WEA humming same song under new leadership

Those quietly hoping a new lead singer would change the sound of the state’s largest union of public school teachers are in for a disappointment.

It hasn’t and it won’t.

Kim Mead assumed the presidency of the Washington Education Association on July 6, making her the new front woman for an 82,000-person band of classroom teachers, administrative staff and community college instructors.

On Tuesday, she was belting out many familiar refrains of her predecessor Mary Lindquist when talking about lawmakers’ performance for public schools in the just-completed marathon session.

“They didn’t do their job,” said Mead who took office following nearly 13 years guiding the Everett Education Association.

Lawmakers paid scant attention to the two primary concerns of the union: teacher pay and class size.

While lawmakers boast of putting an additional $1 billion into public schools, she said, none went toward a cost-of-living adjustment for teachers which voters endorsed when they passed Initiative 732. She said that means it will be six years without a state-funded COLA.

And they put only a small portion of money into reducing the number of students in classes. That’s an authenticated way of improving student achievement which lawmakers continually insist is their primary goal, she said.

“If that hope (for a new tune) was out there, they were mistaken,” Mead said. “The person who sits in this seat doesn’t speak for themselves. They speak for the 82,000 members. The last time I looked they’re waiting for a public school system that is not just adequately funded but amply funded.”

Mead, 53, started teaching in the Everett School District in 1985. She stopped being a regular fixture in the classroom in 2000 when she was elected president of the union’s affiliation in Everett. That’s been a full-time, union-paid gig.

Everett schools Superintendent Gary Cohn heaped high praise on Mead for her “forward-thinking leadership in the work we have been doing in Everett.”

Following Mead’s election, Cohn said: “She is a champion of good teaching, of teachers, and of students and families, and of a school system focused clearly on the needs of students through the eyes of classroom teachers.”

Now Mead’s talents will be tested as she becomes a key figure in the statewide education debate.

Right away, she’ll be in front of the debate about charter schools. Last week, a coalition led by the WEA sued to block the voter-approved law legalizing the publicly funded, alternatively run campuses.

“If private enterprises are going to be allowed to run them and receive public money, that’s not fair,” she said. “That’s something we continue to fight for every year.”

This fall, the WEA will certainly get involved in trying to elect people to school boards and to a couple of contested legislative seats.

When it comes to the Legislature, Mead must adjust from working with a superintendent and five-member school board to dealing with 147 elected officials, each convinced they know best how Washington’s public school system should be run.

She already knows she will be pressing lawmakers in 2014 to comply with the court mandate to fully fund basic education, which includes teacher pay and smaller class sizes.

There will be leaders of other interest groups in the education debate pushing those same lawmakers to enact reforms before spending too much more in those areas.

This is not a new fight. So it’s no surprise the WEA’s song will remain the same.

Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.