Friday, January 13, 2012
The tentative deal is expected to be vote on by Education Minnesota Lakeville members and the School Board later this month. Teachers have been working without a new contract since July 1.
Lakeville public school teachers soon could be working under a new union contract. This morning, Thisweek Newspapers reported that the Lakeville Area Public Schools and the teachers union, Education Minnesota Lakeville, struck a tentative agreement on a new deal Jan. 11. To view that story, click here. The Lakeville school district posted a link to that story on its Facebook this morning. To view the district’s Facebook page, click here. Teachers have been working without a contract since July 1. A day before the tentative contract was reached, nearly 50 teachers packed a School Board meeting as part of their effort to strike a new accord with the district. A number of them spoke during the meeting. "If we haven’t lost enough, now we have …
Friday, May 13, 2011
School board and staff respond to comments regarding "stranding" and budget issues.
Faced with a barrage of recent public comments, telephone calls and emails stemming from the fallout of recent budget cuts, the Lakeville Area Public School District issued a prepared statement at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled school board meeting in an effort to respond to the feedback. While some of the details which prompted the statement were veiled, the message was clear: Lakeville’s “new reality” with regards to the school district’s financial situation isn’t going to change. And there’s plenty of blame to go around. “At this point, as painful and difficult as it may be, it is time to look to the future and begin making the necessary transitions,” the statement read. Tony Massaros, the district’s director of Administrative Services …
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Board hears concerns on "stranding" and provides a time-line for setting new school boundaries.
In an active Tuesday meeting, the Lakeville School Board took action that effectively served official notices of unrequested leaves of absence (ULA) to more than 60 teachers and also laid out a public timetable for redrawing enrollment borders due to the pending closure of Crystal Lake Elementary School at the end of the current school year. The evening began, however, with some impassioned comments from district teachers and parents surrounding the realignment of teaching positions affected by the district’s recent $15.8 million budget cuts. Marie Ruhme, a third-grade teacher at Orchard Lake Elementary with 17 years of service in the district, said she was addressing the board on behalf of “a large group of tenured teachers who are being …
Friday, February 4, 2011
Teacher's union and District 36 Senator Dave Thompson continue to wrestle.
A war of words over an education questionnaire created by District 36 State Senator Dave Thompson and intended for Lakeville school district 194 teachers remained unresolved but seemed to be subsiding this week. The controversy hinges on the wording of emails sent out to Education Minnesota-Lakeville (EML) members from Thompson and EML President Don Sinner. Thompson, who sits on the Senate Education Committee, had approached the district about using a “blast” email list to distribute a survey he had created so he could receive input from teachers regarding a wide variety of educational issues. “Being on the Education Committee, I was interested in what teachers think about education,” said Thompson. “It was intended to let me know how …
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
School board begins looking at possible ways to save programs, activities, and jobs, and asked administrators on Tuesday to look at the feasibility of closing and re-purposing an elementary school as soon as next year.
Lakeville’s School Board told district administrators to look at fast-tracking the re-purposing of an elementary school as soon as next year, during the group’s work session on Tuesday night. For most board members, they’re not ready to sign off on the plan that administrators say could save an additional $360,000 over the biennium, but simply want to know if its an option. “With everything we have on the table, as I started thinking about it, I thought it was worth asking,” said Board member Kathy Lewis. “But there’s a lot that needs to be looked at first.” The closure and re-purposing of an elementary school is just one part of a multi-faceted budget adjustment draft district administrators presented two weeks ago to bridge a $15.8 …
44.64289
-93.26825
Lakeville South High School
21135 Jacquard Ave, Lakeville, MN
/articles/lakeville-elementary-school-closure-could-be-on-fast-track
990351
/locations/3105232
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Education Minnesota-Lakeville President Don Sinner discusses the teacher's union's stance on the Lakeville school district's proposed cuts.
Earlier this week, Education Minnesota-Lakeville (representing the Lakeville school district’s teachers) shared with the board an alternative draft of possible budget adjustments. Our version includes parts of the district’s current draft, suggestions from EML, and some prior ideas from board members. This was done in the spirit of finding collaborative and creative solutions to the financial challenges the district now faces. EML believes the district’s current draft represents: a narrowing of curriculum which ignores the “whole child” and does not develop the individualized and unique talents and interests of many students; and cedes control of what Lakeville’s system of education will look like to the “minimums” required by the state. …
CAT@COMCAST
7:56 am on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
What it comes down to is simple education. The school board and the local teacher's union need to educate themselves in contract language and if you don't understand something GET CORRECT ANSWERS! Look to others who will be objective and not one sided on the issues. I hope after what's taken place over the past six months, our school board WILL ask the important questions and if there not willing… more ›