March 9, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Redmond, Wash. – The Lake Washington Educational Support Personnel (LWESP), the bargaining unit that represents the district’s secretaries, has provided information to the media and community that contains their point of view regarding the current bargaining with Lake Washington School District. As with any issue, there are two sides to the story. Here are some additional facts.

Lake Washington School District employees who are sick are entitled to take sick leave. However, as specified in the LWESP contract, sick leave is to be used only when an employee cannot make it to work because they or an immediate family member are ill. Misuse of this leave is a violation of the contract. When misuse is suspected, an investigation will be conducted and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.

The LWESP questions the value of last weekend’s school board meetings. Every year district leaders and school board members spend a concentrated weekend doing strategic planning. The team works Friday night, all day Saturday and half of the day on Sunday. At this year’s meeting staff members made presentations to the board on many issues including school grade configuration, instructional programs, district goals, policies, and challenges on the horizon. Very productive conversations among the board helped provide staff with direction on many of these issues.

The board is entitled to $50 stipends for each board meeting they attend. Rather than accept these stipends, they use the equivalent, about $5000, for this once-yearly session. By going to a location offsite, the board removes any distractions and ensures that the entire weekend is as fruitful and productive as possible.

The LWESP has brought attention to pay increases given to district administrators, alleging they are annual increases and they were unusual in size. Wages for administrators were adjusted in the summer of 2008, before the most recent budget deficit. Those employees had not received adjustments other than cost of living increases since 2005.

The basis for determining administrator pay is the same methodology that the district uses to determine compensation for every group of represented employees: third place among a list of comparable school districts in the area. This method of determining compensation ensures the district is able to attract and retain high quality employees by paying the appropriate market rate for that position. This is a fair system that helps balance increases across groups. The increases for these administrators fit this model and show that that they were paid less than their counterparts in other school districts in the region. The numbers quoted also included the 4.4 percent state-mandated cost of living increase that secretaries and all other school employees also received that year.

No employees, including all administrators, received a cost of living increase this school year. We are not anticipating a cost of living increase for teachers or administrators for next year.

The district has bargained in good faith with the LWESP from the beginning. The goal with this group as with all others is to bring wages to third place in a list of comparable school districts. The district also looks at issues that are unique to that group and works to address them. The district’s proposal is fair, reasonable and consistent with how it has treated other groups.

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About Lake Washington: Lake Washington School District is a high-performing public school district serving Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, Washington. It is the sixth largest district in the state of Washington, with 24,000 students in 50 schools.