Issaquah Education Association

News

• From IEA regarding the closure of Issaquah High

  IEA and the District will work on an agreement about today’s closure at Issaquah High (and the potential of additional days) due to a vaccine-preventable disease.
  
  Whenever an employee must be excluded from his or her work site following an order by the Public Health Department, he or she must provide records that meet the Department’s standards.
  
  Please know we will address questions regarding the type of leave one might have to take if acquiring records takes longer than today, as well as how we can address cases of possible exemptions.
  
  Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions or concerns as this situation unfolds. I will do my best to keep you up-to-date.
  
  Here are two reliable websites that have information about measles:
  
  • from the King County Public Health Department https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/communicable-diseases/disease-control/measles.aspx
  
  • from the Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/measles/index.html
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Gary

• IEA's response to the Classified's Union Strike Date

  Dear IEA Members,
  
  On January 15th, our classified colleagues — office professionals and paraprofessionals, including Unique Needs Specialists (UNS) and school health room staff — voted to strike, but they did not set a strike deadline. Office professionals are represented by PSE. Paraprofessionals are represented by SEIU 925.
  
  Your IEA Executive Board met on January 9th to discuss what we knew at that time, and we scheduled an emergency Executive Board meeting for the 23rd.
  
  After the strike vote, IEA called a late afternoon meeting on Friday, January 18th with PSE and SEIU. Shortly before that meeting, PSE and SEIU notified IEA that their joint strike committee set a strike deadline: if they don’t reach settlement with the District by January 28th, our PSE and SEIU 925 colleagues will be on strike the morning of Tuesday, January 29th.
  
  Will IEA honor our classified colleagues’ strike and picket lines if it comes to that? Only the 1,300+ members of the Issaquah Education Association, at a general membership meeting, have the power to make that decision, or to decide to take some other collective action.
  
  Before first Winter Break, we’d invited PSE and SEIU leaders to attend our IEA Representative Council on January 29th, to speak to your IEA Building Reps and to answer their questions. As you can see, things escalated rapidly. We do not have time to call a general membership meeting before January 29th.
  
  The IEA Executive Board and I maintain that if there is a strike, opening schools without the paraprofessionals and office professionals presents an unacceptable risk to student safety. Leaders from classified unions representing other Issaquah School District staff have voiced similar concerns.
  
  IEA is in consultation with WEA Legal. We will update you with answers to questions we know you have as soon as possible after today’s holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
  We want you all to understand that our school district and our PSE and SEIU colleagues are in a contract dispute over their negotiated 2018-19 pay increases. Currently, office professionals’ starting rate is $20.23 per hour and tops out at $25.59 for a 20-year employee. Paraprofessionals begin at $15.03 per hour and top out at $24.83. ($24.83 is the rate for an UNS in their 20th year). A key issue is the handling of inflationary increases, which are commonly referred to as a COLA, or Cost-of-Living Adjustment.
  
  Your IEA Executive Board members and I want our colleagues to be paid a fair wage. We want their wages to keep pace with inflation – and more. We want them to feel respected and valued. IEA has a long track record of accomplishing quality work with members of the school district administration. We value that greatly and expect that to continue, but it is difficult to accept that people so important to our schools feel pushed to this point.
  
  We feel it necessary to update you on what has been happening up until now, and we’ll be sending out more communications as we gather facts.

• IEA Diversity Statement

  Our IEA Representative Council Unanimously Approved Publication of Our Diversity Statement on September 25, 2018:
  
  “We are a diverse community of educators, and we acknowledge that institutional racism and marginalization exists within our community.
  
  The Issaquah Education Association supports ongoing cultural competency learning for IEA members in order to interrupt bias, oppression and inequity throughout our institution on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion and beliefs, age, income, appearance and ability, and all other marginalized groups.
  
  We know that students thrive in environments that are socially and culturally aware, and where educators are responsive to students’ needs.
  
  We will listen to the needs and concerns of our members, work toward meeting our goals of inclusivity, and encourage the district to partner with us in our work toward equity.”