Post on 07-Apr-2018
8/4/2019 MLEA Newsletter 2
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The Med ical Lake EA
Last Thursday,September 29th, theMLEA and the MLSDreached a tentativeagreement on a new col-lective bargaining agree-
ment after a three hoursession at the DistrictOffice. Highlights are ona page that follows, butits a proposal that were
proud to bring to you.
On the topic ofthe 1.9% pay cut espe-cially wed like to give asincere Thank You to theDistrict for listening to ourconcerns and offering away to make that up to
the certificated staff. Asyou saw in the letter thatwas distributed a coupleof weeks ago they didnthave tothe contract lan-guage was clearly on theirsideand in these timesno would have been aneasier answer than yes,but they showed them-
selves to be open to theconversation and were
all better for it. Thanks,admins!
This month weresending people to a pas-sel of different work-shops; Ill typically men-tion them in the calendarto the side. If theresever something that yousee that looks interestingto you let me know and
Ill get you signed up with
the Council Office.
As always youcan call or text me at 951-1290 if you have anyquestions or concerns, orspeak with your building
rep.
Thanks, and
Happy October!
Ryan
Volume 1, Issue 2
WE H AVE AN AGRE EME NT!
October 3rd, 2011
Upcoming Events:
October 5: House EducationCommittee in Davenport
October 7-8: Small/RuralLocal Conference, Yakima
October 12: WEA EasternCouncil Meeting, Spokane
October 14-15: Local LeaderRetreat, Lincoln Center, Spo-kane
October 18: Building RepTraining, Spokane
October 28-29: Eastern Re-gion Bargaining Conference,Richland
October 31: Halloween!
November 8: Election Day
November 9: Cluster Meet-ing, Spokane Office
November 17: RevenueForecast Council Meeting
YO U R B U I L D I N G RE P S T H I S YE A RA R E .
At Michael AndersonElementary: LindaPortwood and Melanie
Kilgore
At Hallett Elementary:Sharon Smith and
Sheila Overman.
At Medical Lake Mid-dle School: Terry Kingand Sam Petersen
At Medical Lake HighSchool: Vikki Hernvall
and Tim Martin
For Itinerant Staff andSpecial Services: KimBrock and Brenda
Baughman
Your MLEA Execs Are:President, Ryan Grant
Anderson Elementary
Vice President, Kate Mills
Medical Lake Middle School
Secretary, Carol Tyson
Hallett Elementary
Treasurer, Cheryl Spilker
Hallett Elementary
MLEA Report
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1) There are no changes to class size. The District re-
quested some flexibility in how they handle overloads,so they will now have until the 10th day of school to fig-ure things out instead of the 6th day, but the best-in-
the-state limits that we have now will stay as they are.
2) As of this year you will have 4 days of personal leaveavailable instead of the 3 that are normally given, andnext year that will increase to 4.5. You wont be able tocarry extra days over (currently, you can roll 2 days into
the following year), but you will be able to cash any un-used days out at the $122 rate.
3) To cover the 1.9% pay cut from the state the Districthas agreed to provide an extra 14 hours of per diempay, meaning that full-time certificated staff will now
have an even 100 hours.
4) The contract language regarding union leave and Presi-dents Leave has been streamlined into one section
called Association Leave. This is designed to make itclear who pays for those days (we do), and it will hope-
fully save the District a spot of money later on.
5) Weve completely removed the language related toLearning Improvement and Professional DevelopmentDays. Theyre no longer being funded by the state and
arent likely to return for quite some time.
6) We also clarified the language on Leave Without Pay toallow for cert staff to take unpaid time off should it be-
come necessary.
Voting on the new contract will occur this week. If youhave any questions, please ask your building-level Bar-gaining Team Rep for more information!
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WH A T A R E TH E H I GHL I GH T S OFT H E N E W C ON T R A C T?
Class Size
Volume 1, Issue 2
Personal Leave
Per Diem
Association Leave
PDD and LID
LWOP
8/4/2019 MLEA Newsletter 2
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Weingarten was a Supreme Court decision from 1975 that relatedto the right of representation you have as a member of a union. Itis a right that you have to assertthe administrators are under noobligation to tell you that you have the right to get your union repbut it can be one of the most powerful tools for equality we have
available to us.
The condensed version of Weingarten is this: if you believe that ameeting with your administrator could result in discipline, involvesa negative evaluation, or could impose changes on your work, you
have the right to have your building rep with you.
If you want representation, you need to ask for it. If the adminis-trator refuses to delay the meeting until representation is avail-
able, or says that Weingarten doesnt apply, get that in writing. Ifthey still refuse, ask if they are giving you a directive to attend ameeting without representation present, and get that in writing. If
they still insist attend the meetingI dont want you to open your-self up to an insubordination complaintbut let myself or a Build-
ing Rep know as soon as possible following the meeting.
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You have the right torepresentation at a
meeting with your
administrator if you feel
that the meeting could
result in discipline or a
change in your working
environment.
YO URWEIN GA RT EN RIGH T S A NDW HY T HE Y MA T T ER
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With the state revenue forecast again necessitating steep cuts in Olympia, theres a very real
chance that levy equalization (LEA) funding could be at risk. For Medical Lake LEA is about$1.5 million dollars a year, and if it were to be reduced or eliminated wed be in a very bad
way as a school district.
Legislators hate form letters, so when you write try to hit on the key points: the cuts thatweve already made as a district to elementary art, shop programs, librarians, and extracur-ricular activities; the fact that class size would have to go up without that money, directlyimpacting the relationships we can establish with the students; the uncertainty experiencedwhen we dont know what will happen with our salaries, health benefits, etc. Many of you
have already shared your stories with meplease let our elected representatives know, too.
If youre not sure what legislative district you live in, you can find out here:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/pages/home.aspx
.and if you hear anything back, please let me know! Names in bold are members of one of
the committees that look at education issues.
3rd LD (Downtown Spokane):
Representative Andy Billig andy.billig@leg.wa.govRepresentative Timm Ormsby timm.ormsby@leg.wa.gov
Senator Lisa Brown lisa.brown@leg.wa.gov
4th LD (Spokane Valley):
Representative Larry Crouse larry.crouse@leg.wa.govRepresentative Matt Shea matt.shea@leg.wa.gov
Senator Jeff Baxter jeff.baxter@leg.wa.gov
6th LD (South Hill, parts of the West Plains, Mead, North Spokane):
Representative John Ahern john.ahern@leg.wa.govRepresentative Kevin Parker Kevin.parker@leg.wa.gov
Senator Michael Baumgartner Michael.baumgartner@leg.wa.gov
7th LD (Everything North of Highway 2):Representative Joel Kretz joel.kretz@leg.wa.govRepresentative Shelly Short shelly.short@leg.wa.govSenator Bob Morton bob.morton@leg.wa.gov
9th LD (Medical Lake, Cheney, all points south to Pullman):
Representative Susan Fagan susan.fagan@leg.wa.govRepresentative Joe Schmick joe.schmick@leg.wa.gov
Senator Mark Schoesler mark.schoesler@leg.wa.gov
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T H I S WE E K S H O M E W O R K : WR I T E YO U RL E G I S L A T O R S A B O U T L E V Y E Q U A L I Z A T I O N !
Levy Equalization
makes up $1.5
million dollars, or
almost 8%, of
Medical Lakesbudget.
Volume 1, Issue 2