[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 7, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E36-E37]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING JADE MOORE, THERE WAS NO BETTER FRIEND OF TEACHERS

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                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 7, 2009

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, Pinellas County, Florida lost 
one of the pillars of our community and our teachers lost their 
greatest advocate December 16th with the passing of Jade Moore.
  Jade served for 34 years as Executive Director of the Pinellas 
Classroom Teachers Association. In that role, he was the champion for 
teachers, but he was also the champion for the students they taught.
  Jade Moore was a tough but fair negotiator, one who earned the trust 
and respect of all

[[Page E37]]

those with whom he came in touch. He grew up in Pinellas County and was 
a product of Pinellas County schools having graduated from Clearwater 
High School.
  His advice was eagerly sought not just by this Congressman but by 
Governors, legislators, school board members and community leaders. And 
it was just not advice on educational issues. In fact, Jade was just 
completing a difficult term as the Governor's appointee to the Florida 
Taxation and Budget Review Commission.
  More than 700 people turned out this past Saturday to memorialize 
Jade Moore and pay tribute to his life as a husband, a father, an 
educator, a community leader, a Sunday school teacher, and a friend to 
many. Following my remarks, I will include an article ``Boisterous and 
fitting farewell'' by Thomas Tobin and Donna Winchester of The St. 
Petersburg Times on January 4, 2009 which talks about the very moving 
and uplifting memorial service. Also, I will include a December 20, 
2008 column by Jon East of The St. Petersburg Times which describes 
Jade as a tough but friendly advocate. As Mr. East says in concluding 
his column, Jade Moore ``honestly believed in saving one soul, one 
child, at a time.''
  Madam Speaker, at a time when our Nation looks to its elected leaders 
to come together and put politics aside to do the people's business, 
Jade Moore should be an enduring example of how we can serve our 
constituencies and express our views with respect rather than conflict. 
We have lost a great leader in Jade Moore, but we must not lose those 
lessons from a lifetime of leadership he leaves behind.

             [From the St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 3, 2009]

                    Boisterous and Fitting Farewell

               (By Thomas C. Tobin and Donna Winchester)

       Clearwater.--He loved roses and Broadway musicals. He stunk 
     at golf, though he had a whale of a time playing it.
       He was an optimist, active in his church, strong in his 
     views. He was a reader and a smiler, a pundit, a partier, a 
     people lover.
       And when it came to teachers, Jade Thomas Moore--the 
     executive director of the Pinellas teachers union for 34 
     years--was no pushover.
       ``He fought hard for them and he loved them,'' Tim Moore 
     said at a memorial service for his brother Saturday. ``If you 
     want to remember Jade, remember that love for teachers.''
       Pinellas County's education and political communities 
     turned out in force to remember Mr. Moore, who died Dec. 18 
     at age 61 after suffering his second stroke in a year.
       More than 700 people jammed Trinity Presbyterian Church in 
     Clearwater for an hourlong service that recalled his success 
     as a family man, his long career as an educator and the 
     outgoing personality that endeared him to allies and 
     adversaries alike.
       The congregation included state and county officials, 
     legislators, judges, lawyers and school system employees of 
     every stripe--from support workers and teachers to top 
     administrators and school board members.
       In keeping with Mr. Moore's love of food and celebration, 
     hundreds of mourners reconvened at union headquarters in 
     Largo for an evening of eating, drinking, tears, laughter and 
     toasts.
       Guests arrived to a massive potluck spread, a full bar and 
     a chance to talk about Mr. Moore for up to three minutes.
       A DJ played Broadway hits, popular songs from the 1950s and 
     '60s and Mr. Moore's favorite, Blue Moon by the Marcels.
       ``The noise is what Jade would want to have happened,'' his 
     wife, Sue Moore, told the crowd. ``He would want us talking 
     to each other and drinking a whole lot.''
       She offered a toast: ``To the best man I've known and the 
     best man I will ever know.''
       Said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa: ``He believed in the 
     power of education. He believed in the power of teachers. He 
     believed we could take this state forward.''
       Kim Black, president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers 
     Association, said Mr. Moore served with her and 12 other 
     presidents during his tenure.
       ``Jade has adapted to every one of us,'' she said. ``He has 
     been the constant. When we were weak, he was strong.''
       She said his favorite part of the job was visiting schools. 
     Black and Mr. Moore had been to 40 so far this year and 
     planned many more visits in the upcoming semester.
       ``He was about bringing joy to the workplace,'' Black said. 
     ``He was about bringing joy to everybody he knew.''
       County Commissioner Susan Latvala recalled her time on the 
     Pinellas School Board from 1992 to 2000.
       ``I don't know if I would have survived those eight years 
     without Jade,'' she told the crowd. ``He would call me to 
     say, 'Susan, why don't you come over to the office and we'll 
     have a drink.' It was never a 15-minute conversation.''
       Upstairs at union headquarters Saturday, Mr. Moore's office 
     remained as he left it on Dec. 15, his last day of work.
       An avid reader who would polish off a dozen books during 
     vacations to North Carolina, he had three books on his desk.
       The titles: I Haven't Understood Anything since 1962, 
     Educational Conflict in the Sunshine State and The Language 
     of God.
       Mr. Moore was known in Pinellas and across the state for 
     his knowledge of Florida's budget and politics. He took tough 
     stances, including pushing for a teacher raise this year even 
     as the district plunged into a deep economic hole. But he 
     maintained a collaborative style and an optimistic outlook.
       ``All of us knew that Jade meant what he said, that ... his 
     views were in support of the many, not of the few, and that 
     he would always, no matter what, stand by his beliefs,'' said 
     the Rev. Victoria ByRoade, a local Presbyterian pastor who 
     eulogized him Saturday.
       ``Jade Moore was a man we could trust.''

             [From the St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 20, 2008]

                       A Tough, Friendly Advocate

                             (By Jon East)

       What made Jade Moore such an institution in Pinellas public 
     education was also what made him such an invaluable source to 
     those of us who watched from the sidelines. Moore, who died 
     Thursday after suffering a stroke, knew his stuff. He 
     believed in what he was doing, and he would never let 
     education ideology cloud his plain assessment of right and 
     wrong. And, yes, Moore would speak his mind, usually with 
     blunt, sometimes pro- fane and often comic effect.
       Moore ran a union with 8,000 teachers and could throw a 
     punch with the best of them. He retaliated to legislative 
     cutbacks in 1991 by stuffing what was then called the 
     Florida. Suncoast Dome with 15,000 educators and supporters 
     holding signs imploring, ``Don't $hortchange our Kids.'' He 
     skewered a Pinellas School Board that in 1998 voted to seek 
     an end to the federal court order on desegregation, and then 
     fought a choice plan for student assignment that he viewed as 
     a retreat. But Moore became a force in education policy for 
     three decades in part because conflict was not really in his 
     genes and was never his first impulse.
       School boards and superintendents from other locales would 
     marvel at the relationship between the Pinellas Classroom 
     Teachers Association and the school administration. Most 
     contracts through the years were signed after friendly 
     collaboration, not threats and mediation. Moore came to 
     respect most of the superintendents with whom he worked, 
     though he remained partial to Scott Rose for his 
     inspirational style through the 1980s. Moore managed to 
     develop such strong bonds with school officials that former 
     superintendent Clayton Wilcox made the unfortunate mistake 
     upon his arrival in 2004 of seeing Moore as part of a good 
     ol' boy network that needed to be rooted out. Moore remained 
     as Wilcox left.
       The Moore persona was a tapestry of color and 
     contradiction. He would cuss enough to make the timid blush. 
     But he also was a Sunday school teacher who really did live 
     by the Golden Rule. Nothing got him angrier than to see 
     teachers be made scapegoats for political causes or to be 
     publicly humiliated for private and personal transgressions. 
     But he would avoid like the plague defending any teacher who 
     he believed didn't belong in the classroom. He was an 
     unabashed liberal Democrat, but he befriended so many 
     Republicans that he even managed an appointment from Gov. 
     Charlie Crist to a constitutional taxation review panel. He 
     could describe, in detail, the district cost differential 
     multiplier in the Florida Education Finance Program but--much 
     preferred to settle budgetary policy over a bottle of 
     bourbon.
       Back in the early 1990s, when tensions were high with then-
     superintendent Howard Hinesley, Moore was persuaded by a 
     former PCTA president to lobby School Board members for the 
     four votes necessary to remove Hinesley. He failed, and to 
     the day he passed away he seemed to regret what he had done. 
     Guerrilla politics were never Moore's style, and the failed 
     attempt nearly severed his relationship with Hinesley. ``I'll 
     never go there again,'' he would say. ``I won't do it.''
       The lesson was never lost, and Moore even found himself 
     taking friendly fire as a result. A splinter group calling 
     itself TUFF-Teach emerged In 2001, condemning what it saw as 
     too much coziness between PCTA and school administrators and 
     state lawmakers. But Moore was unyielding and argued that 
     cooperation, not confrontation, is more productive in the 
     long run. In his characteristic style, he said: ``You don't 
     score points by taking a dump on these guys.''
       What I always saw in Moore was an unfailingly sentimental 
     view of public education. He would speak wistfully of his own 
     days at Clearwater High School and the way such schools can 
     be a gathering place for children from different walks of 
     life. Nothing got him more emotional than to talk about a 
     teacher who had made a difference in a child's life. That was 
     the Sunday school teacher in Jade. He honestly believed in 
     saving one soul, one child, at a time.

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