Good morning
WLEA Members,
Some news
that can’t be sent through email…..
**** We haven’t received 4 building’s PAC envelopes
yet, but our WLEA members have broken last year’s record for donations to PAC
already! Daryl Szymanski, our PAC chair
and Vice President, reported to me over the weekend that as of Friday 442
members have contributed $18, 641! That
beats last year’s total of $17, 118 in contributions to PAC.
Needless
to say, as our profession is attacked by very rich individuals and groups in
the name of “reform” and “improvement”, our contributions to PAC become even
more important to help elect our next set of leaders who understand that
educators are some of the best educated and knowledgable people in our state.
I
would love to see us top $20,000!!!! If
you still want to donate, contact me at tfitzprez@yahoo.com
*** An update on the addition of 5 days to the
calendar next year -
We
received this information from Ruth Beier, the MEA’s Economist:
“The School Aid Supplemental for this year, HB 4295, includes the
language at the end(in Section 101). This language passed the House and
Senate (today), so it will be in the final version of the bill.
” IF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT THAT PROVIDES FOR AT LEAST 170 DAYS BUT LESS THAN 175 DAYS, AND AT LEAST 1,098 HOURS, OF PUPIL INSTRUCTION IS IN EFFECT FOR EMPLOYEES OF A DISTRICT AS OF OCTOBER 1, 2013, THEN UNTIL THE SCHOOL YEAR THAT BEGINS AFTER THE EXPIRATION OF THAT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT THE DISTRICT SHALL PROVIDE AT LEAST THE NUMBER OF DAYS OF PUPIL INSTRUCTION IDENTIFIED IN THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT, AND AT LEAST 1,098 HOURS OF PUPIL INSTRUCTION.”
If this passes both houses of the legislature, it would mean that
we would not need to change the 2014-2015 school calendar. We can make changes to the 2015-2016 calendar
through our regular contractual talks.
*** The EAA legislation has passed the House and is going on to the
Senate. It does include stipulations for
a failing school to first work through their ISD. There are also provisions for ways for a
failing school to leave the EAA and return to their home district. Two democrats actually casted the passing
votes for this version of the bill because their amendments were included in
the bill. (The vote was 56-54). Cynics, as you can imagine, are saying that
those amendments could easily be stripped when the bill gets to the Senate. So, this is a bill to still keep your eyes
on.
