Celebrating and Supporting Teaching Excellence

of Representatives, was named the 2016 National Teacher of the Year.

Recent passage by the legislature of funding for free school meals for the rest of this academic year and a fix to the special education excess cost reimbursement grant disbursement are two early victories!

School meals going forward from this year and into the future is being considered in SB 929. Contact your legislators AND the Governor with your support.

The Education Committee will hold public hearings and vote bills out of committee before their deadline of March 27. Please keep an eye out for our Advocacy Highlights to keep you informed on public hearing dates. The committees must give the public five days of notice of a public hearing.

With the recognition of the 2023 Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Carolyn Kielma, as a National Teacher of the Year Finalist, now is as good a time as ever to reach out to our state’s Boards of Education and educational leaders to let you know more about Connecticut’s outstanding Teacher of the Year program. Carolyn is the tenth finalist from Connecticut since the national program’s inception in 1952, and the third since 2009. Four of our state’s teachers have been selected as National Teacher of the Year, most recently when 2016 Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes, who now represents the 5th Congressional District of Connecticut in the U.S. House

The Connecticut Teacher of the Year Program, coordinated by the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council and the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), is our state’s premier teacher recognition program. School districts throughout Connecticut participate in this prestigious program, nominating local teachers who have the opportunity to participate in a rigorous selection process with the hopes of becoming Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year.

The Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council, in partnership with our sponsors and CSDE, develops programming aimed at engaging Teachers of the Year in activities and roles that allow them to share, learn, and advocate for best practices and policies in public education. In an effort to preserve, improve, and expand the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Program, the Council works with corporate and

The month of March is Connecticut Board of Education Member Appreciation month. This is the perfect opportunity to say “thank you” to the hard-working and dedicated board members across Connecticut. We encourage you to recognize the time and effort they devote to board business during the course of the year. Use #BoardAppreciationMonth and #THANKYOU when thanking your Board members on social media.

CABE will be sharing Board of Education Appreciation videos during March. We encourage you to share these at a Board of Education meeting in March.

The Connecticut Board of Education Member Appreciation online toolkit includes facts about Connecticut’s Board of Education members and quotes you can use in recognizing Board members. You can also access customizable materials such as editorials, new releases, suggestions for saluting school board members, and more in the Members Only section of the CABE website: https://www.cabe.org/members/boardof-ed-appreciation-toolkit. You may also purchase Thank You Hershey bars, “Out of the public schools grows the