by Skylar Rispens, Great Falls Tribune | Updated 5:42 a.m., May 6, 2020 
    Voters chose in favor of an elementary operational levy, while two incumbents and one newcomer were elected to the Great Falls Public School Board of Trustees, according to unofficial final results Tuesday night.
 
   The $1.75 million elementary levy passed by a vote of 10,795 to 8,863, and incumbents Jan Cahill and Kim Skornogoski were re-elected to the school board. Former city commissioner Bill Bronson earned the third open seat on the board of trustees.

   The levy is expected to have a tax impact of $16.27 annually on a $100,000 home, and $32.50 annually on a $200,000 home.
​
   The school trustee election was among four community members vying for three vacant positions. The three-year terms of current board members Jan Cahill, Kim Skornogoski and Jason Brantley are set to expire this year.
   This story will be updated. 
   
Unofficial final results:

School board trustee (Three elected to three-year term): 
Jan Cahill:  13,372*
Kim Skornogoski:  12,929*
Bill Bronson:  10,750*
Eric Hinebauch:  10,303

Elementary levy:
For:  10,795*
Against:  8,893

  From Bob Griffith, GFEA president
 Through this trying time in the education of our students, our kids, we want our teachers to know how much we not only appreciate all they do, but that we recognize the extent of how they go above and beyond.
   Even though we know that to do our best teaching, we must stay connected, this time of zoom meetings and social distancing has created challenges for maintaining these connections. And yet, we must stay focused and find ways to connect to our inner lives, our colleagues, our students as well as the skills and knowledge we teach.
   When we live and work in isolation, we miss out on what we need most:  empathy, shared wisdom and communal expertise. And so, to all of you who teach, we know how you are working every day to make a difference in kids' lives. The "connections" you strive to make for the benefit of kids do not go unnoticed. Stay safe. You are appreciated.

 The Board of Trustees conducted a special meeting at noon on Friday, May 1st, and announced that they will not re-open campuses, and distance learning will continue for the remainder of the current school year.

There is no word yet on whether GFPS will host a modified ceremony for seniors; we will update you as we get more information.

During a work session on Monday, GFPS trustees asked health experts about bringing more than 10,000 students, teachers, and staff back into the district's buildings. Trisha Gardner, the health officer of the Cascade City-County Health Department, says she doesn’t think it is a good idea: “I think it opens up a potential floodgate for this to spread very quickly and easily throughout our community.” She also says the main concern is asymptomatic spread. Since children and young adults have been seen with little to no symptoms, it could spread very easily without being detected. During the work session, trustees said that a survey of parents indicated that 71% of the more than 5,000 respondents said they are not in favor of re-opening schools at this point.

Several days ago, GFPS announced that it is adopting a "Pass/Fail" for the latter portion of the current school year for middle schools and high schools; click here for details. In related news, the Montana High School Association announced on Wednesday that all spring sports in schools across Montana have been canceled for the remainder of the school year.

Many other school districts announced this week that they will not re-open classrooms for the remainder of the current school year, including Billings, Bozeman, Glasgow, Butte, Helena, and Whitefish.

Additional information can be found at ​https://www.krtv.com/news/great-falls-news/gfps-remote-learning-will-continue-for-the-remainder-of-the-school-yearBy: MTN News

The GFEA Action Page has endorsements for offices from legislature to governor and all points in between.
​Click the tab at the top of the page, or HERE to see what's going on! 

   ​Today, all of us could agree that we work in scary and uncertain times. But even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the AFT understood the stress and strain that comes with the work our members do to educate, heal, help and serve their communities.
But what happens when our members’ own daily stress is compounded by trauma-inducing events in their own lives? We all know how difficult it is to be fully present for others when we are carrying the burden of our own traumas.
In response, the AFT is offering a free new benefit for members—trauma counseling. (And, yes, in certain circumstances, a member with a coronavirus infection is eligible for this coverage.) The traumas covered by this new insurance include:

• An injury due to aggravated assault, sexual assault, a mass shooting or a terrorist act; this includes victims of domestic violence.
• Witnessing a violent incident at work.
• Bullying, harassment, or the threat or experience of secondary trauma resulting in a mild, moderate or severe mental health condition and an impairment of function.
• Contracting an infectious disease at work—including the coronavirus.
• An injury or infection from a disease during a major disaster, as declared by the National Emergencies Act.

   Starting April 1, the AFT will provide this trauma coverage benefit to all active working members, including those on leave status. We are preparing a “kit” of education materials available to you on Friday, March 27, on AFT All In. If you want to announce this benefit to your members now, we have provided language below to alert your members to this new benefit.
So how does this program work?
The counseling sessions are set up to take advantage of the latest communication technologies—phone, text, video—and to provide help whenever it is needed, wherever a member may be. They are conducted in complete privacy. Members will gain access to the program through the AFT members-only Member Benefits portal. Members will have access to a total of 21 hours of counseling over a three-month period. Everything is confidential. 
What can you do now?

1. We’d love to know what questions you have, so we can add them (and answer them!) to our FAQ. Send your questions here.
2. Update your membership lists regularly. This is a members-only benefit; we want to make sure every member can access the program with an AFT member ID number.
3. Take a moment to alert your members via email about this new benefit.

AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus and I were planning to announce this benefit at our 2020 convention. But the times we live in call for us to move quickly in hope of helping address some of the profound challenges we now face. Caring, fighting and showing up has become our creed. That is true more than ever today.
We want our members to feel the support of their union in their everyday lives. We hope this new member benefit will help us to meet that need. 
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President

 03/22/2020
Virginia Myers, AFT Media Affairs
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   Acting on a clear mandate from the AFT’s membership, the AFT executive council passed a resolution endorsing Vice President Joe Biden for president. After more than a year of member engagement on the endorsement process—with more than 300,000 AFT members nationwide participating in candidate events, town halls, polls, regional conferences and other efforts—new membership polls show strong support for Biden.

   Dedicated to a transparent process that focuses on the needs of AFT members and the communities they serve, the AFT’s endorsement decision has been guided by three criteria: selecting a candidate who shares the union’s values, who has the support of our members, and who can ultimately defeat President Trump in November. Biden—a long-term partner of the AFT whose wife, Jill Biden, is an educator and whose family through tragedy has come to revere healthcare professionals—meets those criteria.
   Several weeks ago, the AFT determined that three candidates—Biden, Sanders and Warren—shared our values. Over the past several days, membership polls revealed that a majority of members (60 percent) in every AFT constituency now support Biden, who leads his nearest competitor by a 2-to-1 ratio. Seventy-five percent of the Democratic membership supports the AFT making an endorsement in the primary. And in recent weeks, Biden has won an impressive lead in the delegate count. With 60 percent of delegates already apportioned,
he has 1,180 delegates of the 1,991 needed to secure the nomination.
A real leader in a time of real need   The decision to endorse now, in the midst of a global pandemic, was driven by the urgent need for a leader with courage and compassion.
   “Before the COVID-19 epidemic, the 2020 election was about the soul of our country. Now it’s about our soul, our safety, our health, our security and our economic well-being,” says AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Joe Biden is the experienced and emphatic leader our country needs right now. His character was forged getting up and going to work every day and trying to make life better for his family, facing the ups and downs so many of us face; it was tested by unspeakable loss and grief in life; and it was nurtured through public service, a love of people and the belief in the dignity of every human.”
   Highlighting the ways Biden’s priorities match those of the AFT, Weingarten continues: “Biden is with us on investing in public education; making college a reality for everyone; fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; making healthcare a human right, not a privilege for the wealthy; prioritizing clean energy and environmental justice; and building an economy that respects the value of workers’ voices. His whole career has been devoted to building a pathway to the middle class for the millions of people facing an affordability crisis daily. It’s time to give him the chance to do that as president.”
   Conversations among AFT leaders have focused on the urgency of this moment, when the coronavirus pandemic has gripped the nation and revealed glaring weaknesses in the current president’s judgment and leadership ability.
   “In this moment of worldwide crisis, the contrast with Trump is clear,” says Weingarten. “Our country is navigating the greatest challenge we have battled in generations, and it is essential that we rally around a candidate who can show courage, conviction and compassion in the face of uncertainty.
   “Throughout this national emergency, the president and his administration have failed to secure testing and personal protective equipment to safeguard our frontline healthcare providers; have attempted to conceal the severity of the virus and downplay the public health risks; and have refused to deploy the full arsenal of the federal government’s resources, leaving the difficult work of leadership to our nation’s governors. Now more than ever, we need a standard-bearer who is actually looking out for us, and who has a proven track record of steering the country successfully through economic and social upheaval.”
  Throughout the campaign season, beginning more than a year ago, Weingarten has directly interacted with candidates, swinging their focus to issues most important to AFT members, including public education, public healthcare, working families and the public good. The union also created countless opportunities for members to interact with candidates at town hall meetings, to discuss their campaigns at debate watch parties, conferences and campaign gatherings, and to register their own opinions and preferences on membership surveys. In February, the AFT urged members to throw their support behind any one of the three candidates who had surfaced as hewing closest to union values: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
   “The ‘how’ a nominee was selected was as important as the ‘who,’” says Weingarten, stressing that no one should be left on the sidelines during an election that is widely considered to be the most important of our lifetimes.
With all the pieces in place, and the urgency of replacing Donald Trump driven by deep concern over the safety of our nation, the ‘how’ has come to selecting ‘who,’ says Weingarten: “Given everything that is going on, that person now is Joe Biden.”
   A long-term partner who listens. Shortly after the AFT executive council voted to endorse Biden, council members were surprised and heartened to have Joe and Jill Biden join the council’s virtual meeting. By phone, the Bidens offered their heartfelt thanks and reinforced their commitment to AFT members and the children, families and communities they uplift. Getting right to the matter at hand, Vice President Biden declared that, “I am going to be a president who leads with science and who listens to experts.” Touching on an important update to his education policy platform(link is external), Biden emphasized that college should be tuition-free for families that earn less than $125,000 per year. Jill Biden, a lifelong educator, also expressed her thanks and shared her vision, saying “What makes this nation great is the people who come together with kindness and courage to make it great.”
   Weingarten reminded Biden of the good work they had done together during the Obama administration, thanking him for listening and acting on critical issues like the improper use of student test scores in teacher evaluations. Summing up what she has heard from countless members, Weingarten expressed the AFT’s commitment to Vice President Biden becoming President Biden, saying “With your courage, conviction, compassion and empathy, you will lead this country in a better direction. We are now Team Biden!”