January 24, 2007 Update

**Instructional Model – If you are in your first two years of employment in the district, you are required by contract to have taken the course, The Instructional Model, through central office by May of the end of your second year. The course is already underway for the spring semester, so if you're completing your second year and have not enrolled, call Dr. Harris right away to make arrangements. If a district official makes special arrangements for you to take the class later than May if this is your second year, be sure to get that agreement in writing.

**Negotiations - February 1 is the deadline to exchange notice letters with the board. Both the board's team and LNEA's team are required by law to submit to each other a list of all articles of the contract to be opened for negotiations. Only the articles listed by the two teams will be open for discussion. All unopened articles will remain in force for the next contract year. We will of course be opening articles concerning salary and fringe benefits, as well as the calendar article, so we can negotiate non-working days for the 08-09 school year. The non-working days for 07-08 have already been negotiated, as we try to work a year ahead on that issue. Please let us know by the end of this week if there are any specific articles you want us to work on, and the team will discuss it before February 1. One thing we have to keep in mind is that if we open an article, we stand a chance of losing some of the benefits of that article if negotiations should go sour. We will certainly be taking factors like that into consideration before we open a particular article. Let us know ASAP what you think.

**Calendar for 07-08 - The calendar committee is currently meeting with members of central office to set the beginning and ending of school, the inservice days, and parent conferences. If you have any questions or comments about that process, contact Leslie Stillian, LNEA co-president.

**Dress - It seems that some building principals have been suggesting that certain attire is not appropriate for staff members. Please know that administrators DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to tell you what to wear to school Building and/or central office administrators are overstepping their bounds if they are setting standards for dress. Please use your professional judgment when dressing for school, but do not allow an administrator to tell you what to do as regards this issue.

**Evaluation Policy – Currently our district is utilizing two different evaluation policies. The one printed in the negotiated agreement has been in force for many years, and is the system most teachers are under. We have been piloting a new policy for the past two contract years. It is posted on the district's intranet page as the Professional Appraisal System. If you are participating in this new system, you should have signed an agreement to deviate from the negotiated agreement. The negotiating team is gathering information about this new policy from the teachers participating in it, and your input is very valuable to us. Please contact us with your opinion of this policy if you are a participant. Spread the word among staff as well, so that those who aren't on our mailing list can provide us with information as well.

**Memos – There seems to be a new system of “discipline” this year. If you have received a “memo” concerning something you've said or done, please know that this document is considered to be the same as a formal letter of reprimand. It seems harmless enough just to document an incident, but because it becomes part of your personnel file and could be used against you in an attempt to terminate you at a later date, it is important to challenge it if you believe its contents are unfair or violate your rights. If you receive a memo, you should sign it, date it, get a copy of it, and let one of the teacher rights representatives know about it right away. We have 10 days from the date the memo is presented to you to file a grievance if we think the memo is unwarranted. Your teacher rights representatives are Janet Renkoski at Lawson, and Linda Schukman or Kay Smith at the high school.

**Payroll deductions – Check your pay stub carefully. We tend to assume that once we've signed the authorization sheet at the benefits fair, the money we ask to be deducted from our checks is being properly handled. Unfortunately there have been isolated incidents of errors. The business office performs a monumental task when they work with deductions, and we can expect some errors. Ultimately it's our responsibility to let them know if there is a problem. Specifically, we know of the following incidents:
People who signed up for the child care tax-sheltered deduction are having trouble with those monies being posted back to their accounts in a timely fashion. We've been assured that it's a problem with switching to a new electronic system, and that it has been rectified. Please let us know, however, if the problem continues.
Some people signed up for the vision insurance, but when they went to the eye doctor, they discovered that they were not covered. When they checked their pay stub, they realized that although they signed the authorization for that benefit, the premium had never been deducted from their check, and now they are not allowed to enroll in the vision plan. If you signed up for vision insurance, check your stub to be sure you've been enrolled before you go to the eye doctor. It is our belief that if you still want to be enrolled in this benefit and it's the HR department's fault for not getting you enrolled, we should be able to find a way to make it happen. Let us know if you need help.
Also, if you have money taken out of your check for any kind of investment or retirement benefit, check with the company to be sure your money has been correctly posted each month and that it has been done in a timely manner. There have been a few isolated cases where the money came out of one person's check, but was posted to another person's retirement account. These mistakes just happen – we must be proactive, check our accounts, and be sure to get it corrected as soon as possible if there is a problem.
Please let us know of any other problem with payroll deduction.

**School Board Elections – The seats of Doug Darling, Shay Baker, Bob Van Horn and Loyal Torkelson are open for election this spring. Filing deadline was noon Tuesday, Jan. 23, and 10 people have thrown their hats into the ring. Bob Van Horn, Doug Darling and Shay Baker did not file. Loyal Torkelson filed for re-election. The others are:
Mike Robinson - former English teacher from Leavenworth High
-has worked closely with student test data on the building's leadership team
John Pretz - currently teaches physics and calculus at Leavenworth High
- has worked on the building's leadership team in the past
- will retire if elected.
Mike Carney - has served on the board before
- was unseated in the last election
Sanford (Bud) Sheaks - currently serving as president of Friends of LHS
John W. Chapman- former VP at LHS (80's)
- has worked in education for decades
Keith Melick
Donna (Taylor) Brown
Duane Denney
Patrick Grace
If anyone has any information to offer about any of these candidates, please let us know.

**Screen Saver - Recently the screen saver on your school computer was reprogrammed to kick in after 5 minutes of idle time. Dr. Aytes sent out an e-mail to all staff explaining that the change was made because of LNEA. The truth of the matter is, during the hearing involving a grievance, a board member asked a teacher who was attending the hearing how long that teacher's computer stayed “up” after she stepped away from it. She said that it was probably 25-30 minutes. No other comment was made by any representative of LNEA about the screen saver. It seems administration found it convenient to blame the change on LNEA when in fact that was not the case.

**Be professional – Please, in your discussion of these matters with your colleagues and community members, be professional at all times.