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--
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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--
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--
Friday, January 1, 2010
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.
#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.
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