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News
Lobby Night, February 27, 2006
Over 160 educational employees from Western Maryland traveled to Annapolis for Lobby Night on Monday night, February 27, to discuss pension issues with the Western Maryland Delegation, Senator Hafer and Delegate Edwards, Delegate Kelly, and Delegate Myers.
Shown above with Senator John Hafer are Deborah Pappas, Vice President, Allegany County Teachers' Association; Stewart Monroe, Jr., President Allegany County Educational Services Council; Senator John Hafer; Steve Robinette, President of Local 1633 American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees; Valeria Arch, President, Allegany County Teachers' Association; and Bill Payne, President of the Association of Public School Administrators and Supervisors of Allegany County.
The ACTA, ACESC, APSASAC and AFSCME appreciate Senator Hafer and his staff for making the Lobby Night arrangements.
MSTA West
Linda Clites-Michael
Washington MS, Allegany County
Teacher
"I’m a rep, a delegate, the pension chairperson for Allegany County. I’m here because I didn’t start teaching until later in life so I really need to push for a better pension for my retirement. Both of my children just graduated and they are teachers. They’re both considering the move to Pennsylvania for both the salary and pension. We really need this now – It is now or never."
Earl Paul
Fort Hill HS, Allegany County
Special education teacher
"I am closer to retiring than to just getting started and I need to work on helping my family out after I retire. I’m also helping other teachers by trying to raise their benefits. I feel the retroactivity would be a good thing."
Stewart Monroe, Jr.
President, Allegany Educational Services Council, Allegany County
"It was a good meeting tonight. We’re glad that they listened to us. They took our input to try to improve the pensions up to a 2.0 that is the minimum that we can accept."
Sally McAteer
Allegany HS, Allegany County
Instructional assistant
"My daughter is a fourth grade teacher in Frederick and she is considering moving away – we have a lot young people from Frostburg State with us tonight because they are very concerned about the pension. They’re so concerned; in fact, they’re looking at jobs in other states. We are going to lose a lot of great teachers if we don’t improve our pension."
