Regarding Budgeting

Hi friends,

You may have read the email that Dr. Veltri sent early Friday evening, where it is suggested that you were instructed not to fill out the administration survey.

To be clear, we believe that generating as many ideas and as much input as possible is to everyone's benefit as we go through budgeting. We also believe that how you offer feedback is up to you, as is the mechanism that you use to deliver that feedback. Short answer: do the survey if that's what your conscience tells you to do. If you'd rather not, that's also a legitimate choice.

The piece that I'd like you all to remember is that during the whole budgeting process we all have a role to play. The role of the MLEA is to save jobs and keep working conditions as positive and productive as they can be, and when we are asked to consider things like eliminating music, eliminating art, raising class size, and altering your health insurance, then of course our role is to push back and passionately advocate for your interests. The administration's role is up to them to define.

My great hope as we develop the budget for next year is that all of us--the 12 administrators, the 128 members of the Medical Lake Education Association, and the many members of the PSE, the coaches, along with all the non-represented staff--can get to the other side of this budget crisis with minimal impact on the kids and employees. I truly believe that we have the potential to not only survive this crisis but thrive during it by demonstrating to the community at large that we have the moral courage to make responsible choices about how we spend their tax dollars.

That's my goal, and that's the role that the Medical Lake EA will play during
budgeting.

I hope that all the other parties at budgeting will also choose to play their role
in a positive manner.

In solidarity,

--Ryan and the MLEA Exec Board--

What's the Expiration Date on Your Certificate?

Hi friends, it's a rare bit of non-budget related news! :-)

There's a bulletin that was just put out by OSPI....

You can access it here

....that has a tidbit we should all keep in mind:

Our certification office appreciates school districts past efforts to encourage early certification renewal of their employees. Due to the volume of certificates to process and our current operating system, we maintain nearly an eight- to twelve-week processing time for issuance of certificates. With current fiscal restraints and budget shortcomings, this peak season will burden our certification office to its limits. We are asking school districts to continue promoting the early renewal process of certificates by communicating to their employees the importance of submitting applications as early in May as possible.

You'd be well advised to take a few minutes to double-check your certificate and make sure that your credit/clock-hour requirements are met. For those of you who are National Board Certified I know that the re-certification process is a bit different, so if you've gone through the process and could educate me I'd appreciate it.

Thanks, and Happy Easter!

--Ryan--

The Proposed Budgets are a Disaster for Medical Lake

Hi friends,

I was really hoping that I'd have good news for you here after spring break. Sadly, that's not the case.

During the holiday the state House and Senate released their general operating budgets, where they lay out the school funding for the year. The theme in Olympia has been "Cut, cut, cut!", but I don't think anyone expected it to be this drastic.

The House budget would be a hit to the district of about $1.2 million dollars.

The Senate budget--which is much, much worse--would mean a $1.9 million dollar reduction in money coming in from the state.

There's a sub-section of the OSPI website, here, where you can read the numbers for yourself.

Now more than ever it is critical that we communicate with Olympia and tell them to do whatever it takes to protect education funding in Washington schools. I'll be getting some materials out to you this week that I ask you to take a look at--please, make your voice be heard.

Also a reminder about the "How could we save money?" survey that was emailed out to you before spring break. If you have any ideas that we can take forward to the budgeting meetings we need to hear them; you can find the survey at the link below:

Medical Lake Budget Survey

Classified staff, the survey is for you as well--we'll share the responses we get with your PSE leadership!

If you have any questions please call or email. It's going to be a challenging couple of weeks, but please know that your Association is working hard on solutions, and we deeply and sincerely appreciate any suggestions that you have.

With thanks,

--Ryan, for the MLEA Exec Board--