The VAESP Board of Directors has designed and is implementing an aggressive action plan aimed at reaching every elementary school principal, assistant principal, and aspiring principal in the Commonwealth. Their message is clear. Membership in your professional organization is the best way you can insure your professional interests and the institution of public education are protected. Our objective in this profession is to enhance the educational opportunities of our children. And we believe we can best achieve our goals by strengthening the principalship.
Clearly the ongoing assault on public education affects the principalship. The assault has many fronts. Every General Assembly proposes legislation impacting budgets, salaries, benefits, working conditions, training, licensure, standards, and ethics. Every local jurisdiction imposes their own unique standards and ethics. Each must be monitored with an eye towards driving the process rather than reacting to it. Membership in VAESP/NAESP provides principals with advocacy in Richmond and Washington.
VAESP is not alone in its advocacy. We are affiliated with every major educational organization in the state. The Virginia Education Association, School Boards Association, Association of School Superintendents, Association of Secondary School Principals, the Virginia PTA, and others, continue to work with VAESP towards common goals.
Each of us is keenly aware of the legal protection principals and assistant principals require. Membership in VAESP/NAESP affords financial assistance in job related actions and security in knowing where to turn in a moment of crisis. (Up to $1,000,000 protection is available for settlements in civil suit claims.)
Today, perhaps more than ever before, there exists the need for professionals to continue to grow and learn. As educators we pride ourselves in providing expanding learning opportunities and it is a measure of our success which requires us to maintain our own active agendas for professional development. Membership in your professional association keeps you abreast of the latest research and exposes you via conferences and workshops to those individuals and practices proven to be effective. Intellectual challenges coupled with the exchange of ideas is the breeding ground for growth and friendship. VAESP/NAESP enables our members to build a network that delivers both.
