Put Kids First Rally - April 18th

Some Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Put Kids First April 18^th rally----

Do you have Nutsy?  YES, we’ve got Nutsy the Flying Squirrel, mascot for the San Francisco Giants Double A baseball affiliate in Richmond booked to appear at the staging area, the Richmond Convention Center, available for autographs and pictures!!!

Is this a family friendly event? YES! Some of you have been wondering if the April 18^th Put Kids First rally in Richmond will be kid and family friendly. Well at the pre-event and staging area at the Richmond Convention Center (doors open at noon) we will have a bouncy house, an 18 FOOT TALL SLIDE and a bouncy house Obstacle Course for starters. This will be a fun, festive, family event, a coalition of the two greatest and most respected advocates for public education-the Virginia Education Association and the Virginia Parent Teacher Association!! We’re not babysitting but there will be entertainments in the staging area to keep kids occupied and enjoying the day with you as they stand up for the schools they attend.

                                               

What’s the latest on buses? Thank you to every one of you who got back to us with best guesstimates. Many of you, despite the weather, have been hard at work with turnout plans and sending commitment cards to the VEA which now number in the hundreds. The Facebook event page for VEA has a couple of hundred definite attendees and almost that many saying “maybe”. Patsy Coppins, who you might remember worked with the VEA Board for many years and was the Executive Administrative Assistant to Executive Directors from Dave Johnson to myself has come out of retirement to coordinate buses. She has completed an initial order of 44 buses booked from Alexandria to Dublin, from Galax to Hopewell, from St. Paul to Stafford, from Danville to Fairfax, from Fredericksburg to Norfolk…. well you get the point; every corner of the state is covered.  These orders are based on both actual numbers, commitment cards, revised guesstimates and best thinking and should put a bus near enough to most all of our members.  What is most encouraging are the conversations Patsy Coppins has been having with staff-- both your local administrative UniServ Support staff and the UniServ Directors in all areas of the state. The turnout efforts, the commitment cards, the real numbers that are beginning to percolate are all positive.  So we have buses and now we have to fill them. One difficulty going forward is that the VEA has contracted most of the available and reasonably priced buses throughout the state of the Virginia and as we get improved numbers we may have difficulty contracting for additional buses at less than cost prohibitive rates. We will consider the use of gas cards for locals willing to coordinate car pools if we are unable to secure additional buses at reasonable rates to meet growing demand. We really are hoping that is going to be a problem we face J!! By the way , the NEA has kicked in $50,000 to pay for buses to get us to Richmond!

What about those commitment cards? Attached to this email is  a copy of the commitment card (PKF CToolkit ComCard.docx). Print these out. Distribute them to your reps in bundles. Carry them on you to every place you go and get people to sign and commit to come to April 18^th. Then make certain to send them back to us either through your UniServ office or directly to Sonny Ogbuehi at sogbuehi@veanea.org , Assistant Director of Field Support, Organizing and Minority Engagement. He’s coordinating and cataloguing all the cards and the calls and emails that will go back to these individuals to confirm their attendance and their needs for transportation. The cards are an important way of ensuring turnout for April 18^th so please ask everyone you know and turn ‘em in. People can also register at thegoodforvirginia.org/PutKidsFirst web page.

What are we going to say at the rally? Well, there are four major issues-underfunding, class size, early childhood education, and over-testing, but the key is for us to tell our story. Pre-packaged message points are helpful but what is most effective are real and powerful stories of how these issues manifest in our local community. To that end we need your stories and you can tell them by going to goodforvirginia.org/PutKidsFirst.

Where can I get materials to promote the rally? goodforvirginia.org/PutKidsFirst This is your one stop shop to tell your story, commit to the event but also to get materials. On here you can get your campaign toolkit, find editable speeches, resolutions, letters to the editor and commitment cards.

Is there a new rally flier? Yes there is and you can find it attached above. It is two sided with a map of the area between the convention center and capitol as well as parking areas marked. Though there are events in and around the convention center, there are multiple public parking garages and areas next to and within blocks of the convention center staging area. We do not anticipate parking problems but give yourself time to get into Richmond and the convention center otherwise you will have a parking problem. The doors of the convention center staging area will be open at noon to receive you. There are food court and snack areas located within the convention center and we will have water and nutrition bars available for you on your way to the rally.

What about weather? The good thing about the Richmond Convention Center is we can use it as a backup should a reasonable weather event-snow, heavy rain, etc (not a hurricane or tornado) cause us problems at the Capitol. If it is a hot day, again there will be waters staged outside the convention center to keep people cool. Get to Richmond early and stay out of the weather, hot or cold,  at the convention center as you wait for the march to the Capitol to begin.

Why are we doing this? On April 18, 2015, a historic gathering for public education will be held on the Capitol grounds in Richmond, Virginia made up of a coalition of the VEA and the Virginia PTA. The coalition is born from a pent up frustration with the empty rhetoric of support that officials utter while the policies they promote and the investments they make in our schools, our teachers, our ESPs, and our kids fall short. If we are to “Put Kids First”, if we are to see the kind of investment in the Commonwealth’s schools that we want, we cannot continue to do things as we have done. We must make the public and the officials they elect take notice. We must do something to “change the conversation”. 

So if you have had enough the stage is set. Now we have to play our part and get those around us to get on the bus and into their cars and get to Richmond. Be safe in the weather we have been having and have a great weekend. More updates to follow as we move through these next 57 days to April 18^th.