Wyoming Education Association

Summer 2016

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SUMMER 2016 | wyoea.org 11 Greetings from WEA- Retired President, Vicki Swenson Summer is here and a welcome respite from the demands and stress of the school year! Best wishes to all for an enjoyable, restful and enriching break! Thank you for being a WEA member. Without members, the WEA could not accomplish all the important work of the Association. What the WEA accomplishes each year in the areas of professional development, member support and advocacy, and legislative issues is amazing. Now a special greeting to the NEWLY-Retired WEA folks: CONGRATULATONS! YOU are retired!! As you retire, memories of those beginning years and when you switched schools, the extra-special students and parents, colleagues who are more like family, "new and improved" teaching programs and materials (some that worked & some that did not), and professional development endeavors flood one's thoughts. This is one of those "Sweet-Sorrows" times of life. It is sad to leave years of relationships and work and experiences behind. BUT the Sweet can be oh-so sweet! Retirement means you'll have the time you've longed for to spend with those near and dear, and to see and do so many things that have been on the back burner. Congratulations on your accomplishments and years of commitment to kids. Many good wishes for the adventure called Retirement upon which you are embarking! The 2016 WEA Delegate Assembly in Sheridan was well-attended by WEA-R. We had a productive annual meeting with eighteen WEA-R who are past WEA and Local EA leaders and activists in attendance. We discussed what we, as individuals, can and are willing to do to help grow an active and effective WEA-R organization. The WEA-R members present from Casper, Cheyenne, Laramie, Sheridan, Riverton, Torrington, and Gillette agreed to help in that effort. I encourage all WEA-R to consider helping with this grassroots effort. As retirees, we have much to fill our days, but we have much still to offer education as well. Perhaps you will want to "Do just one thing." As educational retirees, we are retired from our position but need not be retired from our profession. For more information, please contact me at (307) 660-9995 or vicki.swenson@ yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you! Community Colleges Take Enourmous Budget Cuts by Steve Thulin - Higher Education Representative Even as many public school districts struggle with cuts to their budgets, our seven community colleges face massive reduc ons in the double-digits that are resul ng in the layoffs and departures of scores of faculty and staff, as well as the elimina on of programs and key, even vital services for students. Nothing like this has been seen in decades. Some colleges are drama cally more affected than others, but all the colleges will find it challenging to meet the needs of ci zens who, ironically, will return to school as they always do in mes of economic distress, seeking re- training and new careers. And ironically, that is true even of the governor's charge to the "Complete College Wyoming" (CWC) team, which is a consor um he created in late 2012 consis ng of representa ves from all the colleges as well as the university and his community college commission, eventually including administrators, faculty and staff alike. I was the first faculty member to be appointed. Part of a na onal movement under "Complete College America," the CCW team endeavors to coordinate efforts to drama cally increase the number of students who earn cer ficates or degrees, whether in the occupa onal and technical fields, or for transfer into baccalaureate programs. A key underlying premise of the en re project is the idea that by 2020, 65% of jobs and careers will require some sort of post-secondary creden al. All seven colleges signed on in 2012-13 to a voluntary effort to work with one another to increase comple on rates by 5 percent every year to reach that goal. Now, our colleges already serve the underserved, accept just about every applicant with a GED or high school degree, and endeavor to launch men and women into jobs and careers with a solid general educa on background that also prepares them as thinking ci zens in a complex world. The commitment to CCW's goals, however, entailed fundamental reforms and reorganiza onal ini a ves so as to accomplish these ambi ous objec ves with what were becoming more limited resources, even as we signed on. Wyoming's colleges already compared well na onally as far as success metrics indicated, so that this new effort represents a true commitment to excellence. We all plunged into the movement, while we con nued to receive addi onal direc ves to " ghten our belts" with cuts of around 2 percent per year. Then came the bad news of this last spring – in two waves. Although we were able to minimize cuts to that por on of our budgets derived from the state's general fund to 1.5 percent, the same collapse of minerals values that so impacts state revenues devastated that por on of our funding that comes directly from local property taxes in the seven college districts. And then, in April, as news of greater shor alls in expected revenues from especially coal and oil severance taxes came to the a en on of the governor's office, he directed an immediate 8 percent reduc on in distribu on of state funds by the commission to the colleges – effec ve July 1, 2016. There is not enough space in this sort of ar cle to describe the resul ng disrup on and confusion that came from each college administra on, its faculty, and staff, trying to get specifics from the commission on just what we were directed to cut. Numbers changed, it seemed, some mes from day to day. At several campuses, like mine, decision makers decided with the first wave of bad news to bite that proverbial bullet, which meant that reduc ons-in- force, program elimina ons, and re rement buyouts of senior faculty and staff using reserve funds were in the mix of measures. But with the 8 percent direc ve suddenly added to the confusion, the very ability of ins tu ons to carry on with their essen al mission came under scru ny – let alone the agenda of the governor's own "comple on" ini a ves. Several ins tu ons opted to delay hard, permanent decisions concerning the first wave of budget reduc ons to the second year of the biennium, which of course merely postpones and perhaps renders even more painful the cuts eventually made. But the second, 8 percent direc ve could not be delayed as such, even if cuts effected were not "permanized" with ins tu onal decisions regarding people and programs. If reserves or temporary measures were used to meet that direc ve, the reality of permanent decisions will haunt them even more in the coming year. The cuts will be real and harmful. But a ques on poses itself – and it is one that our associa on must loudly, if respec ully, ask. How are we to build that educated ci zenry, properly creden aled and prepared to par cipate in that more diversified (and presumably less minerals-focused) economy as projected by the governor's own administra on, with drama cally reduced resources? And, to remind ourselves, with the a endant upsurge of enrollments that come with an economic crisis? An upsurge of people more desperate and less-well-prepared to earn a degree than is normally the case? Students who will need not only experienced and prepared faculty, but professional a en on in the form of counseling, disabili es services, advising, financial aid, and even child care assistance? Many will need housing. We know this because we have seen this before – and had seen inklings of the current crisis as "refugees" from the Bakken oil fields began to arrive last fall. And if there are even more cuts by the next legisla ve session, how are we to be those engines of transforma on as outlined in the expecta ons of the charge to our colleges by the "comple on" movement? A member of any faculty or staff at any college could be forgiven for thinking that the whole movement as outlined since 2012 had become some cruel hoax by 2016. The WEA Board of Directors acknowledged the magnitude of this situa on, and the WEA will take steps to communicate with the governor, our membership, and the public at large. In this elec on season, moreover, it is certainly a legi mate ma er for members to pose ques ons to candidates. Educa on is not the problem. It is the way forward.

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