Last night at the CCPS school board meeting, Chesterfield County Council of PTA/PTSA President Stella Edwards presented Marshall Trammell and Diane Pettitt with Virginia PTA Lifetime Memberships in recognition of nearly two decades of service to the children of Chesterfield County. Both Ms. Pettitt and Mr. Trammell have announced their retirement from the school board at the end of 2011, choosing not to seek reelection. Both have served as Chair of the school board multiple times, each stewarding the board for a year during this difficult financial period that has come to be known as the "Great Recession," and which has seen the funding of public schools in Chesterfield County dwindle to smaller and smaller percentages of the County's also shrinking general budget.
As the liaison for CEA on the County Council Executive Board, I assisted Ms. Edwards with the presentation, further underscoring the relationship between PTA and CEA, whose primary advocacy efforts are for the children and the educators who guide them, respectively. Having worked with Mr. Trammell and Ms. Pettitt personally over the past 10 years in my capacity as CEA Treasurer, Vice President, and currently as President, I know that they have not always felt good about the decisions that they have had to make regarding employee salaries and school budgets, but I believe that they have always taken their charge seriously and made the difficult decisions that will always be unpopular to some of their constituents at some point in time. While we have not always agreed on the appropriate resolution to every issue, I respect their service and commitment to children and public education.
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