Special Election

There are two positions open on the BEA Executive Board – an Elementary Representative and a Classroom Based Student Services Representative.

The link for job descriptions can be found here (see Executive Board At-Large Representatives section).

The timeline for this Special Election is as follows:

Friday, Feb 5: Nominations Open

Thursday, Feb 25: Nominations received announced at Rep Council

Friday, Feb 26: Nominations Close

Monday, March 1: List of candidates and an information paragraph for each published on BEA website

Monday, March 1: Election Opens

Wednesday, March 3: Election closes

Thursday, March 4: Results announced.  Winner takes office immediately and attends March 4 Exec Board meeting

Please send nominations to BellevueEA@washingtonea.org or amy.stern@washingtonea.org

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Counselor Appreciation Week

Dear BEA Members,

As the BEA ESA Executive Board representative, it is my privilege to represent and work with the BSD counselors. I am taking this opportunity during National School Counseling Week to ask you to join me in recognizing our BSD counselors in all they do for students, for us and for the community.

Throughout this pandemic, counselors have been responsible for reaching out to students and families unable to access the virtual learning. Counselors were instrumental in making sure Seniors graduated under new and trying circumstances. Before school started in Fall 2020, counselors spent countless hours, often up until the early hours of the morning, to be sure our students had the class schedules they needed. Once school started, the adjustments and modifications to the schedules continued, and the counselors kept on working.

Throughout everything, counselors have served our students as they have struggled with mental health issues. Counselors not only continued helping students with identified and ongoing issues, but they reached out to students who had new concerns brought on by the isolation caused by this pandemic. Counselors have always provided a very personal service to our students and during this time of virtual communication, counselors have succeeded in maintaining that same level of personal connection using a very impersonal platform.

There have been many heroes recognized throughout this pandemic, and our BSD counselors should be counted among them. All BSD educators provide compassion when working with students, but our counselors go the extra mile to not only support students, but their fellow educators and our entire community. Please join me in thanking our many counselors for all they do, and all they have done during this unprecedented situation. Our district owes a huge debt of gratitude to every single one of them.

With deep appreciation on behalf of the BEA Executive Board,

Michelle Mordaunt
Speech Language Pathologist
ESA BEA Executive Board Representative

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Representative Assembly Election Results 

The following BEA members have been elected as delegates to the WEA-RA:

• Nick Marmolejo
• Jill Rock
• Eve Chan
• Terry Jess
• Santasha Dhoot
• Don Burress
• Stephen Miller
• Kelye Kneeland
• Anna Silarski
• Michelle Mordaunt
• Daphne Tu
• Corrine Larsen

The following BEA members have been elected as delegates to the NEA-RA:

• Allison Snow
• Nick Marmolejo
• Jill Rock
• Stephen Miller
• Santasha Dhoot

Successors to NEA-RA (in the event that elected delegates cannot attend):

• Terry Jess
• Kelye Kneeland
• Michelle Mordaunt
• Scott Norton

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Message to BEA Members - February 1, 2021

Dear BEA Members,

In my message last Tuesday, I called on district leaders to learn from their mistakes and do better, and I hold myself and our association to this same standard as well. A letter of dissent has been drafted by educators of color and accomplices that believe the process which led to the passage of the Tentative Agreement by the BEA General Membership last week was steeped in white supremacy. I encourage all BEA members to read it and reflect. As an organization, we will be taking the time to do the same and discuss how we can move forward in addressing concerns and making real change.

As a start, this week we will surrender space to the organizations and individuals in our community who are doing this work. This week, members and partners throughout our union will be using our platforms to share their experiences, resources, and reflections. Our work, as always, is ongoing. And our power to guide that work to the outcomes we as educators know will lead to better conditions for all -- BIPOC and white alike -- rests, as always, in our commitment to do so together, united, in union.

In solidarity,
Allison

Facebook – Bellevue Education Association @BellevueEA
Instagram @bellevueea
Twitter - @BellevueEAUnion

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Message From Allison Snow - January 26, 2020

Dear BEA Members,

The tentative agreement narrowly approved by our membership on Monday night represents a compromise. It addresses many of the concerns so vocally raised by our educators — which, until our collective action over the past weeks, had gone largely unheard. The agreement grants rights to our educators that should have been in place many months ago and enables us to begin providing more services for our students in a way that better protects them and our staff.

Your BEA Executive Board, after hours of consideration of all that we held reservations about, voted to recommend approval of this agreement. We acknowledged the hard work and tireless effort of our bargaining team to secure for us the best possible outcome they could. We acknowledged that in this agreement the district has failed to address our central concern of forcing staff back to buildings before they have access to a vaccine and ignored once again our call to pause district plans until more provisions can be put into place. Despite these omissions, we also acknowledged the wide range of needs and opinions among our membership and the challenges before us in uniting on continued action. We concluded that there are ways to use our existing provisions to ensure that no member is abandoned by this agreement, and we ask any member who feels they are in such a position to contact us directly.

There is a lot in this agreement. And once again, even as we debated whether to accept it, District leaders chose to send predetermined information to the community — a continued breach of trust and respect. Our debate on this issue was closed after hearing from just one member of color, with more than 20 still in line to speak against it. Because of this, although in many ways this agreement represents gains for our association, progress has rarely felt so painful.

I implore our members and our district leaders to consider: at what cost? Who has been privileged by this agreement? Who has been burdened? Per district policy, these questions should be central in all decision making, yet in our haste to escape the discomfort of our current reality, we once again have forgotten to pick up our lenses and see the racial disparity in front of us. Once again, we have asked our BIPOC community to bear the burden — unfairly and unjustly.

We must commit to move beyond the use of an equity lens that we can pick up whenever it is convenient or comes at no cost to those in power. We must commit to permanently correcting our blurred vision. We must commit to reparation of our limited sight — to, as Bernardo Ruiz, local equity leader and founder of Racing 2 Equity, names it: equity Lasik. We must commit to seeing the racial component to every action, and every inaction.  

To our BIPOC members who feel abandoned or betrayed by the work that has been done: I see you. I hear you. I value you. If we are to call ourselves a union, we must do better by you. As your union President, I commit to doing all I can to support those this compromise left behind and to build a better system that will not fail you again. Steps are already being taken to reflect on, modify, and improve our process to live by our values.  

Monday, January 25th marks the first time in nearly a year of global chaos that we as a district have taken a pause to consider where we are — as educators, and as a community. At Sunday’s car rally I witnessed unity of purpose unlike anything I have ever seen before in Bellevue. Hundreds of educators, students, and families coming together to use their collective voice to call for necessary change. I call on us all to sustain that commitment. At Monday’s general membership meeting I watched our unity of purpose falter as a small majority of members got enough of a deal to decide they could live with it, and no airtime was left to hear from those who legitimately fear they may die from it.

I call on us to examine: who can’t breathe in the conditions we have chosen to create? And how can we, as a union, build a network strong enough to support them? We have each played a role in the system that has brought us to this point, and we each have the power to choose how we will use that role moving forward.

To our District leaders: consider yourselves on notice. You had the opportunity to do the compassionate thing — as our neighbors in Northshore, Lake Washington, and a rising number of other districts have done. You rejected that opportunity. You chose to sow division, hate, and distrust. And for what? At what cost? We will no longer tolerate such leadership at the head of our nation, and we will not tolerate it from you. With this compromise we offer you a chance to learn from your mistakes and show you will do better to live the values of our district and model the way. If you are unable to do so, please make way for leaders who can.

In Solidarity and Commitment,

Allison Snow

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Election for WEA and NEA Representative Assemblies Opens Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 26)

You will receive your ballot through Ballotpoint via email.  All candidate statements that were received will be accessible via a link in the ballot.  Elections will close on Friday, January 29.  You can also see the candidate statements here:

WEA-RA Candidate Statements

NEA-RA Candidate Statements 

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School Board Email Campaign for Educators 

Bellevue School Board needs to hear from us loud and clear.  Our goal is to send 1,000 emails to the board this weekend!  Use this link to send your email. There is a pre-written message but you are free to customize and make it your own. Union strong!

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Family or Community Member in Support of BEA - Let your voice be heard!

Use this link to send a message to Dr. Duran and the School Board letting them know that you support Bellevue Educators. Washington Education Association (washingtonea.org)

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Press Release: Bellevue educators vote to stay the course

Members of the Bellevue Education Association (BEA) overwhelmingly voted Friday night to continue the course they have taken this week. Without a proposed tentative agreement being reached with the school district, Bellevue educators will continue to provide uninterrupted instruction and fill job responsibilities through independent asynchronous work.

On Tuesday, BEA members called on the Bellevue School District to pause its plans for expanding in-person schooling. The district refused, opening in person to second-graders Thursday and Friday with most classes being staffed with temporary employees. BEA members switched classes to asynchronous instruction on Thursday and Friday. Those currently providing necessary in-person and mental health services continued to provide in-person services.

Friday’s vote, which came after nearly three hours of discussion, showed an increased commitment of BEA members to ensure students, staff and the community stays safe. In addition to the pause, BEA members continued to ask school district leaders to return to the negotiating table to address unresolved safety questions. The BEA members also authorized the BEA Executive Board to call for a general membership meeting to address bargaining and other related actions.

“I am immensely proud of the solidarity of my union and my members,” Bellevue Education Association President Allison Snow said.

Despite working collaboratively on finding answers, the school district took BEA to court on Thursday. A King County Superior Court Ex Parte Commissioner, however, denied the district’s request for a temporary restraining order to force educators back to in-person learning.

Bargaining is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

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A message from BEA President Allison Snow

Your public educators have been sounding the cry for months. We have given our all to provide for our students, and we live daily with the heart-heavy knowledge that even that is not enough. We know that so many are suffering in the conditions the COVID-19 pandemic has created, and we have done all we can to build supports and provide resources to enable our kids to learn and grow in this unprecedented time.

Case numbers and infection rates have reached all-time highs, and nearly every one of us has lost family members or friends to the disease or the conditions we have created in our response to it. As we learn more about COVID-19, we also learn of new strains, new side effects, new impacts. In addition, we are confronting the deep seeds of racism throughout our systems and nation and have been forced to recognize the very inequitable impacts it has on the Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our community — staff, students, and families alike. Public fear, exhaustion, and demoralization are at record highs.

It is in this context — complex and fraught with uncertainty — that we have sought to establish parameters for the safe and sustainable functioning of public education – a system that cannot exist separate from the people who run it. People with human needs and human fears. As a Union we have worked to voice these needs and concerns and seek collaborative ways to address and resolve them. Although we may disagree on what should be cause for concern, we must understand that to dismiss, belittle, or ignore it is dehumanizing behavior — something that should never be acceptable in a profession committed to shaping and nurturing the hearts and minds of our children.

I call on the leaders of the Bellevue School District to acknowledge the humanity of the staff who work for them. Though you may disagree with their perspective on our current situation, please seek to understand them. Please remember our shared interests and commitments, and please reject the hateful, divisive rhetoric that would have us view each other as enemies. Your educators want to do all they can to support our students, but they should not be asked to needlessly risks their lives — or their human dignity — to do so.

We remain committed — as we have been from the outset of this pandemic — to finding collaborative solutions to the complex problems before us. We invite the BSD leadership to do the same.

Message in Korean - 한국어로 된 메세지

Message in Chinese - 中文留言

Message in Japanese - 日本語のメッセージ

Message in Vietnamese - Tin nhắn bằng tiếng Việt

Message in Turkish - Türkçe Mesaj

Message in Azerbaijani - Azərbaycan dilində mesaj

Message in Hindi - संदेश हिंदी में

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Regarding Lawsuit

A King County Superior Court Ex Parte Commissioner has denied the district’s request for a temporary restraining order. That means he is not ordering teachers back into the classroom. A King County Superior Court judge will hold a hearing a week from today to consider the preliminary injunction request. 

• See the order here

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BEA Call to Action- This letter was sent to all BEA members on December 16, 2020

Back in December, the Bellevue Education Association Executive Board called on BEA members to engage in action in response to Bellevue School District's announcement to expand in-person services for K-2.

• BEA Call to Action

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Many of your colleagues have shared letters to the Superintendent and the School Board urging them to prioritize health and safety for students and staff. 

• Ardmore Staff

• Clyde Hill Staff

• Enatai Staff

• Jing Mei Staff

• Medina Staff

• Phantom Lake

• Sherwood Forest Staff

• Stevenson Staff

• Wilburton Staff

• Woodridge Staff

• MLL & LAP Facilitators

• Individual Letters

SPREAD THE WORD!

Facebook – Bellevue Education Association @BellevueEA

Instagram @bellevueea

Twitter - @BellevueEAUnion

Bellevue educators call on the district to pause in-person expansion until vaccination

On Tuesday, members of the Bellevue Education Association (BEA) overwhelmingly voted to pause on the expansion of in-person schooling as proposed by the district until full vaccination for COVID-19 is made available to all educators. All currently operating in-person and virtual services will continue as they have been operating if the district agrees to the expansion pause.

Tonight’s vote means that if the district refuses to announce this pause on Wednesday, Jan. 20, all Bellevue educators not currently providing necessary in-person and mental health services will instead continue providing uninterrupted instruction and job responsibilities through independent asynchronous work through Thursday and Friday, Jan. 21-22. If the district refuses to announce this pause by the end of the workday Friday, Jan. 22, BEA will hold a special general membership meeting Jan. 22 to discuss further collective action.

“We stand by our commitment to providing in-person services to our students in safe ways that support individual needs,” said Allison Snow, Bellevue Education Association President Allison Snow says. “Nobody wants to be back in the classroom more than educators, but only when it’s safe.”

“We have a vaccine on the horizon and we need to use every protection possible to keep our students, staff, and community safe,” Snow says. “It doesn’t make sense to return more students and staff to school buildings without taking every measure we can, which includes offering vaccines to educators.”

Many school districts throughout the state are continuing to delay returning to classrooms for safety reasons.

The Bellevue Education Association represents more than 1,450 educators in the district. Bellevue educators’ vote comes as a bipartisan group of state legislators, school districts, medical experts, and school employees have echoed the call to provide educators with access to COVID vaccination as soon as possible. When paired with the state Labor and Industries requirements, the vaccine can provide the community with the trust and confidence it needs that schools are safe.

Additionally, new variants of the COVID-19 virus are emerging that studies show may be more easily spread and may have greater impacts on children.

#BEASafeStudentsSafeStaff

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The Bellevue Education Association is a professional association and union that serves as an advocate for its members and empowers the individuals it represents.  It promotes positive educational working environments, safeguards members' rights, informs and works with the extended community, provides representation on educational issues and acts to obtain the resources necessary to insure excellence in public education.

Not a member, join today!

https://www.washingtonea.org/ejoin/