Weber Ratification Meeting Today at 4:30

WEA ratification of negotiations will be held today at 4:30 at the UniServ Office, 939 25th St. Ogden. The WEA Negotiations team will be going over the proposal including changes in the insurance coverage. Hope you can make it.

OEA Negotiations resumes meeting today and we hope we have some financial proposals to look at. Eugene Hart, Business Administrator, has been very ill and we are glad to see him back to work.

Rick

Voucher Debate Continues in USA Today

Hi go to www.usatoday.com to read the editorial debate on the validity and success of vouchers in Washington, D.C. schools. Both sides say the data proves their points. The oposition point of view is written by Sen. Dick Durbin, (Illinois). Interesting reading. The editorial even gives a "shout out" to the Utah teachers' union (us) that defeated vouchers here. Yeah us>>> rick

GOP is Wild about Gary

Go to www.deseretnews.com and read the results of a Deseret News/KSL poll that shows that only 33% of those survey though Herbert should run in 2010 while 36% thought someone else should run. Surprisingly 47% thought a Democrat would have a legitimate chance to win in 2010. 43% of Republicans like Herbert right now, even before any other candidates have come forth. At least this will liven up a normally drab off year election year next year.
Rick

Gary Herbert, New Utah Governor

Governor Huntsman was announced as the new ambassador to China. Lt. Governor, Gary Herbert, will replace Huntsman until a special election in November of 2010. The winner of that race will then have to run in the regular election in 2012.

What a perfect time to tell my one Governor Huntsman story:

In 1971-73 I lived near Chevy Chase, MD, (mission) home of Jon Huntsman( he and his wife couldn't be nicer people) . Jon Huntsman was working for President Richard Nixon at the time. They had a nanny from Peru who attended our church in Washington, D.C. We spent time at the house eating dinner and playing with the kids. Governor Huntsman was one of the kids. When Governor Huntsman first ran for office I was on the committee that interviewed him for UEA PAC. After the meeting I asked him if he remembered the nanny. He said, "oh yeah you mean Lucy". Well that is my Huntsman story. Rick

Weber District negotiations proceeding

The WEA Negotiations team met with the district last night to hammer out the final details of our contract for next year. The next step will be notification of a ratification meeting for our side and the district will take the proposal to the board for ratification. The insurance committee will be meeting next week to finalize the insurance part of the contract. Details to follow.
WEA thanks Kirk Ottley, Brent Ludlow, Lee Claycomb, Shari Combe, Teri Maxfield, and Marlene Irons for their tireless work to get the best agreement possible in this tough budget year.
Thanks to all of our WEA members for their support. We could not do it without the help of our members. Rick

Jordan and Canyons School District See Cuts

The newly split Jordan and Canyons School District are facing some budget challenges because of decreased state funding and the cost of the split. The cost of the split was around 8 million dollars on top of the other cuts already coming from the legislature. www.deseretnews.com Wednesday May 13 article "Jordan District won't lay off any Teachers"

The new Canyons School District (Eastside) is considering opting out of social security payments. You can read the entire article at www.sltrib.com May 14

Thanks Rick

Equitable Cuts Across the Districts

As we face budget cuts of historical nature, both Ogden and Weber Districts must make tough decisions of where the cuts will come. Weber School District has proposed (we have not finished negotiations yet) a cut of 1.5 quality teaching days, cuts in district administration (moved an administrator from the district office to a Jr. High), and other classified cuts. In Weber, insurance decisions are close to being finalized that will share the increases (made smaller by decisions of the committee) in premium across all employee groups. Steps and Lanes for teachers in Weber have been preserved. Yes, teachers will fill the pain, but the pain has been lessened by financial decisions the district has made over the past few years (mill levy increases and conservative budgets) . You don't have to look very far to see districts losing many or all of their quality teaching days, freezing steps and lanes, raising class sizes and cuttting staff. Your WEA negotiations team is meeting Thursday to look at policy changes and work to finalize negotiations. Both the legislature and our State Supt. have counseled the districts to make the cuts as equitable as possible. At least in Weber, we have seen the effort to do just that. Rick