PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Greetings OCASA Members,

I joined the OCASA Board in the 2017-2018 school year and have seen so much growth and change since I joined.  Our Board has worked tirelessly to develop relationships with School Board Members and the Superintendent, open lines of communication with all OCPS departments such as Professional Standards, HR, and others, and we have made our presence known through exclusive consultation on important OCPS initiatives such as the Superintendents Search Committee and others.  Our reach is ever increasing and we can only hope to increase our impact.  In the political frame, we must compete to stay relevant with CTA and OESPA which can sometimes be tricky since we are considered admin and therefore must balance the advocation of our needs with our status as “fall in line” administrative workforce.

I want to take a moment to outline some of the successes we have had over the past years that have really increased our status as an influential element on this political landscape:

  1. We are meeting monthly with the Deputy Superintendent to bring concerns and issues forward.  Dr. Vazquez usually joins semi-annually but also as needed.
  2. We have engaged with School Board Members to increase presence when it comes to items such as raises and other important topics.  Our advocation with Board Members three years ago resulted in about 1 million in additional raises for administrators that initially was not considered.
  3. We have a direct line to Professional Standards, can get immediate information on pending investigations, we support members during PDM’s, help draft responses for OCPS and state level investigations, and were recently asked to sit in on a cabinet level discussion with upper level decision makers from DCF.  OCASA was also asked by the Deputy Superintendent and Professional Standards to lead a rewrite of management directive A-4.
  4. We have a direct line and can get immediate answers on topics such as payroll, compensation, and other items that could impact our members.
  5. We speak at each Board Meeting on continue to promote our visibility as voice for our school based administrators.

I also wanted to outline a few of our focuses/goals for the 2024 – 2025 School Year:

  1. First and foremost we need to promote and increase membership.  We have seen over 100% growth in the past 5+ years but in order to truly give the perspective of all administrators at all levels we need the best representative sample possible.  For reference there are roughly about 550 school based administrators in OCPS and we have about 325 members.  The more members we get the better voice and true advocation we can provide.  As a member we ask you to actively recruit others in your immediate circle to join and you are welcome to forward them this email to so they can see all the great things we do.
  • We need to continue to bring overarching concerns forward to the Deputy Superintendent but we also need to improve upon bringing possible solutions forward with our concerns.  We have some of the best minds in OCPS running our schools and typically identifying concerns has not been an issue but developing a solution is something we need to promote.
  • We need to continue to increase our presence with the School Board Members without alienating the office of the superintendent.
  • We need to improve capturing opinions from our members on key topics.  Please lookout for feedback forms and do your best to complete them.  Your voice is SO important to us.
  • We need to continue to improve our professional development opportunities and our reach with getting members access to skills needed to advance their careers.

Please feel free to reach out if you need anything at all.  If you have concerns relative to your job position there will be two ways to bring those forward to the Board for consideration:

  1. Email the representative that corresponds with your job title directly with your concern.
  2. Email our Executive Director Dr. Anna D. Diaz at [email protected]
  3. Call or Text our Executive Director Dr. Anna D. Diaz at 407-406-0468

If you know of anyone that would like to join please direct them to the website (https://myocasa.net) and have them fill out the form found at the bottom of the home page or have them email Karena Chunoo directly ([email protected]). 

Lastly, if any of you are looking to get more involved with OCASA please let me know, including if you would like to be considered to be a Board Member in 25-26 (I will be asking later in the year as well).  Let’s work together to make this the best school year ever and let’s get to 400 members!

All the best and have an amazing school year.

Matt Turner, Esq.

Principal
West Orange High School
President, Orange County Association of School Administrators (OCASA)

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