Nearly 300 teachers and other education professionals from across Nebraska will convene at the Younes Convention Center in Kearney on April 19-20 to discuss issues facing public education. This is the 152nd Delegate Assembly of the 28,000-member Nebraska State Education Association.

A highlight will be an address by Dr. John Draper, a nationally-recognized education leader, during the Assembly’s opening session on Saturday morning. Dr. Draper has worked as a newspaper reporter, a construction worker, a jailor, an actor, a timber buyer, a musician, a door-to-door aluminum siding salesman and a small business owner. For the past 30 years, he has been a middle and high school teacher, assistant principal, principal, executive director of the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools and then CEO of the Educational Research Service in Washington, D.C. Today, he is president of Cambridge Strategic Services, which works with school districts to develop extraordinary learning communities.  Dr. Draper’s life-long journey has given him a wonderful perspective on teaching, learning and public schools.

Also on the agenda for the Assembly is debate on educational and organizational policies for the coming 2013-14 Association year. The annual meeting draws educators from every corner of the state. Locally-elected delegates will update the organization’s Bylaws and Resolutions, and will also propose, debate, and vote on New Business Items, which direct Association leaders to take specific courses of action.

2013 Friend of Education Award

During the Horace Mann Awards ceremony on Saturday morning, NSEA will present several awards, including the Rookie of the Year Award, Teaching Excellence Award, and the Great Plains Milestone Award, which celebrates the development, advancement and protection of human and civil rights. In addition, the recipient of the 2013 Friend of Education award will be announced. This award is given to an organization or individual who has made a statewide contribution to public education.

This will be the 152nd Delegate Assembly in the Association’s 146-year history and it marks the first time since 1970 that the meeting has been held outside the Omaha or Lincoln area. The 1970 meeting was also in Kearney. NSEA was founded in August 1867 in Brownville.