Ogden Teachers Rally for Collective Bargaining

Ogden Teachers Rally for Collective Bargaining

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Weber State Presentations

Hope you all have had a great holiday break and will be excited to start a new year. January 3rd I will be up at Weber State University to talk to new student teachers (around 130) and new teacher education students (around 100) during their orientation meetings. I give them a little info about what I do and how joining the UEA as a student member offers them savings and benefits down the road. I hand out membership forms and materials. WSU has one of the largest student membership groups in UEA and we hope to organize a unit there along with our strong Future Educators Association Pro Chapter advised by Stephanie Heath.

Also Monday, Jan. 3, our OEA Building Reps will be meeting to listen to our latest proposal from the district. They will be deciding whether or not to present the tentative agreement to the membership at a meeting to be determined.

Rick

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Ogden Education Association Executive Board Meets

The members of the OEA Executive Board met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal offered at our last mediation meeting with the district. The board will present the proposal to our Building Reps at the regularly scheduled AR meeting January 3rd at our UniServ office. Secondary Reps will attend at 3:30 and then we will have a "crossover" meeting with both Secondary and Elementary Reps at 4:15. The AR's will decide rather or not to call for a ratification meeting of the general membership.

Rick

OEA negotiations team to meet with OEA Executive Board

Our OEA Negotiations Team (Doug Stephens, Whit Freund, Clay Kirkham) met with the Ogden District Team (Brenda Ruffier, Rich Moore, Bruce Penland and Eugene Hart) and our mediator, Lynn Trenbeath last evening to discuss non-financial items and a financial proposal from the district. Doug has called a meeting of the OEA Executive Board for this afternoon to discuss the proposal. We will be discussing more about it at our regular OEA Building Rep Meeting January 3. Have a great holiday break.

Rick

Monday, December 20, 2010

Board is exploring grading schools

Sara Lenz has a front-page article in today's (Monday, Dec. 20) Deseret News discussing the possible grading of Utah public schools. To read it go to: www.deseretnews.com

Rick

Friday, December 17, 2010

OEA President speaks at Ogden School Board Meeting

OEA President, Doug Stephens, spoke to the Ogden School Board last evening on behalf of the over 500 members of OEA who support the reinstatement of steps on the salary schedule. Ogden is only one of two districts that has frozen steps for two consecutive years (Provo is the other one) and our negotiations have been at impasse for several months. He was joined by Michelle Braeden, teacher from OHS, who spoke sincerely about the need to retain and recruit the best teachers to the district. Doug also delivered almost 700 signature of teachers and employees supporting the reinstatement of steps. Our negotiations teams will meet Monday to continue mediation with Lynn Trenbeath, our mediator. The school board also met in executive session last night to discuss negotiations.

Our meeting with legislators went well last night. Attending were the following legislators: Brad Dee (House Dist 11 and House Majority Leader), Scott Jenkins (Senate Dist. 20 and Senate Majority Leader), Richard Greenwood (House Dist. 12), newly elected Jeremy Peterson (House Dist. 9), Brad Galvez (House Dist. 6) and Dixon Pitcher (House Dist 10). Leaders from both OEA and WEA were also in attendance. We shared our Taxation, Economic Investment and Funding for Public Education DVD and discussed the upcoming session.

Rick

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ogden Weber UniServ leaders to meet with Legislators

Tonight our O/W UniServ leaders and PAC members will meet with our local legislators to discuss the agenda of the upcoming legislative session. Our message will be to "Make Quality Public Schools a Priority - Now!"

Our message includes the following points:
  • A Quality Public School for Every Child Must be Our Top Priority.
  • We Must Renew our Commitment to Adequately Fund Quality Public Schools.
  • Investing in Public Schools Grows the Utah Economy.

We will discuss tax changes and funding priorities that have affected our districts.

Rick

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Leaders Ok guv's plan for income

Wendy Leonard writes in the the Deseret News this morning: "Utah legislative leaders approved new revenue estimates Tuesday as they began dissecting the governor's budget before voting on it during the upcoming legislative session. Already, some Republican members of the House have said they oppose certain provisions of the proposed $11.9 billion budget Gov. Gary Herbert laid out Friday."

You can read the entire article at www.deseretnews.com

Rick

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

OEA Negotiations Update

OEA's Negotiation Team, mediator Lynn Trenbeath, and the Ogden District Negotiations Team will meet at 3:30 pm, December 20 to continue discussions. We will discuss non-financial items that have been proposed, but not agreed to, and also financial ideas for how to spend the "Federal Edujobs" money. Ogden is the only district in the state that has not settled negotiations.

Rick

Monday, December 13, 2010

Governor's Budget Proposal to add $63 Million to School Funding

The UEA is encouraged by the $63 million in additonal funding for public education proposed by Utah Governor Gary Herbert in his 2011-12 budget proposal. It includes $50 million for new growth (over 14,000 new students next fall), $7.5 million for extended day kindergarten, $2million to work on instituting the "Common Core Curriculum" and $2.5 million for increased math and literacy instruction. UEA President Gallagher-Fishbaugh said," We appreciate Govenor Herbert's commitment to our public schools...We know that the governor has to strike a balance between the needs of public education and other ongoing funding requirements. He has done just that in his budget proposal."

Rick

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Ogden/Weber UniServ Leaders to meet with legislators

Our OEA and WEA leaders and PAC members will be meeting with our legislators next Thursday, Dec. 16 to discuss our goals for the new legislative session.

Rick

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Ed Leaders Ok Statement: "We need more money"

Lisa Schencker wrote Saturday,Dec. 4 in the SL Tribune: "State education leaders want lawmakers to find more cash for schools. State Board of Education members voted Friday to approve a statement that says 'future funding for education must increase if we are to meet the demands of a growing number of students...We must find a new revenue without eliminating existing sources.'

Kim Burningham was quoted as saying, "We just need desperately more funding. The funds have been deeply restricted over recent years so that money is not available."

Some ideas for increased funding sources include: freezing the property tax levy (so it does not decrease when property assessed evaluaton increases), reviewing and eliminating sales tax exemptions, fair compensation for public lands and examination of severance taxes on natural resources.

Rick

Monday, December 6, 2010

WEA Building Reps Ratify Agreement

Representatives from a majority of the schools in Weber District voted to ratify the agreement with Weber District. A joint press release will be sent out Tuesday. Contact your building reps for details of the agreement.

OEA Reps met to discuss strategies in negotiations with the district. The district has refused to meet until January. This is not acceptable and is not bargaining in good faith. Jay Blain, UEA's bargaining director was in attendance and spoke to the AR's. There is no good reason for the district to be dragging their feet in finishing up negotiations.

Rick

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Weber Education Association Negotiations Ratification

The WEA negotiations team will present the tentative agreement to members and building representatives, Monday, 4:15 pm at Two Rivers High on 12th street in Ogden. We will present the proposals that were tentatively agreed to last Thursday at our meeting with the district team and our mediator, Lynn Trenbeath. The agreement must also be approved by the school board. We will discuss new contract language and a financial agreement.

Rick

Friday, December 3, 2010

School Board to discuss grading Utah Schools

Read today at www.sltrib.com Lisa Schencker's article about the Utah State Board of Education's consideration of a new rule Friday (today) to grade school based on their performance.

Rick

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

NEA Student Program Conference

I am attending an NEA Student Program Organizer meeting in Miami this week. Organizers (I am filling in for our Student Organizer, Carol Cremer, who is retiring) from around the country are meeting here to talk about their programs and learn new and innovative ways of strengthening their state chapters. Utah does not have organized chapters (as of yet), but we have members all over the state. At Weber State we have an organized Future Educators Professional chapter with Stephanie Heath as our advisor. She (along with Suzy Davis, OHS) run our FEA chapter conferences and other programs throughout the year. We hope to organize a chapter at WSU for the student program soon. Our relationship continues to grow with WSU