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Start: August 24, 2016 • 7:00 PM • Eastern Time​

Married couples, or Washington State registered domestic partners, who are both SVEA members MAY:
 
When both husband and wife, or Washington State registered domestic partners, are employees represented by SVEA, their combined pre-pooled insurance contributions may be applied to joint medical insurance coverage, rather than to separate medical coverage carried by each individual, to the extent agreed upon by the employees and the District, and to the extent allowed by the insurance companies. Benefit contributions shall not be allowed to provide double coverage within the District medical programs for employees and dependents.
 
This means that you can combine your same union pre-pooled state allotment for benefit purposes. From this combined amount you would deduct the premiums of both your mandatory insurances and whatever you have left over can be used towards medical. Only one of you can carry the medical. The employee carrying the medical would have the employee and spouse/registered domestic partner on their plan, and any dependent children that need to be enrolled. This requires the employee carrying the medical plan to enroll that medical plan under Online Open Enrollment, adding spouse/dependents at open enrollment no later than September 15th. If both employees have medical plans in the system from last year one of you would have to drop your medical plan through Online Open Enrollment before the September 15th cutoff date.
 
If you choose to combine your same union pre-pooled state allotments please sign this form. This form requires the signature of both employees and must be submitted to payroll each and every year (even if you submitted one last year). Please submit no later than September 9th if you wish to combine (or continue to combine) your state allotments.

Perhaps the greatest area where you can exercise the power of standing united is in our own local bargain. Collective bargaining is our opportunity to have an equal voice in wages, hours and working conditions - offering the chance to make significant improvements to your classroom and work environment. After all, a teacher's working conditions are a student's learning conditions.

Our SVEA bargaining team has been working with the district since February to reach a tentative agreement on a contract. They're goal: to make our schools better places to teach and learn. The bargaining team feels that they've accomplished this task and they're excited to share the details of the tentative agreement (TA) with you at an SVEA general membership meeting on Tuesday, August 23. At this meeting, every SVEA member will have the opportunity to study, discuss, and cast their vote whether to ratify the contract. SVEA is a democratic organization so our members - not the bargaining team - gets the final say on ratification of our contract. Be sure to attend.

What will the general membership meeting look like? The district will be providing a BBQ lunch for staff on Tuesday from 11:45AM-12:30PM. Our SVEA meeting begins at 12:35PM in the Mount Si High School auditorium. But before we can begin you will need to sign-in, receive your ballot, and pick up a packet explaining the details of the tentative agreement. Sign-in will begin about 12:20PM in the commons right outside the auditorium. Look for the table with your school's name on it. From there, head into the auditorium and we'll get started. There's a lot for us to accomplish!

We are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Please let us know if you have questions.

Hello Fellow Union Members, 

The SVEA bargaining team, along with the SVSD team, has accomplished their task. We have a tentative agreement on a complete package as of August 8th.

The bargaining team is very excited to recommend it to you. It includes additional pay without additional work, new language on use of personal leave, less paperwork on tech, complete evaluation language, more teacher voice in decision making, some flexibility on Friday PD, new workload and class size language, remedies for lack of subs, changes in the co-curricular schedule, and much, much more. 

We will be going over the details of the agreement on August 23rd at our General Membership meeting. This is an "off-the-clock" meeting at Mt. Si Auditorium. It will occur right after the back to school BBQ.

The team has put in more than 100 hours of planning, preparing, and being at the table. Please plan on spending an hour listening to the details and voting.  

Enjoy the rest of your summer. See you soon.  

Lisa Radmer 
President, Snoqualmie Valley Education Association