What Now?

The legislature is over. What happens next? The stress continues as we wait for exact figures from the Utah State Office of Education regarding funding for next year. Although the negotiating team has been formed and will begin meeting before spring break, final figures will not be revealed until after the break. At that time the team will begin meeting with the district in earnest. The Insurance Committee has been meeting all year and will be meeting several times in the next month to analyze our usage patterns and cost increases which must also be addressed during negotiations.

As we await results from the district's survey and budget meetings, we have begun to craft our own survey which will help us fill in any gaps from the district's information.

At the same time, we are gathering final signatures for the ethics petition. If you have a signature book, we ask that you arrange to get it to us before spring break so they can be turned over to Dee Burningham who has been coordinating with us throughout the process. If you wish to sign and have not been able to do so, please visit the Utahns for Ethical Government web site where you can sign on line.

In addition, we must continue to organize for county and state conventions as well as primary elections. We will continue to post candidate responses to our survey as we receive them.

As you can see, the stress and time commitment of your elected and staff leaders does not end with the legislative session. Watch for updates on all of these things on the blog and in your email boxes.

Caucus Meetings Well Attended

Early reports indicate that attendance was very high at party caucus meetings last night. Please take a minute and share you personal experiences. Select comments from below this posting. You must be on Blogspot to post a comment. Click the title above if you are reading this on our home page.

Caucus Reminder

Tuesday, March 23, is your chance to be involved in grass roots Utah politics. Even though DEA PAC has not interviewed candidates yet, it is clear there are candidates who will be more supportive of education funding. Please read the responses we have received from candidates so far. We will post candidates responses as they are received in our office.
We hope you will attend the caucus of your choice tomorrow to Speak for Tomorrow Today. We encourage you to become a delegate to a county or state convention.
For information about the caucuses, click below.

Caucus Information

Current Political Events

As we are made aware of political events hosted by candidates or parties, we will post them to this site. Posting does not imply endorsement. We are only trying to pass along information regarding events our members may wish to attend.

Friday, March 19

Debate between US Senate Candidates at the DATC from 6:30 until 8:30 with opportunities to mingle and talk to local candidates who may be present.

For more information email
agardiner14@gmail.com

Saturday, March 20

John Pitt will be hosting a pre-caucus brunch at 9 AM to discuss issues and explain the caucus process. Follow this link for more details.

http://www.votejohnpitt.blogspot.com

Retirement Reminder

Some of you turned in a letter indicating you planned to retire intending to reexamine your situation following the legislative session. If you did that, this is probably the week you need to make a final decision. Although you should contact the Utah Retirement System or the district regarding your specific situation, here are some general reminders.

• The Davis School District retirement incentives will remain in place through at least the end of the 2010-2011 school year.
• Retire and rehire will be more restricted after July 1, 2010.
• The changes made this legislative session do not impact current employees even if they temporarily suspend employment and return to work later.

Caucus Participation Assessment

Please click the link below and tell us what you are willing to do to help raise awareness of educational needs in both parties.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7XDRNQL

Education NOT Held Harmless

You have probably heard news reports that some legislators claim to be holding education harmless. While it is true that education has come out of the legislature with fewer cuts than other state agencies, that does not mean the new budget will not impact classrooms and students. Today's Salt Lake Tribune has two editorials that reflect the impacts of legislative action on schools. Follow these links:

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_14649529

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_14649518

Final Reaction from Educator Day on the Hill

I had a wonderful time at the Capitol today! I really learned a lot about how bills are presented and debated, passed or not passed, in both the House and the Senate. I got to meet and shake hands with two representatives, Representative Barrus from the area where I teach, and Representative Wallis, from the area where I live. I even found out that two years ago I was the second grade teacher to Representative Barrus' grandson! I told Representative Wallis that I was excited to go to my neighborhood caucus coming up in a couple weeks and be a voice for public education. I also got to meet and visit with Senator Dan Liljenquist and thank him for his hard work in supporting ongoing funding for public education.
Thanks to the PAC for allowing me this opportunity!


Valerie Lindeman
Eagle Bay Elementary

Educator Day on the Hill

As an educator and member of our United Teaching Profession, I am pleased and proud of what our UEA and DEA lobby teams do for us. Without this valuable service provided by our association, we would be totally at the mercy of our lawmakers without any recourse for the far-reaching influence they have in what happens to us as employees personally and in our classrooms. I have seen this service first-hand.

Friday, March 5, I was on the hill and left encouraged by the wonderful support we have from a number of our lawmakers and the friendly way they treat us. Others I feel see us as "over-educated peasants" who should be seen in our classrooms and not heard advocating for our students. As we approach caucus time we need as many educators elected delegates as possible so that our voice is heard in a much more influential way. Your elected representatives will respond to you in a totally different way if they know you are a delegate in their senate or house district. The only way we can increase our "clout" as teachers is to be responsible for electing education-friendly legislators in the actual general election--county and state party conventions.

Richard Heath
DEA Executive Board

Tomorrow is the final UEA Educator Day on the Hill. We have five teachers currently planning to attend. Thursday is the final day of the legislature. As it closes, we will begin to get a picture of the total funding for next school year.

Retirement - Minority Viewpoint

Representative Neil Hansen, House District 9, had this guest commentary in Sunday's Standard Examiner.

http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/2010/03/06/utah-residents-dont-want-proposed-retirement-changes

Legislature Tackles Budget

You should have received an email legislative update yesterday. The budget will be finalized by next Thursday. Please continue to contact your legislators. Some of them believe the cuts made have not impacted classrooms. Share your personal stories about how the budget cuts are impacting your classroom and your students. Be specific and detailed. Let them know budget reductions have impacted you and your students and how further reductions would hurt.

We are also interested in HB 295 which would allow some flexibility for districts to move capitol money into operations. This bill would help Jordan School Distict and might help Davis as well.

SB 77 continues to haunt us. This bill would impact how Davis School District does business. It would make it more difficult for teachers to sit on the insurance committee and for negotiations to occur during the school day.

Click here to contact your legislators.

It's Raining - Bring an Umbrella

This late notice came from Kim Campbell this morning, but some may want to stop on the way home today.

There is an impromptu, hostless gathering today in the Rotunda of the Capitol for those people and organizations concerned about cuts to education, higher education and human needs programs encouraging the legislature to use the rainy day funds.

WHEN: Thursday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m.

WHERE: Capitol Rotunda.

Umbrellas of all shapes and sizes are welcome.

UEA President Kim Campbell - Guest Commentary

This link will take you to a guest commentary Kim Campbell had published in the Standard Examiner last week. I have watched Kim working on her computer while observing legislative committees and floor debate. As a lobbyist, multi-tasking is a vital tool.

http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/2010/02/25/jordan-school-districts-plight-symptom-bigger-problem

You can get additional information regarding school funding declines at http://www.utahsfuture.org/ and http://www.utahnsforpublicschools.org/.

Under the Dome Reaction

The following is a reaction from Denise Fountain Willmore of Bountiful Elementary to her day spent at the legislature last Wednesday.

"I really enjoyed my experience at the State Capital on Wednesday. I now realize the importance of being involved and to express my opinion to the decision makers in the state.

"I had the opportunity to speak with Representative Roger Barrus about the latest retirement bill. He expressed to me that he supports the retirement bill because he feels that the current retirement system is costing the state an enormous amount of money. He believes that the new system would allow new teachers to have more of a choice in regard to how long they stay and would be able to transfer their money when they leave their job. He also expressed wanting to offer teachers a higher salary but retirement would have to be cut in order to do this.

"I expressed to Representative Barrus that I recently moved to Utah from Colorado and was faced with taking a $25,000 reduction in pay. The retirement benefit that Utah offers made the pay cut a little less painful. In addition, if they are going to cut the retirement, when will they be increasing wages for teachers? (There is nothing in legislation at this time that is addressing increasing pay. )

"Overall, I felt like Representative Barrus heard what I had to say. I do not think that it will change his vote but perhaps it will make him aware that teachers do care about their profession. I walked away from my experience realizing the importance of owning my voice and expressing my passion for a profession that I love. The bottom line is the kids that we teach. If we are not able to attract exceptional candidates into the profession of teaching or lose teachers to nearby states that have higher compensation plans, the children in the state of Utah are ultimately the ones who will suffer."

Five more Davis educators are scheduled to attend the next Under the Dome which will be Friday, March 5.