Mary Jessop and Chris Heslop Winners of Gift Cards

Mary Jessop, Washington High, and Chris Heslop, Ogden High, were winners of the blog contest in Ogden this month.

The Ogden School Board is looking at the possibiltiy of opening one of the closed elementary schools because of overcrowding at the district's elementary schools. Taylor and Lynn are two that could open, causing boundary changes in several other schools. All but one of the elementary schools have portables. Meetings are being held in the areas affected by the possible moves.

Rick

Pete Jahsman-Utah 3-A Swim Coach of the Year

Pete Jahsman, OHS swim coach, was awarded the 3-A Utah Swim Coach of the year award last Wednesday at the Ogden School Board meeting. Pete led the boys team to state championship last year.

Utah Legislative Retirement Committee to meet Nov. 12

Check out the agenda of the Legislative Retirement Committee meeting scheduled on Nov. 12. Go to www.le.state.ut.us and click on Interim Committees. It would be great to email your legislators (Neil Hansen and Jon Greiner) and remind them that our system is solid and we do not need changes made (especially when salaries are shrinking) to our retirement system.

Check the past blog entries for instructions for the Contest. (OEA draws Monday, Nov 2)

Rick

Shawna Blamires-T.O. Smith-Focus on Excellence Award

Shawna Blamires, an exceptional T.O. Smith teacher, was awarded the Tony Divino "Focus on Excellence" award last night at the Ogden School Board meeting. Shawna does a lot for the school including organizing the many clubs at the school. Congratulations to a great teacher.

Professionalism Presentations

Yesterday I presented to Kristin Hadley's Ed 1010 class at WSU on Professionalism and Ethics. I talked to the students about the responsibilities of educators to provide a correct role model and keep their relationships appropriate. We discussed several court cases and talked about the ethical standards teachers are asked to live by.

This morning I gave a similar presentation to the faculty at North Ogden Jr. High. I appreciate the invitation from Principal Butters and I always enjoy visiting with educators about our protections and responsibilities of the negotiated agreement.

You only have a few days to enter the contest: email me with one bad retirement idea that I wrote about in the October Link Article. Uniserv website: www.ogdenweber.org

(rick@ogdenweber.org)

We will draw Monday, Nov. 2 for Ogden's winners and Nov. 9 for Weber's winners.

Thanks Rick

Jill Hislop Gibson: Finalist in Utah Teacher of the Year

Polk Elementary teacher, Jill Hislop Gibson, was chosen as one of four finalists for the Utah State Teacher of the year. Jill is a great teacher and was a fantastic representative of Ogden District educators. We are proud of Jill's contributions to students at Polk.

Contest: Go to www.ogdenweber.org and read the Executive Director's message, then email rick@ogdenweber.org and list one of the many bad ideas to cut retirement.

Thanks Rick

Ethics Initiative Prompts Legislators to Devise Plans

Bob Bernick and Lisa Riley Roche wrote last Thursday in the Deseret News that the legislature is on the "verge of historic ethics actions" because of the citizen initiative petition push. The legislature met in interim meetings last Wednesday and outlined their own reform ideas that would include:

• Creation of an independent ethics commission.
• The commission would review ethics charges.
• Legislative committees could then punish the legislator.
• The House or Senate would vote on any disciplinary action.

Go to http://www.deseretnews.com/ and read the entire article (Thursday, Oct. 22)

Last chance to enter the Contest: Go to the uniserv webpage (http://www.ogdenweber.org/) and read the Executive Director's message and email me one of the bad changes that could be made in our retirement program. (rick@ogdenweber.org)

Thanks. We will pick for winners at the November AR meetings. Rick