SB 283 Educator Salary Task Force
OSEA President Sarah Wofford and Government Relations Specialist Susan Allen participated in the Senate Bill (SB) 283 Educator Salary Taskforce’s second meeting on Oct. 11. The taskforce is reviewing states with current educator salary programs. Co-chairs Senator Dembrow and Representative Neron requested a presentation from an expert in Washington state’s State Educator Salary Schedule. OSEA representatives are regularly advocating for equal pay for classified employees while sharing classified employees’ perspectives and concerns. If you want to learn more, sign up for GRUP! and join our next meeting this Saturday, Oct. 21, 9-10 a.m.
Work Shouldn't Hurt Incident Report Work Group
During the 2023 legislative session, Senate Education Committee Chair Senator (Sen.) Michael Dembrow hosted meetings where OSEA members shared their Work Shouldn’t Hurt experiences. After the meetings, Sen. Dembrow announced in the Senate Committee of Education that he and House Education Committee Chair, Representative (Rep.) Courtney Neron would be convening a legislative work group to review classified access to incident report forms, the reporting process and the respective safety committee responses. The Incident Report Work Group has been created to better support professional licensed and classified educators, largely due to OSEA’s call to action to provide a safer worksite for staff and students.
The workgroup is Co-Chaired by Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin and Rep. Ben Bowman and will propose policy changes for consideration during the 2024 legislative session.
OSEA Government Relations Specialist Susan Allen represents OSEA on the workgroup which had its first meeting Oct. 23. We will continue to update you on this group’s progress.
If you want to learn more and be the first to hear about opportunities to give testimony on this important process, sign up for GRUP! and join our next bi-weekly meeting this Saturday, Oct. 21, 9-10 a.m.
