WEA TAKES DIFFERENT DIRECTION

The state's largest teachers union will change the way it does business as a result of votes at its annual conference in Spokane last week.

The Washington Education Association will no longer automatically stand behind teachers who get into trouble repeatedly for poor teaching or misconduct.

In addition, the union will streamline its state-level administration to funnel more people and money to local offices.

"This is a major, major change that moves us away from the traditional union that has its priority vested in the self-interest of its members," said WEA Deputy Executive Director Steve Kink.

The union will become an "organization that not only speaks to (members' rights), but also assumes some responsibility for the professional side and being a partner in seeing that public education is successful and improves."

An estimated 25 to 30 teachers across the state use up an inordinate amount of union energy and money on appeals and grievances, Kink said. Members voted Saturday to direct union leaders to write new guidelines for considering such cases.

The vote was part of a wider plan for "re-engineering" the union in order to build public confidence in public education.

Whether the union should defend teachers who are repeatedly in trouble provoked hours of debate Saturday among the 1,000 members gathered at the Spokane Ag Trade Center.

Before voting on the issue, the assembly added an amendment stressing the union still will defend members whose due process and contractual rights have been violated.

Doug Lundvall, a Lake Washington High School teacher, voted against the change, even with the amendment.

"Until the power is equalized I'm not ready to give up basic protections," Lundvall said Monday. "I know of very few schools where teachers are treated as equals."

Central Valley High School history teacher Ernie Tate favored the change but also had reservations.

Tate, who uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, said he believes he has been judged unfairly because of his disability at times during his 10-year career.

Other teachers also are at risk for unfair negative job evaluations from their principals because of personality conflicts or prejudice, he said.

"One teacher at a district in Spokane County is being evaluated poorly repeatedly due to her race," Tate said. "We have teachers in the state who are evaluated poorly simply because the administration is uncomfortable with their sexual orientation."

Maureen Ramos, a Spokane School District gifted education teacher, supported the change.

"Sometimes people need to look for another profession," Ramos said. "This will encourage them to do that."

Twenty-five years ago, Washington teachers were negotiating protections against arbitrary firing in hard-won, local battles.

In 1976, those rights were locked into state law. For example, teachers have the right to appeal to a neutral third party if they are unfairly fired.

Some union members lost their jobs in the fight for those rights, Kink said, making due process "a very near and dear principle.

"We had developed a culture in which we would defend anyone's due process rights at any time," Kink said.

That culture now will change.

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