Warren C. Conrad
1949-1953
Warren C Conrad, who had served many years as an assistant superintendent in the Los Angeles Elementary Schools and for several years as director of CalRTA, was elected president on June 15, 1949.
At this same meeting it was voted to give expense allowances of $40 per month to the president and the financial secretary; $10 per month to the secretary, treasurer, editor and welfare chairman. It also authorized expenses of president, secretary, financial secretary and treasurer to all State meetings of CalRTA held outside Los Angeles County.
As CTA was campaigning for a State measure which would provide $250,000,000 for school districts needing help in their building programs, CTRA voted that $500 be given from its legislative fund to help put over the measure. At the November, 1949, meeting it was announced that the CTA measure had carried and that CalRTA had organized its nineteenth division.
At the April 10, 1950 meeting, the name of the official CalRTA magazine was changed from “Pioneer Teacher” to “California Pioneer Teacher” for more definite identification. This suggestion came from Henrietta Glissman, a retired Los Angeles principal.
San Joaquin was approved as the twentieth division on June 12, 1950, and the sum of $300 was voted to send President Conrad to the first NRTA convention, in St. Louis. As he was unable to go Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus was appointed to represent California at the meeting.
Two more divisions were approved that year, Mt. Shasta and Riverside County.
A new retirement law went into effect that July which increased prior service benefits from $20 per year to $35 in addition the basis $600. It also provided a $400 death benefit.
It was in May, 1951, that word was received by the Board that Laura E Settle, first president of CalRTA who served for over sixteen years, had passed on. Mary Nichols, a director, proposed that the organization; plan a permanent memorial for her, and she was appointed chairman of the committee.
President Conrad proposed that our 1951 annual meeting be held in Los Angeles. It was held June 19, and 20, 1951, at the First Congregational Church. There was much enthusiasm. Los Angeles Division took care of arrangements with full charge of the first day luncheon. The luncheon of the second day was ably managed by the East Bay Division. There were 500 registered –172 outside of Los Angeles. Mr. Conrad was re-elected for a second term.
San Francisco had refused to have any part of the State organization and wouldn’t permit and CalRTA officials to attend it’s meeting until the spring of 1956 when a new regime gained control. President Conrad spent most of the last two months of his second term in Sacramento lobbying for Senate bill 785 which would establish a minimum retirement salary of $170 per month for all teachers who had taught at least 30 years and did not retire before their 60th birthday. President Conrad’s sincerity played a big part in the successful passage of the bill.
In June, 1953, Mary Nichols, chairman of the Settle Memorial Committee, reported that a decision had been made to establish a loan fund in State colleges for students training to become teachers. The initial sum to a college was to be $500 and an agreement was to be signed by the college officials to keep it a revolving loan fund without interest. This was later named the Laura E. Settle CalRTA Loan Fund. Mary Nichols was named chairman of the committee to take charge of this fund.