Legislative Meeting

The Smith County Education Association met with Representative Terri Lynn Weaver in January. The association invited Representative Weaver to meet and discuss the upcoming legislation session. We had several questions for Rep. Weaver concerning our 60, 80, 90 campaign. How did Rep. Weaver stand on getting our retired member 60% of their salary as retirement? How did she stand on helping our local teachers receive 80% of insurance paid for by the state? How would she help us work to receiving 90% of the national teacher's average salary?

The group discussed the high quality teachers Smith County has been able to acquire and how these areas were concerns would lead to longevity in our school system, keeping high quality teachers in are area. Our surrounding counties have higher salary bases and a variety of benefit packages. But we are concerned about our county and how to improve our working conditions and benefits.

Representative Weaver was open to our ideas and voiced her concerns with education. Our meeting was during the first week of the legislative session. Since the meeting Representative Weaver has been appointed the House Education Committee. Congratulations Representative Weaver!  She understands our issues and is very willing to listen to our concerns and suggestions.  The meeting was very productive and we look forward to meeting with her again.

December AR Meeting

We had our monthly AR meeting earlier this week. The only thing on the agenda was an update of mediation and a district update with Duran. Denise was kind enough to provide drinks and snacks. We spent most of the meeting catching up with members information and discussing school climate.

The Wilson County Board of Education is sponsoring a Framework for Evaluation workshop in Wilson County on January 22. Duran will be conducting the training which will begin at 4:00 and end at 7:00 P.M. Each participant will receive 3 hours of staff development credit for attending the training. If you would like to attend the training, please contact your AR or email SCEA at the address on the right.

 

Bargaining Cluster Meeting

Tracy represented SCEA at the Bargaining Cluster IV Meeting. Many items were discussed. The teams from local associations in Uniserv District 12 were present. They looked at differentiated pay plans and were updated with the current state approved plans. The teams looked at collective bargaining and interest based bargaining. Interest based bargaining (IBB) is new to our area and we discussed the different approaches of IBB.

AR and Bargaining Meeting

The next few days will be busy for our association. This Thursday, several association members will be attending a bargaining meeting in Cookeville. We will meet with our Uniserv district to discuss topics that are on the bargaining tables in the Upper Cumberland. If you are interested in local bargaining issues and would like to attend, please contact Tracy.

Then on Tuesday, we will have our monthly AR meeting. Every association member is invited to attend. We meet at 4:00 at SCHS, Denise Hackett's room. We hope to have another date for mediation set and will get that information to everyone as soon as we have confirmation of date and time.

Fall UAC Meeting

In early fall, Dekalb, Macon, Jackson, and Smith County Education associations met at the Cornerstone Cafe in Gordonsville. They were joined by several TEA staff members, with Duran Williams hosting. We received updates on local legislation, member benefits, and membership updates. 

  

The associations members had a chance to network and exchange information. We also had a great meal and were able to get updates on the legislature both in TN and Washington, DC.