Today, SVEA welcomed 14 new educators to our union. With each new member, we become a stronger and more effective voice for students and educators in our valley. We will welcome the rest of our new members in August.

​Below is a letter to our newest members from our President, Lisa Radmer.

Dear Fellow Snoqualmie Valley Educators:

I am excited to welcome you as a fellow educator in the Snoqualmie Valley School District (SVSD). We are the Snoqualmie Valley Education Association (SVEA), a union that represents over 400 P-12 educators in SVSD. SVEA is part of a larger network of education and labor unions, including the Washington Education Association (WEA), the National Education Association (NEA). Together, we are your union and YOU ARE SVEA!

Every day SVEA members advocate, protect and stand up for the rights of the educators and students of the Snoqualmie Valley. We stand together in support of public education and to ensure our educators and students are respected and have the schools and resources we ALL deserve. In 2014, we worked to support and pass I-1351 which promises to lower class sizes for the students and educators of the Snoqualmie Valley. Through WEA, we are part of the coalition behind the successful McCleary lawsuit. In McCleary, the Washington Supreme Court ruled the state is violating the constitutional rights of its children and ordered the state to fully fund K-12 public schools by the 2017-18 school year. This next year is a critical time for public education in Washington.

As members, staff and leaders of SVEA we continue to use our voices and collective strength to ensure that the resources are being directed to our students and the schools they learn in and we teach in every day. Our working conditions are the students learning conditions. Our current bargaining campaign calls on the district to make our students and classrooms a top priority. This includes:

• Wages and benefits to attract and keep the best and brightest,
• Lower class sizes, and
• Protection of our planning and preparation time at all levels.

We must stand together and support one another as we work to protect and improve public education in the Snoqualmie Valley, Washington, and across the nation. As educators we experience many successes and challenges daily in our classrooms and SVEA is here to celebrate your successes and provide support in your challenges. Please reach out to your school’s Building Representative, who is elected by your peers to support you, as well as our elected leaders at SVEA if you have any questions or concerns. You will receive regular communication though e-mails, building meetings and general membership meetings. Please read them as they will include important information, bargaining updates, and calls for action.

Finally, thank you for choosing to become a fellow Snoqualmie Valley educator and dedicating your time to impact the lives and learning of the students in the Snoqualmie Valley. Welcome to SVEA and the SVSD family!

​In solidarity,
Lisa Radmer
SVEA President

Our Association, both at the local and state level, has been actively involved in battles to adequately fund public schools, pay educators competitive salaries and protect the right of educators to use our voice and collectively bargain our working conditions. There are groups active in our state that disagree with our right to collective bargaining and the concept of unions generically.

These groups like the Freedom Foundation, Choice for Teachers, the Worker Rights Alliance, the Northwest Professional Educators and others exist to take away our collective bargaining rights and limit our ability to speak out for students and public education. You could be contacted by one or more of these groups this summer.
Some of the tactics we have seen:

• Some of these groups have been making public records requests to secure personal information about public employees in an attempt to communicate directly with them to encourage them to withdraw their membership from their local and state associations. This has happened in some school districts, involving teachers in our State.
• This information could be used, by representatives of these organizations, to show up at members’ homes to advocate that they withdraw from their local associations and WEA. This has happened to members of other unions.
• Some of these groups have sent emails & letters to WEA members’ homes and to their work email urging them to quit WEA and their local association.
• Some of these groups have even contacted local association presidents, urging them to disband their local associations.

If these groups contact you or other SVEA members, please let us know ASAP so we can help you respond appropriately. WEA is working with other public-sector unions, including SEIU, Public School Employees (PSE), and the Washington Federation of State Employees to share information and successful strategies for responding to these tactics.

If you have any questions about your association, its role as an advocate for public education, or your membership please contact us.

Standing strong
As a union, we have the power to protect the rights and economic security of our members and to fight for the best interests of students. We will continue to stand strong in support of our beliefs and our members.

Dear SVEA Members,

It is with great excitement that I share with you the latest bargaining news. On Friday, June 24th, SVEA and SVSD bargaining team members reached a tentative agreement (TA) on the financial package portion of the 2016-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement. These team members had many productive conversations and have worked hard on building openness and trust. Many other TA's to contract language changes were signed that will benefit both you and your students. This early agreement was made possible by the Interest Based Bargaining structure that SVEA entered into with SVSD over a year ago.

The joint bargaining team members will be meeting again Aug. 8th to complete our work finalizing wording on other contract language and working on the wording for the TPEP guidelines.

On August 23rd, SVEA members will go "off the clock" after the staff barbecue and convene in the Mt. Si Auditorium. There you will be presented with an information packet of all the agreements. Please plan to attend and cast your vote.

I want to thank my fellow SVEA bargaining team members: Lynn Bradwell (Chief Kanim), Chris Jackson (Mt. Si), Freedom Johnson (WEA), Tony Manjarrez (Chief Kanim), and Nate Ziemkowski (Snoqualmie Elementary) for all their time, expertise, participation, and patience. A special thank you to Nancy Byrnes and the Bargaining Support team who made sure we started our bargaining days with rich sustenance.

If you have a chance, please also thank the SVSD team: Jeff Hogan (Asst. Superintendent), Warren Hopkins (Contract Specialist for SVSD), Rhonda Schmidt (Asst. Principal), Ryan Stokes (Asst. Superintendent), Ray Wilson (Principal), and Amy Wright (Principal).

Thank you to you - for your membership and support in SVEA and WEA. Without such support we would be hampered in our ability to collectively bargain our pay, benefits, rights and working conditions. Remember... our working conditions are our students learning conditions.

Have a fantastic relaxing summer. I look forward to sharing this new contract with you in August. I also look forward to working with you this next school year.

Sincerely,
Lisa Radmer, SVEA President ​

Dear SVEA Members,

We all are ready for the summertime freedom and relaxation. SVEA leadership is looking forward to the fall already. We are forming a committee that will guide our association in how to make connections with and support each other. It is a valuable but not a large time consuming commitment. It will be lots of fun. 

​WEA has a training entitled Membership Matters. This one day training to attend is on August 1st and we are looking for 10 out of 400 members to go. Ideally, it would be one from each building. We need fresh faces and new ideas. Get a friend or colleague  to go with you. It's a great way to get together over the summer. Please send me names by June 16th.
So far we have : 

• OES 
• NBES -
• TR-
• TFMS- 
• CVES -
• TRES -
• SES - Nate Ziemkowski 
• MSHS-  
• FCES 
• CKMS - Lynn Bradwell 
• Instructional Coaches -  Amy Jones

I am going, the same day, to a Membership Matters training for Presidents.

Sincerely,
Lisa Radmer, SVEA President 

The SVEA General Membership Meeting is at Mt. Si High Auditorium June 7th at 4:30. 

This is our opportunity to get together as one to honor colleagues, to vote on an important change in our by-laws and to get an update on the progress of the bargain. Since we value hearing all input before we vote, we are meeting as one unit after our elementary staff members are done with their day. 

We hope to see you there.

The WEA is holding summer seminars for new and returning certification candidates offering important information about the certification process, help examining requirements, assistance planing out the year, and support in gathering resources and information needed to pursue certification.
Jump Start seminars are being offered for new and returning National Board candidates, NBCTs seeking renewal, and ProTeach candidates.

We are expecting high demand for our seminars this summer, so don't wait to register. 

Four day National Board Jump Start for new candidates

• East Side National Board Jump Start, June 27-30, Spokane
• West Side National Board Jump Start, August 1-4, Snohomish
• New! Portland, Oregon National Board Jump Start, August 8-11
• New! Bend, Oregon National Board Jump Start, August 15-18

One day Component 4 Jump Start for returning National Board Candidates

• East Side Component 4 Jump Start, June 30, Spokane
• West Side Component 4 Jump Start, August 4, Snohomish

Four day ProTeach Jump Start

• East Side ProTeach Jump Start, June 27-30, Spokane
• West Side ProTeach Jump Start, August 1-4, Snohomish

One day Renewal Jump Start for NBCTs

• East Side Renewal Jump Start, June 29, Spokane
• West Side Renewal Jump Start, August 2, Snohomish
• West Side Renewal Jump Start, August 3, Snohomish

More information
​Learn more about our certification support and training programs.