EEA Emergency Building Meeting April 28, 29, 30 or May 1

Agenda EEA Representative Council Resolution to support a Day of Action against the legislature, Wednesday, May 13. Commitment Cards. School Board Action, Tuesday, May 12.

The state legislature’s current plans… Give themselves an 11.2% raise, but give us MUCH less (House: 4.8% over two years; Senate: 3% over two years) Fail to bring funding up to McCleary levels, continuing to violate the Washington Supreme Court’s contempt order. Fail to fund Initiative 1351, and instead: – Has proposed sending it back to voters, or – modifying it to lower class sizes in grades K-3 only

It would take about $26,000 to pay you back for what the legislature has taken from you by not funding COLA

What has your $26,000 bought for our children? Over testing, resulting in anxiety for our students, and loss of about 1/3 of student instruction time. Narrowing instructional focus where only reading and math matter. 47 th worst class sizes in America.

Wait, it gets worse… Freezing our healthcare benefits…and dismantling our plans – while giving other state employees $200 more each month for benefits Eliminating our right to bargain for pay with the District – including TRI pay, which is 14.25% of our pay – The only raises we have had for six years have been due to bargaining with the District Tying our evaluations directly to student test scores

What have we been doing? Thousands of phone calls & s to Olympia Huge At-Home Town Hall Mtg on March 21 Lobby carloads in Olympia EVERY Thursday Major rally in Olympia on Saturday, April 25 Concerted WEA lobby & communications Over 200 people attended our Town Hall at Columbia River High School. Only about half the legislators invited showed up!

Make it public! Dozens of locals, with thousands of members, held walkouts last week.

Make it big! The wave of walkouts is spreading across the state. Thousands of members will be hitting the bricks. Delegates to WEA Representative Assembly Passed NBI 32 on 4/25, supporting the state wide action. Polls show parents and voters strongly support actually funding 1351 and meeting McCleary; they do not want 1351 sent back to the ballot (Elway poll, April 2015)

What is EEA doing? “Union is a Verb!” It’s time to take action! On 4/27, EEA’s Representative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution for a Day of Action. The Day of Action is a PROTEST against the legislature, not the DISTRICT. We are asking EVERY member to complete a commitment card today. We are asking EVERY member to participate in the organizing activities on 5/13 to be announced. EEA will coordinate with the District. EEA will share next steps.

EEA needs your support! An important message from your EEA President, Rob Lutz, Monday, April 27, 2015

Big Picture: Why us? Why now? There is no mechanism for statewide strike. We are the largest local in SW Washington and 5 th largest WEA Local. – We have a responsibility to lead! If small locals like Stanwood-Camano and Anacortes can do it, we can, and should. This needs to be felt in Republican and swing districts like ours. Rolling actions, results in continuous media coverage while the legislature works on the budget. Without doing something big… the situation for us and our kids, will NOT get better.

Two different actions Two different purposes You are needed for both! Tuesday, May 12 – School Board Meeting Action. – 5:00pm at the District Office. – Purpose: Making clear to the school board the overbearing and unnecessary workload being demanded of our members. Wednesday, May 13 – Day of political protest – Organized Action during the school day – Purpose: To publicly protest the legislature failure to fund education, to do our part to keep the conversation going throughout the state, and to advocate for both ourselves and our students.

SCHOOL BOARD ACTION Tuesday, May 12 At the GM in March, the EEA membership voted to share the workload demands, publically with the Evergreen School Board. Tuesday, May 12 is the date selected for EEA members to PACK the Evergreen School Board Our goal is to share the message of the workload realities with the elected board – No curriculum, Testing, TPEP and PLC demands, No technology, No time to teach, and lack of substitutes!

We need you! Visit EEA website at and click the link to RSVP for May 12. Indicate t-shirt size for free EEA t-shirt. RSVP no later than Friday, May 1. We will wear EEA t-shirts in solidarity! You will pick your shirt up at the event. Show up at District office on Tuesday, May 12 at 5:00 PM!

LEGISLATIVE DAY OF ACTION Wednesday, May 13 The District has been notified of the possibility. The intent is school would be cancelled and a day would be added to the end of the calendar (state law requires it) and no one would lose pay. We have done this before in the 1990’s and 2000’s! We will need ALL EEA members to participate to carry our message of PROTEST against the legislature and maximize media coverage!