A senate RESOLUTION

TO honor the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) upon its fortieth anniversary, to congratulate the Center for its decades of dedication to advancing education through recruitment and retention efforts, and to recognize March 24, 2026, as "CERRA Recognition and Celebration Day."

Whereas, the Center of Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) was established as the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment in 1985 to address the growing teacher shortage; and

Whereas, CERRA's pilot program, Teacher Cadets, started in just four high schools but is now in one hundred sixty-three high schools in seventy of South Carolina's seventy-five school districts; and Pro Team, a middle school program grown from the success of Teacher Cadets, is in fifty-seven middle schools in the State; and

Whereas, CERRA's South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, which was founded in 1999, provides fellowships to over eight hundred South Carolina college students at fourteen institutions of higher learning and boasts an eighty percent graduation rate. Approximately three thousand Teaching Fellows graduates have served as teachers in South Carolina's public-school classrooms; and

Whereas, CERRA's service programs provide both required mentor training and additional support for mentor and induction programs, facilitate National Board Certification for teachers and districts, and host the South Carolina Teacher Forum, which promotes leadership development among the District Teachers of the Year; and

Whereas, CERRA authors the annual Supply and Demand Report that informs statewide education policy, participates in multiple working groups and collaborative initiatives with education stakeholders, hosts the statewide Online Educator Employment System, and maintains ongoing partnerships with South Carolina's colleges, universities, and school districts; and

Whereas, the fortieth anniversary of CERRA is a momentous occasion to reflect upon the past, celebrate the present, and look to the future with both hope and determination to advance education in our State and to recognize that CERRA has become integral to the State's education system.  Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, honor the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) upon its fortieth anniversary, congratulate the Center for its decades of dedication to advancing education through recruitment and retention efforts, and recognize March 24, 2026, as "CERRA Recognition and Celebration Day."

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the executive director of CERRA, Dr. Lindsay Yearta.

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