With a major commitment to funding school salaries passed by the legislature this year, the Washington State Supreme Court closed the books last week on the McCleary decision.
The McCleary lawsuit was supported and funded by WEA and a coalition of community groups and school districts, notably including Seattle Public Schools
, in order to force the state legislature to live up to our state constitution, which mandates "ample" funding for public education.
The state legislature, unfortunately, included some contradictory elements in the education funding portion of the budget, which has led some districts to think they don't need to direct that funding to compensation.
But a promise is a promise, and we are not going to allow school districts to redirect our compensation into their reserves or other projects. Our colleagues in the
Lake Washington School District just reached an agreement that cuts through the legislative mess and gives their certificated staff raises between 8 and 15%. Classified staff in Lake Washington head to the bargaining table next.
Just like Lake Washington SD, Seattle Public Schools is getting a huge increase in state funding for next year. Our classified and certificated salaries are paid out of both levy
and state funds, though, and levy funds will be reduced starting in January 2019. But SPS is still going to see a very substantial increase in 2018-19, one that will go a long way towards fulfilling McCleary's compensation promise.
Wear your SEA tee shirt tomorrow with your "
McCleary Promise" sticker and support your bargaining team as we begin our compensation bargaining this month!
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SEA Bargaining Team raises social emotional needs and parental and personal leave
"Our building has begun to dread budget-making, because we often have had to decide between a counselor for the social emotional health of our students or an interventionist for our students' academic needs," said
Toni O'Neal, teacher at Lowell Elementary. "We obviously need both!"
Because of these impossible choices, SEA members have prioritized meeting social emotional needs in this bargain.
"If we want to reach every kid in every building, and we want them to have a baseline of social emotional skills, we can't have the professionals who do this forced to be always dealing with emergency response to trauma in the buildings," said
David Belides, counselor at Jane Addams Middle School.
Many bargaining team members spoke to the need and benefit of being pro-active rather than reactive. Administrators and principals on the SPS bargaining team echoed many of the same interests and priorities.
We also opened bargaining around parental and personal leave at our bargaining session last week.
"SEA members are having to plan and try to get pregnant so we don't end up in in unpaid status during the school year," said
Kate Eads, librarian at Northgate Elementary. "But for those who can't time it perfectly it puts out our families in a very hard place."
The bargaining team spoke as well to the critical need for bonding time with our children (both adoptive and birth) and value of more personal leave, which is often used to care for and be present with our families.
Together with the SPS team we brainstormed many possible ways ("options") to address these concerns, and we look forward to developing and evaluating those options over the coming sessions.
We will be opening up discussions around professional development, substitutes, ESAs, equity and compensation in the coming weeks.
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How to get 30 free clock hours from OSPI
You can receive clock hours at no cost for completing a Professional Growth Plan (PGP). These clock hours are eligible for salary advancement, and for certificate renewal (one page flyer on the PGP process:
- To complete a Professional Growth Plan, use the PGP template here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5fkwEWTPK5PZUNDdkZlcUdpZEE/view, and attach evidence (materials from your focused evaluation, student work, PLC meeting notes, and so on).
- Next, have your PGP reviewed and signed by your supervisor )
- To earn clock hours eligible for salary advancement, submit this form https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5fkwEWTPK5PQzkyQXRCbnlwejQ/view?usp=sharing to your school district HR office.
- Record your PGP for clock hours towards certification renewal through OSPI E-Certification: http://www.k12.wa.us/Certification/e-Cert/
PGPs for certificate renewal must be completed prior to June 30 of each year. Completion includes
having a certificated educator review, sign, and date your PGP template form 1697. PGPs may be completed at any point during the year, as long as only one PGP is completed per year.
PGPs for certificate renewal may be recorded in eCertification on an annual basis, as you complete them, or you may record them at any point during the validity date of your certificate prior to submitting the application for certificate renewal.
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WEA Westside Summer Institute: register for summer clock hour classes!
WEA is offering a summer institute with opportunities to ear clock hours for both certificated and classified staff. The event will take place at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish July 30 - August 1. Classes include: Math and ELA Common Core Standards, TPEP, Next Gen Science Standards, De-escalation training for para-educators, and more! See the flyer for more information including how to register.
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>>>>> QUICK NOTES <<<<<
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Seattle Public Schools hiring curriculum writers for Ethnic Studies
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Don't miss out
on breaking SEA text alerts: text
SEATTLEEA
to 41411 to stay informed!
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SICK LEAVE REQUESTS
Thank you all for your generous donations to those who share their need for leave.
Members can access the shared leave form to donate hours by clicking
HERE. Forms can be submitted to
[email protected] or FAXED to 206-252-0021 or mailed to Seattle Public Schools, MS 33-380, PO Box 34165, Seattle, WA 98124-1165.
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