President's Message
WE GO TO BAT FOR YOU
Every year the budget cycle for public school funding gets more and more interesting. It begins with the General Assembly (GA) and ends when the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) adopts its budget. During the GA, lawmakers propose one thing and then another to cut spending, often from public schools, and VEA engages in tough lobbying efforts to minimize the damage, the damage to our children’s education future.
The Prince William Education Association’s Board of Directors and Political Action Committee becomes heavily involved in this process. We go to bat for you! We become actively involved in contacting our respective elected officials through face to face contact and cyber-lobbying efforts. We attend Lobby Day in Richmond, BOCS meetings, and School Board (SB) meetings, speaking up and standing up for what we see as crucial issues facing public education and education funding. We fight the battle against vouchers for private schools and changes to our VRS. We fight the battle for our school system to set a budget that compensates its employees with salary increases and respectable benefits as well as enhancing instruction. We fight the battle for a tax rate that supports our school budget.
Our rallying cry, “We are worth more than a 1% bonus”, was our first attempt to persuade the school system and the SB to rethink the original budget proposal for Prince William County Schools (PWCS). They listened! The budget was adjusted to give all employees a 1% COLA and a 1.35% bonus. As we realized an additional $4 million would be added to the school system budget, we asked that the extra funding be used for an increased COLA adjustment!
What else have we done? We go to bat for you during the Meet and Confer process. Please read the recent ADVOCATE for the outcomes of our bargaining efforts this year. We have representatives on the Benefits Committee, Investments Committee, Professional Performance Process Committee, and the new pay-for-performance, Teacher Incentive Performance Award (TIPA) workforce.
In addition, we have UniServ Directors who work with individual clients and meet regularly with PWCS staff to mediate conflicts. This process is confidential. UniServ Directors also provide training and serve as liaisons to PWEA committees.
We may not get everything we want. But we are respected and listened to at every level. We have a powerful voice.
Your President and Board of Directors cannot do this work alone. We are not PWEA; you, our members, are PWEA. I have been heartened by your willingness to attend SB meetings, send emails, and help us in our cyber-lobbying efforts.
We go to bat for you! We need more of you to become active and engaged members. Volunteer to be a rep. Sign-up to be a cyber-lobbyist. Volunteer to help with a committee. Attend School Board and Board of County Supervisors meetings. Help plan events. PWEA can use whatever time you can give. Help us hit more home runs! Contact me for more information if you want to find out what you can do.
By Bonnie Klakowicz
PWEA President