Tacoma Education Association

Grateful to for re-designing our logo for us.

Tacoma Public Schools is cutting or moving support staff. Counselors, social workers, LAP (learning assistance program), family liaisons, special education, and more. School board meeting is Thursday, May 23 at 6 PM at the PDC. Link to location and how to submit public comment is in the comments. Our students deserve better.

If you are looking for something to do on President's Day, come down to Olympia! WEA is sponsoring a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court at noon to support living wages for our ESP colleagues (Educational Support Professionals: our office professional and professional technical members and our fabulous union sibiling paraprofessionals). Wear red if you come!

Have you dropped off your ballot yet? Today is the last day and you have until 8 PM. Go vote! Our schools and staff need your vote!
TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 10: 136625 eligible voters. 24771 ballots in. 18.13% ballot turn in rate.

KOMO TV News KOMO TV News, Feb 12, 5PM.

Our students and staff need your support to repair and replace some of our learning spaces. Please find those ballots and vote for better learning conditions for our students and staff. Thank you!

Vote YES on Prop. 1 ! Renovations, Improvements and Upgrades at nearly every Neighborhood School!

Want to do something for the kids today? Sign in PRO.

No student should go hungry! Sign in PRO to give all students free meals, SB 5964: https://bit.ly/3HB8RDK

Educator Appreciation Week!

Join us in solidarity with workers!!

Volunteer with us at the this Saturday! Sign up using the QR code!

The Puget Sound is expecting cold temperatures for the next several days.
As people brace for incoming cold temperatures this week, with lows in the 20s and 30s, organizations are opening cold weather shelters across Pierce County. Anyone in need of a place to warm up as temperatures dip can find a range of options. Local sites include the following:
Tacoma Area Warming Centers
Tacoma Public Library - Find Hours of Operation and information: https://www.tacomalibrary.org
Pierce County libraries will also be open during business hours for the public; View a list of their branch locations
Lighthouse Activity Center (5016 A St) and Beacon Activity Center (415 South 13th Street) will be open during business hours for people older than 60. For more information visit http://kwacares.org/.../senior.../senior-activity-centers
Gig Harbor Area Warming Centers
Chapel Hill Warming Center will be open this Thursday Feb 23, Friday Feb 24 and Saturday Feb 25 (possibly Sunday as well), Enter Door D. (7700 Skansie Ave, Gig Harbor) Call 253-405-2829 for access.
Waypoint Church North (12719 134th Ave. NW, Gig Harbor) open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mon.-Fri.
Key Peninsula Civic Center (17010 S. Vaughn Rd. NW, Vaughn) open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
A list of Pierce County shelters can be found here: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/86185/PC-Homeless-Resource-List?bidId=
Pierce Transit is Offering Free Rides to Warming Centers
The Puget Sound is expecting cold temperatures for the next several days. To help those who need access to transportation to get out of the cold, Pierce Transit is partnering with the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management to provide free bus or SHUTTLE (for registered SHUTTLE customers) rides to warming centers and shelters.
The free rides are in effect from start of service on Wednesday, February 22 through the end of the day Friday, February 24, 2023, but may be extended if cold weather continues or until the warming shelters are closed. The free round trips are available throughout the day and evening for passengers who tell the driver they are traveling to or from a warming center or shelter.
For a list of warming center locations and hours, visit pchomeless.org/Facilities/DayCenters .
Please Stay Warm!

Day Centers, Hygiene Stations, Shower Sites and Day Shelters - Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness Listing of homeless day centers, Hygiene Stations, and shower sites, including hours, addresses, eligibility and services offered

Information from our health department to keep in mind. Stay safe everyone.

Pierce County's COVID-19 hospitalization rate more than doubled this week. Flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infections continue to spread in our community. You should consider wearing a mask indoors around those most at risk and following other safe practices tpchd.org/safepractices:
➡️ Get your flu and COVID-19 vaccines. tpchd.org/flu tpchd.org/vaxtothefuture
➡️ Stay home if you’re sick.
➡️ Cover your coughs and sneezes.
➡️ Wash your hands often.
➡️ Limit the time you spend in childcare centers or other potentially contagious settings.
On Dec. 7:
➡️ Our current COVID-19 7-day case rate per 100,000 is 86 for Nov. 22-28.
➡️ Our current 7-day hospitalization rate per 100,000 is 3.7 for Nov., 20-26.
State Department of Health recently changed their reporting on COVID-19 deaths to every other week. We’ll report them next week.
Find more information on cases, hospitalizations, deaths and related demographics at tpchd.org/covid19cases. Click on each heading to see tables, maps and dashboards.
Find more information on:
🔎 Case counts, hospitalizations, vaccinations and other metrics. ➡️ tpchd.org/covid19cases
🔎️ COVID-19 vaccines. ➡️ tpchd.org/vaxtothefuture
🔎️ Getting a COVID-19 test. ➡️ tpchd.org/gettested

Solidarity with Tacoma Art Museum worker! Show up wearing red!

Service opportunity!

Happy Veterans Day. Today we honor and thank all who have served.

Filipino American History Month commemorates the first Filipinos to arrive in the continental United States at what is now Morro Bay, CA, on Oct. 18, 1587, as indentured servants — more than three decades before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. After years of advocacy led by Rey Pascua, past president of the Filipino-American Community of the Yakima Valley, and a state bill in 2019, Washington permanently designated October as Filipino American History Month. Check out resources from the Smithsonian at
https://bit.ly/3F8Yw1R and the Filipino American National Historical Society at https://bit.ly/3TzKfPF

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which was Monday. Here’s some great information about “The Mountain.”

Fixed that for ya.

Certain people will always be offended by the idea of changing the mountain’s name.

If you happen to be one of those people, we kindly invite you to consider these facts:

1️⃣ Peter Rainier fought against the United States in the Revolutionary War.

The only reason we call it that is because 35-year-old George Vancouver happened to be sailing by in 1792 and started calling out landmarks for all his buddies back home in England.

This included Mt. Baker, Mt. St. Helens, a handful of islands, and the Puget Sound itself. This guy was the definition of audacious.

He wrote it down on a map and all the other colonizers just went along with it. Seattle also fought pretty hard against renaming it Mt. Tacoma around the turn of the 20th century.

2️⃣ If you’re steadfastly against the idea of renaming long standing landmarks, then you’re already on the right side.

We’ve only had the name Rainier for 230 years. The Puyallup, Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Yakama, Cowlitz, Squaxin Island, and other Coast Salish people have been calling it by a variety of other names for thousands and thousands of years.

Some of those names include təqʷuʔmaʔ, təqʷuʔbəd, təqʷuʔbəʔ, taqʷuʔma, təqubəd, and təqʷubəʔ.

If you want to learn more about the Lushootseed language and the particular dialect spoken by the Puyallup Tribe, Twulshootseed, be sure to follow Twulshootseed and check out all the resources they have on their website.

Puyallup Tribe of Indians Historic Preservation Department is also a vital source of information if you want to better understand the place that we live.

Take some time today to read about the Indigenous people who have occupied this land since time immemorial and continue to live, work, and speak their native languages.

hiiɫ sləx̌il ʔə tiiɫ ʔacaciɫtalbixʷ
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

More info on the renaming effort here: https://www.koin.com/news/washington/tribes-in-washington-push-to-rename-rainier-to-mt-taquoma

📷: courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park—edited by us

Honoring those who were here before us and who are still here.

Today on Indigenous Peoples' Day, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples and the perseverance of the original inhabitants of this place, and honor the heritages, languages, traditions and cultures that are a vital part of our identity. Learn more, find events: https://wea.mobi/3el7EW2.

You might want to check out her book, Just Ask, which addresses differently abled children.

Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, is the first Hispanic and first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court. She was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama. Source: Wikipedia

[ Visual content: Quote reads,” In order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect and confidence.” Credit reads: Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice. There is a photo of Sotomayor and a small WEA logo. ]

This in National Arts in Education Week!

Arts education, comprising a rich array of disciplines including dance, music, theatre, media arts, literature, design, and visual arts, is a core academic subject and an essential element of a complete and balanced education for all students.

https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy-policy/arts-in-education-week

Hispanic Heritage Month | NEA Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month with the following lessons, activities, videos, and more.

Educators on strike in Eatonville.

Today marks 21 years since the tragedy of 9/11.

In remembrance of those we lost and the family and friends who miss them each day, Eatonville teachers participated in community projects beginning Friday and into the weekend. They cleaned up parks, they organized and donated nearly 590 pounds of food and they offered a helping hand to spaces in town that needed the extra help.

Eatonville United. For our students, for our community, for public education.

Solidarity with Seattle!

What (or who) brings you to the picket line? Let us know ⬇️

Happy first day of school!! Here’s some things to remember to help our students stay safe. May it be a great year!!

Congratulations Kent Education Association!!

Happy Labor Day!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!!

https://www.phillyvoice.com/thank-union-member-labor-day-ibew-local-98-mark-lynch-jr-0599927/?fbclid=IwAR0PaArqVEhs2ksQ0hkC3Ou1OqovdPD_o5o1nFy05aBDpcoctck0KYD6YWI

Thank a union member this Labor Day Weekend Mark Lynch, Jr., Business Manager of IBEW Local 98, shares his thoughts on how unions have positively impacted the United States.