Blog Posts

Request Personal Leave Beginning 8/1

7/18/2017

Along with attract and retain stipends, a 2% TRI increase, and improved elementary class size language, our 2016-2019 contract finally allows SVEA members use of personal leave around holidays and vacation periods. Requests can be submitted beginning August 1. Below you can find details and procedures from the SVSD website.

Per article 27.2 on Personal Discretionary Leave in the SVEA contract, the following procedures have been established for requesting Personal Leave immediately before or after a holiday or vacation. Up to five (5) employees may be granted discretionary leave the day before or after a holiday or vacation period. These discretionary leaves will be granted on a first come/first served basis when requested through these established procedures.

Personal leave requested for days immediately before or after a holiday or vacation period must be submitted after August 1 of the school year and requests for these leaves must be made no less than fifteen (15) work days prior to the day or days requested.
Before submitting a request, check your Discretionary Personal Leave balance in Skyward Employee Access to ensure you have leave available.
Review the SVEA Discretionary Personal Leave Calendar for the dates you are considering to see if there are any of the five (5) slots available (calendar updated weekly).
If there is a slot available, send an email request to the SVEA Discretionary Personal Leave mailbox at: sveadiscretionaryleave@svsd410.org.
- Be sure to include in the Subject line the words "Discretionary Personal Leave."
- Include the date or dates requested.
- Note whether it is for a full day or half day.
- Include your full name.
The email sent by the employee serves as a time stamp to determine the first come/first served order (to be granted or denied). Messages sent to any other email address or person will not be considered or processed.
Employees will be notified, by email, within five (5) work days if their leave request is approved or not.
If employee receives email approval, print the email from Personnel and attach it to a paper leave request form (obtain from school secretary) and submit to principal or supervisor for their signature within two (2) days (of receiving the email ok).
Employees must make an attempt to secure a substitute teachers for any leave days approved.

Important Note: It is the employee's responsibility to ensure they have an adequate Discretionary Personal Leave balance (in Skyward Employee Access) before making a request. If the request for leave is approved and it is later determined that the employee does note have an adequate available Discretionary Personal Leave balance, any days taken will be processed as "unpaid leave."

Welcome to SVEA!

7/12/2017

Welcome to our 18 newest SVSD educators! All 18 chose to become SVEA members. 17 also chose to join WEA-PAC. We are #strongertogether and #proudtobeunion!

Congratulations 2017 Retirees

6/12/2017

Congratulations to our 9 SVEA retirees. Thank you for your contributions to our students, profession, and union. Enjoy your last few days of school!

McCleary Promise Rally Logistics

5/26/2017

Since Monday, there has been much work and collaboration to make our June 2 rally happen. Principals know that you are free to come and participate. If you are unavoidably kept from the start time, please join us when you can. Here is the plan for Friday:

What: Speeches and sign-waving to encourage our community to speak up for fully funded schools
When: Friday, June 2, 1-4PM
Who: You, other SVEA members, support staff, secretaries, principals, administrators, school board members, parents and students (Please invite your friends and neighbors by sharing our Facebook event.)
Where: Snoqualmie Ridge (Parking can be found at Cascade View ES, Ridge Street, and Kinsey Street.)

Timeline

1PM - Secondary teachers will arrive, park, and proceed to the Starbucks parking lot closest to the Parkway to collect a sign or create one. The march will go from Center south on the parkway to Douglas crossing the street and heading back up to Center, crossing and the back down again.
2PM - The secondary staff will make their way to the Community Park on Ridge Street. The elementary staff will have arrived and picked up their sign at the Starbucks parking lot to join us at the park.
2:15PM - The rally will begin at Community Park. We're inviting news media to attend, and there will be a few speeches. Afterwards the elementary staff will march around the same route mentioned above.
When your normal Friday end time comes, please turn in your signs where you got them and head home for a relaxing weekend.

Spread the word and see you there!

McCleary Promise Rally - Fully Fund Our Schools

5/22/2017

Our students have a right to amply funded public schools, but our legislators in Olympia haven't lived up to the McCleary promise. In response, SVEA will rally on Friday, June 2 from 1-4PM in Snoqualmie.

We will rally because fully funding quality basic education for all children is Washington’s paramount duty. This includes voter-approved smaller class sizes, professional compensation, and local control of our schools.

SVEA members invite community members to join us as we speak up for our students' right to fully funded schools.

RSVP here.

General Membership Meeting Recap

5/16/2017

Members met in the Mount Si High School Auditorium on Monday, May 15th to review progress made during the 2016-17 school year and discuss legislative inaction in Olympia. By a vote of 51-0, members decided to hold a rally on June 2 to demand fully funded public schools. More information will follow by the end of the week.

From the meeting minutes: Two years ago SVEA and the District joined forces collaboratively to publicly advocate for education funding for our schools. The district approached us about doing something like this again to make our community aware of education funding issues. They suggested that we go off the clock on June 2nd, a TDD, and rally again up on the ridge. Marcella Murphy (MSHS) moved that SVEA members hold a rally on Snoqualmie Ridge during the TDD portion of the school day on June 2. Ann Heideman (MSHS) seconded the motion. Discussion followed. The motion passed 51-0 with 1 abstention. SVEA will work with the district on planning and logistics.

Slides from the meeting are here and meeting minutes can be found here.

Fall City Educators Occupy Olympia

5/8/2017

Two Fall City Elementary teachers traveled to Olympia last week to remind legislators of their paramount duty. They were featured in an OurVoice blog post.

Daionda Davis and Emily Lazenby are first grade teachers at Fall City Elementary in rural King County. They’re both union reps, and they’re both third-year teachers.

And on Tuesday, they were both first-time lobbyists in Olympia, tracking down their lawmakers to talk about the House and Senate’s competing budget plans.

“The Senate budget would reduce teacher pay and increase class sizes,” said Lazenby. “It would reduce our ability to collectively bargain, and that would make our jobs even harder than they already are.”

Davis and Lazenby joined Seattle Education Association President Phyllis Campano, who is helping organize Occupy Olympia and Resist the Senate Budget in Olympia. Every week day until May 12, dozens of WEA members are traveling to the state capital to lobby in support of the House Democrats’ K-12 budget and to oppose the Senate funding plan.

Read the rest of the post featuring Daionda and Emily here.

FREE Educator Events

5/6/2017

Woodland Park Zoo Educator Appreciation Day
Explore the zoo for a day! On Saturday, June 3rd Woodland Park Zoo invites P-20 educators to visit the zoo for free and receive half-priced admission for one adult guest!

Please check in at the South Entrance between 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for your ticket into the zoo. You are welcome to stay until closing time but check-in will end at 3:00 p.m. Please bring something to verify your employment as an educator.

You may use this day to both enjoy the zoo and explore opportunities to include the zoo in your curriculum. There will be a variety of events including Bear Affair: Living Northwest Conservation Day, along with all summer programming. Please contact the zoo registrar with any questions (schools@zoo.org or 206.548.2424).

Seattle Teachers Autism Symposium
The FREE Seattle Teachers Autism Symposium will be held at UW's Kane Hall on July 26 & 27. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex disorder that is characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social communication as well as the presence of restricted interests, repetitive behaviors, difficulty with change, and/or sensory hyper-/hypo-sensitivities. Educators will learn the diagnostic criteria and how symptoms may manifest and effect school behavior. The presentation will include how the diagnosis is made, common co-occurring conditions and a brief overview of recommended interventions for ASD.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn about different diagnostic criteria and labels used for Autism
Participants will learn about methods used to identify Autism
Participants will learn about common co-occurring conditions in Autism

Clock hours are available for an additional fee. We hope to see you there! For more info and to register, click here.

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