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

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

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

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