Weingarten Rights

A little bit of labor law for a Wednesday morning!

One of the ways that collective bargaining benefits us is through the codification of what are known as "Weingarten Rights" from a 1975 Supreme Court case of the same name. Fundamentally, what Weingarten means for you:

*You have the right to Union representation at a meeting with a principal, superintendent, or direct supervisor if you "reasonably believe that discipline" could result from the meeting. That's a tricky phrase, though, because "reasonable" has everything to do with your thoughts and feelings at the time, and "discipline" could be anything from a verbal reprimand to a loss of status to termination.

Bottom line: if you're requested to attend a meeting and you're not comfortable going on your own, you can request representation. If you're in a meeting and it takes a turn against you, you can request representation. If after a meeting you need to talk about what it could mean, you can call your Association Rep and debrief.

If you have any questions about Weingarten Rights, or any other aspect of the Association, please feel free to ask!

Network for Excellence in Washington Schools Lawsuit

Over in King County recently they've been hearing the big school funding lawsuit; it has the potential to heavily impact both how schools are funded by the state, as well as the overall level of school funding. You can read more about it here.

President's Newsletter for October 26th

Hello MLEA Members,

I hope that you've all had a great first two months of the school year! I wanted to share some of the thing that I've come across recently to keep you informed as to what is going on both here and Medical Lake and beyond. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me!

State Budget Blues: Last year's legislative session was a bloodbath. The School Reform Act passed, which is a conversation for another day, but what impacted us the most locally were the $1.5 billion dollars in cuts made to the education budget. During collaborative budgeting with the administrators and the PSE we made more than $700,000 in cuts, which cost us good people (Joe Benzo, Nathan Geyer) and forced others to change buildings or work in multiple buildings.

This year could be worse. Actually, let's not equivocate: this year will be worse.

Problem number one is that we're still experiencing the declining enrollment trend that we've been living with for better than 5 years now. During budgeting we built around a projection of 1,980 FTE (full time enrollment), which was about 20 kids below where we ended last year. Usually we come really, really close to that projected number.

This year, we missed it by more than 50. Our September count came in at ~1,924 kids. If you estimate about $5,000 per kid in state funding, that means a $250,000 hole that we weren't planning for.

Why did that happen? I've heard a couple of different theories. #1 has to do with the housing on base still being in such a state of flux that families avoid living there, which means we lose them from Medical Lake as they go to Cheney, Spokane, and other surrounding districts. Theory #2 is that we have many, many more kids participating in Running Start this year, potentially because families that are being pinched by the economy are looking at the possibility of free college credits and taking that option far more seriously than they did in the past.

There is some good news--the District received a back impact aid payment that came in over the summer, which covers the current shortfall and keeps us at even keel. Without it, things could be a lot worse.

So there's the past and the present--what's the future going to hold? Right now the number being tossed around Olympia is that we're looking at a billion dollar plus deficit that will have to be rectified come January when the legislature goes back in session; the chatter coming out of some of the professional school organizations is that the deficit very well could grow to $2 billion dollars before it's all said and done. An advantage that we have is something called "Maintenance of Effort", which was language in the stimulus bill that says that education can't be cut to anything less than the level it was at in 2006. What's chilling is what they can cut, which is shown in this slide from the Senate Ways and Means Committee (go to page 5):

• They're looking at cutting what is paid in levy equalization, which would save the state $250 million dollars. This year, Medical Lake is receiving $1.4 million dollars in levy equalization funds.
  
• The "K-4 enhancement" is money provided by the state to lower class size in kindergarten through 4th grade. Last year the Senate proposed that cut as well, but it didn't go through--if it had, it would have meant a $275,000 hit.
  
• What's left of I-728 is worth $266,000 to us this year; it's also known as the "Student Achievement Fund" money.

That's $1,941,000 in cuts that are very likely to happen. Put another way, that's 10% of the district budget. Put yet another way (and take this with a grain of salt, because it would never happen like this, but still) if you consider the average teacher's salary plus benefits to cost about $75,000, that would be almost 26 teaching positions.

This is why I worry. Throw the proposed cuts to Lakeland Village and last year's scare about Pine Lodge, each facilities that employ many MLSD residents, and the local economy starts to look pretty intimidating as well.

I'm sharing this with all of you because I want you to know that the Association is fully on top of things as best we can be, given the uncertainty of the numbers and just what the legislature will do. This Thursday afternoon Carol Tyson and I are attending a workshop on how to better understand the RIF language in the contract. In two weeks the WEA is holding their annual collective bargaining conference in Federal Way, and we'll get a representative sent over to that as well to make sure we get all the information we can.

These are going to be challenging times. If you have any suggestions please talk with me, a member of the exec board, or your building rep--this is your Association, and any input is greatly appreciated.

With thanks,

--Ryan--

No on 1033

Hi friends,

MLEA Vice President Kate Mills took a quick break from her maternity leave last week to appear at a press conference for WEA-Eastern to express opposition to I-1033, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Initiative being sponsored by Tim Eyman. You can find more information about it on the WEA Our Voice website, here.

--Ryan--

This Week's News

Hello again,

A couple of pieces of news to share with you as we go into our first full week of school:

• Just to reiterate what was covered in the emails last Friday, we will all get paid for the missing LID day that the state did not fund. The procedure that we're looking at is to have a sign-in sheet for the October LID day; if you're out that day, we'll make adjustments accordingly. If you have any questions, please ask!
  
  
• A note about that restored day of pay. Seattle had to bargain all summer to get that for their employees; it was also a big issue in Sedro-Wooley, another district that was on the verge of strike this fall. Many local districts aren't getting the money at all.
  
  My point? In Medical Lake we've had this resolved since May, and I'd like to thank this opportunity to thank Dr. Veltri and the rest of the administrative team for coming up with the funds to protect teacher salaries.
  
  
• If you have been subjected to an involuntary transfer, an overload, or have had your class schedule changed since school began, please let a member of the exec board or your building rep know ASAP. We'll be having our first Labor/Management meeting with the District soon, and all of these things need to be brought up.
  
  
• I'll be putting out information later this week about our fall WEA-PAC drive. WEA-PAC is an organization that I believe in absolutely, and if you'd give it your thoughtful consideration I'd be grateful.
  
  
• Finally, with my switch to a 5th/6th grade combo, my extension at Anderson has changed from x3625 to x3648. If you need me, that's where I'll be!

With thanks,

--Ryan--

Pat Hailey in the 9th Legislative District

Hello again,

One of the things I do for WEA-PAC locally is to take part in the candidate interviews for local legislative races, and this summer the big project was to interview all of the candidates running in the upcoming special election in the 9th LD. The 9th includes Medical Lake, Cheney, and all points south to Pullman and the Tri-Cities. There were several good candidates, so the WEA didn't make an official recommendation in the primary, but now that we're on to the general election I can share with you that the Washington Education Association has endorsed Republican Pat Hailey in the 9th Legislative District.

Ms. Hailey is a former high school secretary in the North Franklin School District (Connell) and has served on the school board there. She lost her job after they experienced a double levy failure that crippled the district, so she has an understanding of just how important school finance can be. When we interviewed her we were very impressed with her knowledge of the state testing regimen, levy equalization, and other issues that impact us right here in Medical Lake. She's a former member of the Public School Employees union, so she has an understanding of labor as well.

We may not agree on every issue--her stance on health care reform, for example, is the opposite of the party line from the NEA--but our visceral reaction was that even if she didn't agree with us she'd be willing to listen to us and offer a fair hearing, and given the economic issues of the times that's all we ask for.

That's the WEA position. I'll also speak for her on the personal level from my standpoint as the husband of a dairy farmer--Ms. Hailey is very well versed on agriculture issues and would be a great spokesman for our farm families. You can read about her ag background on her website; she runs cows and raises crops in Mesa, just north of Pasco.

If you're undecided on who to vote for come November, please consider Pat Hailey--she's the kind of pro-education candidate we need more of!

With thanks,

--Ryan--

Class Size: We Have It Pretty Good

There are a number of labor hotspots around the state, and Kent might be the hottest. They've gone to impasse, which means that the state has entered the negotiations to try and reach an agreement, and there is a chance that they could go out on strike at the end of the month.

Something that's worth looking at is the contract proposals that the Kent EA has made, particularly class size on page 2:

• They top out at 26 per class in grades K-3; we're 22 in kindergarten, 22 in 1st, 23 in 2nd, and 24 in 3rd.
  
• Their limit is 29 in grades 4-6; we top out at 26.
  
• Their limit is 29 in middle school and 31 in high-school, which is comparable to where we're at.

There's always room to improve, and here in year 2 of our three-year contract we've already got a couple of areas (CTE stipends and special ed case loads among them) that we're thinking about, but overall our skinny agreement stands very well side-by-side with the 100+ page contracts that some of the bigger districts have, and that's good for us.

We hope you had a great summer, and we'll see you soon!

With thanks,

--Ryan for the MLEA Exec Board--