Thank you Mary Beth for a great job emceeing and also for Venoco’s long-standing support for our teachers, our children and public education.
The Venoco, Inc. Crystal Apple Awards have become the Academy Awards for educational excellence.
A big and a very special “thank you” to Petti Pfau, our Teachers Network Director. Petti is retiring at the end of this year and has been with the Teachers Network from the very beginning, first as a participating teacher, and now as the director.
What has made Petti such a phenomenal leader is the passion, the love, the caring, and the skill she brings to the task. Petti appreciates the true value of teachers and how they touch lives forever.
To express our appreciation for all you have done for teachers, your love of arts and crafts, we have a fabric apple on plaque which reads:
To teach is to touch a life forever.
It captures who you are and your work.
The inscription reads:
Petti M. Pfau – May 17, 2012
Thank you for all that you have done for our teachers through Teachers Network.
Petti, we love you and appreciate you and wish you dreams fulfilled.
A very special thank you to all our business, foundation, and government partners. Your support is the lifeline of the Teachers Network. A special thank you to Frank Guiberteau and to Exxon who has been a supporter of Teachers Network since day one, for 28 years. Your investment in our teachers will pay dividends for our youth for years to come. A shout-out too to our elected officials, school board members, dignitaries, and other guests , who are here to support teacher excellence.
And, speaking of excellence, congratulations to all the Crystal Apple and grant award winners for the excellence you bring to your classrooms, your schools, and to education in our county. Together, you are an impressive group!
Tonight, too, we also honor the memory of Ellen Dempsey, the founder of the National Teachers Network, whose vision and leadership made our network possible, with financial support from Exxon. As a Teachers Network board member for over 25 years, I had the privilege of watching Ellen shape the Teachers Network to provide a voice for teachers that combined idealism, vision, and action. It is a fitting tribute that Ellen’s vision and actions live on through the Ellen Dempsey Memorial Grant Program.
Congratulations to the winners, Jennifer Wilson and her team. Ellen would be justifiably proud of the good work being promoted in her honor. We are all proud to help keep her dreams alive in such a meaningful way.
Ellen was about honoring teachers. A special word now to all our teachers, as tonight is all about honoring you. When I see your passion for, and love of teaching, along with the enthusiasm and skill you bring to the classroom, I’m reminded of a quote from Katherine Graham: “To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?” Clearly, you love what you do and what you do matters!
I have deep and abiding admiration and appreciation for your choosing the teaching profession. It is a given that you have sacrificed, like all public servants, much higher pay and far better working conditions to make our communities better places.
This is why I find mind boggling and outrageous, the recent trend by some media pundits and political opportunists, to twist logic and common sense on its head, and cite education and teachers as the cause of the fiscal crisis.
I intend to continue to speak out, with every remaining ounce of energy, challenging those who attempt to make teachers and public servants, who are our true community heroes, into villians and targets of scorn.
The media, for example, likes to talk about international comparisons. What they don’t mention, and I will, is that in high performing countries, teachers are revered and highly compensated.
Then there’s the state budget. As I speak, we have on the table a state budget proposal that, moves us further away from our historic commitment to education and children in California.
This is on the heels of $18 billion in cuts to education in the past three years.
Georgie, a Crystal Apple recipient -- her comments tonight speak to the pain and devastation of these cuts and that the investment gap that exists today represents turning our backs on our traditional values; it is simply wrong and frankly un-American.
What we see today in Sacramento is a clear dereliction of that duty.
We are not sticking our heads in the sand. We are well aware that our state faces a true fiscal crisis and is staggering in its magnitude.
We understand there are no easy solutions. We are mindful that legislators need to make extremely difficult and wrenching choices.
However, I respectfully submit that not all institutions are equal. Public education is of a different magnitude and impact.
It is simply unacceptable and self-defeating for the state to abdicate its responsibility to fund public schools at an adequate level.
The current situation is unsustainable. The very fabric of our society is at stake.
The concept of free and universal public education is the core of what makes our country exceptional, and has been the envy of the world.
In America, for generations, adults did what was right for the generations that followed. We cannot lose a generation of young people simply because the adults refused to act.
In summary, we are asking simply that today’s policymakers grow up and do what adults of the past have always done for the next generation of children, providing them with the same opportunities they had as children.
When I meet with legislators, I will also continue to remind them that despite the difficult working conditions created by these deep cuts our teachers, all of you, reach out to foster the well being of each student, regardless of ability, motivation, background, race, ethnicity, or religion.
I will ask them to visit your classrooms and see first hand the caring, the passion, the commitment, and the skill – the “can do” and “will do” spirit, the magic that goes on every day in your classrooms, the spirit that is represented here tonight.
In summary, I know I speak for all the children, I speak for all parents, I speak for the entire community, in thanking you for your passion, skill, tenaciousness, and patience.
Thank you for the things you do every day, under less than ideal conditions.
You are the true keepers of the dream.
And your service is among the greatest callings in our community.
Marion Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, once said, “Every day light a small candle. It may be the one that sparks the moment to save our children and the nation’s future.” Every day you walk into your classroom and work your magic, you light that candle.
Your work represents the brightest hope for our state and nation. Your contributions are among the most meaningful as your work shapes humanity.
Simply and honestly stated, you are true community heroes, and you have our respect, appreciation, and adulation.
Thank you for caring and for all you do.
Good night and God speed.
