Good Column

The Myth of the Powerful Teachers Union, by David Macaray. It's a great debunking of many of the myths surrounding teachers today.

President's Newsletter, November 7th

Hello again,

Election Results: The education stories that you have coming out of the Tuesday election are numerous: the 2/3rds majority for any tax increase was restored, the candy/soda tax was repealed, and the practical impact is that the legislature will be looking at a $4.8 billion dollar deficit this year.

I've been talking with you for a couple of years about the legislature, but the worst has never come to pass thanks to stimulus money in 2009 and federal jobs money here in 2010. That's not going to happen this year. Governor Gregoire is promising an all-cuts budget, on top of the mid-year cuts we're already having to absorb, which means that levy equalization and the K-3 class size enhancement are once again in the line of fire.

This year, though, and Lord knows I never figured it would get to here, those might just be the beginning. There's going to be a huge push to get teachers into the Public Employee Benefits Board plan (PEBB), which is a major, major change. Those of you who got the National Board certification might be in line to get hosed, but you'll hear about that potential from Jim Meadows before you hear it from me. Get ready for TRS4, where upon retirement you're processed into soylent green.

(I may be joking about that last one, but in these times it's kind of hard to tell)

I'll keep you informed as things come along. The Governor releases her budget next month, and it's going to be ugly.

Evaluations, Observations, and Walk Throughs: I've heard feedback from a number of buildings regarding an increase in the number of walk-through evaluations, particularly "scored" walk-throughs where you're given formal feedback. Additionally, there are increased concerns about the tone some observations are taking.

If you have received a negative observation or walk-through, please let me or your building rep know as soon as possible. This is a trend that we want to keep an extremely close eye on.

Where's Ryan This Week: On Monday the District Reading Festival is from 5:30 to 7:00 at Hallett. Hope to see you there!

On Tuesday the legislators from the 9th LD (Sen. Mark Schoesler, Rep. Susan Fagan, and Rep. Joe Schmick) are coming to the District Office at 11:30 for a joint meeting between us and the Cheney School District. We'll be communicating to them about the sacrifice we've already made, and getting their thoughts on the upcoming legislative session.

On Wednesday the Eastern Washington Uniserv Council is hosting a new member's night at the Council office. I invited a number of you, but if you're interested please let me know and I'll rsvp for you!

Thursday is Veteran's Day. Thank them for their service--freedom isn't free.

On Friday I'll be attending the WEA Small/Rural Locals Conference in Federal Way. It's designed for those locals that have less than 150 members, and it's always an interesting conversation, especially when we get to comparing contracts. I'll let you know what we learn!

Thank you for your time, and good luck going into conferences!

--Ryan--

News on NEWS

Last week the school board voted to make Medical Lake a part of the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools (NEWS), which is probably best known as the leading party to the most recent school funding lawsuit working through the system.

It's a big step for us, and I personally applaud the District for taking it. Now that they've signed on to the network the Medical Lake EA also joins on simultaneously, and you're also going to see many (if not most!) of the other school districts in Eastern Washington take the plunge as well.

What's the issue? For us, number one with a bullet is levy equalization (LEA). The state treats LEA like it's a favor to the property-poor school districts that they don't really have to follow through on, but for us it's a million dollars plus every year that allows us to offer programs, lower class size, and fair compensation. It's the same with the reduction in the Learning Improvement Days--Olympia's one-time savings is something that our near-retirees are going to be paying for as long as they draw a pension.

For more information about NEWS you can check out their website here.

United Way

Just a reminder that you can select the WEA Fund for Children as a part of your United Way donation. We've accessed them several times the last few years to help out families in need here in Medical Lake; if you have a student in your room who could use assistance, let me know and I'll get you the appropriate request form.

Thanks!

--Ryan--

Information About Dues

Hello again,

I received an informational packet last month about a grant that the WEA offers for release time. The piece inside that I wanted to share relates to the average local dues for districts statewide.

The average for locals with 100 to 300 members is $116.21 a year.
The average for locals with 301 to 600 members is $234.71 a year.
Here in Medical Lake, the cost for a full time employee? $60.

All of us on the exec board have worked hard to be dilligent with the local budget. It will be coming out for your vote soon; please read it over and let us know if you have any questions. We appreciate the input!

With thanks,

--Ryan--

President's Newsletter, October 10th

If I type really fast I can post this at 10:10:10 on 10-10-10. The math major in me would find that delightful! :-)

What we've been working on this week:

New Uniserv Council Rep: Over the years I know that many of you had the chance to meet and work with Mike Boyer, one of the staff members at the WEA-Eastern office in Spokane. He's moved up to work more directly with grievances and bargaining, and last week we hired a new staff member. Our field reps are some of the hardest working people in the union--Lord knows that I keep ours, Sally McNair, hopping--and they're our first contact when things go off kilter. I think we hired a good one; I'll let you know when things are official!

Evaluation Survey: Next week the Teacher/Principal Evaluation Pilot team is having another series of meetings to work on the new evaluation system. Going into that meeting I'm putting together a survey to help guide me in what you as members want out of a new evaluation tool; look for a link to that to be coming out this week. If you could give it 5 minutes of your time, it would be greatly appreciated!

Homecoming Game: It was great to go out to the High School on Friday night and see such a dominating performance by the Cardinal Football team. The band looked and sounded great, the team played lights out, and the excitement from all the students was a neat thing to see. Thank you to all the High School staff for making this such a great week for the kids!

Politics: Remember that you can always find the official WEA recommendations on the Our Voice WEA website. If you want to dig deeper into the initiatives I'd highly recommend the Inside Olympia program on TVW. Ballots should be mailed out this week.

The Spokane Children's Fund: For those of you who live within the boundries of Spokane District 81, you'll also be voting on the Spokane Children's Fund Initiative. This video from KSPS gives a good look at what fund would mean for the kids in Spokane, as well as the taxpayers who would need to fund it. If you need more info, it's a good piece to check out.

Have a great week!

--Ryan--

Dollars for Scholars

This is from Brenda Vasquez, a Title teacher at Hallett and Michael Anderson who has also had two students attend MLHS:

Purpose of DFS: to expand educational opportunities through scholarships and academic support and encourage educational achievement and support students pursuing education beyond high school.

This is a non-profit, volunteer-operated organization: At ML, we try and raise funds to help as many MLHS students as we can. Students must apply for scholarships and they are granted based on need, merit, or both. Some fund-raising activities through the year are the Silent Auction and the Big Yard Sale at Denny's parking lot in the spring. Scholarship dollars are acquired through the fund-raisers plus through donated gifts, memorials, etc. People donating to the Cardinal Star help scholarship money go into an endowment fund to ensure there is permanent scholarship money available. Thousands of dollars were raised to help our own MLHS seniors last year.

The Dollars for Scholars organization needs people to contribute to the Cardinal Star endowment fund. All that is needed is a $50.00 contribution per year for 3 years. The goal was to raise $50,000 for the endowment fund (though the economy has brought it to $30,000) which in turn will be used for scholarships for our seniors right here in our own community. If we could find 100 individuals/families to commit the $50.00 for 3 years, then the endowment would grow to about $45,000. If someone wants to donate yearly, but can't do the $50.00, then any amt. is greatly appreciated. Any donation, whether a one-time gift, or the 3 year committment, is greatly appreciated at whatever amount. All donations are tax deductible. Should you have goods/furniture to donate for the yard sale, we are collecting and storing them now.

Dollars for Scholars is a great group that has poured tens of thousands of dollars into our students over the years; if you have the chance to support them by either joining the Cardinal Star endowment that Brenda mentioned, or by signing up for a monthly donation via payroll deduction, you can count on it being money well spent.

The New Evaluation System

Hello again,

Some of you have asked for information about the new Teacher/Principal Evaluation Pilot that Medical Lake is a part of; OSPI has a website set up here with everything there is to know. Right now the group is in a very exploratory stage with no definite products yet, but be assured that as they come available I'll be around to talk with you.

Those of you who have access to the works of Charlotte Danielson might be interested as well; a lot of what we're doing comes straight from her books.

--Ryan--

President's Newsletter, September 18th

Hello again,

Many of you are aware that my stepfather was diagnosed with leukemia in July of 2009. At that time they said his particular symptoms usually meant that patients had about 13 months left; on Tuesday morning I got an urgent phone call from my brother and was in my car driving home to Olympia by 8:00. I share this with you in order to thank the staff at Anderson for helping my sub during my absence, particularly Jackie and Sandy on the 5th grade team, lead secretary Dolores Martin for passing along the sub plans I emailed, and everyone else who sent along their well-wishes.

The Medical Lake School District is a great place because of the people who work here and make it go. Thank you to everyone for what you do!

State budget update: Thursday's kick in the teeth was the announcement from the state's Revenue Forecast Council; you can watch the meeting here or read Seattle Times coverage here.

The Governor is ordering an immediate 6% cut to spending. For us that gets a bit hard to figure because so much of our funding is mandated by the state constitution, but there are two pots of money that aren't considered basic education that mean a lot for us: levy equalization and K-3 class size enhancement. Put them together and those cuts equal about $120,000; combine that with the decline in enrollment (30 kids, or $150,000) and you can get an early handle on the problem we're facing.

A small ray of sunshine: Last month the big push by the NEA congressional lobbyists in DC was to get the education jobs bill to pass through the congress; it did, which will mean about $200,000,000 for Washington and $400,000 for us here in Medical Lake (assuming that all the relevant projections come to pass). It probably won't cover the full deficit that we're being faced with this year, but every little bit helps.

Busy week for education reform: There's a ton of things going on around the state this week. On Tuesday the Quality Education Council is meeting in Olympia; they're the legislative taskforce charged with managing the recent school reform bills. Also on Tuesday I'll be in Federal Way for a PAC meeting to hear about where we're at with elections and initiatives. On Thursday the Evaluation Pilot Project is having a meeting at the ESD, and on Friday the State Levy and Local Effort Assistance Technical Workgroup is meeting in Renton to talk about potential policy changes to levies and levy equaliation.

And for good measure, a new staffer too! Many of you may know Mike Boyer; he was our field staffer out of the WEA-Eastern Uniserv office for a number of years. He's recently taken a new position with the WEA where he'll work on arbitrations and bargaining, which means we'll be hiring a new face at the Uniserv soon. I'll let you know how it goes!

---

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to call or email. Go Eags!

--Ryan--

President's Newsletter, September 12th

MLEA Members,

I hope you've all had a great start to the school year!

Enrollment Update: It's been shared with some buildings that our enrollment has again come in below projections. We planned for 1,900 students for the district; we're running about 1,870. Last year there was a spike in Running Start students that was a large part of the issue; this year, there isn't really a pattern to the enrollment drop.

What this means is an instant $150,000 hole in the budget. Further, our enrollment tends to be at it's high point in September and October; as families move away and struggling students drop out, the enrollment tends to trend down during the year.

It's something I know the administrators keep a close eye on; the impact will be felt most directly in April and May, when we start setting the budget for the 2011-2012 school year. If you have any questions, please let me know.

The WEA Children's Fund: You may have received an email two weeks back from WEA Vice President Mike Ragan about the WEA Children's Fund. It's a great charity that we've had cause to access in the past to support families in crisis. If you have a child who could use their help the application process is easy; if you have the ability to make a donation to support their work, it would be very much appreciated. You can also make the Children's Fund your United Way designated charity; I'll offer more information about that process in the next newsletter.

Another great group to support is the Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars. Brenda Vasquez at Hallett and Michael Anderson is a board member for them, and the work they do every year getting scholarships to deserving Medical Lake grads is to be commended. You might also get a request from Citizens for Medical Lake Schools; you can donate to them through payroll deduction. It's a great way to support our levy elections on a consistent basis.

Class Size: We've been made aware of some class size problems in different buildings. The 4th grades at Michael Anderson were running at 30+ kids each until last week; they've since added a class that is being staffed with a long-term sub. We're now hearing about general ed classes at the High School with 40+ kids; that should get settled this week.

We have some of the best class size language in the area, but that's only doable as long as you speak up and let it be known how important class size is. If you're currently faced with an overload please talk with me or your building rep so that we can go over what options and relief you can have.

Negotiations: This is the last year of our three-year contract with the school district, meaning we'll be entering into negotiations soon. We'll be running a survey to gather your ideas on what the process should look like, so please be thinking about the areas where the contract has mattered for you and how you think that process could be improved. Look for the survey soon!

I hope you've all had a great start to the school year, and Go Cardinals!

--Ryan--

Your Weingarten Rights

For a while now I've wanted to share this newsletter from Sharon Bacon, a recently-retired rep for the Spokane EA. It gives a great overview of your Weingarten Rights, which is your right to representation during a meeting with administration.

Please give it a read and keep it in mind!

--Ryan--

President's Newsletter, September 2010

MLEA Members,

Welcome back! I hope you all had a fulfilling summer and a great first day of school, especially those of you who are new to the district or are taking on new assignments this year. With the construction and the work that's been put in front of us regarding test scores we really are living in some interesting times; here's to best wishes for a successful 2010-2011 campaign!

There are a few things I'd like to make you aware of as we get going:

1) Evaluation Pilot Project: You may have seen the recent article in the Cheney Free Press about the new evaluation system that we'll be working on this year. Medical Lake is part of a consortium along with Reardan, Davenport, Pullman, and a number of other area districts. This year will be spent in conversation talking about what effective teacher and ESA evaluation should look like; next year we'll be piloting a new system. In 2013 Superintendent Dorn makes a recommendation to the legislature regarding the system that should be used on a statewide basis.

I'm excited about the potential here, and you'll be hearing a lot more about the project as the year goes on. Please feel free to call or email if you have any questions!

2) Negotiations: This is the third year of our three-year contract, meaning it's time to go back to the table and review the agreement we have in place and talk about any changes that need to be made. As I write this word is coming through that the Seattle EA has approved their new contract just in time for the beginning of school next week, so it looks like this could be a blessed year of labor peace here in Washington State.

If you have interest in being a part of the bargaining team please let me know; it's a great way to get involved, and there's no better way to get to know your contract than by helping to write it. We'll also be setting up opportunities to talk about what you want out of the MLEA during these negotiations. Please, let us know what you think!

3) Candidate Endorsements: Part of the work that I do with the WEA-Eastern Uniserv Council is to lead the candidate interviews and endorsements process for all the area legislative districts. We met with almost everyone who has declared that they are running, and I really do believe that we are blessed with some strong education advocates representing us in the state legislature. Our official WEA endorsements:

3rd Legislative District (downtown Spokane): Andy Billig and Timm Ormsby (Democrats)
4th Legislative District (Spokane Valley): No endorsements given.
6th Legislative District (Mead, Windsor, and the area east of Airway Heights): Chris Marr and John Driscoll (Democrats); Kevin Parker (Republican)
7th Legislative District (essentially everything north of Highway 2): Shelly Short and Joel Kretz (Republicans)
9th Legislative Distict (Medical Lake, Cheney, south to Pullman): Susan Fagan and Joe Schmick (Republicans)

There are two area politicians who I'd like to point out for special consideration. Senator Marr has been one of the most consistent voices in Olympia regarding education. He was one of the most vocal that changing standards and "overhauling" the system without funding what we have didn't make any sense, and that one of the priorities of the state needed to be to restore the lost COLA for teachers. Similarly, I think that Joel Kretz is one of the best friends public schools have. The House Republicans were instrumental in saving levy equalization in 2009 and getting it expanded in 2010; without his hard work, we'd be far worse off to the tune of almost $1,000,000.

4) That said, this legislative session is going to be rough. The number being bandied around is that the legislature will be looking at a $3 billion dollar shortfall when they go back in January; some expect it to me more like $5 billion, and a few estimate even higher. Congress did pass the teacher jobs bill that should make some difference for the schools, but areas like levy equalization are still critically at risk. I'll update more frequently as the legislative session gets closer; please just know that making effective contacts with your Representatives and Senators is more important than ever.

5) Construction Project: The Cheney Free Press has had some great coverage of the interactions between the MLSD and the City of Medical Lake regarding the hang-up with getting the construction done at Hallett Elementary. The City Council will be taking the issue up soon; I'll let you know when it's set to be before them.

Should you ever have questions or concerns, please feel free to call me on my cell phone or contact me via email. Thank you for taking the time to visit the site, and have a great Labor Day weekend!

--Ryan--

The WIAA, 2A, and the MLSD

The WIAA has released their athletic classifications for the next two years, and it's looking like Medical Lake will remain in the 2A ranks. Colville and Riverside are both dropping down to 1A; coming into the AA classification from AAA will be some traditional powers like East Valley of Spokane, West Valley of Yakima, Port Angeles, and North Thurston. You can see the newest breakdowns here.

At the October school board meeting Russ Brown, former principal at MLHS and a current field rep with the WIAA, talked about how the WIAA organizes the leagues around the state. The goal is to have a balanced number of teams in each of the 6 classifications (2B, 1B, 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A), meaning that you'd expect about 64 schools per division. That's their idea of balance--an equal number of teams.

The practical impact on 2A, where we are, is pretty profound. The smallest 2A schoo, Mount Baker, has 515 kids. We're running at 527 for counting purposes. The largest 2A school is Interlake HS of Bellevue at 1,085 students, a spread of 560 kids from top to bottom. You could combine Medical Lake with Mount Baker and you'd still only have the 7th largest school in 2A.

It gets even worse when you compare it to 3A--there the smallest school is 1,086 students while the largest is 1,303, a difference of only 217 students!

How does this happen? If you look at that chart I linked to above you can see many schools choosing to "opt-up" to a larger classification. Gonzaga Prep is a prime example; their enrollment would put them solidly in the 2A bracket otherwise, but they choose to compete at a 4A level in order to keep their historic rivalries with the other Spokane high schools. Every time a school opts to go up, the lowest school in that bracket is kicked down to the classification below so that the WIAA can keep their numbers balanced.

22 schools opted up into the 3A ranks. That pushes 22 "small" 3A schools down, into the 2A classification, and that's where the imbalance is born.

The Cheney Free Press has more here and here.

--Ryan--

Some Retirement News

Hi MLEA members,

A couple of things to think about this month, both related to retirement:

1) As per Article V Section 11 of the current contract, if you notify the District in advance of your intent to retire at the end of the current school year you'll receive a Notification Stipend to be added on to your base contract amount. Given the fiscal mess that we're faced with it's a real blessing to know what the staffing for the next year will look like as early as possible; to that end, the District has agreed to both raise the amount offered from $1,000 to $1,500, and keep the amount level until March--under the current language, it would step down a couple hundred dollars per month.

If you have any questions about this part of the contract, please give me a call!

2) For those of us on Plan 3, this is the month where you can change your contribution option either up or down. There's a form that you'd have to turn in to Lynn Paul in the payroll office; you can find it, and more information, here:

http://www.icmarc.org/xp/plan3/trs/contributionrateflexibility.xml

Happy New Year!

--Ryan--

Where the Jobs Aren't Going To Be

Interesting list in the Spokane Journal of Business' December 23rd edition on the largest employers in Spokane County.

#1 is the State of Washington
#4--Spokane Public Schools
#5--Spokane County
#6--City of Spokane
#7--The US Government
#11--Community Colleges of Spokane
#12--Central Valley School District
#14--Eastern Washington University
#18--State Department of Corrections
#25--Eastern State Hospital
#30--Lakeland Village
#31--East Valley School District
#45--Cheney School District
#50--Washington State DOT
#55--Deer Park School District
#58--West Valley School District
#59--Medical Lake School District

9 of the top 60 employers in the county are school districts, the community colleges, or state universities. If you put them all together, you have 8,565 jobs.

Now think about the cuts that could happen--if you laid off 5% of those people, you'd have 428 more people out on the streets looking for work. This, in a county where unemployment is currently 7.9% and a state where nearly 1-in-10 people can't find a job.

I guess that's why I can't really be sympathetic to the belief expressed by some that the government doesn't create jobs; the underlying bias in that statement is that a government job isnt' a "real" job, and that's a slap in the face. And if we don't save some of these pesky government jobs, you're going to be looking at a lot of unemployed school employees slowing the recovery down even further.