WEA Negotiations Update

WEA Negotiations Team has scheduled a meeting Tuesday (just the team) and will then meet with the District Team on Thursday to discuss a possible settlement to our negotiations impasse. The passage by the Utah State legislature of the resolution to allow the Federal "jobs bill" money to flow to districts should free up money to to help reach a settlement.

Rick

Meeting at UEA

Marlene Irons (WEA President) and I are meeting with other UniServs to formulate a message of investing in education and providing a quality education for each student in Utah. We are receiving information from NEA and UEA staff in preparation for our organizing project to engage members in this message. We will be meeting with our legislators in December to kick off our campaign. You can learn more about the message at http://www.utahsfuture.org/ or at the new UEA website http://www.myuea.org/

Happy Turkey day and get home early and safe through the blizzard today.

Rick

Happy Thanksgiving

Be thankful for your health, family and life in this wonderful country. We are thankful for each and every member of OEA and WEA and for your committment to quality public education.

Thanks
Rick

O/W UniServ to host meeting with legislators

Our OEA and WEA Executive Boards and our PAC have invited our legislators and our newest state school board member to a meeting on December 16 to discuss our TEF (Taxation, Economic Development and Education Funding) message and the upcoming legislative session. We hope to discuss the issues of public education funding and the taxation policies of the past years that have left us 51st in per student funding in the U.S. .
You can view the TEF video at the new UEA website www.myuea.org
Rick

Legislature Accepts Fed "jobs bill" Money

After about an hour and a half of what I characterize as "bloviating" (not a word, I checked) by legislators who love the sound of their own voice, the senate and the house approved the 101 million from the "edujobs" bill. From the hyperbolic speech from some legislators you would think the Federal govt was sendin another " Johnson's army" to attach the State of Deseret and take our first born girls back to D.C. Even those (Speaker-elect Becky Lockhart-Utah County sponsored the bill in the house) who supported the strongly worded resolution spoke against the "intrusion" of the federal government on our state. The best speech (can't remember which legislator made it) equated the money to the federal money that flowed into Utah after our fires and floods..other crises...well education is in crisis and this is a little help.

The state office of education will now send application forms to the districts and the money (which has been sitting gaining interest in Utah since Sept) can be disbursed in the monthly payments to the districts.

Both OEA and WEA need to get back to the negotiations table now and talk about how the money will flow to employees. (all employees are eligible except district administrators)

We have had preliminary talks about how the money will be used. Of course, the districts' refusal to pay step increases is the reason we are still in mediation. Hopefully, this new money will help us achieve a settlement.

Rick

Utah GOP to vote to OK funds, slight feds

Read Lisa Riley Roche's entire article about the special session at www.deseretnews.com

I will be attending the interim education committee meetings and the special session also.

Rick

Weber State Hosts Future Educators Conference

Future Educators from Weber, Ogden, Davis and Provo school districts are meeting today at WSU for their Fall FEA Conference. There will be break-out sessions and competitions.

Rick

Negotiations Update

WEA's negotiation team is meeting on Wednesday to discuss some items and learn more about the Special legislative session to be held that day. I will be attending the leg session to hear the discussion and I also want to hear the issues before the Education Interim Committee. Hopefully both OEA's and WEA's negotiation teams will be able to get back to the table to discuss the federal money.

Rick

Governor Herbert calls for a special legislative session

Governor Gary Herbert has called for a special legislative session for next week to approve $101 million in federal aid to our schools. Legislators will meet Wednesday, Nov. 17 at noon (during their interim committee meetings) to authorize districts to receive the "jobs bill" money. NEA was instrumental in getting that bill passed. The money will be used for employee compensation. Both OEA and WEA have been waiting to negotiate how that money will flow to our teachers. Half of the money will be used to cover the deficit in the budget and we should see about $1 million in Ogden and over $2.5 million in Weber.

Sen. Howard Stephenson wants to make it easier for schools to fire bad teachers. He plans to propose a bill this coming legislative session that would remove certain protections when teachers perform poorly.

Read both of these articles in todays SL Tribune at www.sltrib.com

Rick

Ed 1010 Class at Weber State University

I had the opportunity to present to Dr. Jack Rasmussen's (Dean of College of Education) Ed 1010 class today. I have presented to three other classes this semester and several others the past couple of years. I give them my presentation on Ethics, Professionalism and School law that coincides with their unit on School Law. I also talk to them about the value of joining the association and give them student membership materials. I also had Marilyn Lofgreen hand out over 100 membership forms to her TAPT group last week. (Teaching Assistant Path to Teaching). The TAPT group receives tuition help in their quest to become teachers. They usually are working currently as paraprofessionals in schools. I also have presented to a group of students in Stephanie Heath's transition class from her Future Educator Project Launch (summer program for incoming freshmen). I will be attending an NEA Student Organizer workshop for UEA at the end of this month. The student program and FEA programs are receiving support from UEA and the Children at Risk Foundation. Many of our FEA advisors will be attending the FEA International Conference in February.

Rick

Public Schools to be graded?

The Deseret News reports (Richard Platt) that "Utah's public schools may start getting "graded" in the future as part of a concentrated, cost-effective way to improve the quality of education in the state."

Sen. Howard Stephenson said,"The entire community gets involved if a school is getting a D or and F, because of student results...it mobilizes the entire community to engage, and make a difference."

Read the entire article at www.deseretnews.com

Rick

Use of Technology

Here are some suggestions to help you avoid technology-use pitfalls;

• Read your district's acceptable use policy
• Assume you have no privacy
• Ask for proper training
• Do no use your school computer to communicate or view anything that you do no want your administrator to read
• Think before you send
• Avoid sending or forwarding messages to a huge list of people at school
• Do not give your password to others
• Be aware that students can misuse technology at school
• Be cautious about letting other use your school computer
• Keep communciations professional
• Keep personal information private
• Remove inappropriate materials from your websites or blogs

Rick

Legislative Issues of Concerns for the 2012 session

Here are some of the issues that will appear in the legislative session this year that the UEA Legislative Team will be monitoring:

• Merit Pay
• Alternative Compensation
• Teacher Evaluation
• School Property Tax Equalization
• Replace sales tax on food
• Replace some property tax with sales tax
• Giving Schools grades
• Retirment
• Charter School funding
• Orderly Termination Act
• Full-day kindergarten
• Partisan school board elections
• Year around schools

That is just a start of what might be a very interesting session.

Rick

Hoping for a special legislative sesssion

We are expecting that the Governor will call a special legislative sesssion for November 17 (their regular interim meetings are scheduled then) to discuss the "Jobs Bill" money coming to our districts. The original estimates of compensation dollars coming to employees has been cut in half because of the current deficit in the budget. Weber is not expecting around $2.6 million and Ogden should get around $1.1 million. Our negotiations teams will be working with the district and our mediator to determine how that is used.

Rick

Election Hangover

Election night was a very rough time for public education. We lost several of our legislative friends (the few we had) and the make-up of the legislature took a hard turn away from public schools. The upcoming session will be a difficult one and it will take a concerted effort from all of us to hold strong for schools. It will be interesting to see if Gov. Herbert can moderate the lawmakers and keep his campaign promises to prioritize public ed funding. We have had two miserable years and we need some good news. Look for every bad education bill that we have fought against to come blazing down the aisles in the House and Senate. Our lobby team will need kevlar jackets to withstand the barrage they will face. Sorry to paint such a dire picture, but it is going to be tough.

Rick

Election Results

For complete Utah election results go to: http://www.electionresults.utah.gov/

Also you go to the new UEA website at www.myuea.org and look at how our recommended candidates did.

Rick

New Websites

If you haven't looked at the UEA's new website go to www.myuea.org and also check out our new UniServ website at www.ogdenweber.org

Rick

Remember to Vote Tuesday

Remember to vote Tuesday. Rick