Blog Archives

SVEA is the right choice

12/30/2015

Perhaps you've received an email of direct mail from the right-wing Freedom Foundation group "Choice for Teachers" and are considering dropping your membership in SVEA. This letter makes it seem like an easy way to receive some extra cash with no consequences for you, your colleagues, or your students. It's not so simple.

Spend a few minutes watching this video. Read our collective bargaining agreement. Contact your building rep. And please send us an email first. It's a big decision.

Our ability to make our schools better places to teach and learn depends on your membership.

Navigating Certification

12/16/2015

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. Watch all four or choose the ones that fit your needs. We hope you take time to take a look at these short presentations produced to help you help yourself.

Timeline for Moving from a Residency to a Professional Certificate. When do you need to obtain a professional certificate? What do you need to keep in mind regarding your certificate expiration date? This video will be helpful for those of you with a residency certificate, both teachers and counselors.

Program Options for Moving from a Residency to a Professional Certificate. ProTeach? National Board Certification? Counselor ProCert? Consider your options for obtaining a Washington state professional certificate. This will be helpful to teachers and counselors with a residency certificate, and those of you who are considering National Board Certification.

Certificate Renewal and Professional Growth Plans. How do you renew your certificate? What is a professional growth plan? Who needs to complete the new STEM professional development requirement for certificate renewal, and what do they need to do? This video will be helpful to ESAs and certified teachers.

E-Certification. Goodbye paper trail! Take a look at E-Certification, the online system for certificate maintenance. This will be helpful to all certified WEA members.

Too Much Testing

12/15/2015

When President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act last week, it was a win for our country’s public school students. The ESSA, which replaces No Child Left Behind, eliminates the unrealistic and harmful Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Standardized testing remains in place, but the new law decouples testing from high-stakes decisions about schools.

That’s good!

Yet here in Washington, we still require students to pass the same standardized tests to graduate – in other words, we’re still using tests to make high-stakes decisions about our students’ futures. That’s inappropriate, and WEA has fought against this policy for more than 15 years.

Headed into the 2016 legislative session in January, we have momentum on the testing issue. This might be our best chance to eliminate testing as a barrier to graduation.

You can help by signing WEA’s Student Testing Bill of Rights online petition.

We’ll be delivering the petition to the State Board of Education and key legislators. So please, take the time to add your name, and together, we can score another victory against harmful student testing.

Promotion of Civil and Human Rights

12/14/2015

Recently, we've heard many hateful words directed at a segment of our community. The SVEA Representative Council chose to fight back by affirming our support for civil and human rights.

No matter your age, creed, disability, ethnic background, gender, marital status, national origin, political activities or beliefs, race, religion, sexual orientation, or size, SVEA supports your right to live and learn in our community without fear of discrimination.

The Snoqualmie Valley Education Association (SVEA) supports the promotion of the civil, professional, and human rights of all members of the Association.

The SVEA believes that education must develop respect for the rights of all and opposes all forms of discrimination.

The SVEA supports programs and instruction that encourage individuals to seek greater understanding of other people's perspectives and experiences in an atmosphere of respect and dignity.

The SVEA believes that no person should be discriminated against on the basis of age, creed, disability, ethnic background, gender, marital status, national origin, political activities or beliefs, race, religion, sexual orientation, or size.

The SVEA also believes that immigration legislation must recognize contributions of immigrants to our nation, protections for all workers regardless of immigration status, protection from employer mistreatment, facilitation of family reunification, and equitable laws regarding civil rights and liberty.

The SVEA further believes that the legal rights and responsibilities with regard to medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration of a domestic partnership, a civil union, and/or a marriage belong to all adults regardless of disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status.

The SVEA also believes its affiliates need to pursue school activities in recognition of the significance of human rights and the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other pioneers in the continuing struggle for human rights.

Membership Matters

12/13/2015

A group called “Choice for Teachers” may have sent you an email encouraging you to drop your union membership. The email is part of a larger campaign to weaken public-sector unions, including WEA and its locals. It is funded by corporate interests, including an anti-union political group called the “Freedom Foundation.” It’s a direct attack on our union and our ability to advocate for our students.

We need a strong union.

Without a strong union protecting our bargaining and employment rights, things would be much worse for teacher, education support professionals and public schools. Many politicians in Olympia would be trying to freeze salaries, cut health and retirement benefits, and allow even larger class sizes.

In addition, well-funded right-wing groups are waging a campaign to weaken or even outlaw public sector unions. If they succeed, we could lose our right to bargain locally for improved pay and benefits and for better conditions for our students.

We need the WEA and our local associations to continue fighting these anti-education efforts.

There’s strength in unity.

SVEA bargains your contract, including salaries, benefits, working conditions and a fair evaluation process, and the local is there to make sure school administrators follow all the provisions of the contract. With a strong membership, the local union has the power to protect the rights and economic security of members, and to fight for the best interests of students.

By joining together we can reach goals that we can’t achieve on our own. Together we negotiate for better salaries, benefits and working conditions. Together, we advocate for more funding and equal access to a quality education for all of our kids, regardless of their backgrounds. Our membership in the WEA gives us the strength in numbers to be able to do things we could not do alone.

Please contact me if you have questions.

Thank you,

Lisa Radmer, SVEA President

Final NCLB Vote Expected

12/6/2015

The Senate is expected to vote on the reauthorization of the main education law that governs our schools, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by this Tuesday.

This would mean the end of No Child Left Behind and more opportunity for students to learn. This is in no small part due to the voices over 200,000 NEA members and allies like you.

This is your last chance to weigh in. If passed, the bill will go to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
Will you email your senators now and ask them to get ESEA done?

OR if you’ve already sent an email, call your senators at 866-331-7233 and then enter your ZIP code.
Already done that too? Click here to share to let your friends and colleagues know that this is their last chance to weigh in.

This new version of the law, the Every Student Succeeds Act or S. 1177, is a big step forward. It will make great strides on what really matters – whether students in all ZIP codes have equitable access to textbooks, AP classes and state of the art equipment.

Ask your senators to support S. 1177 now.

It will also help ensure educators’ voices are part of the decisions and reduce the number of standardized tests and decouple the high stakes attached to them.

In short – this will be a historic moment. Thank you for emailing your senators here and making a phone call at 866-331-7233.

P.S. You can spread the word by telling friends and colleagues about the vote this week. Share on Facebook, Twitter or by email here.

House NCLB Vote Imminent

12/1/2015

The long wait is nearly over. We expect the House of Representatives to vote on the new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act by this Thursday or sooner!

The bill, S. 1177, is a bipartisan agreement between the House and Senate that will be a big improvement over current law, and we need yourhelp to make sure it passes in the House this week.

This is urgent. Will you email your representative nowto tell them to get this done for students?

Or, if you’ve already emailed, will you make a phone call? Call your representative now by dialing 866-331-7233, and then entering your ZIP code. We’ll give you everything you need to advocate over the phone.

You have engaged in unprecedented mobilization and advocacy on behalf of students to close the chapter on the failed No Child Left Behind law. That chapter is almost over, but we can’t let up now.

Will you please take a moment to write to your representative to get this bill passed? It will only take a few minutes.

We must keep the pressure on our elected leaders to produce a bill that, when signed by the president, gives every student the opportunity, support, tools, and time to learn.

We’re nearly there. Thank you for taking action now.