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!

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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--