OEA Negotiations to resume Monday, August 3

OEA's Negotiation Team will meet with the District Monday, August 3, to continue negotiations. We hope to arrive at an agreement that is best for our members.

Ogden School District's budget reflects a $3 Million dollar loss in state funding because of the legislative cuts due to the recession. Our state funding comes mainly from State Income Tax Revenue. The revenue (due to job losses) is significantly less this year. The largest cut in state funding was the Quality Teaching Block Grant of about $1.7 million. Another large cut was in the social security and retirement line item of about $1.2 million. Our district is seeing a slight growth of students and even though several secondary teachers were tranferred or non renewed, the number of FTE's (Full Time Equivalents) will increase in the district with most of those added to the elementary schools. The growth we are seeing is mostly at the elementary level.

Our OEA negotiations team has taken all of this information and looked at the budget during this process. We look forward to the district coming back to the table with an acceptable proposal.

Thanks Rick

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Most of us recognize the term "stimulus package" as the federal money used to help the state backfill the loss in tax revenues because of the recession. The money comes from federal legislation called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The state legislature was able to mitigate the double digit revenue deficits in the budget with millions of federal dollars. The budget cuts went from double digit to around 5% for this fiscal year. Ogden School District is using some of the funds (about $1.2 million) to help move us out of District corrective action with the state and federal government. Ogden teachers will return back to school August 17-20 for professional development and implementation of our district and school plans of improvement. The mornings will be professional development under the direction of the principal and the afternoons will be used for "implementation" of the plans. Another 2 days are imbedded in the contract year for a total of 6 "ARRA" days. These days are optional and we are still negotiating the rate of pay. August 21 is the first (not optional) contract day. We look forward to the new school year.

The OEA Negotiations Team will resume meeting with the District Team on Monday. More info to come. Today's Deseret News has a short article on Jordan and Ogden Negotiations. Go to www.desnews.com and look for the Amy Stewart article, "Teachers Unions Grow Closer to Resolution. Rick

Computer-adaptive testing gaining favor

Amy Stewart writes in the Monday, July 27 Deseret News about the pilot program Sevier School District tried out with computer-adaptive testing. Go to http://www.desnews.com/ to read that article and yesterday's (July 28) article on...surprise...Utah ranks dead last in per-pupil spending.

Waiting to hear any word from the OCSD Board meeting last night. I remain optimistic.
Rick

Ogden School Board to Meet In Executive Session Tonight

The Ogden School Board has planned a special session tonight, Tuesday, July 28 with the intention of going into an executive session to discuss negotiations. Hopefully we will get some news for you soon. Rick

Deseret News Story on Class size increases

Go to http://www.desnews.com/ to read the AP story on class size increases across the country. Both Ogden and Weber Districts have told us that they don't plan to increase class sizes, but in some secondary schools in Ogden teachers were moved or non renewed that will necessarily cause class sizes to go up. We have been told that in Ogden the growth is in the elementary schools. We will have to monitor growth and make sure that class sizes in both districts doesn't trend up.

Only three weeks to the beginning of school. OEA is waiting for the district to get back to us on negotiations. Our mediation process with the mediator took place last week and she said she could return if needed.

Rick

OEA Negotiation Team Meets in Second Day of Mediation

The OEA Negotiations Team and the District Team met with Lavonne Ritter, Federal Mediator, for the second day continuing the dialog and sharing information. We will know wait for the District to look at the information and decide on possible future meetings. We are optimistic that we will be able to reach an agreement that is best for our members. We will continue to give you updates at this site. Again, thank you for the support of your membership, your support of the efforts of your OEA negotiation team and your patience as we work to come to an agreement.
Have a great Pioneer Day Weekend. Rick Palmer

Second Day of OEA Mediation Begins Today

Yesterday our OEA Negotiations team met with Lavonne Ritter (Federal Mediator) and the District team to start working on mediation. We met together and explained our positions and then separated to caucus as teams. Ms. Ritter shuttled back and forth between the two groups asking questions and collecting information. We met from 10 AM until almost 6 PM with a 30 minute lunch break. We are beginning this morning at 9 AM. We are hopeful that we can come to a tentative agreement and bring that to you in a ratification meeting. We will post our entire agreement on our web page at www.ogdenweber.org.

We hope to have some good news after today. Thanks for patience. Stay cool in this summer heat.

Rick

Mediation Begins Today

Lavonne Ritter, Federal Mediator from Las Vegas, will lead OEA and the OCSD through mediation today and tomorrow at the district office. She finished with Jordan Education Association and the Jordan District yesterday. We look forward to a productful meeting.

Horace Mann, one of our business partners, is offering a great opportunity for teachers to win money for school projects. We will be posting more information on that soon. Rick

OEA Negotiations

The OEA Negotiations team, Mary Courney, Doug Stephens, Sherie Dame, Chris Tea, Jenny Venegas, Bonnie Darlington, and Whit Freund met yesterday for two hours to prepare for the Federal Mediation that begins Wednesday at 10 AM. We discussed the budget and areas that we wanted to present to the mediator tomorrow. We agreed on our proposals and strategies and we will express our desires tomorrow to the mediator. During the process we will meet seperately and together with the district's team. We are optimistic that the next two days will be fruitful and we will be able to get the best results for you our members.
Rick

OEA Negotiations Meeting

The OEA Negotiations Team is meeting today to prepare for our mediation with the District that begins Wednesday. We will be discussing our proposals and looking at the budget. I will report out more later today. Rick

Reporting from Cody, Wyoming

We are enjoying the day in Cody, WY. A little golf and museum stuff and then down through the park tomorrow. Negotiations will start up again next week. Stay tuned for reports. Rick

Mediation Countdown - 6 Days

Our OEA Negotiations Team will be meeting Monday to discuss our positions going into Mediation next Wednesday. We hope to give you a full report next week. Rick

UEA Transformation

Our UEA Transformation Team met yesterday to look at the notes from the small group discussions at UEA Summer Leadership in June at the Zermatt. The following themes appeared from the notes: Communication, Transformation, Engagement, Leadership Training and Capacity Building, External Leadership and Data Collection. Most of these fit into what our team have been discussing for months. We will be presenting recommendations at Local Presidents meeting in August with the final presentation to membership at the UEA Convention in October.

Jordan Education Association is preparing for their mediation next Monday and Tuesday. OEA Negotiations Team will meet Monday to discuss our positions and then begin mediation Wednesday and Thursday.

Rick

School Trust Lands Money to Increase

An article in the SL Trib today by Lisa Schencker (www.sltrib.com) says that school community councils will have about 4 million more dollars than expected this year. Instead of a 24% cut in money, schools will see a 10% cut. The deep recession we are experiencing dropped the trust funds from $974 million in June of 2008 to $863 million as of June 2009. It will be good to see some more money going to those school trust land plans.

Countdown to mediation-11 days.

Rick

NEA Representative Assembly

Go to NEA web page to see a summary of activities at this year's NEA RA.

NEA RA Ends

The NEA Representative Assembly ended and the delegates have returned to their homes after spending a week doing the business of the association in San Diego.

Deseret News reported July 5 on the ongoing negotiations of Jordan and Ogden school districts. You can read the article by going to www.deseretnews.com or googling Jordan and Ogden impasse. Amy Stewart reports that the two unions will be sharing Lavonne Ritter, from the Federal Mediation Concilliation Service in Las Vegas, to provide mediation starting July 20 for JEA and 22 for OEA.

Countdown is 13 days. Rick

Yes I can add...only 14 days until Mediation in Ogden

OEA and WEA leaders should be traveling home from the NEA Representative Assembly where they debated and passed new business and the budget for the over 3 million members of NEA. Lisa Vipperman, new OEA VP, attended the UEA Organizing Conference in June and learned some great ways to help us organize our members around crucial issues. We will continue to give you information on the negotiations impasse and the upcoming mediator. Stay Tuned. Rick

23 Days until Mediation Begins

Countdown to OEA's mediation is 23 days. Have a great 4th weekend. Rick