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Our membership overwhelming chose to elect Amy Jones (Elementary Instructional Coach) as our next Vice President and re-elect Lynn Bradwell as our Treasurer. Their terms will begin July 2017 and continue through June 2019. Thank you to our candidates and all those who voted. Elections for President and Secretary will be held in March 2018. Please consider stepping up. SVEA members are taking action to tell our representatives to finally fully fund our public schools. Take a look our colleagues from Cascade View joining together in red with their McCleary stickers. CVES members posted and shared this picture on social media along with the legislative hotline number (800-562-6000). You can find a sample phone call script here. North Bend Elementary members got together before school today to write postcards to their legislators. Olympia needs to hear from us! Snoqualmie Elementary educators will be calling Olympia today during off-duty times. Educators at Mount Si will be wearing "red for ed" and making phone calls on Thursday. See you at our May 15 General Membership meeting when we join together as SVEA members consider our path forward and next steps. Until then, what action is your school taking?
Our ability to negotiate salary and benefits for you is at stake! We knew this was going to be a fight in Olympia, but never thought we would have to fight this with our District. We thought we had a shared value in continuing to improve educator compensation based on our 2016-19 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
On April 14, 2017 our superintendent, along with 33 other superintendents, sent a letter supporting the end to collectively bargaining TRI and compensation as we know it. The letter, titled Education Funding Position Paper, was sent to the governor, OSPI, all surrounding legislators, relevant legislative committees, and a variety of boards. The letter says nothing about what is best for students, what works best locally for one district over another, and NOTHING about administrators' salaries and levels. The level of our compensation and benefits, TRI contracts, and your financial future is at stake by the action taken by our superintendent. All this letter does is provide cover for legislators to make terrible decisions that will drastically impact our ability to negotiate the best compensation and benefits for you. However, you cannot find this position paper on the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) website along with the other positions papers authored by PSESD. Not all superintendents signed the letter; Lake Washington and Bellevue schools superintendents did not sign. The Bellevue School Board adopted a resolution on Feb. 8, 2017 that demonstrates the board's resolve to support local collective bargaining. The PSESD letter does include aspects we support, such as:
WEA is a member of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC). In response to the superintendents' letter, WSLC has written to our legislators to stand in support of school employees and in support of collective bargaining, something that has worked well in our schools for more than 40 years in Washington. None of the superintendents notified their local unions regarding their recommendations on the behalf of all of us. Please read the WSLC letter. The WSLC and the WEA support the Democratic House Budget, which does not compromise collective bargaining and supports educators and students. The anti-union Republican Senate Budget does not support educators and students -- it ends collective bargaining for compensation as we know it, and increases class size. It also states that ANYONE can teach if they pass a criminal background check. Is this what you want for your children and for your students? Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two budget proposals so you can compare the differences. WEA members across the state are sending messages in support of the House Budget. We encourage you to contact your legislators on non-school time, using your personal email address, and urge them to VOTE NO on the Republican Senate Budget and Support the Democratic HOUSE BUDGET. Your SVEA Executive board is meeting soon to plan next steps and actions for May and beyond. Please remain alert on how you can make a difference in supporting McCleary Action! Two SVSD School Board positions are up for grabs this November. These seats are currently held by Tavish MacLean and Marci Busby. While we won't know all the candidate names until May 19, we definitely want SVEA to be involved in these local races.
Our school board, working with administrators, makes decisions and sets policies such as levy and bond elections, curriculum adoption, fiscal planning, and employee relations. The school board votes to support or reject negotiated contracts with SVEA and other SVSD unions. If you're willing to spend an evening in late May/early June interviewing school board candidates, please let us know (using your personal email account) by May 5. We'd love to have our interview team consist of members with a range of backgrounds and viewpoints. Roughly 1,000 WEA members joined together as delegates at our Representative Assembly in Spokane April 13-15. Our delegates, Joyce Bashford (CKMS), Ann Heideman (MSHS), Marcella Murphy (MSHS), and Nate Ziemkowski (SES), represented SVEA. It was a busy couple of days. Here's what RA delegates from SVEA and 150+ other locals around WA accomplished.  Medical, dental, and vision benefit options for SVSD employees are decided by our district's health benefits committee. SVEA has three seats on this important committee. Each level (elementary, middle, and high) has a representative on the committee.
There will be an opening for a new elementary representative for the 2017-18 school year. The committee meets approximately 6 times/year and SVEA representatives receive a stipend of $599. If you are an elementary member and would like to be considered for this committee, please let us know by April 28. During the first two weeks of May, educators from across the state will set up shop in the Capitol to let our legislators know that we're watching. Educators will be observing proceedings from Senate and House galleries, attending public hearings, meeting with legislators, and occupying the Capitol rotunda. Would you like to participate?
Our Sammamish Council will be paying costs (sub & mileage) for SVEA members to travel to Olympia on 5/1, 5/2, and 5/8. Due to contractual limits on association leave, we will only be able to send 12 people total. To lessen the impact on subs, we're going to limit it to only 2/building at a time. 3 will be needed in a carpool to qualify for mileage reimbursement. Check out the schedule and sign-up today. *Be sure to sign up during off-duty hours using your personal computer/phone. The legislative session ends Sunday and our elected representatives refuse to come to agreement on their paramount duty - ample funding for our public schools. We need to ramp up the pressure.
Across our district, SVEA members will be meeting Monday in their buildings to discuss our next steps in the fight for full funding of our schools. Many buildings will also join together to wear McCleary Promise stickers. Watch your home email for more information from your building representatives. Click here to view the meeting presentation. What's our timeline?
*As a reminder, all political work and discussion must take place during off-duty hours and using personal resources (email, phone, paper, etc.). For more information about rules for political activity as a public employee, click here. |
About SVEA
The Snoqualmie Valley Education Association represents the 475+ certificated staff of the Snoqualmie Valley School District. We believe empowered educators, stronger together, are the foundation of great schools.
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