September 28, 2009

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to provide you with the October Legislative Report of the Florida Retirement System (FRS) - As you know our State Pension Plan has suffered great losses due to the economic downturn and risky investments. However, there is good news. At the Investment Advisory Council meeting on 9/25, the State Board of Administration staff reported that the market value of our FRS Trust fund had risen to $111 Billion.  What this means is that the FRS is back to 100% funded status. The funding status affects how legislators react to make changes such as requiring new employees to go into an investment plan versus a defined contribution pension plan. As of now there is no pending legislation that we need to worry about. The FRS pension plan is one of the best funded pension plans in the country. This is great news for all FRS participants and should help you sleep a little easier. I will keep you posted of any new developments.

As the new Executive Director of the Dade Association of School Administrators, I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself to our distinguished membership. My name is Delio G. Diaz and I retired from MDCPS after 35 years of rewarding service to the School Board and the children of our community. Throughout my career I've had the privilege to work with a diverse group of individuals which afforded me professional growth and unique experiences. I've had the opportunity to work at numerous school sites as an administrator at the Elementary, Middle, and Senior High school level. Additionally I've also held assignments as a Region Director, Region Superintendent, and in the District office as well.

As I begin this new chapter in my life I am excited to take on new challenges and responsibilities to serve as an advocate on behalf of school site and non school site managerial exempt personnel. Unfortunately due to the harsh economic times that we are going through, many of our colleagues have been reassigned and opportunities for advancement have been curtailed. We must remain united and focused in order to have a strong voice in conversations with the Superintendent and the School Board on issues of mutual interest. One of my goals is to increase our membership since there is power in numbers. I will be reaching out to current MEP employees who are not members of our organization and to any other employees that become managerial exempt personnel. I will also be meeting with our Directors and Board on a regular basis in order to identify important issues of concern to the varied groups of administrative personnel when we begin the meet and confer process with the Superintendent.

I want to formally thank the DASA Board for putting their trust in me to continue to make DASA a vibrant and viable organization. I also want to thank Mr. Eric Jerry Parker for his many years of leadership and dedicated service and wish him a well deserved retirement. We will miss him.

Sincerely,

Delio G. Diaz

dgdiaz@dasa.us