NEA RA Delegates Return Home

After being inspired by speeches from President Dennis Van Roekel, our 2010 teacher of the year, Maryland's governor and others our delegates are returning home this morning.

WEA's President, Marlene Irons, will return home to organize the negotiations team to start mediation with Lynn Trenbeth as mediator. Both teams will sit down with Lynn and list their interests in negotiations. Lynn will look to see where our interests coincide and find an area of cooperation and agreement. The sessions will be starting soon and we hope for a positive result.

OEA's President, Doug Stephens, will be setting up our next negotiations meetings as we return to town.

It is a heat wave here in Northern Washington, 85 degrees, and we are enjoying the time off. We will be back to work Monday.

Rick

NEA Representative Assembly Business Continues

The five WEA delegates and one OEA delegate to the NEA RA in New Orleans continue their work with debating over 99 New Business Items today and tomorrow. Go to www.nea.org and click on the NEA RA Today to see a list of the many "interesting" items. It is democracy at work and your leaders will discuss each item in an early morning Utah Caucus meeting before joining the 9,000 NEA delegates from around the country in the lively debate.

The sun is finally out in Northern Washington and the temperature is getting back to normal for summer. They are already complaining about the heat wave (80 degrees) that is coming this week.

Rick

Happy 4th of July

Spent the 4th in Birch Bay, Washington. More fireworks than I have ever seen or heard. Felt like we were in a firefight with mortar shells exploding around us. The NEA RA finishes up tomorrow (July 6) and our leaders will be back to work. We will be starting mediation in Weber when we return and OEA negotiations will get back to work. Go to www.nea.org to see what is happening at the Representative Assembly.

Rick

NEA Representative Assembly in New Orleans

Leaving Vancouver this morning and taking the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Many of our leaders are in New Orleans attending the NEA RA this week. You can follow the business at www.nea.org They will be doing the business of the NEA and setting the agenda for this next year. It is the largest democratic assembly anywhere with over 8,000 delegates using parliamentary procedure and voting on new business items, changes to the bylaws and procedural tasks. The meetings start at 7am each morning with the each state delegation meeting to discuss the new business. The debate is vigorous and the information valuable. The RA session then begins later in the morning and finishes up later in the afternoon. The days are long, but there usually is some time for some nice New Orleans cuisine at night.

WEA negotiations are at impasse and we should start mediation in the next couple of weeks. We will be discussing compensation questions.

OEA negotiations will resume in the next couple of weeks as our leaders return.

Rick

Canada Day in Vancouver, BC

Celebrating the 143rd birthday of Canada with a few hundred thousand Vancouverians today. Lots of celebrations, food and music. Julie walked my tush off today and we saw a lot of the city. We took the ferry over to Granville Island and sat next to a Teachers' Union staffer. She said they have the same problems we have in Utah...budget cuts and high class sizes. The big difference is that all teachers must join the union and they pay a percentage of their salary in membership dues. It was a nice, overcast, drizzly day with a temperature of 62 degrees.

Weber Education Association and the Weber District have agreed to use Lynn Trenbeth (retired from Davis County) for our mediator for negotiations. We used Lynn 6 years ago and she will be fair and helpful.

OEA will be looking to resume negotiations when we all get back in town in a week or so.

Rick

On the road to Vancouver, B.C.

Leaving Yakima this morning and driving into Vancouver, B.C. I noticed in the Seattle Times this morning that the American Federation of Teachers is having their annual convention in Seattle. Well, that would be a bit cooler than our folks will be experiencing in New Orleans this week. Both groups will be looking at the educational reforms that are being tried around the country. Ogden has three "School Improvement Grant" schools, Madison, Odyssey and Dee Elementary. These three schools will be implementing "research driven reforms" to help improve instruction and student achievement. The federal government is giving them each over $1.5 million dollars over three years to extend the instructional day and year, pay teachers for their expertise and professional development, and give retention bonuses for student growth. The OEA will be included in these discussions, especially where they affect current contractual language.

Rick

Blogging from Yakima Washington

The NEA Representative Assembly in New Orleans begins July 1 and several WEA leaders will be attending, including President Marlene Irons, VP Terie Maxfield (also representing the UEA board of directors), Mary Margaret Lyon, (member of WEA Executive Board), Jo Egelund (newly elected to the WEA Board) and Cheryl Parkinson (also newly elected to the board). Attending from OEA is VP Lisa Vipperman. They will spend long days in meetings from 7am to late in the afternoon doing the business of NEA. Go to the NEA website to get daily updates.

Rick