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--

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.

• 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.

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.

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--