Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Gratitude 2018 Day 59

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 59
#AttitudeOfGratitude2018
#grateful #thankful

I am grateful for my friend Tim Cool. I have known Tim a long time. What I am most grateful for that after Mom passed he was there for my sister and me. He has a heart of gold and a love for helping others. I know he can be found every Summer helping on with the Valley Baptist VBS. He loves to help with the children.

Recently Tim got very sick and ended up in the hospital in Roanoke, VA. Everyday it sound like things are getting worse and worse. I hold out hope that he is going to get better. I pray everyday for his complete healing.

In Psalms 103:2-5 it says:

My soul, praise the Lord,
and do not forget his benefits.
He forgives all your sins;
He heals all your diseases.
He redeems your life from the Pit;
He crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
He satisfies you with goodness;
your youth is renewed like the eagle.

That passage gives me hope that Tim is going to be healed. He will get better. God is the Great Physician and he is not done with Tim yet. Tim has a purpose in this world. Heck, we all do.

I ask you to pray for Tim at this time. Please pray for complete healing of him. Please pray for his family too.


Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Gratitude 2018 Day 58

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 58
#AttitudeOfGratitude2018
#grateful #thankful

I am grateful for silence. Silence is golden. It says a lot. Sometimes silence can mean that there is trouble. Sometimes silence can mean that you are sick. Sometimes silence can mean that you are sleeping. Silence can mean a lot of things.

Today my silence meant that I was talking to God and listening. I was listening for what he had to say to me. That is big.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Gratitude 2018 Day 57

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 57
#AttitudeOfGratitude2018
#grateful #thankful

I am grateful for the teachers and service personnel who have been on the front lines all across West Virginia getting our voices heard. I am thankful to those that have written or called legislators in regards to our situation.

West Virginia has come together because the School Personnel have the loudest voice. This is not just about them, but also about all State Employees.

We deserve better. We deserve a better raise and to have PEIA (our health insurance) fixed. We can't live on what we make and still have insurance. It is not fair.

We work long hours and don't get paid for a lot of them. We give of our money to fund our classrooms. If we get sick our insurance may not cover it.

We are getting national attention with this and that is great. We need for those in the WV Legislature to hear us and to stand by us.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Gratitude 2018 Day 56

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 56
#AttitudeOfGratitude2018
#grateful #thankful

I am grateful for support. I am grateful that while school has been closed for what I call a peaceful demonstration that we have gotten lots of community support. Thank You!

We need your support to help make our voices heard. Email your legislators and tell them that you support us. Let your voice be heard with our voices. We need to make a change. We can't do this alone.

We also need to get correct information out there as to why we are doing this. It is more than our pay checks. It is about our health insurance PEIA and so much more.

Get the facts and help us with our cause. Write emails to the legislators in Charleston. All support is greatly appreciated.

I Support WV School Personnel


On Thursday, February 22 School Personnel across the state of West Virginia in all 55 counties began a 2 day peaceful demonstration in hopes to get their voices heard in Charleston on issues that are important to them. 

During this time a lot of miss information has come out as well as some people who are not willing to hear why we are on the front lines fighting. 

That is me in the camo coat in the picture above. The picture was taken by the Moorefield Examiner for an article that they are going to put out next week about us. My sign says the following.

My Mom went on strike in 1990.
I am on strike in 2018.
Same Issues.....
28 years apart
Fix PEIA Give Us A Pay Raise
Support Your Local School Personnel.

Yes 28 years ago my Mom went on strike. She was the president of the Hardy County Education Association, HCEA. She lead teachers in an 11 day strike to get their voices heard. I am sure that my Mom, who taught school for 40 years would be proud of the stand that I am taking for what I believe in. 

You may be wondering just what we are demonstrating about in the first place. There are many issues that we are seeking to address. Here is the highlights from an email that I sent to one of the Legislators near me.


First we need to make sure that we have certified teachers teaching in our classrooms all across West Virginia. It is critical that they be certified to teach the subject area or grade level that they are employed in. By not having certified teachers in the classroom students in our schools are not receiving a quality education. 

We also need to keep seniority. It is not far to think of the possibility that if someone is going to be cut it is going to be a teacher or service personnel that has the most years of service in just to promote a new teacher in order to save money. It in the end will cost more money to have new younger less seniority teachers in the classroom. These teachers will have to be trained to do the job that the more senior teachers already know how to do. This will also mean more loss of time in the classroom with subs having to fill in. 

We need to keep testing for service personnel. It is not right that they are planning to take this away. I had to take a test in order to become an aide. It is not far that they want to stop this. That would mean that anyone could come in and do the job of service personnel. I would hate to see what would happen if someone was doing a service personnel job without being tested. These test help the counties know if a person is competent to do the job that they are applying for. 

We need to stop charter schools. Having Charter Schools will take away funds for public schools. That will mean that teachers will have to end up spending more money out of pocket than they do now to fund their classrooms. It would mean that some programs in the public schools will come to an end because the system just does not have the funding for them. 

Right now School Personnel are ranked #48 in pay in the nation. We need a pay raise. We work long hours. We sacrifice time with our family to do for school. We go above and beyond for the students in our classrooms and schools. We furnish supplies for our classrooms with our own money. We make sure children have clothes, shoes, and much more so that students don't have to worry and can focus on learning. We come early and stay late. For example I am an aide who's hours are 7:30am-3:30pm. I am at school most days between 6:45 and 7:00am and don't leave till 4:00pm. I don't get payed for time before 7:30 and time after 3:30.

We need to fix PEIA. Right now the 4% raise for teachers and the 3% raise for service personnel is not enough. That raise will end up being taken to pay for my PEIA. PEIA says that we must see a provider in their network. That means someone in West Virginia. So if I need to see a specialist or have special test done I will need to go to someone or a hospital in state. Most often that means traveling about 3 hours to Morgantown for services. Normally I would go to Harrisonburg or Winchester, VA which are an hour away. If I chose to go out of state for care it will cost me more than it use to. 

A severance tax on gas, oil, and coal would help with PEIA. It would make the cost out of pocket for me and many others in West Virginia lower. 

Also PEIA affect retired state employees. Anyone who retirees before they are 65 years old are still getting the same PEIA as a full time employee. That means that state employees will have to work longer. 

So you see it is not about money as some would say it is. It is about much more. It is about fixing issues that if not fixed will only continue to get worse. 

Legislators in West Virginia need to wake up and realize that if they don't take us seriously that come November when we go to vote that they could and will be voted out for not supporting us. We know who has not supported us in our endeavor at this time. 

What can you do to help? Well you can go to http://wvlegislature.gov/ and look up your local representatives. Then you can shoot them an email supporting us. Don't just stop at your local representatives. Email those in areas around you as well. The more emails you write the more support you are showing us. We appreciate it. 

You have the facts. Now use them to help us get our voices heard. We appreciate all that you do for us. This is your way of giving back to us who do so much for your children during the school year. 

Thank You!




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