Dr. Allan Beane is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author on bullying. His 30 years of experience in education includes: teaching special education, teaching regular education, teaching higher education, serving as vice president of a university, and serving as Director of a School Safety Center.

His Bully Free Program has been adopted by schools and districts throughout the United States and has been featured in national publications such as USA Today, People Magazine, Time Magazine, USA Weekend, Time for Kids, and Newsweek for Teens, and many other national magazines and journals. He has also assisted the staff of the Oprah Winfrey Show to develop a show about bullying.

He has also made numerous television appearances such as Fox News and CNN Headline News—Nancy Grace Show. He has served as an expert witness in three criminal cases and has served as a consultant in six lawsuits involving bullying.

Dr. Beane will be speaking at a conference in Austin, TX, on June 25-27.  Interested in finding out more about this?  Go to www.stopgirlbullying.com.

NESPA board members met last week for their monthly meeting and welcomed the NESPA bargaining team, the NESPA bargaining support team, building communicators, and assistant building communicators.  

WHAT IS A LIVING WAGE IN NORTHSHORE? 

 

A living wage is a wage that enables one adult and one teenage child to be able to survive on one 

salary without having to rely on spouses, roommates, parents, friends, multiple jobs, or government 

assistance. 

 

NESPA and NEOPA leaders met with our counterparts in Shoreline and with WEA Research staff in 

December 2008 to investigate living costs in our area.  Here’s what we learned: 

 

A living wage was approximately $48,540 per year in Northshore in Dec 2008.  With inflation, it’s a 

bit higher now.   Working 40 hours per week a full year, that’s about $24.50 per hour. 

 

We looked at the following components and came up with these costs: 

ITEM MONTHLY COST

School fees $80

Rent/Mortgage $1100

Utilities $110

Internet/Cable $55

Cell phones (2) $130

Computer $50

Insurance (car, home, health, life) $220

Other medical & dental costs $250

Clothing $150

Food $400

Transportation (car payment) $325

Car maintenance & Gas $160

Pet costs $25

College savings $0

Extracurricular & School fees $100

Retirement $180

Entertainment $30

Personal services & supplies $100

Vacation costs $60

Charity & fundraisers $20

Work-related expenses $20

Union dues/fees $45

Licensing fees $10

Taxes $250

Gifts/Birthdays/Holidays $50

Home staples (cleaning, household) $50

Furnishings $50

Debt $25

Elder care/child care $0

TOTAL COSTS: $4,045 per month X 12 = $48,540 per year

HOW DO THESE COSTS COMPARE TO YOUR CURRENT LIVING

EXPENSES? If you’d like to help NESPA refine and update these numbers

for one adult and a teen child, please complete and return this

ITEM MONTHLY COST

School fees ________________

Rent/Mortgage ________________

Utilities ________________

Internet/Cable ________________

Cell phones (2) ________________

Computer ________________

Insurance (car, home, health, life) ________________

Other medical & dental costs ________________

Clothing ________________

Food ________________

Transportation (car payment) ________________

Car maintenance & Gas ________________

Pet costs ________________

College savings ________________

Extracurricular & School fees ________________

Retirement ________________

Entertainment ________________

Personal services & supplies ________________

Vacation costs ________________

Charity & fundraisers ________________

Work-related expenses ________________

Union dues/fees ________________

Licensing fees ________________

Taxes ________________

Gifts/Birthdays/Holidays ________________

Home staples (cleaning, household) ________________

Furnishings ________________

Debt ________________

Elder care/child care ________________

NESPA is working with another ESP local in Shoreline, SESPA, to work towards a living wage over

the next several years. We want to make sure that our research is accurate and up-to-date. Thank you

for your help.

Optional: Name____________________________________School________________________

Return to NESPA by Tuesday, March 30 via school mail or to 18704 Bothell Way NE, Bothell

98011. Questions? 425 486 7101 ext 103

Dear NESPA Colleague,

We need your help. Now, please.

These are the last few days we can influence the Legislature—to stop huge cuts to Northshore. For Northshore and other districts, there is a BIG difference between the Senate and the House budgets. For Northshore, the difference is almost $5 million in cuts---cuts we want to avoid.

The Legislature is meeting this week, even though the Session was to end last week. Why? They have not yet made a decision on the State budget for next year.

You need to help them. Go to www.ourvoicewashingtonea.org and send them a message.

The House budget is far better, but the House hasn’t done enough yet to raise the revenue needed to fund it. Ideas for avoiding drastic cuts to Northshore and other districts include taxing soda, a tax on hazardous materials, and closing a tax loophole that lets big out-of-state banks avoid taxes.

Please send legislators a message now. www.ourvoicewashingtonea.org It’s easy and will take you only a minute.

THANK YOU!!

Kraig

From Rosemarie Dunlop, NSD Nurse

Source: Robin Fleming, school nurse, Seattle Public Schools

            As front-line providers in child health, school nurses protect the health and promote the educational outcomes and life opportunities for the nation’s 49 million public school students. When children are healthy, it is empirically established that they have higher rates of academic achievement. Students in schools with school nurses and other school-based health providers are healthier on measures of health status, access to care, school attendance, and they engage in fewer risky behaviors. On the flip side, students who are unhealthy face numerous social and academic risks. Research consistently demonstrates that untended health problems originating in childhood usually worsen over time, interfere with academic success, and sustain the health disparities that are disproportionally allotted to the growing numbers of poor and ethnic minority children who populate schools. This puts undue strain on the nation’s economy, unnecessarily helps to feed an already bulging criminal justice system, and lays to waste the potentially limitless talents and contributions that are left to wither in growing numbers of health-impaired children attending financially burdened school systems.

             The School Nurse Organization of Washington estimates that approximately 500 to 1,000 school nurses tend to the health and academic preparation of 1 million public school children. School nurses develop plans of care for students with potentially life-threatening conditions and chronic illnesses. They provide health assessments for thousands of children statewide with individual education plans; provide health education to students and staff, and provide referral and case management services. They also manage and monitor communicable disease outbreaks to protect the health of students and staff, as has been recently highlighted by the presence of H1N1 influenza. School nurses also provide health promotion and disease prevention services and tend to acute care emergencies. They support the safety of school buildings and communities, participate on school committees, and advocate for the health of many of the state’s most vulnerable children and families. All school nurses in Washington state are required to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Many more have master’s degrees, some have credentials as nurse practitioners, and others have doctorates.

            At a time when school districts are reporting increased numbers of children with mental and physical health problems (approximately 20 percent of children have a diagnosable physical or mental health condition), and an increase in the severity of health problems such as asthma, diabetes, and an epidemic of obesity, proposed reductions in the state budget are bound to have deleterious effects on delivery of school health services, and consequently on the health and academic success of school children.

            Because schools exist to educate students, their funding priorities are naturally assigned to teachers, instruction, curricula, and other academic supports. While this makes sense, it also reinforces the notion that an academic response at the school level is the most effective answer to the problem of academic disparities and underachievement. Because research establishes student health as a necessary component to academic engagement and achievement, school health services are not simply ancillary; they are as necessary as are academic strategies in meeting the goals of improving academic outcomes for all students -- goals that have eluded educators for decades.

            These goals do not need to remain out of our grasp, even in this time of state and national budget crises. Educators and school nurses are scrambling for funding to maintain core services, let alone add urgently needed new ones. While schools rely on funding primarily from two sources -- the state general fund and tax levies -- school nurses are dependent on multiple federal, state, district, and grant sources to sustain their services. School nurses in Washington already far exceed the nurse to student ratio of 1-to-750 recommended by the National Association of School Nurses. It is tempting in such difficult financial times to adopt a myopic vision that emphasizes institutional and professional self-interest in promoting student achievement: Educators want funds for education, and nurses want funding for health services. As research has shown, however, funding alone has its limitations on both academic and health outcomes. Research also has shown that resource sharing, collaborative partnerships and a culture of caring have positive impacts on student achievement. Working together to achieve collective goals is more important in times of financial hardship: It can help to build and sustain a united foundation that eventually promotes improved political clout, secures more reliable sources of funding and provides greater access to community resources.

            One organization that is helping to promote a more integrated approach to health and education in Washington is Healthy Schools Washington. At its annual Healthy Schools Summit (to be held this year May 27 and 28), educators and a variety of school health providers learn about and explore topics relevant to promoting academic success through coordinated school health programs. This is a healthy start to building collaborative relationships. We teach our children to mix with others, to listen to their perspectives, and to problem solve as teams. It is important that we model the behaviors we advocate and advise. In so doing, we may at last get the results that we have worked so long and hard for.  

 

 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO REPRESENT NESPA AT WEA’S ANNUAL CONVENTION?

Every Spring, about 1,000 WEA members elected by their colleagues meet for WEA’s annual convention, called the WEA Representative Assembly (RA).

The RA is an exciting meeting where WEA members democratically decide on the course of our organization for the next year! It’s an opportunity to learn, to meet others who do similar work in other school districts and to meet WEA’s leaders, and to take part in what is one of the most democratic organizations in the world. Most people come back from the RA describing it as an incredible experience that leaves them energized and feeling powerful.

NESPA can send upto 8 delegates, elected by NESPA members. This year’s Representative Assembly will be in Spokane, from Thursday evening May 13 through Saturday, May 15. NESPA pays the cost of transportation, meals and hotel, and a substitute for Friday, May 14. If 8 or more people are nominated, an election will be held in February.

If you are interested in being a delegate, please email Barti Khandekar at khandekars@hotmail.com.

A brief statement (50 words or less) indicating why you are interested in being a delegate must be forwarded to Barti by by Friday February 12th.

Delegates must agree to attend all RA sessions, to attend a pre-RA meeting (called the mock RA on Thursday, April 29th at the Admin Center from 5 to 9 PM), and to report back to the NESPA members on the event and the decisions made there. Failure of the delegate to complete these duties may result in the delegate reimbursing NESPA for ALL expenses.

The Cascade Update

The link to the February/March issue of The Cascade Update is below.    Here is a sample of the articles -

"How  Washington State Loses Billions of Dollars Each Year"

"Read Across America 2010!"

"WEA ESP of the Year 2010 Award!"

Classified Ads

"Registered for NBPTS?  Plan on attending WEA's National Board Jump Start Seminars!"

Contact your Legislators - names and addresses

Interested?  Click here