From: owner-geareps@lists.xmission.com Date: 01 Dec 2000 15:47:55 -0700 to poll your members...The questions I asked you at the last meeting and then on this list serve was to get that input. Only 8 schools were "very supportive" of a job action at this time. And half of those schools - only if the entire state went. There was no need for any further voting or polling... Good news - Last night GEA was awarded an NEA Urban Grant that we applied for to begin a mentor program. Also, today I will be going to the NEA Legislative Hearings to talk about FERPA and the help we need there. Know that I am in constant touch with the office. And since the email here got set up - I have tried to answer (however briefly) the 60 some odd emails I have gotten since I left Monday afternoon. Remember to email me at pres@gea-ut.org if you have questions. If you email this list serve I will not get the message... Later & take care! Debbie Sender: owner-geareps@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: geareps -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: owner-geareps@lists.xmission.com Date: 01 Dec 2000 16:32:29 -0700 to poll your members...The questions I asked you at the last meeting and then on this list serve was to get that input. Only 8 schools were "very supportive" of a job action at this time. And half of those schools - only if the entire state went. There was no need for any further voting or polling... Good news - last night GEA was awarded an NEA Urban Grant that we applied for to begin a mentor program. Also, today I will be going to the NEA Legislative Hearings to talk about FERPA and the help we need there. Know that I am in constant touch with the office. And since the email here got set up - I have tried to answer (however briefly) the 60 some odd emails I have gotten since I left Monday afternoon. Remember to email me at pres@gea-ut.org if you have questions. If you email this list serve I will not get the message... Later & take care! Debbie Sender: owner-geareps@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: geareps -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) second try... Date: 04 Dec 2000 08:17:09 -0700 Hello: (resent to get you all the message - sorry) Thank you for all you are doing at this time. I appreciate you all. I have gotten many questions about a "vote" - remember I asked you to poll your members...The questions I asked you at the last meeting and then on this list serve was to get that input. Only 8 schools were "very supportive" of a job action at this time. And half of those schools - only if the entire state went. There was no need for any further voting or polling... Good news - last night GEA was awarded an NEA Urban Grant that we applied for to begin a mentor program. Also, today I will be going to the NEA Legislative Hearings to talk about FERPA and the help we need there. Know that I am in constant touch with the office. And since the email here got set up - I have tried to answer (however briefly) the 60 some odd emails I have gotten since I left Monday afternoon. Remember to email me at pres@gea-ut.org if you have questions. If you email this list serve I will not get the message... Later & take care! Debbie -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) How are things? Date: 04 Dec 2000 09:22:59 -0700 Hello, Sorry about the one sent on Friday - you should have gotten a good one this morning. We are getting things ready for tomorrow... We will deliver UEA red ribbons that have USDM (Utah Students Deserve More). We are asking you to give those to each staff member. We mentioned about "working to contract" tomorrow - clarification on that... for those that wanted to do something more - come to work at the scheduled time/leave at the scheduled time/take a real lunch (for once)... that type of thing. Please don't cancel anything you had scheduled before with your students. Some are asking if there are going to be other activities...? If there is a large enough group to do a honk & wave - we can arrange something like that. We do have the literature to pass - if teachers are interested in that type of thing after school. Please let me know if your school needs me or one of the staff to come to your school. We will be happy to talk to your people. A board member should have talked to you in the past few days. If not, please call us to let us know how your school feels. More later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) The day after... Date: 06 Dec 2000 16:03:09 -0700 (I have tried to get this out sooner - something is going goofy with the list serve - I hope it works this time... ) :} Hello, It sounds as if the 30 locals that did yesterday's job action - did a great job. Thank you for wearing the ribbons and I know that many worked to contract. I would be interested in knowing how things went at your school. I am sorry about the confusion with the ribbons - it was my intent to have all staff wear them.... something happened with the ordering. (Last minute things tend to happen that way) Be sure that everyone is preparing for the legislative session. With legislators coming up with punitive bills - we could be in for a long ride. ~~~~~ I would like to talk about a memo a sent each of your regarding our state of membership... This memo seems to have gotten into the hands of non-members. I have had several very (should I say?) difficult and angry people (non-members) complaining and justifying why they are a non-member. Most of the things that I send you in this list serve are for "your eyes only". It is for your knowledge so you are able to answer questions and you know what is going on. This most recent memo had me begging YOU to talk to the people that were not yet members. I was NOT begging the non-members (as I was accused of in the one angry email) to be members. This was my response to that accusation... Membership is important. I do not think that we "whine" or "beg" people to be members. The memo you got was an internal one to the Reps to help them to understand the situation we are finding ourselves in. In a right to work state - we spend too much precious time trying to "get" and "keep" members. These days, it is not enough to do something that is good - we have to constantly convince people - like a door to door sales person - that our dues our worth it. I KNOW we are worth it - I KNOW how hard everyone at all levels in this organization work!!! Like teachers we are not as good at "bragging" about this... It is also - what do we spend our time on? And, states that ARE real "union" states they are able to spend ALL their time "doing" things for their members. AND, we may not all agree at times - but, I have never seen such a democratic organization - ever - at all levels. All begging aside - this is the cold hard fact. Our membership has dropped enough that we are unable to keep 1 of our 4 staff members. The UniServ budget (mostly funded by money we get back from UEA for each member) is what funds our staff. Your Executive Board will be discussing membership and that budget at tonight's meeting. So, for those that quit because of UEA and wanted to make a statement - that statement they are making is hurting GEA the hardest AND it will give us less representation to make changes for the future. And for those provisionary teachers - we negotiated due process rights for provisionary teachers (something that most districts in this state do not have) plus an ADDITIONAL $1600 this year that they would not have gotten without GEA. Therefore, every provisional educator should be able to afford it and know we CAN protect their rights. The long and short of it is - If by the holiday break our membership has not increased by nearly 100 members, the GEA Board will have an even harder decision to make at our first meeting in January. Therefore, if you are getting members - please send the forms in ASAP. If you need help - let us know. We will be out to your school. AND PLEASE KEEP THESE MEMOS INTERNAL. ~~~~~ There will not be a December Rep meeting. Rest up - Come January we will have a lot to do. I am scheduling legislative writing sessions through December and the first of January. Contact me we good days and whether you want it before or after school - or - during planning time... ~~~~~ Last week I was at the winter conference for NCUEA (National Council of Urban Education Associations). At the evening dinner they make presentations of the year's grant winners. Well, we were awarded with an NEA Urban Grant. I wrote this grant to start a mentor program for GEA members. Anyone interested in helping put this all together - let me know. ~~~~~ Thanks for having such a clam day - yesterday. I understand that more were in school than normal. On an average we use 180 subs a day. Yesterday we used just over 100. Thanks for all you do! I appreciate you! More later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEA CALLS UPON MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO PLEDGE THEIR SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN AND PUBLIC EDUCATION. http://www.nea.org/lac/funding/ Ten weeks into the new fiscal year, and the government is still operating without a budget. The government is currently funded under a continuing resolution that extends through Thursday, December 7, 2000. Congressional leaders are backpedaling from a deal they made with the White House before Thanksgiving to increase education funding by $7.9 billion dollars. They are now speaking of cutting the increase or even freezing education spending at current levels. Ask your member of Congress to pledge to support children and public education. Visit http://www.nea.org/lac/funding/ to send your representatives the message that children and public education need their help now. CONGRESS' FAILURE TO ACT HURTS CHILDREN AND PUBLIC EDUCATION The future education of our children is at stake. Our children need a budget that will: -- Modernize old schools and build new ones -- Reduce average class size -- Hire more well-prepared teachers -- Expand after school programs THE DELAY IS CAUSING CONSIDERABLE HARM "Impact Aid" schools, such as those close to military bases and Indian reservations have already missed one federal payment this year and are operating in budget limbo. Pell grants and College Work Study programs are delaying the approval of grants for the fall of 2001 because of the uncertainty of how much money will be available. NEA PRESIDENT BOB CHASE SUMS IT UP "After inexcusable delays, this is a chance for Congress to take important bipartisan action in support of children and public education," said NEA President Bob Chase. "In addition to providing our schools with much-needed funding, such action would set a constructive tone for a new Congress -- a tone our nation is desperately seeking right now." For updates on the budget picture in Washington D.C., to read President Chase's statement in its entirety, or to e-mail Congress, visit http://www.nea.org/lac/funding/ - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) A few updates... Date: 07 Dec 2000 11:12:12 -0700 Hello, I know there have been some upset with what Phyllis said on channel 5. I thought I would pass this on - it was posted on her site and sent to leaders... To Whom It May Concern: I want to express my most humble apology for the statements I made on Monday, December 4, 2000 that were aired on KSL, Channel 5. There is no excuse. I was in the process of giving Nadine Wimmer an interview that ran at least 15-30 minutes. We were kidding around about where I wanted teachers to be and where I didn't want them to be on the day of the job action. The words were said in jest and I never expected them to end up on the 6 o'clock news, but there they were. Notwithstanding, I said them. I have made things worse, set a bad example for young people and shaken the faith that people have placed in me. I have learned a good lesson the hard way. Please extend my apology to anyone who asks. I am ashamed of myself because I have given you reason to doubt my sincerity. Thank you for reading this. I will work very hard in the future to be more professional in all my actions. ===== Phyllis Sorensen Utah Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next... the GEA's Board discussed membership and the concerns around our budget that deals with staff. Some of you have already found a few more members. Some of you have requested Nile to come to your school to help with membership. The board is also offering their time to come and help you with membership. They will be calling in the next few days to see what they can set up. On the secondary level, we can get they out all day, to meet with people during their consultation. For elementary, we can do lunch and/or before/after type things. We are designing a training that will help you with membership - similar to what we did a few years ago... If you have ideas about what we could put into the training - skills you would like to acquire and that type of stuff - let me know. Also, the board approved a one time waiver of the GEA portion of dues for those long time members that dropped this year (or actually any year) IF they return before the end of January. This is being offered to offset us not being able to pro-rate their dues. (We can only pro-rate dues for people that have never been a member before.) This will go in a letter to those people that dropped this year. You might want to also connect with them. Thanks for all your are doing. I appreciate you understanding the seriousness of the position we are in. I know you value the association. Some how - the non-members need to understand that value, too. More later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) New committee Date: 07 Dec 2000 12:13:36 -0700 Hello, Again... haha... I forgot to add in the last message that I am looking for a few volunteers to work on a task force to look at sick leave and retire compensation... This task force would be working with classified, too. It was their idea to come to some understanding about some of the benefits. I see it as a side kick to negotiations development... We are also starting our sick leave bank task force back up to see if that is something we want to go for this year in negotiations. And, while I am at it - I need more volunteers to help with the 80 year celebration of GEA's life... (doesn't that sound like a fun thing???) And, we are going to start another task force to design a resolutions committee and some preliminary resolutions for GEA and to clean up the By-laws. So - if you or anyone is interested in any of these (or others) let me know. Please remember to respond back to pres@gea-ut.org and not the list serve..... Thanks again!!! -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) E-mail... Date: 12 Dec 2000 09:21:58 -0700 Hello, I have had questions this morning about an email that was sent out by Rep Matt Throckmorton. Someone sent me a copy of the letter this morning. I do not know who is all involved with "Classrooms First" idea. I will find out more about this and get back with you. ~~~~~~ Information from UEA regarding the Governor's budget announcement yesterday... UEA Activists: In what was billed as the "best education budget ever by a long shot," Governor Leavitt released his public education budget for FY 2002 today. With the help of a group of students at Willow Canyon Elementary School in the Jordan School District, Governor Leavitt unveiled his unprecedented $2.4 billion public education budget recommendation. This represents a 14.8% increase in public education funding over last year, with an 8.5% increase to the Minimum School Program. UEA President Phyllis Sorensen, who attended the budget announcement, observed, "the Governor clearly shares our commitment to Utah's children. His budget reflects this commitment and a giant step in the right direction to increasing the funding we provide our schools now and in the future." Sorensen cautioned, however, that she had still not seen the details of the budget and will review them carefully with her staff when they are released later this week. Highlights of the Governor's public education budget include: * 14.8 % overall funding increase with a 9.5% increase in on-going programs * 6% WPU increase ($100 million) * 3% increase to local districts to use for high priority needs ($50 million), such as class size education. * $4 million for accountability measures * $19 million to provide incentives to recruit, retain and retrain math and computer science teachers * $5 million for reading programs, including $4 million for reading specialists in low-performing schools * $10 million in capital outlay assistance to local districts * $45.6 million for textbooks, library materials, and teacher-directed supply money * $20 million for technology enhancements * $8.5 million in other program areas, including ATCs, Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and to increase graduation rates for minorities. The Governor's budget recommendations will now be considered by the Utah State Legislature beginning on January 15, 2001. The Utah Education Association encourages you to contact your legislator and voice your support of increased funding for Utah schools. Visit www.utea.org to "contact your Representative." Utah Students Deserve More! ~~~~~~~~ Some of you have given the association an early Christmas present - We have gotten 6 members in the past week. Please keep up the efforts - remember new people will be pro-rated and the first deduction will be in January. And, those returning will have their local dues waived if they return before the end of January. Again - thanks for your efforts! More later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) Waiver explanation... Date: 13 Dec 2000 08:00:30 -0700 Hello! I have had a question about the waiving of the GEA portion of the dues... So, where there is one - I am sure there are a few more that have the same question. The Executive Board discussed this year's loss of so many long time members. We also send them a letter. Even though I have talked to many of them - we thought that a little extra incentive to come back in the middle of the year was needed... That would be the waiving of the GEA portion of the total dues for this year... $43. They would still pay the full amount of UEA and NEA dues. That amount would be deducted in the remaining months... The reason we thought of this is... If we were to get a person to join that has never been a member before - those dues would be pro-rated. Meaning they would only pay for what is remaining in the year. However, we cannot pro-rate UEA and NEA dues for past members that want to rejoin. (policy) So, it is GEA's way to say - we know you have been a good long standing member. You mean a lot to us - please come back. Our new member count is to 7. Keep up the good work - with your help we can continue to increase by 1 and 2 a day (and please put a hold on the drops) :} If we can get our membership back to where it was last winter, we will be in good shape. This may not bring in dues to the General Account - but, it will help with the increased per member dues come in from UEA and solidify the money coming back from NEA. That money goes into a different account that pays for staff. It will also help with our representation at the NEA RA and the UEA House. If there are further questions, I would be happy to answer other specifics. Later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Debbie White Subject: (geareps) New information Date: 18 Dec 2000 08:24:25 -0700 Hello, A few things... The Governor's budget is being looked over and evaluated. At the Rep meeting in January we will talk about it, the Retirement system, and plans for the session. We are up one more member to 8 new ones. However, we got a drop last week, too. I am sending out letters to all administrators, specialists of any type, and provisional educators that have not joined. In January, check if those people in your building have any questions you can answer. I have had a few more concerns about the "Classrooms First" letter that was sent out on behalf of Matt Throckmorton. I have yet to find out much more than the obvious... he is part of a more conservative group of legislators. (Someone asked if he was with the Eagle Forum - I am not sure about that one...) This group seems bent on claiming that enough money is put into the system (which you and I know is not the case). But, if you follow this concept of theirs - it would mean that the money isn't reaching the kids (so to speak). Now, they don't understand that the administration ratio to educators and students is as bear bones as you could be especially compared to the nation. And, that most of those administrators have a real and genuine function that you or I would have to do - if they were not there. It seems that is what they are getting people upset about... then they will be able to rationalize not giving any more money to the system and/or funding private education... Thanks for letting me know. If you respond and get a response back from them - let me know. I will be interested in following this. A new development in the NEA/AFT talks... they believe they will not have anything ready regarding a merger for this year's Representative Assembly. However, they are talking about a separate committee/organization that would be called the Alliance. A lot of things are being discussed about this. If you are interested - Tuesdays (tomorrow - at GEA 4:30) meeting with GEA and GFT will talk about what we each know about this proposed item. Later... :D -- Debbie White President Granite Education Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ~Aldous Huxley - To unsubscribe to geareps, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe geareps" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.