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