By Nancy Whitney

Staff Writer

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The Texas Retired Teachers Conference welcomed several members of the Wylie Retired School Employees association during the April 8 event held at the Austin Marriott Hotel. Members from across the state traveled to Austin and visited with legislators, speaking about important issues for both retirees and current educators.

Representing Wylie’s unit, as delegates at the conference, were Shirley Jones and Judy Brewster. Approximately 188 TRTA retirees from District 10, the district Wylie is part of, attended the event.

This was Brewster’s first year to attend the rally.

“It is great to see so many educators and retired educators still concerned,” Brewster said. “We want legislators to know that we still care about concerns education related.”

The conference culminated with Texas Rally Day, which was held on the capital grounds. More than 1000 retired educators from across the state were in attendance, wearing red shirts and rallying in support of educators. Pensions and health care programs were a vital discussion during the event as funding for the programs are at stake.

“The house voted to fund a shortfall in healthcare relative to educators,” Brewster said. “As of last Monday it had not passed in the Senate yet. We worked with senators during the event, helping them understand the importance of this bill.”

During the welcoming dinner, the Wylie delegation received the state award for achieving the highest percentage of newcomers of all state units.

Carolyn Dale, Sandy Mulkey, Linda Pease, Shirley Burnett, Gerri Washington, Beth Scholz, Lorraine Snowden and Lois Jones joined Jones and Brewster for Rally Day.