May 21, 2021 during the Hybrid in-person/Zoom banquet
Good evening members of NHAE, supporters of the organization, honorees, and scholarship recipients.
I am Dr. Antonio Acevedo, the president of the Network of Hispanic Administrators in Education or NHAE. On behalf of the executive board, which in addition to myself includes, our vice president, Dr. Maria “Terri” Campos, our treasurer, Maria Fresse-Giffels, our corresponding secretary, Elba Íñiguez, and our recording secretary Nelly Robles, I want to welcome you to the 23rd Annual NHAE Scholarship and Retiree Banquet.
I want to share with you a bit about NHAE; Our mission is to advocate for, and support quality and equity in education for Hispanic educators and students.
NHAE is the following:
A professional organization formed in 1989; originally formed of Hispanic CPS principals, but now our members include assistant principals, central office and network office administrators, aspiring administrators such as teacher leaders, and other friends of the the organization
Committed to quality and equity in education
Provide mentoring for aspiring leaders
Support future educators through scholarships
Provide professional growth and networking opportunities
Provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of issues affecting Hispanic educators, students, and communities
This year we held three virtual general membership meetings during which we addressed topics centered on our mission. In September we began the year with a focus on equity and a presentation from Dr. Maurice Swinney, the Chief Equity Officer of CPS. At the November meeting the focus was on promoting leadership development opportunities through the Latino Leadership Pipeline, IALAS, and the GEM program. In January Dr. Victor Simon, superintendent of district 62 and former CPS network chief, shared with us his recommendations for preparing for a return to in-person instruction within a simultaneous teaching context. In March the membership received an update on the CPS Curriculum Equity Initiative, with respect to English Learners from Dr. Sherly Chavarría, Chief of Teaching and Learning, and Jorge Macias, Chief of the Office of Language and Cultural Education. In addition, each of our business meetings were followed by an hour of networking. We danced, had scavenger hunts, played Kahoot quizzes and other trivia games. I am very proud of the team that worked so hard to plan and execute these meetings and networking opportunities.
This evening is the culminating event of the year and one in which we network once again, award scholarships to education majors, honor members who are leaving CPS to take on a new leadership role, and show our gratitude to retirees who made the lives of our CPS students much better with their commitment and love.
Before I move on to the next part of the program, I want to reflect on the past 14 months during which educators have had to adapt to the challenges of remote learning, address our problems of race in this country with our students, and support one another through the loss of loved ones and other traumas associated with the pandemic.
As we turn the page on this pandemic and return to what might be normal. I hope we use the following terms less often:
Synchronous and asynchronous
Remote, hybrid, and simultaneous instruction
You’re on mute or hot mic
You’re frozen, it’s lagging, it’s glitching
I got a bad connection, I got kicked out
Telework accommodations
Did you complete the health screener?
HEPA air filters
Bring that issue to the safety committee
Quarantining, flipping pods, and contact tracing
ENOUGH!!!!!
Thank you for your time and with this we will move on to the next part of our program.
Happy New Year fellow administrators, members, and supporters of NHAE, I am hopeful that 2021 will be better than 2020. We know that in a week we will have new leadership in Washington and, if confirmed, a Latino Secretary of Education. These are very welcomed changes to our membership and the communities we serve. This change cannot come soon enough as many of us witnessed on television the siege of the seat of democracy last week by extremists who have bought into disinformation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. As leaders of schools many of us have as a goal educating our students to become productive and contributing members of society. To do so we must ensure that our students have a strong foundation in social science and civics education. In addition, with the prevalence of social media platforms and news media outlets online, we must teach our children how to check sources and understand how to identify when information being shared is not factual and has a nefarious purpose. Not doing so will lead even more of our future voting citizens down a dangerous path. This is an important part of providing our communities a quality education, which is one of the goals of this organization. As a social science endorsed educator, I cannot stress this enough. As we continue supporting our teachers with providing our students a quality education in a remote setting, we must now prepare to support our teachers with doing this in a different and more challenging context - one in which they may have students both in front of them in the classroom and at home simultaneously. I hope today’s presentation , here at NHAe, helps provide us some clarity on how to best support our teachers for this scenario and lay out for them a foundation for success with this new teaching model. We know as leaders we must face these challenges through the lens of adaptive leadership and engage all stakeholders to find solutions to this constantly evolving context caused by the current pandemic. Once again, I am hopeful we can do that as long as we support each other throughout this crisis. Please continue advocating for the communities you serve, and most of all remember to take care of yourselves. Dr. Antonio Acevedo President of the Network of Hispanic Administrators in Education
January13, 2021
Dear NHAE Colleagues and Friends,
Networking with other fellow administrators is paramount during these challenging times. The NHAE Executive Board wants you to know that you are not alone in continuing to serve the families of Chicago Public Schools and other surrounding Latino communities. We are here for you.
You are cordially invited to NHAE's first virtual General Membership Meeting to be held on September 24th. At this time, NHAE will waive the membership fee for SY20-21 due to Covid-19. We need you to complete a NHAE Membership Form and provide us with a personal email address to receive the invite. Please send an email to einiguez0917@gmail.com to get the meeting link.
Here are the by-laws of the organization for your convenience. Please take a few moments to preview. We will need members to volunteer for the ad hoc committees.
In Solidarity,
Elba Iniguez
NHAE Corresponding Secretary
NHAE 2020-2021 Membership Meetings
General Membership Meetings:
Thursday September 24, 2020, 5:00-7:00 pm via Zoom
Thursday, November 12, 2020, 5:00-7:00 pm via Zoom
Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 5:00-7:00 pm TBD
Thursday, March 18, 2021, 5:00-7:00 pm TBD
Annual Retiree and Scholarship Banquet: Friday May 21, 2021
Mixer TBD