Friday Updates

Friday, June 8

Happy Friday!

A few days ago, the R-G had the graduation insert. I always love reading through the names of our Springfield graduates. I look for names I recognize, names of students I taught when they were in kindergarten or first grade. I smile when I read a familiar name and a picture of a 5 or 6 year old kiddo pops in my mind. Graduation seems far away when you teach young children, but we are all part of the journey. Every one of us contributes to the path that ends with graduations and celebrations. Enjoy your last week with students!

Summer Opportunities

The ELA standards are in the midst of a review process. The Oregon Department of Education is looking for some kindergarten through third grade teachers to participate on the ELA Standards Review Panel. If you are interested, please follow this link for more info.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VLCCZZB

The 4th bi-annual international Network Gender and STEM Conference will be hosted by the University of Oregon College of Education from July 31—August 2, 2018 at the Erb Memorial Union.

The conference features over 70 different paper presentations, plus four keynote speeches from expert practitioners with the aim of extending the interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers, members of industry, and educators to move beyond results which highlight single aspects of issues raised by the study of Gender & STEM identities. Implications for educational and vocational training and practice will be discussed.

Click https://stem2018.uoregon.edu/ for registration information and to see an updated schedule. Cost for teachers is only $65.00.

SEA Budget

At our June Rep Council meeting, your building reps approved SEA’s budget for next year. Your SEA dues will not increase for the 18-19 school year. One budgetary change involves the president’s release. The past few years, my release time has been .9 SEA president funded by SEA dues and .1 funded from the district. (For the .1, I have been facilitating and co-teaching a class for second year teachers.)

The president’s insurance costs were paid from an insurance benefit fund negotiated years ago. This fund was depleted this year. Our budget will not sustain a .9 president now that we also need to pay insurance. Next year the SEA president will be .8 with .2 being funded through the district. I will continue the 2ndyear class for .1 with the other .1 to be determined. If you want to see a copy of the SEA budget, your building rep can share it with you.

New Human Resources Director

I spent over an hour last Friday chatting with our new Human Resources director, Dustin Reese. Dustin was in town with his family signing papers on a house they purchased in the area. He comes from an HR background at the community college level. It will be new for us to have an HR director who has not come from a K-12 background, but I believe Dustin is a good fit for us. In both his interview and in our chat last week, though he hasn't worked in K-12, Dustin showed an understanding of our mission and indicated his willingness to learn more about how K-12 differs from community college.

Dustin asked good questions. He was a good listener. (I admit I talked a lot!) He shared several ideas that make good sense to me, some that we have even advocated for in the past. While I know there will be different interpretations and disagreements, I do believe he will always be willing to have a conversation. He officially begins on July 1.

Vacancies

Vacancies continue to be posted in Talent Ed Recruit and Hire every week. This will probably continue into the summer. If you are thinking a change might be a welcome challenge, keep watching. If you are an internal candidate, you need only submit a cover letter and a current resume. But you MUST submit through Talent Ed. Make sure you mark you are an internal candidate before selecting the job for which you wish to apply. Questions, call HR and someone will help.

Anne Goff

Springfield Education Association President

seaprez@comcast.net

Phone: (541) 726-8388

(541) 343-1151

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

--Margaret Mead