Professional development required for certification can help you develop as an educator and implement positive practices to promote student learning. However, certification is often confusing and sometimes feels overwhelming. Renewing, updating, moving from residency to professional certification, and understanding how to report what you’re doing may feel cumbersome.

WEA has produced four short videos to help you keep all of these responsibilities organized. These videos give you information on timelines, options for moving from a Residency to a Professional Certificate, Professional Growth Plans, how you can find support and keep track of where to report what in a timely manner.

Check out the videos here: http://www.washingtonea.org/weareblog/help-navigating-your-certification-options/.

School nurses are critical to our students' health and safety. In addition to providing ice packs and band aids, they monitor our students with allergies, asthma, diabetes, and other severe life-threatening health concerns. However, fewer than half of schools in the US have a full-time nurse. This includes many SVSD schools. Read more at http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-23/the-school-nurse-scourge.

Sen. Mark Mullet will host three town halls throughout the 5th Legislative District on Saturday, April 2.

Issaquah: Issaquah Highlands Fire Station, 1280 NE Park Drive, from 11 a.m. to noon.

Snoqualmie: Snoqualmie Library, 7824 Center Blvd. SE, from 1-2 p.m.

Maple Valley: Maple Valley Library, 21844 SE 248th St., from 3-4 p.m.

The legislature is currently in a special session while a supplemental budget is being negotiated. Beginning teacher pay is one of the items under discussion.

​Attend for your chance to ask for updates and give your input on the issues that impact your classroom and family.

SVEA is a member-driven, democratically governed organization. The Executive Board consists of the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary who are elected for two year terms. The positions of President and Secretary are chosen during even years. This year, a new Vice-President will also be chosen to complete the last year of our current VP's term. She is retiring at the end of this year.

​Check your home email for a link to the ballot. If you didn't receive an voting email from sveaunion@gmail.com, please send an email to sveaunion@gmail.com to receive the link.

Voting ends on March 25, 2016 at 5PM.

Bargaining
Bargaining sessions Feb. 9-10. Included were discussions on the days prior to school starting in August, criteria for what districts to compare ourselves to monetarily, clarified language in 4 articles of the contract, Ryan Stokes gave a budget overview and we continued to build relationship and practiced the Interested based technique. A joint statement will be coming out soon. The district is building a website that will keep the community abreast of what is happening in bargaining.

The next bargain will be March 1 from 4:30-7:30 and March 2nd from 7:30-3:30. Each day the bargaining team is released from their classrooms it costs SVEA roughly $750.00 in sub costs. These are your union dues at work. 

The Bargaining team would like to thank one and all for filling out the survey. Out of 400 members 317 filled out the survey. 79% of our members. That is awesome and cannot be ignored. I apologize if your received more than one reminder to do the survey. We are creating an issues list and will be presenting it at our next bargaining session. 

Leadership
Nominations are open for SVEA President, Vice-President and Secretary. The current President (me) and the Secretary (Nate Ziemkowski) are willing to run again for a two year term. This will be my last term. Our VP, Nancy Byrnes, is retiring at the end of the year. This position is for one year. Our election cycle next year will be for VP and Treasurer (2 year terms). We elect for the positions every other year. 

Many of our buildings are in need of SVEA Rep. Council representatives for next year. Please consider running in your building for this paid and influential position. 

​Scholarships
​WEA-Retired is offering up to five $1,000 nonrenewable scholarships to aid WEA members in enhancing skills in specific education areas and/or attaining or maintaining a teaching certificate. Please contact me if you want more information.