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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

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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