The legislators are back in town and have begun working. Their primary objective is to agree on a bi-annual Budget for the state of Wyoming. The WEA is confident the state will fund Wyoming public education in accordance with the school funding model recently deemed constitutional by the Wyoming Supreme Court.

We Need Your Help

Representative Del McOmie has offered to sponsor a bill that would expand due process rights to Education Support Professionals (school district support staff), it is HB 112. These rights would be very similar to those that teachers and state employees have.

After one year of employment, would include:

1) Just cause requirement for dismissal or suspension;

2) A yearly performance evaluation;

3) In the event of a dismissal or suspension, a written explanation to the employee;

4) The right of the dismissed or suspended employee to a hearing in front of an independent hearing officer, should the employee wish to appeal the proposed action.

Email your Representative (http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2007/members/rep.htm)

and tell them to vote for HB 112 on introduction.

The first day of the legislative session came to a close at a little after 5 p.m. I come to you tonight with good news and bad news.

The bad news first. Senate File 45 received enough votes to be introduced. This bill is the one referenced in the action alert that went out on Sunday night. It keeps school districts from paying employees’ dues to professional organization, including the WEA. To all of you who called the voter hotline, THANK YOU. This bill appears to be on the fast track and could be heard in the education committee as early as Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. We will keep you updated.

On to the good news… House Bill 26 failed introduction, which is great. This bill would have hurt school districts by taking funding away from their block grants. Due to the failure of this bill to receive the 2/3 vote necessary for introduction; this cut in funding is no longer in danger.

Additional bills WEA will be working this year

SF0017	School facilities-infrastructure costs.	Introduced	Would require the SFC to choose cheapest option available in every situation.	Oppose
SF0045	School districts-payment of employee association dues.	Introduced	Does not allow school districts to pay employees’ dues to professional organizations including WEA	Oppose
SF0050	Government royalty revenue-distribution.	Introduced	Takes future School Foundation Account funding away from education and moves it to the Wildlife Trust Fund	Oppose
HB0112	Educational support personnel.	Introduced	Provides support staff with due process rights - See additional one pager and detailed talking points. We will get members a bill number when it is published!	Support!
HB0009	Campaign finance reporting.	Introduced	Limits Political Action Committee contributions to $3,500 per individual for legislative races and $7000 for statewide candidates per election. A very blatant abuse of the current law lead to this change	2^nd tier support
HB0028	Workforce training appropriation.	Introduced	This bill resulted from the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Workforce Development.	2^nd Tier support
HB0040	Schools-compulsory attendance.	Introduced	Raises minimum age a student must stay in school from 16 to 17 and requires a parent signature in order for a student to drop out	2nd Tier Support
HB0077	Tuition-dependents of disabled firefighters and EMTs-2.	Introduced	Allows children of disabled firifighters to go to college tuition free	2^nd Tier support
SF0009	State retirement-board immunity.	Introduced	Protects the members of the state retirement board from legal action.	2^nd Tier support
SF0021	Hathaway scholarship program.	Introduced	Provides students who lose their Hathaway Scholarship due to low GPA with an opportunity to earn it back if they bring up their GPA while they pay their own tuition.	2^nd Tier Support
SF0029	Public library endowment challenge program.	Introduced	Provides public libraries an opportunity to raise funds through a matching endowment program	2^nd Tier Support
HB0003	Campaign finance reporting-electronic filing.	Introduced	Changes campaign finance reports to an electronic form that would be posted online and would be searchable	2^nd Tier support

The WEA will be taking positions on several more bills as the week progresses. Please keep an eye on the Legislative Update for new bills each night.

In addition to the bills in the chart above, WEA is opposed to a multitude of bills that put education funding in danger including those the put caps on, or reduce property taxes.