Discover the NEA Academy

Log on to www.nea.org/academy to learn more about online courses to meet professional development and continuing education needs. There are currently 22 courses and visiting scholar offerings-and more are being added daily.

Remember "Dinosaur Park Party" Sept. 11 at 6pm. Look for a flyer in your boxes.

Rick

Membership Campaign Begins

With Ogden hiring over 80 new teachers and Weber hiring over 100, OEA and WEA are asking for your help in talking to these new colleagues about the association. In this tough economic times new teachers need the association more than ever. It is tough for some new teachers to see the dues as an investment rather than a bill that comes out of their pay each month. Stress the work we have done to negotiate salary and benefits that they are enjoying. Remind them of the work UEA does at the legislature to increase the supply money that they used to get their classes ready. Let them know that we do help provisional teachers and they have the same protections as all other members. We need to know of any difficulties before a non-renewal letter shows up in the spring. It is not only the legal and liability protection, it is paying your fair share for all we have done to maintain insurance benefits and leave policies. It is paying your fair share to have representation at all levels. We are only as strong as our membership. Help us by talking to the new teachers in your building and encouraging them to join. Thanks Rick

Ogden School Board Meeting

Ogden held their regular public school board meeting last night. Greg Lewis reported that test scores are up and it looks good for AYP. Linda Brown was honored for her "innovation" by the state administrators. The board reported on their goals and the Supt. reported a good start to the school year with an increase in numbers at the elementaries.

Rick

Utah's Budget Deficit-2009-2010

The Utah State Legislature is going to have to fill a $700 Million shortfall in this next budget year. Speaker of the House, David Clark, proposes using $200 million of the $419 Million "rainy day fund", $100 Million from one time surplus in the public and higher education funds, $100 million from "targeted" tax increases (tobacco and alcohol) and $300 Million in more cuts.

Rick

Dinosaur Park Party, Friday, Sept. 11, 6pm

Ogden/Weber UniServ is sponsoring our annual Dinosaur Park Party for all of our OEA/WEA members and familiy. We will be sending out flyers to bring for free entry to the park and dinner. Horace Mann (Chris Guymon) is one of our major partners and we ask that you fill out the information card at the bottom of the flyer and bring it to the party.

We value your membership and the party is a way of saying thanks for your support.

Rick

Dinosaur Park Party, Friday, Sept. 11, 6pm

UEA Transformation Survey: Go to www.utea.org

We would like all UEA members to take the Transformation Survey (I am on the Transformation Team to look at improving UEA). You can go to www.utea.org and click on the Tranformation logo. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete the survey. It runs until Sept. 12.

Thanks Welcome back to school. Rick

Lincoln Receives 100% Membership Award

OEA President Doug Stephens presented Lincoln Elementary with their 100% membership certificate for last year. We congratulated their faculty and AR, Max Ferguson, for the fine work. We spoke to a couple of the new teachers and expect them to join and maintain the fine history at Lincoln. In WEA and OEA we have some strong membership schools. We value the hard work of our leaders and building reps to sign up new members. Weber hired around 100 and Ogden over 80 this year. It is with your help that we can maintain our strong association membership. Thanks Rick

Valley Elementary and North Ogden Elementary Dedications

Valley Elementary held their open house and dedication Wednesday night. It is located in Eden. North Ogden will hold their open house and dedication tonight.

OEA President Doug Stephens welcomed the OEA Building Reps to their first meeting of the year. He introduced himself and his new Vice-President, Lisa Vipperman. Terie Maxfield, our new UEA Board Member (replacing Mary Courney) spoke to the group. Lisa gave the AR's a handbook on working through problems at their schools. We will give short mini-lessons on advocacy each month. I explained the membership materials and gave the reps flyers for our Dinosaur Park Party planned for Friday, Sept. 11 at 6:00 at Eccles Dinosaur Park. We hope to see all of you there. Just fill out the Horace Mann Card at the bottom of the flyer and bring it for entrance to the park for you and your family. Horace Mann is a major sponsor of the event.

See you there. Rick

Double Dippers Getting Heat From State Governments

Tuesday's USA Today offered the debate over "double dipping". In the opinion section the two headlines read, "Public Sector 'retirees' draw a Pension- and a Paycheck" with the opposing viewpoint entitled, "Return-to-work is win-win".

Many states (including Utah, according to yesterday's Trib article) are looking at the ability of public sector workers, police, teachers and others, retiring at an earlier age (50-55) and going back to work, receiving their full state retirement and a full pay check. In Utah we have the restriction of six months before going back full-time. Many of our teacher retirees come back half-time and then move into full-time after the six months is up.

The teacher shortage has influenced the discussion about eliminating the six month restriction. Stay tuned for this debate to light up, especially in these tough economic times.

Rick

Go to www.ogdenweber.org for more information on the Horace Mann WIN$WIN Sweepstakes

Go to www.ogdenweber.org to get more information on the Horace Mann $10,000 WIN$WIN Sweepstakes.

Enter Horace Mann Sweepstakes at www.horacemannwinwin.com

Call Chris Guymon at 801-392-2066 or Nathan Cressall at 801-689-7064 to get your special entry code to enter to win $10,000 in the Horace Mann WIN$WIN Sweepstakes.
Winners will get matching funds for the educational cause of your choosing

Enter today at www.horacemannwinwin.com

Thanks Rick

Chris and Horace Mann are sponsors of our annual Dino Park Party scheduled for Sept. 11.

WEA Leaders Serve Breakfast to New Teachers

This morning the WEA leadership and building reps served breakfast to most of the 98 new teachers starting school in Weber School District. The enthusiasm was contagious and the smiles on the new teachers' faces shown as bright as the hot morning sun. Marlene Irons (WEA President) and Terie Maxfield (WEA VP and UEA Board Member) welcomed the new teachers to the district and gave them information on the association. Later the association reps received membership information and tips on advocacy.

OEA met with their new teachers yesterday and President Doug Stephens gave them reasons for being a member of the OEA. Ogden has hired 79 new teachers this year.

Our membership campaign will continue throughout the year.

Thanks Rick

OEA Members Ratify Tentative Agreement

Doug Stephens, OEA President, presented the items of the tentative agreement to over 50 OEA members and leaders at the UniServ office Wednesday afternoon. After answering the members questions, a vote to ratify was taken.

Later Wednesday evening the OCSD Board voted to ratify the agreement.

To read a summary of the tentative agreement go to www.ogdenweber.org.

Thanks Rick Palmer

Mea Culpa: Means never having to say you are sorry..

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If a UniServ Director writes a blog and no one reads it does it really exist? Be careful what you wish for...

Yesterday I ranted on an article in the Standard-Examiner by Rachel Trotter on Back to School Night in Ogden District. One of our finest principals was misquoted "a majority of our teachers are dedicated". I screwed up by writing first and checking later...this principal believes that all of her teachers are dedicated and all of her teachers work above and beyond the regular contract. I apologized to that principal for the "sarcastic" remark in my blog.

I really should be like Joe Friday on Dragnet (I am 58, so if you don't know who that is ask your mom or grandpa) "just the facts"...I will try harder.

Reminder to OEA members: RATIFICATION TODAY at 3:30 pm at the UniServ office, 939 25th ST. Ogden

OEA leaders will be talking to new teachers to the district today and WEA leaders will meet with their new teachers tomorrow.

Thanks...Rick

OEA Tentative Agreement on the Web Page at www.ogdenweber.org

Hooray...hooray...we have the tentative agreement on the web page. Go to http://www.ogdenweber.org/ to look at the proposal.

Wednesday, August 12, at 3:30, we will meet at the UniServ office to present the agreement to the OEA membership for a vote. The OEA Negotiations Team will be there to answer your questions.

Busy week for OEA as we will present to the New Teachers Wednesday. I met many of the 79 (last count) new members of Ogden's staff Saturday at a "get to know you" BBQ held at Ginny Wimmer's farm. I met several teachers from Michigan who look energized to start the year.
Weber has hired over 92 at this time

Principals and Instructional Coaches are receiving training this week at Shadow Valley in preparation for the ARRA days next week.

Word from UEA is that Grand County (Moab) and Cache are at stalemates in negotiation. Other districts where contract steps are frozen are Davis, Jordan, and possibly Provo. Signs that the recession is over are positive. Now, we need to get people back to work in Utah and increasing those income tax revenues that fund our schools.

OEA and WEA's Executive Boards spent some of their summer preparing new teacher packets for the new teachers' workshops this week. WEA will be providing a breakfast Thursday at Orion for new hires.

See you Wednesday. Thanks to Mike Fazzio for getting the summary up on the web page. Rick

Email me for a copy of the negotiations summary

Sorry about the webpage. Our webmaster (directly flown in by owl mail from hogwarts) is working day and night (at least that is what his green sheeted overtime pay sheets say) and yet... you are stuck with me the blog master. (or is blog meister)

The Standard- Examiner seemed to imply that Quality Teaching Days were not optional. If you did not attend you did not get paid. The ARRA days are similar in that they are optional (the OEA encourages you to attend). You must attend an entire day to get paid. Also the idea that teachers only work at school when they are paid is ludicrous (second word I had to look in the dictionary to spell) Okay, all together...count up the days you have been at school, in your classroom, out of contract time...okay...got that number? Now multiply that times by $200.00 and woo la (sic) you are rich. I was glad that a principal was quoted in saying that a "majority" of her teachers are dedicated. Wow...to imply that our teachers can't get ready for "back to school" nights unless they are paid to do so is (checking thesaurus for synonym of ludicrous)_______.

Ok, my rant is over.
At least they announced our ratification meeting. Wed., August 12, 3:30 at the UniServ office

See you there...no...sorry no pay...totally on your time...we do have soda and snacks though.
Rick

Questions on OEA Negotiations

Questions:

• Can I attend only a half-day of the ARRA days? No, you must attend a full day to be paid.
• Are the ARRA days optional? Yes, many of you have received letters from the district explaining the purpose of these days. The OEA supports the goals of these professional development days and encourages you to attend.
• Where can I receive a summary of the contract changes? Email me at rick@ogdenweber.org or attend our ratification meeting Wed., 3:30, at the UniServ office.
• Will I receive my step this year? No, steps are frozen for this year. If the state funding rises back to the 2007 level (we would need an increase of about 3 million) the district will fund the steps retroactively.
• How much will I receive in Dec? That amount is yet to exactly be determined (it is based on the cost of the steps) but should be around 400.00.
• When will I receive the payment for the four ARRA days before school? In September.
• When will I receive the payment for the Nov. and March ARRA days? In the next supplemental payroll after that day.
• Please call with any other questions. 801-390-6365 Rick

OEA Ratification Meeting Wed. August 12, 3:30 PM, UniServ Office, 939 25th St. Ogden

The OEA Bylaws call for a ratification meeting of the membership to vote to ratify the Tentative Negotiations Agreement. If it is ratified by the members and the OCSD Board ratifies it, then it becomes the contract for the 2009-10 school year. Our webmaster is still trying to get the summary up on the page. For a summary of the agreement email me, rick@ogdenweber.org or call 801-390-6365 with questions. Thanks. Rick

OEA Negotiations Update: Continued

Email me at rick@ogdenweber.org for a summary of the OEA negotiations. Our website is still on the fritz...We will vote to ratify the tentative agreement, Wed., August 12 @ 3:30 @ the UniServ office at 939 25th ST. Ogden. Call 399-3746 with questions or email me.



One of the positive memos of understanding that we signed is one to form a committee with the district to study our Ogden Corrective Action (teacher discipline) policy. It will be worthwhile to discuss some of the things we deal with when administrators use corrective action with our teachers.



Many of the other changes in contract language were editorial (his/her) to statutory language necessary to comply with new laws dealing with Family Medical Leave for example.



We will go over the specific language at our meeting Wednesday.



One of the most often asked questions is: Did the administrators and classified employees share in the cuts? Both of those employee groups will not receive step increases this year. They did not receive the "one time" money that teachers will receive in December. All employee groups benefitted from the infusion of money to mitigate the insurance premium increases.



We feel that the mediation process was valuable. At least $420,000 was added to the financial package through the mediation process. We thank Lavonne Ritter, Federal Mediator, for her long hours working with both teams.



Stay tuned. Rick

OEA Negotiations Update Ratification WED AUG 12 3:30 UniServ Office, 939 25th St. Ogden

Looks like the website is still not cooperating. To receive a more detailed summary of the tentative agreement, email me at rick@ogdenweber.org and I will attach the summary in the reply.

The six ARRA professional development days will be paid at 75% of your contract daily rate. That is figured by dividing 181.5 into your salary. The legislature did not fund Quality Teaching Days this year. Some districts lost all or most of their days. (Jordan lost nine days). Our district was able to fund the six days from a combination of Federal stimulus money (Title One funds that our district can use to help us get out of corrective action) and district funds left over from the previous Quality Teaching budget. These days (optional) are to be used for professional development (mornings) and implementation (afternoons) in your classrooms. The OEA and the district will meet throughout the year to monitor and communicate ways for our district to move out of "district improvement".

Doug Stephens (new OEA president) and Lisa Vipperman (new OEA VP) are optimistic that we can work to strengthen the capacity of our members and improve the communication with the district. We will need your help.

They look forward to hearing from you on Wednesday, August 12 @ 3:30 for our ratification meeting. Please call us at 399 3746 or email us with your questions. rick@ogdenweber.org

Rick

OEA Tentative Agreement-Ratification Mtg. August 12 3:30 OW UniServ Office

Our webmaster is having some problems getting my summary up, so I will try and explain a bit more each day here on the blog.

The district paid 1.188 Million dollars into keeping the insurance premium increases down. Last year employees paid 12% of the premium. This year we will pay 14%. That number (without the 1.188 million) could have approached 30%. Jordan teachers, for example, pay almost 50% of the premium. The new monthly premium amounts for medical are: Alitus Peak: Employee-47.55 Employee + 1 dependent -107.46 and Family 154.54. We were able to keep the benefit package without any big changes.

Steps on the salary schedule will be frozen this year. The district has promised to pay those steps retroactively if funding for next year (after the 2010 legislature) reaches the amount we received in 2007-8 (before the reductions of 3 million dollars). Our team fought hard for the steps and we will continue to fight to see that those are paid in the future.

The one time payment in December is based on 75% of the cost of the steps for this year (approx. 418,000 dollars plus ss and retirment costs) That payment will paid out equally
to all teachers in December. The amount should be over 400.00, but we won't know until the Nov. 15 count of teachers.

We hope to get the summary up on the web soon. thanks Rick

TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED WITH DISTRICT

Monday afternoon the OEA Negotiations Team reached tentative agreement with the district. We will present the details to members next Wednesday, August 12, at 3:30 PM at the UniServ office (939 25th St.,Ogden). Here is a summary of the tentative agreement. (A MORE DETAILED ONE SHOULD APPEAR ON OUR WEBSITE http://www.ogdenweber.org/ BY THURSDAY.

1. Payment in lieu of steps at 75% of step costs for 2009-10 paid equally to all licensed employees according to their FTE (Full Time Equivalent). Applies to licensed employees under contract as of November 15, 2009. Paid in a single payment before Christmas.
2. 2009-2010 steps will be paid in 2010 if state funding for 2010-2011 returns to 2007-2008 level. 2010-2011 steps will be subject to negotiations at that time.
3. Payment of all lanes. (educational lanes)
4. Six professional development days (ARRA) paid at 75% of the daily rate.
5. District pays 86% of premium for health insurance.
6. Changes were made in the following sections of the Negotiated Agreement:3-22, 2-10, 2-16, 2-20, 2-35, 3-30, 3-41, 4-10, 4-15 (new), 4-20 renumbered from 4-15, 4-25 renumbered from 4-20, 4-45, 4-60, 4-70,71,72, 4-83, 4-91, 8-30, 8-51, 9-10, Renewed memos 1-4, changes to memo 5 and added a memo 6 (ARRA days) and a memo 7 on correction action.

If you have any questions email me at rick@ogdenweber.org

Thanks for your patience and we will see you Wednesday.

OEA Negotiations to meet today

OEA's negotiations team will meet with the district today. We have not met since our two days of mediation took place two weeks ago. The school board met last Tuesday and we hope to have some news today. With school starting soon, we know that your patience is wearing thin. Principals are in meetings today and Instructional Coaches will be meeting in training sessions this week and next. August 17,18,19, and 20 are professional development days (ARRA) with the mornings for instruction and the afternoons for implementation. These days are optional and we are still talking to the district about how they will be paid. August 21 is your first contract (not optional) day and then students attend August 24. Whenever we reach a tentative agreement we will ask for a membership meeting to explain the details and vote on ratification of the contract.

Doug Stephens is the new OEA President and Lisa Vipperman is the new Vice President. We again want to give a big thanks to Mary Courney for her many years of service to OEA.

Rick