Below is a cut-and-paste of an email that I received from the WEA regarding a ProTeach workshop being put on in Spokane next month. ProTeach is the process that new teachers have to go through in order to get their Professional Certificate; the feedback I've gotten from these WEA workshops in the past has been overwhelmingly positive. If you have any questions, please email!
Washington teachers certified after Aug. 31, 2000 are required to attain professional certification. The ProTeach ® portfolio, a fully online assessment run by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), is the means by which teachers earn their professional certification. The WEA ProTeach ® Jump Start Seminar provides candidates with important information about the portfolio requirements, time to examine the three-entry portfolio in detail and the opportunity to plan how to meet requirements. This pre-candidacy support option helps candidates to prepare for the process and complements work with a support group during candidacy. Click here for more information about the ProTeach ® Jump Start Seminar, including information about four-day summer offerings.
Winter Seminars: For the first time, WEA will offer a "condensed" two-day winter version of its ProTeach ® Jump Start Seminar. The cost for this 20-hour event is $120 for full WEA members. Trainings will be 10 hours each day (8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and will include breakfast, lunch and dinner. Participants must cover their own substitutes for the Friday portion of the training, if needed. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Up to 20 clock hours are included in the registration fee. To run each seminar we require at least 20 registrants. If there are insufficient numbers, we will fully reimburse registrations that have been submitted. Course registration will close if a given event reaches capacity.
Spokane 2-Day Seminar (20 hours) -- Feb. 10-11, 2012 (Friday/Saturday). Register now.
Note: Our registration system closes Jan. 23 at 5 p.m. After that date, please e-mail Sheila Beaver to see if space is still available.
We hope you'll join us for this high-quality introduction to the ProTeach ® portfolio. Past participants have given this seminar series consistently positive evaluations.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
What You Need to Know About................The Health Insurance Takeover
Currently in Washington State most every school district has a separate insurance program. Here in Medical Lake we have 10 options, which differ slightly from the options in Cheney, which is different from Spokane, right on down the line statewide.
What the legislature is considering is creating one statewide insurance plan, much like the other state employees have, and putting all school employees into this new system. The genesis of this was a report out of the state auditor's office last year that said the state could save $180 million dollars by creating One Big Pool, which is math that is strenuously denied by the WEA. Statewide the Public School Employees union, which represents classified staff, has come out in favor of the idea, though our own local PSE has concerns.
In general, the thought about switching is that folks who cover their entire family would likely end up paying less out of pocket than they do now. Those who cover only themselves--essentially, those who contribute to the pool--would see their rates increase, and there wouldn't be pooling and longer. If the plan switched there wouldn't be a guarantee that you would be able to keep your current doctor or dentist, though if they accepted other state employees odds are they would take the new School Employees plan, too.
For more information please visit the WEA Our Voice website, here. The Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the House budget writer have all come out for the idea, but even if it goes through the important thing is to let them know that lowering our health benefits would be an awful thing to do to families.
What the legislature is considering is creating one statewide insurance plan, much like the other state employees have, and putting all school employees into this new system. The genesis of this was a report out of the state auditor's office last year that said the state could save $180 million dollars by creating One Big Pool, which is math that is strenuously denied by the WEA. Statewide the Public School Employees union, which represents classified staff, has come out in favor of the idea, though our own local PSE has concerns.
In general, the thought about switching is that folks who cover their entire family would likely end up paying less out of pocket than they do now. Those who cover only themselves--essentially, those who contribute to the pool--would see their rates increase, and there wouldn't be pooling and longer. If the plan switched there wouldn't be a guarantee that you would be able to keep your current doctor or dentist, though if they accepted other state employees odds are they would take the new School Employees plan, too.
For more information please visit the WEA Our Voice website, here. The Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the House budget writer have all come out for the idea, but even if it goes through the important thing is to let them know that lowering our health benefits would be an awful thing to do to families.
What You Need to Know About................The Redistricting Commission
Currently the MLSD is split roughly into between the 7th LD district, which includes Fairchild AFB and most everything north of Highway 2, and the 9th LD, which contains the town of Medical Lake proper and stretches all the way south to Pullman. We've been well represented by those legislators on our big issues like levy equalization, and it's been great to have them representing us.
Over the Christmas break the lines were re-drawn, and now Medical Lake will be in the 6th LD. You can see all the maps on the Redistricting Commission's website here and the new 6th LD specifically here; the upshot is that we'll now Cheney, Medical Lake, Nine Mile Falls, Airway Heights, Fairchild, and parts of the northern and southern portions of Spokane will all be in the same legislative district together.
We'll be working with the District to invite the current 6th LD legislators out to Medical Lake this spring; this includes Rep. John Ahern, who is on the House Education Committee, Rep. Kevin Parker, who serves on the important Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Michael Baumgartner, who is running against Maria Cantwell for US Senate. I have every hope that they'll be just as passionate about school funding as our previous legislators were, and we look forward to working with them in the future!
Over the Christmas break the lines were re-drawn, and now Medical Lake will be in the 6th LD. You can see all the maps on the Redistricting Commission's website here and the new 6th LD specifically here; the upshot is that we'll now Cheney, Medical Lake, Nine Mile Falls, Airway Heights, Fairchild, and parts of the northern and southern portions of Spokane will all be in the same legislative district together.
We'll be working with the District to invite the current 6th LD legislators out to Medical Lake this spring; this includes Rep. John Ahern, who is on the House Education Committee, Rep. Kevin Parker, who serves on the important Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Michael Baumgartner, who is running against Maria Cantwell for US Senate. I have every hope that they'll be just as passionate about school funding as our previous legislators were, and we look forward to working with them in the future!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The WEA-Eastern Newsletter
Hopefully most of you have received the newsletter via your home email address, but just in case you haven't you can read the WEA-Eastern newsletter by following the link here.
Monday, October 3, 2011
The American Jobs Act
It would be a happy thing for teachers, certainly. Here's an ad that the NEA is putting out:
Friday, September 2, 2011
This Year's Dues
Hello friends,
I wanted to provide you with a breakdown of where your dues dollars go, by organization. The numbers below are for a full-time employee; if you're less than 1.0 fte and you want this analysis, please let me know and I'll get that for you ASAP!
NEA Dues: $178 a year, or $14.83 a month. This helps to support the work that goes on at the national level, as well as covering the costs associated with the liability insurance you have as an NEA member.
WEA Dues: $410 a year, or $34.17 a month. Your WEA dues pay for the staff in our Federal Way office that keep the organization running, as well as partly for the field staff around the state that are available for work issues.
UniServ Dues: $140.28 a year, or $11.69 a month. The UniServ is our WEA-Eastern office, and these dues support the staff there as well as the trainings that we attend regarding budgeting, grievances, and the like.
Local Dues: $60 a year, or $5 a month. If you've taken a look at the Association budget you know where this goes--our two biggest spending items are the scholarships that we offer every year and the stipends for building reps, the bargaining team, and the exec board.
If you add those all up you'll come up with $65.69 a month. Some of you may be paying more than that if you contribute to the WEA Political Action Committee ($2.25 a month, $27 a year) or the NEA Fund for Children ($1 a month, $12 a year). There's also an additional $1 a month for what's known as the Community Outreach fund, which is used to pay for grants to locals for projects in the community.
If you have questions about the money and where it goes, feel free to ask--you have the right, and the only way to keep a right healthy is to exercise it! :-)
With thanks,
--Ryan--
I wanted to provide you with a breakdown of where your dues dollars go, by organization. The numbers below are for a full-time employee; if you're less than 1.0 fte and you want this analysis, please let me know and I'll get that for you ASAP!
NEA Dues: $178 a year, or $14.83 a month. This helps to support the work that goes on at the national level, as well as covering the costs associated with the liability insurance you have as an NEA member.
WEA Dues: $410 a year, or $34.17 a month. Your WEA dues pay for the staff in our Federal Way office that keep the organization running, as well as partly for the field staff around the state that are available for work issues.
UniServ Dues: $140.28 a year, or $11.69 a month. The UniServ is our WEA-Eastern office, and these dues support the staff there as well as the trainings that we attend regarding budgeting, grievances, and the like.
Local Dues: $60 a year, or $5 a month. If you've taken a look at the Association budget you know where this goes--our two biggest spending items are the scholarships that we offer every year and the stipends for building reps, the bargaining team, and the exec board.
If you add those all up you'll come up with $65.69 a month. Some of you may be paying more than that if you contribute to the WEA Political Action Committee ($2.25 a month, $27 a year) or the NEA Fund for Children ($1 a month, $12 a year). There's also an additional $1 a month for what's known as the Community Outreach fund, which is used to pay for grants to locals for projects in the community.
If you have questions about the money and where it goes, feel free to ask--you have the right, and the only way to keep a right healthy is to exercise it! :-)
With thanks,
--Ryan--
Sunday, July 3, 2011
WEA-Retired Information
This comes to us from Kit Raney, the President of WEA-Retired. I'm already a life member of the Retired branch, and I'd happily endorse it for anyone at any stage of the profession--it's never to early to think about the next chapter.
You may have read or heard about the benefits of joining WEA-Retired/NEA-Retired while you are still an active member. There are many reasons to join before you retire and become a pre-retired member, which are detailed below. There is also a $50 reason to join WEA-Retired/NEA-Retired before Sept. 1 of this year because on Sept. 1, lifetime dues will be increasing from $350 to $400.
By joining WEA-Retired/NEA-Retired now, while you’re still an active association member, you’ll become a pre-retired member and receive publications from NEA-Retired and WEA-Retired. You will also be protected from any future NEA-Retired or WEA-Retired dues increases. And, when you do retire, your membership will move seamlessly to that of an active member of NEA-Retired and WEA-Retired. WEA-Retired is the only retired organization that is affiliated with WEA and NEA.
Retire from your position, not your profession. For $350 you become a lifetime member of NEA-Retired and WEA-Retired. It’s very easy to join. You can join using your credit card by going to www.washingtonea.org/retired/join. You can also join by check for the full amount or by making 10 payments of $35. Some districts will do payroll deduction for the 10 payments. For a membership form and/or more information, please call Stacia Bilsland at 360-482-2431 or contact her at sbilsland@washingtonea.org. Join before Sept. 1 and SAVE as lifetime dues will be increasing to $400 on that date. Pay $350 prior to Sept. 1 or begin making the 10 payments of $35 before Sept. 1 and avoid the dues increase.
- Membership in WEA-Retired\NEA-Retired keeps you a part of the largest profession/union advocating for public education and the welfare of its workforce.
- You will always be eligible to use WEA/NEA member benefits.
- You will have opportunities to work in partnership with WEA and NEA members to improve retirement benefits for both retirees and active members.
- WEA-Retired and NEA- Retired members can help with your planning for your retirement.
- As a WEA-Retired member you will continue to receive NEA’s NEA Today, WEA’s We 2.0, NEA-Retired’s This Active Life and WEA-Retired’s WE...Too. Thus, you will be able to keep up on the issues of concern to your colleagues and remain an informed education voter.
- Your retired membership will allow you to remain active in governance as long as you are not an administrator at the time of your retirement. You can continue to contribute actively to your profession locally and at state and national levels.
- You will have friends at state and national levels to network with about your education and retiree interests.
- If you choose to substitute when you retire, you will continue to be covered by the NEA liability insurance you now have as long as you maintain “continuous” membership. Becoming a pre-retired member ensures no lapse in membership.
- You will remain one of the 3.2 million NEA\WEA voices advocating for students, public schools, and the welfare of retirees.
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