The CAS-CIAC Endowment and Flanagan Grant Program, made possible by the generosity of sponsors whose dollars have helped us build a stable endowment fund, provides grant money to member schools to fund new or existing initiatives that lead to enriched educational experiences and/or improved learning environments. The deadline for proposals is April 15th.

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Registration is closing for KiDSMARATHON 2016, an amazing life fitness program that can be easily implemented in any school setting. KiDSMARATHON is an eight- to ten-week training program for students aged 7-12. Participants complete a full marathon by running incremental distances each week and finishing the last mile with hundreds of peers at a regional site. The training can take place before, during, or after school. Using the mantra "winning is finishing and finishing is winning," KiDSMARATHON helps students develop life-long fitness skills, social-emotional learning, a feeling of accomplishment and self-confidence. Sign up now!

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Nominations for the Administrative Assistant of the Year Award must be submitted by Wednesday, April 6th. The award will be presented at the 2016 Administrative Assistants’ Conference to be held at the Aqua Turf on April 29th. Sponsored annually in conjunction with National Administrative Professionals Week, this event is designed to enrich the important role that secretaries play in our schools. Please consider making a nomination for this prestigious award.

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Last week, the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) released a new report, “Next Ed: Next Steps,” which looks at the progress Connecticut has made with transitioning public education to a mastery-based personalized learning system and provides recommendations to continue this progress. A continuous improvement plan, the report was created through a collaboration with project partners, including CAS, and a core working group who invested two years in its development. The report, a sequel to “NextEd: The CAPSS Transformation Report,” provides recommendations as to how education can be transformed to benefit all students in Connecticut.

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Earlier this month, the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing titled, “Strengthening Education Research and Privacy Protections to Better Serve Students.” The hearing’s purpose was to examine how researchers use personally identifiable student data to support education research. Read about this and other recent developments on Capitol Hill in this month’s federal relations update courtesy of Michael Litke.

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The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut is hosting its first annual Teacher Leadership Academy, a one-week intensive program designed to develop teacher leadership skills. The academy will help participants enhance their ability to support high-quality instruction and cultivate competencies to strengthen their effectiveness as teacher leaders. Early-bird registration ends June 1. More information can be found at s.uconn.edu/NeagTLA.

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Last month, the Connecticut State Department of Education published the list of certification areas that have been designated as shortage areas for the 2016-2017 school year. New to this year’s list is “School Psychologist.”

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