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CONNECTING CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATORS

CTE New Administrator Leadership Development

Darla L. Miller, Virginia ACTE Executive Director

July 9, 2025

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CONNECTING CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATORS

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Who & What is Virginia ACTE

Advocacy

Professional Development Opportunities

Connections

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WHAT IS VIRGINIA ACTE?�&�WHO DO WE REPRESENT?

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VISION

The Virginia Association for Career and Technical Education (Virginia ACTE) is the organization that advocates for, supports, and serves all aspects of Career and Technical Education for the benefit of education and the economy in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

https://virginiaacte.org/vision_mission_strategies.html

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MISSION

The Virginia Association for Career and Technical Education (Virginia ACTE) is dedicated to expanding relevant and rigorous Career and Technical Education programs, enhancing leadership among its members, and influencing public policy for the benefit of Career and Technical Education students and professionals and developing a competitive workforce in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

https://virginiaacte.org/vision_mission_strategies.html

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ADVOCACY…

… is something we as educators do every day
… is being the voice of our students and programs
… is educating our legislators about CTE
… is monitoring policy and how it affects CTE
… communicates CTE needs to all stakeholders
… does not equal Lobbying. We do not telling you who to vote for

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INFLUENCING & MONITORING PUBLIC POLICY

Advocacy Card

Part of our advocacy work is to build relationships with our policy-makers as well as to keep CTE in the discussions. Every fall, as our state legislators begin working on legislation that will be filed at the beginning of the General Assembly session, we reach out with our CTE Priorities list – those important items that are of current concern to CTE in Virginia. This document is published on our website as well as mailed to legislators along with an informational packet. We also hand deliver copies to our legislators’ offices on the hill, during our professional development conference in January. You are welcome to look over the priorities list and offer suggestions for key issues that concern all CTE across the Commonwealth. The new edition of this document will be available on our website in mid-September.

Virginia ACTE, with help from David Bailey and Associates, also monitors public policy that is filed with the General Assembly. We track progress of bills through committees and on to the respective houses if they go that far. We may also reach out to Bill Patrons with information, questions, or concerns regarding legislation they are proposing. In some cases, we have worked with legislators to develop budget amendments for funding needs such as VERSON and the CTE Resource Center. We also pass the legislative information on to you, our members, especially if it is an instance when we need the full support of those 9300 plus CTE professionals! Our collective voices makes us stronger together!

On the National Level, ACTE provides members with legislative updates at the federal policy level.

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RECENT ADVOCACY WORK

Accomplishments:

Funding for VERSO (2021)
Funding for operations of CTE Resource Center (2024)
Clarify information concerning licensure (2024)
New CTE Teacher Licensure Bills HB 2018- SB 879 (2025)

Losses

SB707 (2024)

As we just mentioned, with help from David Bailey and Associates and our working relationship with certain legislators, Virginia ACTE played pivotal roles in getting a budgetary amendment submitted and passed to upgrade and bring back to life the CTE Resource Center’s VERSO website where all of our competencies are stored. For those of you who were around during the 2020-2021 school year when Verso died and we have limited access to competencies, having a larger voice from Virginia’s CTE professionals helped to push this amendment through both houses and the Governor’s desk.

During this past legislative session with help from our legislative supporters we were able to introduce a budget amendment to increase the state funding for the CTE Resource Center and all the work they provide to Virginia’s CTE programs.

Virginia ACTE was consulted this past legislative session because there were several bills on the house and senate sides concerning teacher licensure. The original wording in the bills would have made it much more difficult for a career-switcher teacher to obtain permanent licensure. Virginia ACTE worked with the bill patrons to edit the wording to actually make licensure a bit more realistic.

While we love to report the accomplishments and successes, there are some instances that we lose and Senate Bill 707 this past session was one of those moments. You will likely be hearing more about this from VDOE, but Senate Bill 707 that was signed into law in April, will allow students to join our CTSO’s even if they are not enrolled in our programs. There will be more guidance coming on this, but the voice of a Loudoun county middle school students outweighed the voice of CTE professionals who tried their hardest to explain the mission and the point of our Career and Technical Student Organizations.

It is good to remember that legislation is constantly being proposed and passed that affects our classrooms, our courses, and our students every year and having a strong voice in speaking to our policy-makers is very helpful.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

https://www.virginiaacte.org/professional_development.html

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BECOME A PRESENTER

Format:

14-14-28 –14 minutes, 14 slides, 28-point font minimum
All 17 Career Clusters Represented
interactive, hands-on presentations, and innovative practices or cutting-edge research
Multiple Proposals may be submitted
Limit 2 presenters per Session
Presenters Receive 9 CEU’s per Session
Call for Presenters closes Friday, October 3, 2025

We would like for you to consider becoming a presenter at our January conference. CTE teachers and administration should represent the core of our seminar and provide our participants with practices and programs that are successful and trending with CTE today. Please share your innovative practices or cutting-edge research with your colleagues.

This year we would like to try a new format for our breakout sessions. There are always so many great sessions and we can only physically attend 2 or 3 depending on the timing, so this year, we are going to try a 14-14-28 format where every attendee will get to experience all sessions consecutively! ��The 14-14-28 format means that presentations are fourteen-minutes long, fast-paced, with no more than 14 slides and no smaller than 28-point font – similar to a TedTalks style presentation.

The goal is to have all 17 clusters represented in presentations at this conference, with emphasis placed on interactive, hands-on presentations, and innovative practices or cutting-edge research that you would like to share with your colleagues. Multiple proposals may be submitted. A Limit of 2 presenters per session and presenters will receive 9 CEU's per each session they present.��The call for presenters will close on Friday, November 1, 2024, or when the maximum amount of presenters has been met.

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VIRGINIA ACTE LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP

One participant from each Division

Active participation in their Division

Member of Virginia ACTE (before September 1)

Interested in Growing in CTE

Recommendation from CTE Division B.O.D.

Recommendation from school or district Administrator

Provide Answers to:

Why do you want to be a part of a Virginia ACTE Leadership Fellowship?
What do you hope to gain from the experience?

Virginia ACTE Leadership Fellowship

Virginia ACTE is excited to offer a new professional development option this year. We are introducing our first-ever, Virginia ACTE Leadership Fellowship Cohort! This fellowship is structured similar to ACTE’s Leadership Fellowship. The purpose of the fellowship is to offer professional development in Career & Technical Education, understand public policy and how it affects education, to grow our own CTE leaders, to strengthen our divisions and Virginia ACTE, and continue making those CTE connections!

The fellowship year will run from September to July. All meetings will be by Zoom except the January meeting where all Fellows will be required to attend the Virginia ACTE Professional Development and Leadership Conference. Fellows will receive a complimentary registration to the January conference but will be responsible for their own hotel and travel arrangements. Fellows will complete a program of work consisting of activities and reflections to help them grow in leadership, public policy and advocacy, and gain a better understanding of CTE across the Commonwealth. By the end of the fellowship, participants should have a better understanding of how the divisions work, how different school districts across the state work, how ACTE works, and how public policy affects CTE and education daily!

We would like to have one participant from Each Division. Your division will select a participant before the end of July. Candidates should have 3 or more years of successful CTE teaching experience, be an active participant at the division level, be a member of Virginia ACTE – before the fellowship year begins, be interested in growing CTE, have a recommendation from the Division Board of Directors and school/district level administrator, and a recommendation from the CTE Division’s Board of Directors. You will also be asked to provide answers to two questions, “Why do you want to be a part of a Virginia ACTE Leadership Fellowship?” And “What do you hope to gain from the experience?”

Fellows will be notified by Virginia ACTE during the first full week of August. The QR code on this slide will take you to the Fellowship description and further information. If you are interested, please let your Division Board of Director’s know ASAP!

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT- WEBINARS

Calling all CTE Professionals doing amazing things in the classroom…
Do you like to make Webinars or Podcasts?
Will you Share your Best Practices and Expertise?
Challenge Each Division to create/present 2 sessions throughout the year
Tell us what types of Webinars/Podcasts would help YOU!

2025-2026 Virginia ACTE PD Opportunities Survey

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVOLVEMENT

Come to conferences

Come

Serve as a mentor to a new CTE professional

Mentor

Be a presenter at your Division or Virginia ACTE

Present

Serve on a Division or Virginia ACTE committee

Serve

Serve as a Division Representative to the Virginia ACTE Board

Represent

Become an officer

Become

Celebrate and recognize contributions of fellow CTE professionals

Celebrate

Make a Difference!!!

Make

There are many opportunities for you to get involved in your Division and in Virginia ACTE!

You are taking the first steps by participating in your Summer Professional Development Conference! We hope to see you in January at the Virginia ACTE Professional Development and Leadership Seminar. I challenge you to bring at least 1 other person with you to your conference next year! Imagine what it would be like if we all brought 1!

You can serve as a mentor to a new CTE professional! We all know that CTE is a different world within our school divisions. Often, we are the only ones who teach our subject matter. By connecting a NEW CTE professional to a veteran, we can provide support to the new teacher while the veteran has the opportunity to learn a new thing or two! It’s a Win- Win!

Volunteer to be a presenter at a Conference – share all those amazing things you do in your classroom with other CTE Professionals!

If you are interested in learning more about your Division or Virginia ACTE, volunteer to serve on a Committee. Most committees only meet a couple of times per year and most meet virtually now. This would be a learning experience and an opportunity for you to have a voice in your Professional Organizations! If you are interested – speak to one of your Board Members!

When you are ready – step outside your comfort zone and run for a Board of Directors Office! Each member of the board of directors volunteers their time and energy because they have a passion for CTE and a passion for making a difference and leave things better for others!

And Celebrate others by recognizing the contributions of the amazing CTE professionals that surround you. Nominate these individuals for Division awards and encourage those award recipients to submit their application to Virginia ACTE to be recognized at the state level!

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BENEFITS OF JOINING ACTE:

In addition to being a member of [INSERT YOUR DIVISION NAME HERE], and Virginia ACTE, our National Association for Career and Technical Education comes with many Professional Development and learning opportunities.

ACTE offers many in-person conferences throughout the year. CareerTech Visions will be in San Antonio in December, this is an amazing way to meet CTE professionals from across the country. ACTE Region II Conference will be in Orlando, September 25-27. ACTE hosts a National Policy Seminar in D.C. usually in late March each year. In addition to these highlights, you could participate in the Work-based learning conference, or the Best practices conference.

ACTE offers other options for professional development including online webinars, continued education opportunities through CTE Learn. This resource has free webinars, resources, and courses that you can take for college credit.

ACTE follows public policy on the Federal level. You can follow progress of federal legislation that concerns CTE by subscribing to the CTE Policy Watch Blog.

The ACTE website is full of information and resources including High Quality CTE Frameworks, as well as CTE fact sheets. �ACTE offers leadership programs including a National experienced and new fellowship program, State Leadership training, NextLevel Post Secondary Fellowship, and an IAED mentorship program.

You can keep up with all things CTE through Techniques magazine. Members can receive a paper copy or an online version. And last, but certainly not least, ACTE offers an excellence awards program to recognize all of the amazing CTE professionals throughout the country!

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WHY BE INVOLVED?

It’s about the relationships – the connections…
This is where your people are!
We are STRONGER TOGETHER!!

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WHAT’S YOUR CTE STORY?

How did you get started in CTE?

What made the biggest impact on you?

Why did you become a teacher?

How will you leave it better than you found it?

https://forms.gle/oy8bHd8acV8PGkHE7

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WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Join Virginia ACTE and VACTEA
Learn from your colleagues
Be involved & share ideas/suggestions
Make a positive difference!

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MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS BENEFITS

VACTEA provides the following membership services:

Leadership and Program Promotion
Leadership Development
Networking Opportunities
Dissemination of Information
Legislative Information affecting CTE
Professional Resources
Access to the ACTE Administrative Division

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VACTEA membership is subdivided into the eight (8) Superintendent Regions.

Each Region has a representative that serves on the VACTEA

Board of Directors.

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Erin Hurley

Toinette Outland

Mike Ketron

Summer Stone

Michael Tetto

Chris Taylor

Lisa Wolf

Sue Shelton

Cynthia Chambers

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JOIN TODAY!

Vactea Membership

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THANK YOU!

Bo Bundrick, President�Louisa County Public Schools�Office: (540) 894-5115 ext. 7031

Cell: (540) 259-0203�Email: bundrijm@lcps.k12.va.us

Laura Smith, V.P. for Membership�Washington County Public Schools�Office: (276) 739-3124�Email: lsmith@wcs.k12.va.us

BK Walker, Virginia ACTE Representative

Bland County High School

Office: (276)639-6706

Email: bwalker@bland.k12.va.us

Darla Miller, Exec. Director�Virginia ACTE�(540) 292-1278�dlmillervirginiaacte@gmail.com

VirginiaACTE.org

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RESOURCES:

Cover Photo: https://www.studentachievement.org/wp-content/uploads/CTE1.jpg
Thank You Page Photo: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR6UOxFO1nTjhsl3uu3VhTH3Qspdu64xyBIJ1sl6bmaTkZAYJB2inOwVhuusQWroNq8tZw&usqp=CAU