part 2
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CST
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00
NWFSC Chautauqua Center
908 W. Hwy 90
DeFuniak Springs, Florida

Putting P-E-P into Your Teaching
Friday, March 5, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CST
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CST
NWFSC Chautauqua Center
908 W. Hwy 90
DeFuniak Springs, Florida

GED Math With Melinda Part 3
March 10, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CST
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CST
NWFSC Chautauqua Center
908 W. Hwy 90
DeFuniak Springs, Florida

TAP with Phil Anderson (An in-depth study of the technical assistance paper for assessment
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CDT
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

ABE Writing
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CDT
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

GED Writing
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CDT
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

CHOICES
Friday, April 9, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30-9:00 EDT
Workshop 9:00-1:00 EDT
Leon County Schools Adult & Community Education
283 Trojan Trail
Tallahassee, Florida

Human Trafficking
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30-9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00-1:00 CDT
NWFSC
100 College Blvd.
Niceville, Florida

Digital Citizenship
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30-9:00 EDT
Workshoop 9:00-1:00 EDT
Leon County Schools Adult & Community Education
283 Trojan Trail
Tallahassee, Florida

CHOICES
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 - 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00-1:00 CDT
Santa Rosa County Schools
6556 Firehouse Road
Bldg. 5 Room #004
Milton, Florida

Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CDT
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
Friday May 7, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30 – 9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00 – 1:00 CDT
PAEC
753 West Blvd.
Chipley, Florida

Social Networking
Friday, May 14, 2010
Sign-In/Networking 8:30-9:00 CDT
Workshop 9:00-1:00 CDT
NWFSC-Chautauqua Center
908 W. Hwy 90
DeFunaik Springs, Florida

Resource for Teaching Reading

Thanks toMelonie Inzetta with the Florida Department of Corrections for sharing the following resource.

www.rhlschool.com/reading.htm

Happy 2010 Region 1!

Hey Region 1!
I hope your new year is going well and that you are surviving all of this cold weather.
Here are the trainings that we have scheduled so far for the new year.
I hope to see you at some or ALL of them.
Lisa

TABE 101 January 13, 2010 PAEC, Chipley

"I Graduated...Now What" January 15, 2010 NWFSC, DeFuniak

The Future of
Adult Education Data January 21, 2010 PAEC, Chipley

"All Matters GED" January 27, 2010 PAEC, Chipley

GED Math with Melinda
A Three-Part Series February 10, 2010
February 24, 2010
March 10, 2010 NWFSC, DeFuniak

Everyday Challenges in the ESOL Classroom

What a wonderful training! I can't wait until the next one on December 11th. I hope you all will join us.

Happy Thanksgiving Region 1

Hey Region 1!
Can you believe that the end of November is in our sights. I wish you all a very blessed Thankgiving.
I am thankful for your dedication to the students in our Region and for the support you have given me.
We have three professional development opportunities planned for the month of December and here they are:

TABE 101 Certification Training
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
NWFSC, Niceville, Florida 8:00 - 4:00

Graphic Literacy
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
PAEC, Chipley, Florida 8:30- 1:00

Everyday Challenges in the ESOL Classroom Part 2
Friday, December 11, 2009
NWFSC Chautauqua Center, DeFuniak Springs, Florida 8:30 - 1:00

I hope to see you at one or all of these trainings.
Don't forget to BLOG!!!

Lisa