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November Advocate

The Advocate

November 2015

 

Helping the Community

 

One of the goals of WFEA is to not only stand up for members but to also stand up for and support our community.  As the holidays approach, it’s a good time to think about how we do that as an organization.  Just in the past couple of months, we’ve

 

·       given book donations to elementary students through our community grant money

·       collected food for Fill the Dome at our social

·       given  members the opportunity to donate to the Cathy Jostad fundraising efforts

·       rung bells for the Salvation Army

 

You can support our community and our students at any time by giving to the West Fargo Education Association Scholarship fund.  That’s a great place for a memorial gift or a gift given in honor of someone.   Contact Deb Beeler, our treasurer, for donation information.

 

Member Rights Advice

 

Recently there was an ad campaign in our local media which featured doctors sharing the “just one thing” they would tell patients.  Tammy Shaw, one of our member rights representatives, would like to share with you “just one thing”. If you are asked to come into your administrator’s office for a disciplinary reason, don’t hesitate to take someone with you.  That can be another member of WFEA or your building rep.  You have the right to ask if the meeting is about a possible problem, and if it is, you have the right to have someone there.  If a meeting turns into a disciplinary issue after you are in the office, you can stop your participation in it until you can locate someone to accompany you.  Seldom will this type of meeting come up, but it’s good to know in case it does.

 

Negotiations Update

 

We’ve had some questions from newer members about how the negotiations process works.  We usually negotiate every other year.  Our next session will be in the spring and summer of 2017.  Before we go to the table, we gather information from members about possible concerns to bring up during the sessions.  That information gathering has usually been done through a survey.  Recently, the executive board discussed the possibility of keeping a running record of concerns so that we can use that information to help us determine items to bring up at the negotiations sessions.  In order to start that, we’d like you to pass any of your concerns along to your building reps or executive board members.  No action will be taken immediately, but we will add them to our list and use that information to help determine our most pressing issues. 

 

To find our most recent negotiated agreement, go to this link:

 

https://www.west-fargo.k12.nd.us/intranet/humanresources/professional/NegotiatedAgreement.pdf

 

The steps are:

1.     WFPS Home page

2.     Staff

3.     Intranet

4.     Scroll Down to Professional Teaching Staff

5.     Click on Negotiated Agreement with Changes