Dear School Law Section Members,
What an exciting year to be a school lawyer! One of my favorite things about being a school attorney is the wide variety of issues I deal with on a day-to-day basis. Education law is every kind of law – employment, constitutional, real estate, administrative, litigation, family, criminal, non-profit, environmental, special education, legislative, juvenile, contract, and even construction. This year has seen developments in each of the very diverse areas of our practice. That practice diversity is especially evident in the wide variety of top quality articles that your newsletter co-editors and editorial board have put together for this year’s issues of the School Law Section Report. Please join me in thanking them for a job very well done.
Still to come are two exciting events. For the State Bar of Texas annual meeting in San Antonio June 24-25, 2004, the School Law Section has been working with a number of other sections to co-sponsor programs highlighting the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court school desegregation decision. Sign up to attend a panel discussion on Thursday. Tour the exhibit hall to view an excellent video of the Kansas struggle that triggered the Brown decision and a display of the Brown Foundation’s traveling exhibit regarding the history of the desegregation struggle and the significance of the decision, both of which will be shown throughout the convention. Second, the President’s Gala will be held Thursday evening, in honor of long- time school attorney Kelly Frels. Third, the School Law Section will conduct a business meeting/social time on Friday morning, June 25, 2004, where we will elect next year’s officers. Finally, Mr. Frels will take the oath as State Bar President on Friday, June 25 at the 11:30 a.m. General Session Litigation Luncheon, becoming the first school attorney to be elected to that role. Elnei- ta Hutchins-Taylor and Ann Manning have done great work in coordinating these events at the Bar Convention.
In July, we will hold our always-popular State Bar of Texas School Law Section Retreat, to be held at the San Luis in Galveston on July 16-17, 2004. Joy Baskin and Miles Bradshaw are already hard at work developing an excellent program. The Retreat pro- vides excellent CLE opportunities. Seminar topics will include: FLSA litigation, the Pledge of Allegiance case, teachers’ First Amendment rights, the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Commissioner of Education decisions, attorneys as investigators, responding to SBEC investigations, educating students with medical conditions, school construction, special education discipline, and late-breaking topics. The Retreat also gives all school attorneys many chances to get to know each other better and to spend some quality vacation time with their own families. We will have the popular family dinner on Friday night. If you have not received your brochure, please call me and I will make sure to get one to you.
Please feel free to contact me or any of the School Law Section Directors or Officers if you have suggestions on how we can bet- ter meet your needs.
Lynn Rossi Scott Chair