Friday, March 27, 2009

Help Understanding the State Budget Deficit

Schmudget is a good read; the post I just linked to has an embedded PowerPoint that makes understanding the projected deficit quite easy. It's well worth your time!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Great Levy Results!

Hi friends,

Just going over the levy results, and a couple of pieces that I think we can all be quite proud of:

1) We had the highest passing percentage of any district in Spokane County, the only one to get over 70%.
2) The lowest precinct was Deep Creek, but even there it passed with 55% positive.
3) The highest precinct was Fairchild AFB, with an 85% passing rate.
4) Deer Park, Reardan, and Riverside would all have failed their M&O levies if it hadn't been for the Simple Majority. On the flip side, the City of Spokane barely "passed" their bond issue to renovate public facilities, but city bonds are still supermajority issues, so it fails despite getting 51% of the vote.

It's a happy day. I'd go frolic in a meadow, but it's too damned cold.

Thanks to all of you for the work you did on the levy--this makes the coming months much easier than they would have been otherwise!

--Ryan--

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Now That the Levy Has Passed, I Can Tell Jokes and Be Happy Again!

A large company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO.

The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall.

The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business.

He walked up to the guy leaning against the wall and asked, “How much money do you make a week?”

A little surprised, the young man looked at him and replied, “I make $400 a week. Why?”

The CEO then handed the guy $1,600 in cash and screamed, “Here’s four weeks’ pay, now GET OUT and don’t come back.”

Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, “Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?”

From across the room came a voice, “Pizza delivery guy from Domino’s.”

Friday, March 6, 2009

Recent Events

Hi again MLEA members,

A few items of interest that I wanted to make you aware of:

*Two weeks ago we sent a team to the Budget Analysis Training that the WEA-Eastern office puts on every year. Representing Medical Lake were Tina Francis of the high school, Melissa Madsen and Kate Gandolf from Anderson, Jeremy Clark from Hallett, and Stephanie Lundberg from Medical Lake Elementary. The information that comes out of a good budget training is incredible, and I look forward to sharing more of it with you in the coming weeks!

*I'm receiving word that provisional employees are being notified of their provisional status. I will be coming around to every building at least once before the spring break; for anyone in that boat, I'd like to talk with you and go over some of the options we have.

*The most recent word trickling out of Olympia is that the House and Senate will be unveiling pieces of the budget in the coming weeks; as soon as the Education budget comes out there will be a tidal wave of information for all of us to process. Please know that I'm watching all the different pieces of the pie very closely, and that we're going to work like hell to get through this in a way that's fair to everybody.

*On April 20th your MLEA exec board, along with past president Wendy Stewart, is attending an evening workshop on how RIF and non-renewal work. It's knowledge that I'm hoping we won't need, but it's knowledge we need to have.

*If you have any questions, please ask--that's what we're here for!

With thanks,

--Ryan, for the MLEA Exec Board--