Metro West Governing Board Meeting
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Virtual Metro West Uniserv Meeting – Zoom
Those of Attendance:
Denise Specht, President of Education Minnesota
Kay Carlson, President
Melissa Benjamin, Vice President
Rose Korst, SLP, Secretary
Megan Lhotka, Treasurer
Dave Clark, Richfield
Cori Cochrane, Richfield
Chris Watkins, St Louis Park
Chris Commers, ECCS
Shelli Sutherland, ECCS
Marc Doepner, Westonka
Ann Hersman, Minnetonka
Mark Broten, Minnetonka
Paula Klinger, Hopkins
Anne Naumann, Wayzata
Dennis Fisher
Adam Janiak, EdMN Field Staff
Beth Anderson, EdMN Field Staff
Kay Carlson called the meeting to order at 5:04pm.
1. Approval of the agenda. Agenda Approved.
2. Motion to Approve October Minutes. Made: Marc Doepner,
Seconded: Megan L MOTION APPROVED.
3. Treasurer's Report: Megan L
Balance: $10,617.39
Email any vouchers you have to Megan. Or snail mail. Especially vouchers from law conference. Megan will be sending out individual bills based on numbers just received.
The audit will be done over Winter break.
Question about audit. Binder available to pass from person to person. Vouchers can be passed to one another.
Motion to approve the Treasurer's Report. Moved: Melissa B
Seconded: Chris W. MOTION APPROVED.
4. Report on IO meeting. Kay Carlson
The board wants to partner with IOs on a Saturday in February or March regarding the collective bargaining conference. Willing to reimbursement of $10 per member. Complete 2 trainings in Learn Upon to qualify. They want to coordinate so there is 3 or 4 IOs participating on the same day. Several responded that their staffs are overwhelmed at the moment and they can't commit to anything that far down the road. Consensus: This needs to be put on hold at the moment. It is way too soon to address these training issues.
5. Council Chairs :
Communications: Melissa says website is updated.
Negotiations: Marc says the Cycle Training is on pause.
Sick days/Personal days he will share in folder.
Benefits can be discussed.
Government Relations: Dave says House and Senate remain the same.
6. EdMN: Adam Janiak There seems to be continual guidance on the guidance, etc for the virus. We need straight forward guidance that keeps teachers and students safe. If you have questions, please reach out to your field staff. Especially on SPED issues.
Membership cards are going to be sent out soon.
The CBOC conference is a virtual event this year. There is no cost. If you have any interested people in being a negotiator, invite them. Love to have a thousand people.
The RC will be virtual this year. Same time of year.
MEA on line.
7. Discussion: What should we do for the Representative Assembly in March ?
Kay recommends doing it virtually. Several agreed.
With no objections we will do a virtual assembly on March 18, 2020.
8. Cory Cochrane, Richfield.
Education for Liberation Minnesota. Focus: Social Justice.
Push the implementation of Ethnic Studies in the classrooms. 1. State Legislation and 2. Social Studies classes that will include a strand in their curriculum.
In conversations with the Lt. Governor concerning this at the moment. Looking for endorsements at this time.
9. Sharing of Local Engagement Activities
Anne Hersman: Minnetonka did bagels for everyone.
Chris Commers: we included Cracker Jacks with a prize. People enjoyed it. Did campaign lit drop.
10. Denise Specht, EdMN President
There are many frustrated educators as a result of all the changes taking place. The governor has addressed prep time and work load. We are in a whole different place now with the executive order that came out yesterday.
Question 1:
There are some outcomes of the election that we are excited about. Bringing an educator on board for Dept of Education . We don't have trustworthy information now with every state doing things differently. Hopeful that districts will see some relief financially. Maintain pro education, pro working family majority is still there but not as strong as it was. The Mn Senate majority has changed even since the elections. Two members split off and started there own caucus. They said they would be voting financially with the Republicans. We won't be walk out ready by March 1. We need to work to continue to build unity . Some of our colleagues are already being cut and furloughed. We need to be at a point now where we don't accept no right now. If you would look at how people voted you would see that many people agree with us. We have to really push hard and let Minnesota know who we are and what we need. On the ground we will continue to do things that we have always done. We'll approve a legislative agenda that we are comfortable with. This work will be done from a distance and will take more time and effort. We are behind on our timeline of what we are asking for, but we are not giving up. We are pushing forward.
Any other questions?
Parallel between 2016 vs 2020. What is the sense of what happened here. Biden did better than Clinton, yet we lost ground in 2020. One difference is that the candidates in the house did not have a ground game. The minority candidates did. They will not ignore the ground game in the future. The Pot Party did have an impact and it resulted in close races.
Chris Commers thanked Denise for her leadership. EdMN has an unofficial position on funding schools with pot money.
Denise is proud of the educators who have given their all during this pandemic and of the high voter turnout among educators in this election. People are voting earlier and earlier so we need to do our screenings and such earlier.
There is a lot of intriguing lessons coming out of Arizona. They turned the state blue. The educators in Arizona and turned out for this election.
Member engagement with the new endorsement process. Is there any data on the screenings? Can we get some? Denise will look into this. Educators wanting to be part of the screenings is encouraging and it is a mind set change for the educators to hold them accountable.
January / February virtual meeting to meet the candidates.
The nice thing is it doesn't add to the budget by doing this virtually. It will attract people interested in the candidates,
11. On behalf of the Uniserv Denise, we want to thank you for coming out and sharing with us. It has been very helpful. Alleviates stress and clarifies things for us. Thank you for listening to us.
“Thanks to all of the teachers for leading in uncertain times.” Denise Specht
12. Anything else on unity campaign. No
13. Open forum:
Follow up on Cori's presentation. Do leaders want time to take this information to your locals ? Do you feel you can endorse on behalf of your local now or later?
Put on agenda for the January 2021 meeting for discussion and endorsement.
Thanks to everyone for all the work you are doing. Enjoy the holidays with your family and we will see you in January 2021.
Motion to adjourn. Moved: Mark Broten Seconded: Chris Commers. MOTION PASSED.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Rose Korst
Secretary