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The Houston Association of Retired Teachers (HART)
A local chapter of the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA)
Meeting location and dates:
- Episcopal Church of the Epiphany 9600 S. GessnerHouston, TX 77071
- 9:30 a.m. Social Time
- 10:00 a.m. Meeting
- September 12 - General Meeting: Voting
- October 10 - General Meeting: HISD Candidates
- November 14 - General Meeting: Tim Lee, TRTA
- December 12 - HART Holiday Luncheon

Expanding Horizons is planning November 18 trip to Brookwood Community
For details, check your November HARTbeat.

Why Join HART and TRTA:
- To stay informed on our retirement benefits and health insurance;
- To support HART’s projects such as Books For Children, HART Scholarship Fund, HART Continuing Education Fund for Teachers, Kids' Meals and the Stilwell Residence for Retired Educators;
- To participate in monthly field trips to places of interest in the greater Houston area;
- To access additional insurance, discounts and travel through AMBA;
- To meet new friends, connect with old friends and colleagues, and most importantly, to have fun!
Membership
WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO JOIN THE HOUSTON ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED TEACHERS?
- An annuitant or a beneficiary receiving an annuity from a teacher retirement system can become a member of HART and TRTA upon payment of local dues and state dues.
- Any person interested in public education and willing to work to achieve the purposes of TRTA upon payment of local dues and state dues.
MEMBERSHIP IS $50.00 PER YEAR
$15.00 of the fee is for HART membership.
$35.00 of the fee is for Texas Retired Teachers Association membership.Use one of the following three methods to join:
- Click here to download an application that you can mail to HART, P.O. Box 6727, Houston, TX 77265-6727
- Come to any HART monthly meeting and join during the meeting.
- Join HART/TRTA online below. If you use the online payment method there is an additional $3.00 service charge added to the cost of the yearly membership. This option is only for members who do not auto pay their TRTA dues.
To order your membership online, click on the photo below.

INSIDE LINE
Make certain that you receive TRTA's Inside Line eMail by Executive Director Tim Lee and learn about issues and events that affect you by CLICKING HERE.
News From HART
There are no published blog posts yet.Legislative Priorities of HART and TRTA:
Maintain a solvent TRS pension fund by fully funding statutory contribution rates and using excess staterevenues to help reduce the unfunded liability
• The TRS defined benefit pension plan is vital to the retirement security of all public education employees and retirees.
• TRS provides cost-efficient retirement security for plan participants and taxpayers.
• Reducing the unfunded liability now saves Texas taxpayers significant money in the long term and protects the TRS pension fund.
Provide a benefit enhancement to help offset the negative impact of inflation
• TRTA recommends funding a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for TRS retirees when possible or providing a supplemental payment when a COLA is not possible.
• Retirees living on fixed incomes have been impacted drastically by record inflation over the last decade and
managing its impact is an ongoing challenge.
• During the 88th session, the Texas Legislature passed SB 10 and Texas voters approved Prop 9, providing much-needed help to most TRS retirees.
• The unfortunate reality is that cumulative inflation has eroded the modest pension benefits of all TRS retirees.
Maintain and protect TRS-Care by fully funding the current statutory contribution rates
• Continue to provide an affordable healthcare plan for all TRS retirees.
To learn who represents you and how to contact those persons CLICK HERE.
To learn if you are registered to vote and if your voter registration is up-to-date, CLICK HERE.

HARTbeat Newsletters
Cherry Wong, Editor
HART Sings!

Paul and Sue Ofeld receive the Dr. Kate Bell Memorial "Spirit of Hart" award for their music contributions to the Houston Association of Retired Teachers.
HART Projects:
HART Scholarship Fund, Inc.
Each spring, the Houston Association of Retired Teachers awards up to five scholarships to junior or senior students who are enrolled in a college of education. We rotate through the following universities: University of Houston, St. Thomas University, Houston Baptist University, Rice University, and Texas Southern University.
Mail Donations to: HART Scholarship Fund, Inc. P.O. Box 6727Houston 77265-6727. All donations will be acknowledged and are fully tax deductable.
- The 2024 HARTScholarship winners attend Rice University and are working toward their Master ofArts in Teaching, specifically math.
- Mitch Blakely, who is a lawyer bytraining, discovered he has a passion for teaching while subbing in a mathclassroom.
- Nma Ejiawoko earned her BS in Mathematics from South Carolina StateUniversity in 2022 and is a student-teacher resident in Spring Branch districtthis term.
- Gregory Kabay comes from a family of teachers: his parents aremembers of HART; his wife is a teacher in HISD; and Gregory taught at ParkerElementary in Houston ISD for fifteen years.
- Rathna Ramesh, who received a BAin Social Policy Analysis from Rice University in December of 2023, strives tomake her classroom a space where students can enjoy learning.
- Sechan Yoon, who tutored students in Guam and received his BAin Mathematics from Rice University in 2023, wants to be mindful of holdingevery one of his students to a high standard and believes that every studentcan achieve great things both in and outside of the classroom.
- Each recipientwill receive $1500 to be applied toward the summer or fall semester of 2024.Thank you for your generous support of the HART Scholarship Fund, which allows us to support future teachers in our local universities.
- The 2025 recepients from Texas Southern University will be announced at the April 10 HART General Meeting.
HART Continuing Education Fund #1
This Fund was established in the spring of 2001 as an ongoing project of HART. The purpose is to provide continuing education programs, activities and curriculum materials as agreed on by HART and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) on an annual basis. All donations to this fund are tax deductible.
Stilwell Retirement Residence Committee/ Kate Bell Assistance Fund
The purpose of this committee is to raise money for the Kate Bell Assistance Fund for retired public-school personnel at the Stilwell Retirement Residence in Waco.
Books for Children
Each year the Books for Children Committee chooses a school to receive books, orders the books, and works with the school to distribute the books, one to each student. Other responsibilities include advertising the project and fund raising to sustain the project.
Kids' Meals
Each Wednesday HART members volunteer together at Kids' Meals, making sandwhiches and lunches for children ages 1-5 who are two young to receive free meals at school. The meals are delivered Monday - Friday by the Kids' Meals organization. Everyone is encouraged to join in, either regularly or on a one-time basis.
Contact Us
Credits
Photography - Howard Lindsay, Tom Sanders, Richard A. Smith
Webmaster - Richard A. Smith
Immediate Past Webmaster - Tom Sanders
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