North Syracuse Teaching Assistant Receives NYSUT Award

WASHINGTON, DC (04/27/2007)(readMedia)-- North Syracuse Cicero High School teaching assistant Mary Jo Roberge today received one of New York State United Teachers' highest awards by being named School-Related Professional (SRP) of the Year at the union's 35th Representative Assembly in Washington, D.C.

Roberge is a teaching assistant at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, where she works primarily in the school's resource room.

Throughout her more than 25-year career, Roberge said, her guiding principle has been, "Do it until someone tells me no." NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi credited Roberge with building a strong local union, setting up a "great organizational structure with a cabinet and building representatives, and providing her own training for them."

Roberge is the past chair of NYSUT's SRP Advisory Committee and is an instructor for the union's Education & Learning Trust. She has also participated in the American Federation of Teachers' SRP Program and Policy Council.

NYSUT represents 575,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

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