001Turn it over to Dr. Hutchings. All right. Well, first off, I just want to say welcome back for week two since we've been back, meaning January. I just want to preface the conversation by saying, you know, now we are in our first work session. Today's work session is specifically to talk about the personnel expenditures. And that is our goal was to break up our two sessions, first one being on personnel, second being on non-personnel. expenditures so I'm going to have our chief financial officer Mr. Dominic Turner to take us through the presentation today you will also notice that we have some special guests here with us because we had you know an outstanding compensation study that was conducted we'll be able to talk a little bit more about the company that's here with us to
002work or to talk through the compensation study because that is a part of the personnel expenditures for FY21. So with that said, I'm gonna turn things over to Mr. Turner so that we can get started in the presentation. I want to also inform the board that there are two separate presentations, right, that's gonna be happening because when we get to slide seven, I believe is it slide seven? we're going to have our consultants chime in to talk specifically about the compensation study and there was an attachment to this work session of the compensation study so you're going to be talking to this uh to the actual um report that you all had attached to the document okay mr turner Thank you and good evening. I'm glad to be here with you all this evening to
003discuss a compensation and personnel for our superintendent's fiscal year 2021 proposed budget. I'll start the presentation briefly just going over the combined funds, the amount, what makes up the combined funds, the positions in each fund, and then go through the salary enhancements and then go in the details of each one of the salary enhancements. And then do the benefits and then each one of the benefit options through that in the middle Seagulls consulting will then give you an in-depth look at the compensation report that was done This fiscal year for our different job classes So to start the fiscal year 2021 proposed combined funds budget is a total of three hundred and twenty four point seven million dollars as you all know our combined funds is made up of our operating fund which represents ninety
004two percent of our total budget grants and special projects fund which represents about five percent and then our school nutrition fund which represents about three percent of our total combined funds budget. Throughout each fund, obviously we have the majority of our FTEs or our employees funded out of our operating budget, a total of $2,435.99. FTEs which is an increase of 32.27 FTEs over the final 2020 budget and then an increase of seven positions in our grants and special projects funds and 14 in our school nutrition. The positions in our operating fund are primarily related to our EL English Learner, our specialized instruction as well as SST positions throughout the schools. And then two positions in central office. The remaining positions are for core instructional support at the middle and high school levels. The additional 14
005FTEs in our school nutrition fund, that's because as our population is growing, our breakfast and lunch program is expanding as well. So they've been flat FTEs at 111 for quite some time, and as our program is growing to the additional students, they're looking to have additional support there. Their fund is basically an enterprise fund, so it supports itself. So the dollars that they get from the federal government program and then as well as the selling of the lunch, breakfast and lunch, supports those positions. Then when it comes to our salary enhancements, we have four different unique salary enhancements that are in the fiscal year 2021. budget. Those are a step increase, a one-time bonus, a stay bonus for transportation employees, and then the market rate adjustment or MRA. We'll be going into more details in
006the slides to come explaining exactly why we're doing the step, the MRAs, the stay bonus, as well as the 2% one-time bonus. But the total for all of these compensation enhancements totals roughly $6.6 million. So first we'll start with the step increase and that is the largest salary enhancement that we have in the superintendent's proposed budget. The step increase on average is about 2.63% increase for each employee and a few of the reasons for why we chose to go with the step increase for all eligible employees versus a market rate adjustment for all employees is when we spoke with staff it was determined that step increases are seen as a greater reward than the MRA. regardless of the percentage so even if we were to do the 2.6 MRA it's more rewarding to go from
007step 10 to 11 than to stay on step 10 and receive a 2.6 percent increase so that's fourth so therefore we went with the the step increase because it's what really makes more of a difference for staff. Even if the dollars are the same, if we were to do the MRA versus the step increase. Also, the majority of our staff are eligible for that step increase. 87.5% of our total staff are eligible for a step increase annually. Lastly, as you can see, as we compare ourselves to the surrounding school jurisdictions, With the exception of Falls Church, every school division around us provides a step increase every single year. So to keep pace, to be able to retain our quality employees, we want to be able to provide them with what's more rewarding to them than
008to simply give them the MRA and keep them on the same step. Oh, one other very important thing is the governor's proposed budget includes funding for a 3% increase for staff. If we don't give a 3% increase over the next two years, then we would lose that state revenue, and that wouldn't be a loss of one year, but it would be a loss for all the... Coming years because once it's given to us in our base allocation it stays in our base allocation So therefore if they're paying for us to give someone a three percent increase They know that that three percent is going to continue and they were going to continue to fund that but if we don't so when we turn in our annual school report in September every year to the Virginia
009Department of Education if they don't see that we would lose out on that revenue So therefore we want to ensure that we're giving our staff um that increase so we can take advantage of the funding that the commonwealth of virginia is providing So the next salary enhancement are the bonuses. So as you heard, 87.5% of our staff are eligible for a step increase, so that means that 12.5% are not eligible for a step increase. And to be able to assist them with some of the increases that we know that will affect their take-home pay, we want to be able to give them a 2% one-time bonus, which we typically pay out in the December time frame of each year. It's important to realize that this... Isn't something that's divided up 24 times to go into
010their pay to each paycheck is given at one time and it's a lump sum payment in the December timeframe. We know that the health care and dental care premiums are expected to increase eight and a half for UHC and Kaiser and then 8% for our dental. So to be able to help employees with that, we want to be able to provide them with something as well, even though they're not eligible for that step increase. And then the stay bonus for the transportation employees, this is something, this is the second half of what we use to be able to stem the turnover rate with our bus drivers and monitors for the current year. We were able to give them $250,000 this year, and we want to ensure that we fund the other half of that in
011fiscal year 2021, and that payment would be given to them the first pay period in July. So now I'll turn it over to Siegel Consulting to go over our compensation study. They did a market analysis on several different job classes for us, our paraprofessionals, our school psychologists, school principals, senior leadership, as well as our transportation staff. The Heathers can share. I'm going to share with you just very briefly. high-level summary of our findings. But just, you know, also to share with you what the goals were. Sorry, I speak very softly. I'm sorry. There we go. Okay. So the goal of the study was to determine the market competitiveness of compensation for selected employee groups. And as Mr. Turner said, those employee groups include the paraprofessionals, school principals, school psychologists, senior leadership, and transportation. I'm going
012to go through each one of those. But before we get to the findings for each one, I just wanted to tell you who the comparator school districts are. Because if we're looking at market competitiveness, the first question is, what's the market? What's the comparison? So we looked at the school divisions that are in the WAB, the Washington Area Boards of Education, that are in Virginia. So we looked at Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, Loudoun. Manassas, Manassas Park, and Prince William School District. So those are all included in this analysis. So I'm going to start with the paraprofessionals. There are three job titles that we looked at there. Paraprofessional 1, Paraprofessional 2, and Paraprofessional 4. You'll notice the absence of Paraprofessional 3, which is obsolete and is no longer used. But the school district still uses the
0131, 2, and 4 designation. So we compared hourly rates here for these three levels of paraprofessionals. And we looked at, we measured the market in two different ways. I'm going to take you through that. There's market ratio and market rank. So just to define what those are. Market ratio is the school district's pay rate divided by the market average. So if you're paying $9 an hour and the market rate is $10 an hour, divide 9 by 10 and you get 90%. So it's expressed as a percentage. The market rank is saying ranking all of the eight school districts, where does Alexandria fit within that? So in looking at paraprofessional 1 and 2, we found that the market ratio of the starting hourly rate is 103%, which means it's 3% above the market average. Normally the
014standard to say what's market competitive is anywhere from 95% to 105% of the market average, so you're right in there. So that's what we would say best practice is to say 103% is competitive. As far as the rank for those two positions, the paraprofessional one and two, they're ranked respectively three out of eight and two out of eight. So near the top but not at the very top. So number three from the highest payer. Paraprofessional 4, on the other hand, is a little bit of a different story. The employees in those positions are required to have their LPN, licensed practical nurse, certification. And there are only two of the other school districts that have such a position. There are very few that require an LPN. So we didn't have a lot of data specific to
015school districts. But of those two, we found that the average starting pay is $23.62 an hour, which is quite a bit higher than your starting rate. So the market ratio there is 81%, and the market rank is three out of three. Yes, ma'am. I was wondering if the paraprofessional floor, is that the nurse's assistant, the clinic assistant? Is that what that position is? Nope. So the I'll just go through all of the ones that we got in the question so paraprofessional ones serve as kindergarten aides and the individual IEP the one-on-one for students with disabilities our paraprofessional twos serve in the classrooms for our specialized instruction classroom and then their paraprofessional fours have a medical certificate so they require more responsibility for the paraprofessional force and there's a total of seven throughout ACPS the fours
016aren't they Typically, they're not necessarily in the clinic. They can easily, right? They may be an assistant with a child with multiple medical needs. Correct. Yeah, okay. So it's not a clinic position. And just to sort of add to the data, because there were so few data points among the other school districts, we thought it would be a good idea to collect data from other organizations that hire LPNs. And that's in your full report as well. And we found that data is consistent with those two schools, starting right around $22. So in the ranking, there's only three of those school systems that have LPNs, so all eight don't? Correct. Okay, so smaller. Okay. But that's which is why we had the supplemental data just two data points. This doesn't necessarily define the market so looking
017but looking at Private sector entities in the area we found those pay rates are about the same so in conclusion for the pair of professionals we found that pair of professional one and two positions are market competitive And the level four we would say is below market roughly about 20% So then findings for school psychologists and school principals. For school psychologists, we found actually the same market ratio as for some of the paraprofessionals, 103%. So again, very close to the market average. Ranked three out of eight. For elementary school principals and middle school principals, we found that those are a little bit below market. At the ratio the market ratio for them respectively 94 and 95 percent so just on that lower end of Potential competitiveness 94 95 a little bit below But in terms
018of rank they're in the bottom two and three to rank six out of eight seven out of eight The high school principal on the other hand has a market ratio of 112 percent We say that's a healthy So then moving on to senior leadership, we looked at eight positions, eight job titles, most of them chiefs and then two of them executive directors. And we found that most of them are about 5% to 7% below market. So again, not as drastic as, say, the paraprofessional four, but on the lower end. So roughly about 93%. The ranks vary among the positions. And I should say, although Dr. Wilkins has been wonderful to work with, this was one of the two positions that was found at 99% of market, so right at the end. But the others are
019ranked fourth out of six, six out of eight, so right in the middle. Thank you. I have a question about that. Since you're comparing to other school divisions, and some of them are quite large and some of them are quite small, I'm just wondering how that affects particularly a ranking like this where folks are working for the whole division versus the classroom. If you could talk about that. Yeah, that's a good point. We did not segment the data by size of the school district. If we want to pause, I can look it up. But I don't recall seeing any significant difference. It's a little bit Yeah, I just I kept looking looking at that and but what's interesting is that Fairfax County which is huge is We're closer to that, you know Arlington seems to
020have a better ratio than we do Throughout the data, but Fairfax County where the one HR director or the one will be in charge of many hundreds of that people students and that is very comparable so I just thought that was an interesting. Yeah, I'm just looking at one. Say I just chose the first one in the alphabetical order with the chief academic officer. The salary range for that position at Manassas Park is roughly about the same as it is in Fairfax County. So, you know, very different size. And, you know, it's important to remember, too, that sometimes in a smaller school district there are fewer deputies, if you will, or assistants. So while the school division itself is much larger, the responsibilities can be divided among other deputies. So I think that's part of
021what we're seeing. No, it's just a point. I just wanted to add just to chime in on that one. It is important I think the smaller the district the more responsibility honestly when you get into your larger school divisions You have a lot of executives who also are on your staff So you're not having to take on all the additional responsibilities that in most smaller school divisions That's including the superintendents to that have to take on because you just don't have the staff the numbers The other school divisions that were the larger school divisions have which we shouldn't you know, we can't afford to have staff at lunch So then moving on to transportation the last group. Oh, I'm sorry The chief of accountability, it's just interesting that that was insufficient market data. I was
022just wondering if you could talk a little bit about that because I know other school divisions obviously are tracking their data. So I'm curious what position typically does that. Yeah, thank you for raising that because we did have some back and forth as to whether those positions at the other school divisions are comparable. And I don't remember all the details some of them have a supervisor position that is primarily responsible for the data collection Which is at a much lower? level in the hierarchy Others have a position that is responsible for accountability and a lot of other things so it's you know much broader job So we really had a very difficult time You know trying to find something that was an exact match and really there was only one in Prince William County they
023have a similar role But the others were just at a either at a very different higher level in the hierarchy Have additional duties or just have one one aspect of the responsibilities. Dr. Hutchings, did you want to? I was going to add on to just say that many school divisions, their data person or their accountability person is typically at a director level position. And in many school divisions, sometimes that position may report to like a chief academic officer or fall under C&I. It's like a component of that. I know that we shifted from that when I was here last because we wanted to have more of a broader. kind of like perspective in regards to data collection in ACPS, which we wanted to take it out of the kind of CNI or instructional department so
024that it was more standalone, especially at that time. Testing was increasing, us having the accreditation, meeting accreditation and SOQs from standards of quality from the BDOE. All of those things were in place, and that was one of the reasons why we shifted. you know i want to say 10 to 15 years ago mr entry did you have actually no i just wanted to i wanted to make sure you do you still want us to raise our our hand and ask to be called yes yes okay okay okay Mr. Suarez. Yeah, so I just had a sort of a general question, mostly triggered by the principal data. Obviously, sort of maybe the premise of doing this whole exercise is to minimize the risk that we don't retain people because maybe we're paying below market or something
025like that. And I'm particularly concerned about principal retentions because if you don't have stability and principal leadership in a building, that can be very detrimental to all kids and academic learning. So I'm just wondering, but I'm wondering, globally too, like, have we been able to sort of correlate some of these ratios, like where we're below 95% with our own internal data of turnover and, you know, retention and things like that, so we can get a sense of where these numbers, you know, are really affecting our professionals in terms of morale and, you know, impact and retention and things like that. Because I'm assuming, like, different positions, maybe everyone... you know, needs money, of course, but I'm wondering if there are some types of positions where the money matters more than in other positions and things
026of that nature. I'm just wondering if you've done any analysis on that or if we've sort of tried to think a little bit about that because I'm just trying to think of how we can use this data effectively as a board to, you know, make sure that we're paying people adequately to retain them and motivate them and keep them in our division. Well, one point I would like to just reiterate is that, well, the elementary principals have been asking for a compensation study for the past five years. And I know that last year, I just didn't know that was a promise. So I said, well, I promise next year I'll make sure we have a conversation study, right? So they have been adamant about it because one advantage that we have in the public sector
027is that you can go and find out what other people make in other school divisions. So it's not like the private sector where everybody keep their tight lift about how much money they make. So, you know, our principals have been well aware that these results. are where they are and it is a constant discussion I know it doesn't come up every time we talk to principals but every time the budget season starts this is a conversation that specifically our elementary principals bring up and have consistently brought it up Yeah, so I think that is that can contribute to a morale issue I think we also have to go back to some of the things that we even talk about just Alexandria City Schools as a whole and The fact that we are so diverse, you
028know, it's the greatest gift, but it also brings challenges too Which is very different than many of our comparable school divisions So, you know one thing that you know, you are gonna do if you work in Alexandria City Public Schools You're gonna have to work So you have to work hard if you want to do it right. You know, and I think that we have to always put that into consideration for all of our levels and not just, you know, with the principals. I'm speaking of staff just in general because of the population that we serve. It does require, you know, just additional efforts and in some cases additional time. Can I just add to that? Just looking at getting getting into more of the of the data the details of the data in terms
029of usefulness I was just looking at your closest neighbors and what their salary rates are for elementary principles and Arlington Has a midpoint salary of about a hundred and thirty three thousand which compares to yours which is about a hundred and twenty So I think that's the kind of number that your principals would have in their heads as they're saying is it worth it to move because you know most Lot of professionals would not move just for a few thousand dollars. It's a life-changing thing, but that's a pretty big gap and then in Fairfax also about a hundred and thirty so just to you know Think about what what people might how they might react but a caveat I was gonna say mrs. Schwarz also that we've learned from this study that we've taken it
030essentially let's just say a small group of Number of employees that we have or employee groups and we certainly understand better now that this is a process that we need to continue in a cyclical way, right? So I can't say well how many employee groups will do in a future, but I can't say that it's to our benefit to do that and to keep it going so that we stay competitive because you're exactly right. At some point where we are so far behind, it creates a disincentive to be here. And so if we can at least satisfy... desire for a competitive salary and benefits then we can get into the other aspects that retain employees such as professional development right and other types of support rewards and recognitions etc that comprise really a total benefit
031package to work in here in ACPS but first and foremost we've got to provide a competitive salary and benefit package And I just wanted to reiterate the benefits piece as well, because it's salary and benefits. And I think that's why it's going to be very important for us to educate our employees on, you know, how to understand your salaries and your benefits, because they go hand in hand. You could have a very, very high salary, like some of our neighboring jurisdictions, and your health premiums are extremely high, too. So your take-home pay is actually a lot less in some cases, or it could be the same. you know, even though they have a very high salary. So I think it's important for us to continue to educate our staff on that. And that was some
032of the conversations that we were having, I know, over the past couple of years with our principals, as well as our senior leaders around compensation, that let's make sure we're looking at the full package. And that's why last year we had started showing kind of like a comparative analysis of the benefits piece. with other jurisdictions because that is a factor in your whole package deal. You can't just look at your salary, and we just got to keep educating people on that. So just to wrap up, though, on the senior leadership, I think there is a real parallel here between the principals and the senior leadership positions. We're finding on market ratio around about 95%, 94% for both of those groups. but ranked at the lowest third, not the bottom, not the very bottom, but the
033lowest three school districts. So it's a similar story. Then the last group, transportation, we looked at bus drivers, bus monitors, bus driver trainers, those who train new drivers, auto equipment mechanics, and then the parts and supply inventory supervisor. We found all of them were below market except for the monitor. The bus driver, about 5% below, or 7th out of 8, so second from the bottom. Trainers, also 7 out of 8, about 10% below market. The mechanic, about 8% below market, 7 out of 7. So there was one that did not have mechanics, but your current starting rate of about... Almost $21 an hour is the lowest and then the inventory supervisor about 7% low market ranked fifth So I think this is you know part of what prompted? Was talking about the stay bonus for
034the transportation employees and the difficulty in recruiting and Motivating so that's it for the high-level summary any any further questions? Thank you So then with all of that information, what are we planning to do to be able to help us become more competitive with these different job classes? So for several of the job classes, we wanted to be able to move a little quickly, and then some of the job classes we took a little longer approach to be able to bring in the market competitiveness. And the idea behind that is because it's very difficult to be able to afford a 15% or 20% increase for any job class in a given year. So for our bus drivers, monitors, and mechanics, we took a three-year approach to be able to get them to... their bottom step
035to rank number one and then their top step to rank number four. So over the three year approach we've suggested, we've proposed a market rate adjustment of 4.64%. And then in the chart to the right you'll be able to see what their current bottom and top steps are and then you'll see the proposed bottom and top step for each one of these job classes. Then for our paraprofessional fours as this was the job class that Wasn't competitive at all across the other two school divisions that actually have a paraprofessional for LPN Again a three-year approach with a four and a half percent increase with those positions Not being in each one of the other school divisions So the the market analysis fully there The four and a half percent increase if we are able to
036stay the course obviously every year We had to come back to the table to reconsider each one of these market rate adjustments but this would be able to get our max for the paraprofessional four is up to just under $36 For our principals, elementary, middle, and K-8, obviously we are not proposing a market rate adjustment for our high school principal, as you've seen from the study, that we're already very competitive in job class. But we have a five-year approach with a 2.9% MRA for elementary, middle, and K-8 principals. If we stay the course over the five years, this will bring our... Elementary school and k-8 rank to the bottom step of being one and the top step being two And then our middle school ranked top step be a bottom step being one and top
037step being So again, just to go back to what Mr. Suarez said a little while ago, we want to make sure that our principals pay is competitive so we don't lose them to our neighboring county of Arlington. And then for our chiefs, we have a five-year approach. Again, a slower, smoother approach to chief level of a 3.4% increase proposed in fiscal year 2021. With the chiefs, we would bring the bottom level to three and the top level to four. Again, what we're trying to do is we're not trying to be at the top. We just want to be competitive across the board. So as we saw in the compensation study, this was all compared to the market average. So again, we're not trying to move into number one for the majority of these positions, but
038we do want to be in the top half for those positions. So with the strategy that we've taken with these proposed market rate adjustments, first the entry level, so step one, we would be the most competitive. So we're trying to attract them early in their career and then get them to stay here throughout their career. We're bringing the top of the scale up to the top half of the market for those positions that we have, you know, six, seven, eight school divisions to be able to compare. Wanted to add in regards to the market rate adjustment that staff who are still eligible for a step They still move to another step and I think that is an important point That needs to be made as well as those who are not eligible for a step
039will still receive that 2% on their base salary of the newly marked you know after the market rate adjustment And that is something that needs to be factored in when we're thinking about July 1 And at the end of this presentation, we have three examples of different job classes and see how the step in the MRA would affect a hypothetical take-home for that job class. So then as we talk, we have to look at the entire compensation package. So the compensation is both your salary and all of the fringe benefits that we're able to offer here in ACPS. So we're able to offer several different retirement packages. We're able to offer a health and dental. And then we also have a supplemental retirement package as well. So our main retirement package that our employees have
040are the Virginia Retirement System, VRS. And we're required to contribute 16.6% next year, which is up roughly 0.94% from the current year. So that's going to be an additional $1.7 million that we have to contribute on behalf of our staff to the Virginia retirement system. In addition to VRS we have the supplemental retirement system which provides an extra income for our retirees Currently all of our employees put in about 1.5 They do put in 1.5 percent of their salary to the supplementary retirement I'm going to dive a little deeper into that in a little bit as well as some of the health Well the last piece Mr. E I just had a question about the VRS are all employees ACPS employees included in that Professionals and the bus drivers are there any no so paraprofessional
041and bus drivers. We do not contribute the 16.6% On behalf of the bus driver. So again, the VRS is governed by the Commonwealth of Virginia So the contribution rates for teachers, which are the majority of our employees, has gone from 15.68% in the current fiscal year to 16.62% in the following year. And then our nonprofessional employees, that varies by employer. So no, we do not contribute 16.62% on behalf of the... bus drivers because we that's not what the Virginia retirement system has for us to contribute but they are still part of the Virginia retirement system I don't want to misspeak so let me speak to our benefits director to be able to confirm whether they are part of the Virginia retirement system or not thank you chair Anderson mr. Turner are any part-time employees eligible
042for health care benefits or any benefits of any kind Yes, so as long as you're above a point six eight percent I believe then you're eligible for for benefits Thank you so much everyone for the presentation I don't expect you to have this information on you right now But I'm just wondering if you could come back to the board I'm curious to know how what's the percentage of them please or and also not just percentage but like number of slots that are just below the point At some point the board could get that information just to have an understanding of how many uninsured employees that are staffed. And actually, yeah, I'm sorry. Oh, go ahead. To add to that actually is I'm wondering, you know, for the comparison purposes, did we look at that in
043terms of what other jurisdictions do as well in terms of competitiveness for part-time employees? Okay. Because I think it might be different for different. So just for, so to clarify, you're asking how many employees are at .68 or higher and then how many employees are at .67 and below? So those that are eligible for some type of benefit and those that aren't? Okay. I'm also just curious about... When we were able to do the compensation study, especially like, for example, like the bus drivers or the paraprofessionals, is it equivalent to the hours worked as well? Or are our employees working the same? Is it the same dosage of the labor hours? Or are these all like annual salary positions and just in lieu of the additions of the part-time? We did look at the number
044of hours or the work schedules. We just looked at the hourly rates for those hour jobs. Okay, thank you. Now, Ms. Alderson had a question. So just on that, so one of the things that we look at the rate and not the amount of hours is because we don't want you to have to work more to earn more, right? We want you to be able to earn more without having to work the extra hours. So that's why if we raise the hourly rate, if you still work the same amount of hours, then you're getting paid more and you don't have to go into overtime or so forth. Ms. Alderson? So my question is in regard to just some of the changes that were made last year. I'm just curious. You know, we basically had this
045shift from the Cadillac of benefits to, you know, different options for this year. Have there been any reactions to any of those changes? Like, have we heard of any staff reactions or have we sort of maybe even surveyed people in regarding to like how that's gone for them? Just to see, you know, has that had an impact on people? Do you want me to take that, Dr. Wilkins? Do you want me to take it? All right, sure. So we've had, with any change, there's always positive and negative reactions. So we've had both. One of the other things that I was going to talk about in the presentation is our health benefits have both fixed and variable costs, with the premium being a fixed cost that everybody has to pay regardless of the utilization of those
046services, and the variable costs are paid based upon the utilization of those services. One of the things that's great with ACPS is the percentage of the premium that the employees have to pay. We pay, depending on your job classification, either... 10%? No. At 10% or 20% of the premium if you're on a support scale you pay 10% everybody else pays 20% of the premium and then as you see on this chart that can be quite significant when it comes to your take-home when we compare to Arlington with them paying 43% of their premium for their PPO plan that's almost an additional $600 in the pockets of our employees each month and you can see the comparison to the other jurisdictions. Now the change came to the actual plan options and that's the variable cost. So
047if you go to the doctor more than you end up paying more because you're utilizing the services more. And it's important that we do a delicate balance between the two. We want to make sure that we're offering solid plan options to be able to help the employees that need to be able to utilize those services while also not having such a high premium that our healthy employees don't want to sign up for that service. Because if the premium continues to increase, our healthy employees are going to say, well, I'm not going to take that plan. And then, therefore, your risk pool is now. is now going to be higher. So you're going to end up having an increased premium anyway because you're having more claims. So the reason why we have to make sure that
048our plan options are attractive to as many employees as we can, as well as making sure that our premium stays low, is because we want to be able to have as many employees choosing our health plan as possible. But again, if we say we're going to go back to the Platinum Plus, and not just have the platinum package that we have right now, then our premium will increase. One of the reasons why we had the Health Benefits Committee review our health benefits going into the current fiscal year was because we were trying to keep the premium level and not continue to have the 10, 15, and 20% premium increase every year. And we were pretty successful at being able to do that. This year, we have it projected at increasing 8.5%. Which is still better
049than? What we had in the past of you know 15% So the idea is to do the delicate dance of balancing your premium, which is a fixed cost and your plan option which are you? So I was going to say in a nutshell, I think that it really varies. It really depends on the employee. And we have had some employees share some concerns about the changes that we made last year in regards to, you know, some of our health benefits. I know that I've seen, you know, I've only seen one petition. I don't know if there are more out there, but I know I've seen one in regards to that, which maybe had 10 people's signatures, which is not something that's going to make it to the board level. At that point but I think
050it's important for us to know that the more we educate our staff about the benefits And the packages that we do offer I think the better off they're going to be and the more informed they're going to be about what's best for them or their families So I to answer your question. I think that it varies it really just depends on how often you use our health care services And everybody's going to have a different experience throughout the entire school division Did you have a follow-up? I guess that was sort of my follow-up was to, you know, just ask, you know, or reiterate and be clear that the purpose of really enforcing the educating everybody on the benefits, do we think that might even reduce some of the negative reactions? If we just take a
051look at the Transportation Office and the impact that this study has had on the bus drivers in particular, I can say that it absolutely makes a huge, huge difference. What was different this time around versus in the past is that we engaged them from day one. And we assured them that they would be part of this process and so part of the great work that was done by Siegel consultants Is that they met with the drivers? And the other staff in the bus office on several occasions right to first of all listen to them and about their concerns about salaries and benefits and then understanding where they're at as they analyze the other positions relative to the other districts gained a pretty good understanding of what their condition was with respect to work here in
052ACPS. So we listened and we got a lot of information, but this other part of that is that we also took action. As Dr. Hutchings mentioned earlier, we had a stay bonus that was kind of an immediate. Here's an indication that we care about you and that we want you to keep staying with us because we're going to try to make things better here. And then, of course, the longer-term action, of course, is addressing the salary and benefits through the budget process, as we're discussing this evening. So for those employees, for the first time in a long time, it's pretty clear that they have an administration that's listening to them, and it also takes what they're hearing and tries to do something about it. Can't get everything done, but we've made some huge steps and
053some huge progress over the last few months, and certainly through this budget process, it's a great step in the right direction to taking care of our employees. Ms. Thornton? Scoot over a little bit so we can still share So I was just thinking about miss Aldridge's question about our health benefits committee and as health Care costs continue to go up the premiums continue to go up I just want to make sure that we have a mechanism in place that we're constantly Evaluating that and making sure that the plan that we currently have is still giving us the best bang for our buck So can you all just explain to me like do we still have the health benefits committee? And if so, like what will that look like in the future to make sure they're
054continuously looking at these packages? Well, the Health Benefits Committee was kind of chartered last year to be able to go through options and changes, and any time there will be planned changes, we would always charter a Health Benefits Committee made up of several different stakeholders. What we do have always is a Health Benefits Office or Benefits Office that reviews our vendors that we choose to use for our health care. Plans and I'll just simply add it. It's a dynamic process So so the committee will continue and we'll take that feedback and we're constantly Looking at what package if you will provides the best value for our employees. So yes, it will continue Being new to this process What I have to do is take a look at of course is the membership of the committee
055To make sure that it is representative and it is also informative to the process and then as well as educate the rest of the division about the work that we're doing. As well as in as evaluating our process. I think it's our progress. I think it's important for For us to begin to consider like some some healthy kind of like healthy benefits Offers or like incentives for staff to be healthy right and like how do we have healthy lifestyles? You know that is really what a lot of workforce and organizations are doing now I know the city I've been able to talk to Mark Jenks every other week and they have a incentive right now where you have to get in a certain number of steps each month and you get a credit every month
056on your monthly premium and that's a way to try to get people more active and you know I was talking to Mr. Jenks just actually yesterday and he was saying how you know now in their meetings everybody's looking smaller because people are losing weight you know and that's a good thing right for all of us so I think that we have to start really educating our staff on how can we be healthier. And little things that we do, like taking stairs instead of the elevator, making sure we get our physicals every year, going to the dentist, all of these things that will help you stay or remain in a healthy situation with your body that we do have control over because we don't have control over everything that's happening in our bodies. But I think
057that can help us, too, with some of the benefits that we offer in the package deals that we're able to offer our families. So then moving on past our health care and dental care options, go to our ACPS supplemental retirement plan. Again, here in ACPS, we have several different retirement options that we offer employees. This one. We are in fiscal year 2021. We are proposing that the employer ACPS provides a half a percent contribution on behalf of our employees to the supplemental retirement. The reason we're suggesting this is because it will have a direct impact on employees take home pay. On the chart on the right that you see on this screen is from our actuary. So our actuary provides us with this information every year. about how much contribution we need to be able
058to keep up with the liabilities. So that's the pay to the retirees. And in the current plan year, they came back and said we need about $4.6 million. In the next plan year, it's about $4.7 million. With each employee contributing 1.5% of their salary to their supplemental retirement, currently that's $2.7 million. Next year, it'll be $2.8 million. Leaving a gap roughly of 1.9 million in those years if we are able to have the half a percent Employ your contribution out of all of the funds It'll be roughly another million dollars to the supplement or retirement that we would not have to ask then the board to vote on Increasing I say the board I mean the supplement or retirement plan would on voting to increase that one and a half percent And the idea is
059obviously there would still be a gap based on the actuary report But we would be able to go back to see how the market acts next year And then the actuary would do another report to be able to let us know Where we are at that point And then while I'm on retirement plans, I also just wanted to talk about some of the other options that we have for retirement. Ms. Nolan sent us a great article in the Wall Street Journal that talked about the hidden fees of retirement plans. And that refers specifically to the 403B and the 457 retirement plans that our employees can actually utilize. If you're under 50, you can put up to $19,000. If you're over 50, you can put in $25,000. And you want to take advantage of this to
060take advantage of beneficial tax treatment for the different retirement plans. So here in ACPS, we have six different vendors that employees are able to work with, if it's a 403B or the 457 plan. And when they meet with those vendors, The fee structure are disclosed to each individual because the fee structure is going to be based on the services that you're using from those vendors. So we have several different options for employees when it comes to their retirement packages here throughout ACPS. and i just wanted to briefly talk about those two other plans um since we got the article in the wall street journal if anybody else saw it they basically just talked about how um basically money managers they want to make money too so they charge a certain fee for for their products
061and their services So lastly we just wanted to provide the example of three different job classes so we can kind of get an idea of the take-home pay if we were to move forward with these enhancements that we have in the superintendent's proposal. I do want to be very clear though that this is just an example and this is not a one-size-fits-all. inevitably we always have people say that oh this this didn't happen for me and that's because I don't know everybody's individual tax situation what plan options are choosing or so forth but this is just to kind of provide in an idea of what it would look like so for our transportation Employees, specifically the bus driver that is on a six hour schedule, six hour a day schedule on a 188 day contract
062from 2020 to 2021, there is roughly a 7.7% increase in their take home, net take home based on the assumptions that we're using here. For a teacher, they would see a 3.3% increase in their net take home from 20 to 2021. And then for an administrator, principal, elementary school on a 240-day contract, they would see a 7% increase on their net take-home from 2020 to 2021. And I'll just, again, bookmark this by saying these are just examples using specific assumptions. I do not know everybody's tax situation. And the assumption we made was individual UAC. And with that, we'll... Follow up with any other Questions that anybody has miss Laura I have a question from early on I'm just curious Why the K through eight principles are paid the same as the K through five principles
063it seems like Might be a bigger job to be a K through eight principal. I was just curious about that And we're actually having discussions around that now. Right now, they have always just been classified as elementary level principals. What we are looking at now that we have two K-8 schools is to either including some type of supplemental kind of pay that you receive because you work at a K-8 school or having a new salary column for K-8 principals. That was a discussion that we told the K8 principals. We shared this with them during the budgetary process. We first wanted to go through the compensation study first, and then we were going to look at addressing the K8 component second. We also, another thing that came up when we were talking with principals were our
064assistant principals. And one thing that we wanted to be able to do. is to conduct another compensation study next year and looking at all of, you know, doing our own internal kind of comparative analysis and then determining what specific work groups need to be in. our next compensation study but we have to consider as dr wilkins stated earlier every time we are going through the budget process we do need to consider if there's a compensation study that needs to be conducted for us so that we can use that data to assist us with our budget proposals Also since you see on this chart where it says bus driver six hour a day 188 day Contract you just want to answer a question that we received earlier in the day on this as well. So on
065our HR webpage We have all of the contract days for each one of our employees that are broke Working down so our bus drivers are on 188 day Contract or monitors 187 day contract and we have bus drivers that are six hour day seven hour day or eight hour a day that's based on the needs of the school division or what contract they get a pair of professionals are on a 6.8 hour a day schedule and they work a 192 day contract Thank you so much. I was gonna ask about the assistant principal so glad I didn't knock one of those off So thank you for that So one of my questions is and I could be reading this wrong. So it's more of a clarifying question, but as I'm looking on slide 8 from
066the presentation the proposed combined budget the work session one I'm looking at slide 8 and I'm looking at the recommendations specifically in terms of paraprofessional number four Elementary school principal middle school principal and the Chiefs and while I completely understand like we've got a long road ahead in order to get this Right am I reading this correctly that the proposed? Three year to five year approach for each of those tiles it doesn't move us the needle in terms of the ranking so that Elementary school principals would still remain six out of eight middle school principals would still remain seven I even with the proposed Increase is that is that just the reality of the situation we're in or? No, so the so the first step would move up for the majority of these categories But
067we're playing for all of these their approach was for the three years for those that are on the lower end of the pay scale to try to move them up quicker and the idea was to move after the three years the first step would be one and then the top step would be four so it's again to bring the entry level up to one and then the top of this scale up to the top half and then for the principals It would be even higher, so the bottom step would be one, and then the top of the step would be one. Correct. So that's what I'm saying. So in year one, most of these would only move up about one ranking for these positions. So just for clarifying then, is this chart showing me the
068movement in year one? It's not showing me the movement in the end result? In year one, yes. Okay, got it. Okay, because I'm looking at... Okay, got it because I was looking at the end game result, which is the three-year five-year approach The reason why we wanted to show you one is because every year we have to come back to be able to get that MRA Reapproved by the school board. So for instance if another school district gives somebody a 1% MRA We were going to want to adjust these in the out years to be able to factor in the fact that other school divisions It's something as well So in terms of the ranking then the first year doesn't move the ranking I'm just curious like when you're having your discussions about the the
069three to five year approach Do you have an idea in mind in terms of where is ranking a part of the thought is it strictly based salary? So yes, so the in ranking is a part of the the thought behind the the strategy that we've used here also as well as where we get to with the Market average so we wanted we're taking into consideration both the market average and the ranking of the other school jurisdictions with the in-game in in play in the front of our head And we want to keep in mind the benefits Package as well and that's something that we keep we're going to continue to talk through because when you look at our benefits Package and that's why we have to every year I hope that we can continue to
070keep in that comparative analysis for benefits Because that is a major factor too that impacts your take-home pay and if we are increasing our salary But we still have a very competitive benefits package. So you know, we're not you know trying to Change our health benefits package for the upcoming school year So we are still kind of ranked at a very high level like we've always been and we're adding a raise to the base salary Which is significant and that's why we're gonna have to keep educating our staff about that So you might not see a change in the rank this upcoming year, but you have to put the factor of your salary increase, and we're still at the high level in regards to our benefits. That take-home pay is not being impacted, which is
071a good thing. Ms. Gentry? Thank you. So back to slide three, and just to re-clarify, and I thank you guys for making this distinct as well, that when we're talking about the confined funds budget, sometimes we're talking about some categories that... Really, we don't necessarily have a lot of control over they kind of run themselves But the only reason why I am bringing up a question about the school nutrition fund is I thought this might be a clarifying opportunity because there have been some reports in the media lately about potentially some different approaches in terms of federal funding for for school lunch programs and stuff like that and I guess I just wanted to know if You know If is there anything that that that we might potentially need to be aware of in that
072regard And I realize that might be a question that's maybe it's folded and maybe it's something for miss miss hormel to follow up on later But I did think that would be you know helpful for us to so right now as as I know it The federal government is not proposing to pay for all school lunches or school breakfasts for all students Obviously if you still qualify for free and reduced meal Then you then you would get our free breakfast or lunch But where that is going in the future I will definitely contact miss Wimmel to be able to get her insight on what she believes the lunch program will Yeah, I think it was actually some concerns that maybe potentially money was going to go away. Well, I'd love it if you were going
073to. Yeah, I don't think I'd feel the need to bring this up if it was. I would just look forward to that showing. It was potentially that. So I just wanted to make sure we were keeping track of those sorts of assumptions. So great, thanks. Ms. Lorber? Thank you. Going back to the. keeping up with the question that Miss Nolan had a minute ago, and I think you responded to it It feels to me like we might get in a little it seems every year all the school districts are going to continue to do their step increases in there so I Understand what you says that's why we have to go back and look but I could see this it may require a sacrifice It's going to require keeping up with the Joneses Totally correct
074about the benefits package, and I think the other thing to keep in mind is aside from Salary because I think it could be you made the point really clearly mr. Turner that we're not trying to become number one we're trying to just be solidly competitive, but What we need to be focusing on more, and I know we're doing this What is it that really keeps teachers and principals here? It's maintaining a nice place to work. We're working on so many fronts, and I think so much of that is also going to contribute to everything from the social-emotional learning to the repair and expansion of our facilities. Yeah, I just want to commend you. I mean, I think it's daunting. I was a little taken aback as I read the study and saw those red numbers,
075and I always kind of thought, hmm, I thought we were more competitive. And yet at the same time, once you figure in the benefits, and then you start to look at all the other ways that are becoming ever more appealing. So I say I think you make a good point miss Lorber the fact that it's you know Compensation is important and I'm speaking of the whole compensation package as well as the learning environment for staff as well as how do we make staff feel when you become a part of the ACPS family. And I think that one of the areas of focus that came out of the HR audit was in regards to customer service. I know that Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Mozingo, they got to attend the Disney training this week. And I was
076getting text messages all day that day. Around you know Disney they say that we don't have customers we have guests right and I'm just like well Yeah, we should have guests in a CBS to you know like you treat a guest different each with a customer So it's just things like that and there were other school divisions and organizations that were part of that That I know dr. Mazingo was sharing with me throughout the day some of the things that they were doing. And, you know, one organization had on Thursdays, they have a thank you Thursday, right, where you just send thank you cards to different people every Thursday and anybody can do it. But it's a way to just build morale within their organization. And we really have to start working on what is
077going to be our brand. You know, what would our staff want us to do? You know, is it a hundred grand bar? We wish we could give you a hundred thousand, but here's your hundred grand bar. Whatever it is. I used to do that with my teachers. back in the day, and they loved it. But that was the teachers for the school that I was a principal at, right? I don't know if ACPS, they would be like, Dr. Hudgens, take the 100-gram bar back. Give me some money. Take your 100-gram bar. You didn't waste it on dollars. So, you know, we really have to, and that's not a healthy choice. It is not a healthy choice. That's right, I'm not doing that. So that's a good point. Actually, that's a really good point. And with
078our policy, we're not supposed to have any incentives that are attached to food anyway. That's one of our policies, everybody. So I was listening in our principals meeting this week if Jennifer Abruzzese is here. Those are incentives that we do need to work on, and that's a part of our work out of our HR plan to form committees so that we can determine. So it's not something that Dr. Hutchings or the board, that we're deciding what our staff want in lieu of just pay. We're helping them be at the table to help us determine what are some incentive programs that we can have. So it's a great point and point taken. Mr. Suarez. Thanks, sure Anderson, so this is one of the first times we were able to talk about the budget I actually had
079a question on the revenue side of the ledger so I'm on page 77 of the budget book And one of my hobby horses is the composite index because I think it deserves us quite a bit And I had seen the announcement in December from Governor Northam First, on the $145.1 million increase for the 3% teacher raise, and I know, Dominic, Mr. Turner, you had mentioned that before, but there was also a mention of $140.4 million for at-risk, which I was excited about. But when I look at page 77 of the revenue... fiscal year 2020, and maybe I'm reading this wrong, so that's why I want to make sure I understand. The at-risk allocation from the state was $937,110, and in 2021, it seems to be $1,079,801 for a difference of $142,000. It just seems to
080me, logically, if the increase in at-risk is $140 million in the state, given how high our at-risk population is, that seems like a very... minimal increase and so I just want to understand what the thinking is around the at-risk budgeting and if this is something that we're not going to realize this year and maybe in a future year because that that is obviously money we can use and based on my conversations with our state reps even with the democratic majority it doesn't seem like we're going to get a change to the composite index anytime soon but that the at-risk you know add-on is a potential opportunity for us and given how much our funding is skewed toward the city allocation. I'm hoping something could happen there. So I'm just kind of curious what if help
081me understand this I know like title one funding and federal funding isn't really reflected in this table because that's in the grants and special projects but for the at-risk I I'm assuming this is where it's supposed to be Correct. Currently, that is just proposed. And then once the General Assembly goes ahead and finalizes the budget, we'll be able to get the state revenue calculated to be able to see exactly what our dollars will be for 2021. Right now, the calculator that we're using, so just to explain the calculator, is based on the average daily membership of here in ACPS. And then that's how all of these numbers on this page that Mr. Suarez is talking about is. um generated um so right now um we have estimated in that the additional dollars are coming but
082again it's based on that calculator so the state provides us with that calculator to be able to enter our adm or average daily membership um to be able to generate these different numbers um and then i believe the 145 is across the biennium so across the two years um as well um so Just want to make sure everybody's aware that when we're talking about the governor's budget, it's across two years and not just one fiscal year. Hopefully that answers it. Ms. Gentry? Thank you. So you can consider this more of a front-loading question for when we have our joint meeting with the city. This question will be asked and I think it's a healthy question to ask so I'm looking at slide 11 and usually there is a discussion moment about Combining you know when
083are there opportunities for the cities and the schools to combine together and I guess so We've heard good answers over the years of why we haven't in terms of in terms of the health insurance So I actually think it might be kind of a two-part thing that you know, feel free to comment on it now But again, I just anticipate it being a natural question for when our joint bodies get together, you know to be able to elaborate so Hey, I'm curious. Are we aware of any school to any of our neighboring school divisions that that do combine with the with? You know the the city or county on their on their health on their health insurance because I think that might be a helpful data point for everyone to understand. And then just, you
084know, the pros and cons and why we haven't done that. I'll just simply say that we'll follow up on that and get back to the board. Yep. Just on for those that don't know the reason why we haven't thus far it would cost a CBS more money if we join the risk pool of the city our employees typically are younger than the employees of the city, so if we were to join and Them then our risk pool Those increases correct and therefore the premiums that we would pay would also increase if we would I guess so I guess I just want to make sure I could see maybe someone saying well sure but since the money ultimately comes from the city anyway is there ultimately you know I can see someone asking the question is
085there ultimately bottom line attacks you know even if it goes up for one but but it went down for the other and then the you know I look forward to you guys being able to explain that. The joint me. Because, yeah, I can't think of a single joint session where that question hasn't come up. And I can see why members of the public, it's a good education moment for members of the public as well. Well, again, the question certainly has merit and has been studied in the past, as you mentioned, but there are reasons why we're not doing it. I just want to say that I would like to update. The board on where we stand currently with respect to other jurisdictions that may be looking at it that are doing it or that are
086that have it under study Work with our Segal consultants as well as far as any insights they might provide and then get back to the fantastic That's great. Thank you Ms. Anderson, I just want to thank Ms. Lorber for her comment about culture because I mean that's been well documented that who you have as a boss which is why the principal salary is so critical because who you have as a boss is often a direct contributor to the retention of employees as well as the culture and so my question is about like how are we capturing that feedback from from personnel you know because I know that frankly we haven't had we've had above national What is it we have not met the national retention rate of teachers like in the last few years at
087least the friends I've been a board member and you know, we've had turnover in certain schools that have been well above even just our own district rate and so I know, Dr. Hutchings, that's a huge priority for you, which is capturing feedback and making sure we're listening from staff. And I know that you've been revisiting how to do that in terms of surveys. So do you mind taking a moment to just share with the board and the public, what is your methodology moving forward about how we're going to be capturing to get to Ms. Lorber's point about culture being such a critical piece of the retention in addition to the salary and benefits? Because if we're not going to be able to pay in the top quartile, I imagine that's going to be a huge
088focus of you. yours is how do we make ACPS the top place to work and then the second piece I'm curious about is also just like are there certain groups that are involved not just with the data from surveys but also I imagine EAA and you know you were saying talking to the the health care committee is going to be critical like you're making sure that you know there's pockets of groups too that we're getting anecdotal evidence in addition to like the capturing the school personnel data and cultures I'm just curious about what's your plan and vision moving forward now that you've had a year under your belt and you're thinking about that? So a lot of that is actually going to come out of the HR audit. And a part of one of the
089recommendations was that we had, which we agreed with, the management agreed with as well, was having some of the stay surveys as well as other data just from our staff in regards to kind of like how do they feel about how we're operating as a school division? Do they feel supported? Things of that nature so we are going to be providing the board our Update on HR and I don't want to get the date wrong But I know it's going to be in the next couple of months And we'll be able to share more information regarding that action Plan I know that that is scheduled it wasn't scheduled for it for this year as one of our areas of focus But I know this year was supposed to be development of what the plan is
090going to be to be able to capture the climate somewhat of a climate survey, but we wanted to get away from You know we had Many staff members with the perception that some of our climate surveys we've done in the past No action was taken from it. So we wanted to make sure that we one have our staff members at the table with how we're going to survey them. That's the first thing. But two, to just have a different way of surveying our staff members. And, you know, we may have to be a little more creative and I don't want to jump the gun, Dr. Wilkins, but. you know, and maybe having focus groups as well as some of the survey data that we have because people having a discussion around, you know, what you're
091thinking in regards to climate, that anecdotal data is very useful and helpful, especially if you do a random sample and it's not just people who sign up. you know, but going out so you can really have a very diverse perspective when you're getting that anecdotal data. So those are some of the things, but we'll have a better explanation for you when we do our HR update. Thank you so much. That's super helpful, and I appreciate how much of a priority it is, I know, for you and the division. So my one follow-up question is, if I'm not mistaken, would this year be the year that it's every other year as of now we've done the TEL survey? Are we planning on still doing that this year? I know, is it this year being the one?
092So it is, but we've had some discussions about combining some of our surveys this spring, and we're still working through how to, so we don't have to do multiple surveys, because there's a lot of data that we're trying to collect this year. One is where this is our final year of our strategic plan. We're trying to collect data on that, so things to know for the next strategic plan. The climate data or TEL survey data is another area. Our equity audits is another. So we're trying to find a way that we are getting the information that we need, but we're... not surveying our staff multiple times so I will be able to provide a board brief about that this is a discussion we've been having for the past couple of months with our accountability office
093but I will be sure to have an update for the board about that too thank you I just want to say I really appreciate the understanding of like when there's no action behind it then people don't because that was a significant there's been a significant drop in the tell us every and that was the number one piece of feedback the board was receiving that it's the same results every time and there's been no adjustment so really appreciate that being a focus of like what's one thing to collect the feedback but then if we don't act on and it lose this trust and participation. Totally agree. And it actually came out of my 100-day data as well. So I heard the same thing the board heard previously. I got to hear last year from staff that
094they felt that we were collecting this information and then what are we doing with it and we're not sharing back out, okay, well, this is what we have collected, so these are some of our trends. So what we have to be able to do, and we also have to be able to do that with the board. when we're looking at our key performance indicators. We need to be able to report back to say, these are common threads that we see based on our data, and then this is what our action plan is to address that. And that's the kind of process we're going to have to have in place in order to have that continuous improvement that I know everybody around this table is seeking. Once we get those processes and systems in place, that
095will just be a part of our culture soon. And, you know, we won't have people saying, well, what are you doing with all this information, Dr. Hutchings? Dr. Reif? Thank you for your work, the Segal and Waters Consulting. I really appreciate it. I think this was a great idea to do the compensation study, and it's really helpful, and I'm glad that we're going to be looking at other employment groups in the future. I just want to say that I'm a little disappointed that we don't have any plan to do a bump for our paraprofessionals one and two. I certainly understand that, you know, You know, this study was designed to determine market competitiveness, and I hear that those are market competitive salaries, but, you know, according to my math and entry level, paraprofessional one is
096paid $22,090. That's their base salary, and I just think that that's, you know, that's just really, you know, just... As a member of this community who pays taxes, it just makes me really sad that that's the rate that we're paying some folks who I know are working really hard in our schools. And I know there was a Alexandria Housing Summit. I wasn't able to attend. I saw that you were on the agenda, Dr. Hutchings, but I did see some data from that, and I just wanted to share it out. The annual salary needed to rent an average two bedroom in the city of Alexandria in 2019 is $91,840. And the annual salary needed to rent an average one bedroom in the city is $74,040. So, you know, I just, this is just kind of a
097broader question. I know it's not something that we're going to be able to solve with this budget, but. The city we're talking a lot about affordable housing and I think that you know increasing the housing stock is important But I also think public paying our public Sector employees is also really important So I just wanted to put that out there and if you I don't know if you have any Thing you want to share about going to the housing summit. I'd certainly be interested in hearing it So one I do, one I want to say that all of our staff members are very important to us. I want to make that clear to everybody. And that was one of the reasons why we wanted to ensure that 87.5% of our staff would have that step
098increase, which on average is about 2.63% on their base salary or increase on their base salary. And then those who are not eligible who will receive that 2% one-time payment so that everybody's getting something. And I think that I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said it's difficult to do it all at once, right? So we have to really be very fiscally responsible and also rational with how we, you know, work through these different employee groups. because it is almost impossible to do everybody at one time. So I think that as long as we are now saying we have a system in place where during our budget season every year, we are doing first a preliminary, like a compensation review to determine what groups we need to look at. So
099we're already saying we're taking that step. and that's something that we're going to continuously do that we are able to capture if we see salaries slipping below where we want to be and we're not waiting until it's so significant that people are complaining about you know their salaries and i think that's that's a vow that we're taking um in regards to the alexandra housing uh summit from saturday i was able to just serve on a panel i didn't get to attend the entire A session because I was at volleyball most of the day, but I did come back to do my panel discussion and it was specifically around affordable housing in the city of Alexandria. And one of the points that that I made there that that we're making it was we meet with the
100city with our Douglas MacArthur project, as well as with the Minnie Howard project, is the fact that, you know, it's really bigger than just affordable housing. We need to start looking at workplace housing as well. Because I shared at the summit 37% of ACPS employees live in the city of Alexandria. Now that's high compared to the city employees. However, you know, it would be nice to have our employees living in our city because one, your commute is less, which means your stress level is going to be like spot on when you walk in. It won't be like, because that's why I live down the street, because I can't go through all this traffic. It's not okay. And with all the construction this summer, I got a taste of just going down the street, what that
101felt like. So I can't imagine driving from Prince William County to here like many of our teachers do every day and our staff members do every day. So in order for us to change that narrative, we are going to have to be creative with how do we ensure. That when we're making these decisions around workplace housing if if it's going to be a part of you know Any new structures that we do in the future? How can we ensure that you know there's an allocation for workforce housing? That's for ACPS staff you know in particular and be that specific about that You know if we're going to do something that relates to a school And I'm just speaking of like the mini Howard project because we had a meeting about that today I mean most
102teachers, they wouldn't mind living above a Minnie Howard project, right? Because they're going to be closer to work, right? And we're always having new teachers and different teachers coming in. So we're going to always have some tenants in those facilities. And I know that the Union Mill, it was something that Ms. Nolan shared with me recently. And it's a project that's in the city of Baltimore where they have housing for teachers. And, you know, I got to review that over the weekend. Phenomenal, you know, concept. where there are apartments, they actually have like, you know, planning labs where you can plan with your neighbor, you know, who's also a teacher, right, in your building, and a lot of different incentives. I mean, we have to start being very innovative and creative in that way. And
103I think that Alexandria now is ready. for that is that's what I got if we're having it. That was our first, you know, summit, housing summit. So that's telling us that, you know, our city is ready to do something very innovative and different, and this is the right time. Ms. Alderton? So I guess two things. I kind of just wanted to respond a little bit to Ms. Reif as well because I think, you know, when you look at that number, it is very sad. What we are constantly, we're in such a difficult position. This is such a difficult position because we are constantly battling a societal devaluation of education. And so we're scrimping, we're scraping, we're trying to figure out who to pay, when to pay. It shouldn't even be like this in the first
104place. And so, you know, I think... Obviously, we have to do as much as we can, but as much as we can get to our top legislators and whoever the powers that be that say, we as a society have to do a lot better in how we're valuing this profession. When you pay people who provide direct service to children what we pay people who provide direct services to children, that just shows. what we value. And so it's a long battle and it keeps coming up and I don't even know, you know, sometimes I think I know where to begin and then there's like so many different layers that you have to uncover. So I hear you loud and clear, like I hear our parents loud and clear, I hear everybody loud and clear and I
105think, you know, as much as we can go beyond ourselves to start really pushing these issues. Like, as a group, as larger groups, I think that's what we have to do. Because we need the money. If we can put as much money as we do into militarization, you know, I just don't get it. I'll just leave that at that. Secondly, in regards, we've talked a lot about recruitment and retention. I think we have to keep in mind the recruitment piece as well. And so, you know, if we're not going to be able to offer the shiny dollars on top of, like, what are we doing to keep employees? I think as a board, we need to think about how we can work with staff to decide and determine, like, what's the shiny bow? that we're
106going to put on the package to get people even to want to come. I think that's a big part of the work as well. What is that shiny brand, that thing that we want to push and promote and package to bring? Because we don't just want to recruit. I don't just want to recruit. I want to recruit the best. You can hire people, but we don't want bodies. We don't need bodies in ACPS. We need the top. professionals in ACPS. And so I think that's part of our work. You know, we need to figure out and work with Dr. Hutchings and his staff to figure out how we do that. Ms. Nolan? Yeah, I just want to say I couldn't agree more with what Ms. Alterton and Ms. Reif said. In fact, I had already
107asked to get on the queue and then Ms. Reeve, when she spoke, I just wanted to be like, yep, ditto. Like that's actually the last thing I wanted to say. And just to add to that a little bit, I think one of the reasons, to add to what Ms. Alderson just said, why these conversations are so critical is that also the job has changed. You know, you're expected to be everything now when you're teaching in a class. It's not just instruction and education. And so, you know, so the retention rate nationwide of teachers has gone down. But what's even really scary is the conversation that people are having nationwide about how few people are majoring in. in education today. Gone are the days that you can just expect a huge... Talent pool to choose from
108and then we're in a unique situation in Alexandria where there are a lot of options I mean even you know all the jurisdictions that we are not in a similar jurist area of the country where it's just this is the only school system if you want to go in education there are a lot of options so I just couldn't agree more with what Miss Alderson said is that we really need to consider like what is our value proposition as to and like what is the ACPS way and in addition to recruiting it's like As we all know, I mean, we've heard the stories in the HR audit that we are sometimes, I'm sure this is going to change under your leadership, Dr. Wilkins, but sometimes the last one to get back to people. Even something
109as little as that, that the people that want to come teach in ACPS, they want to be here with this community, but if you're not the first one to respond to them, and then how are we mentoring them and retaining them and making sure that we're constantly keeping them? So I think all of this is so critical to the conversation. I just also wanted to say that... I do think the paraprofessionals, that was disappointing in terms of how much they do. I've heard a lot of feedback from paraprofessionals in terms of their disappointment. They didn't feel that they were more of a spotlight in the special education audit and the work that they do. And also, we've heard various concerns about in terms of what are their hours compared to hours in other jurisdictions. Paid
110versus unpaid you know I'm saying I just think we want to make sure we're comparing apples to apples with the pair of professionals in particular because they are such a critical part of The education we provide and maybe it'd be worth having a focus group from you. Dr Hutchings and dr Wilkins getting to hear from them on the ground that they can articulate way better than any of us at this board table as to what's going to keep them if they're not in that plan so That's just a suggestion. I would share Because the other thing too is I just I just wanted to end with I just can't appreciate enough from this Alderson's point about like this is just as a society, an issue. People say all the time now, oh, you know what,
111you've really got to concentrate is early childhood. You want to talk about who's making an hourly rate. I mean, I know that's not under our purview, but we as a society are now saying that should be the focus, and they're getting paid less than any of these hourly wage positions. So just wanted to shine a spotlight on that as well in terms of what ratio of value that is and disproportionate one at that. So just some thoughts I wanted to share, but I especially just wanted to share that perhaps like... with paraprofessionals not being here, if we could maybe have some sort of a commitment to them, because I know they're just such a critical piece of our education, that maybe we can offer something more and have some special thoughts about what's the culture
112that's going to retain them if they're not going to be in this five-year approach. So just some feedback I wanted to share. And I think it really, it's around multiple, you know, staff groups, you know, because some staff groups are not even in this compensation study. So, you know, what I'm taking from this is that we just need to find a way to really talk to all the different employee groups and hear from them. What are some things that are concerns and what are some incentives that could help? And in regards to you feeling more valued in ACPS, I think that's something that we definitely can commit to. I also just want to say amen, sister, is what I wanted to say while you were talking, but I couldn't because I didn't have the mic
113on. And I'm saying amen about because I'm not in church, everybody. And I'm not promoting church to anyone either. So I want to just make that clear to everybody. That's just me saying amen. I'm not telling you to say it. But it was in regards to like us making sure we have what I'm calling the paradigm shift, especially at central office from management to support. Right. So when somebody calls and you don't call back, that's because you feel you're in management and you don't have to. Right. When you shift the culture to central office is actually a support to the schools. We are supposed to bend over backwards to do whatever they need and to get them what they need so that kids can have what they need every single day. And this is something
114that we were just recently talking with our principals about. And I was sharing with them that, you know, the principalship is supposed to be the most autonomous position ever. I mean, I loved being a principal because I had autonomy. I told him as a superintendent. They're really never my decisions everyone because somebody's influenced me to do something different I never get to do exactly what I want to do because there's so many politics involved in it sometimes But in the the principle ship because they have so much autonomy We should be bending over backwards trying to remove the barriers Give them the additional supports trying to make a way saying don't worry about it. We got it You know if you're out we're coming in, you know that type of thing And that hasn't been
115our culture. You know, we have always really had a very top down approach. And, you know, I've been telling people, you know, the goal is not to come to central office to tell people what to do. The goal is to come here and to be a servant. You know, that's really you're here to serve. And that is very, very, very different philosophy. That is going to take us some time, but I have been consistent in regards to the messaging around that internally at the central office level. And I know that we are going to see over time a huge paradigm shift in how we support. And I know that the culture is just going to change with that. But it's going to start with us at central office. And I think the first thing is
116admitting that we have this very management top-down style. that it's just not working and it's not giving us what we need in regards to staff morale. Now I'm going to say hallelujah to all of that. Ms. Lorber. Okay, well, I'm going to bring it back to Dr. Reif, and I wish I had made that point because I was thinking it the whole time. It seemed so ironic to me that because paraprofessionals one and two were not markedly below the average, that that meant they were sort of exempt from the plan. And, I mean, when you look at the salary. distance within the school system and again and that's part of the big picture that that was all that was talking about that our Society is the way things have happened But I wanted to take
117it one step further than having a focus group with our pair of professionals one and two wouldn't it be possible for us just in the same way that We've adjusted for support staff versus professional staff in terms of the portion this ACPS pays for benefits some other little supports that end up financially supporting the lowest paid members of our infrastructure, of our staff, if there could be other incentives that make their life a little, whether it's free parking, bus passes. some incentive around health care. I'm not even sure to what degree paraprofessionals, they do get health benefits, right? So maybe giving them, doing some really, really concrete steps that perhaps wouldn't cost a huge fortune but could make someone earning $20,000 a year or $22,000 a year could make a huge difference. So I would
118just like to throw that out there to see if there's some way we can actually do something that's very specific and concrete to make the life easier of the folks on these really, really minimal sounds. So in the current fiscal year we actually did do something like that. Our support staff that were grade 25 or higher used to pay the 20% that everybody else paid. Now we've moved all support staff to the same. So instead of, we used to have three different Classes doTERRA's Thank You Robert 10 16 and 20% now we just have two so all support staff regardless of your grade on The 10 and then everybody else on the 20% And so I think that we do need to expand some of, you know, potential incentives for really all staff members. I
119just want us to be careful to, and I love our peer professionals, everybody, but I want us to be careful because we have multiple employee groups that are in that same salary range. So, you know, we don't want to set up a system that. if you do a compensation study and if your employee group is in there that you get something right because the purpose in doing the employee study is to find out where staff are in comparison to other school divisions and then you have to make decisions based off that and if if if we begin to make decisions based off of what we think that you are a low paid employee so we want to now bump you up We have other people who are also in that same category. And we have
120to have, as an organization, and I'm speaking as an organization and not necessarily, you know, personally, what my personal views are, but as an organization, we have to look at, you know, what can we do that is actually going to be, you know, equitable and responsible as an organization to compensate, you know, our staff based on the information. that we have. So I just want to keep that at that high level because the peer professionals happen to be in this particular compensation study because when we did our internal comparative analysis, that was one of the groups that came up as a potential concern for us. That was why they were included. Yeah. I totally hear you. I mean, I think what Dr. Reif was probably getting at and what I'm getting at is, again, the
121societal problem. There's an issue here if we're teaching equity, et cetera, as a school system that says... When we do these compensation studies, maybe we're discovering a huge flaw across the board that nobody who works in a school system who's doing that, they're all doing valuable work that contributes to the education of our kids. Nobody should be earning. under 35,000 years, let's say. And the fact that the other school districts are letting that happen, if we want to be the ones who stand out and do the right thing, then it no longer is that we're comparing ourselves to others. And I know you know, it means we have to think outside of the box and decide, okay, we're going to set a new standard. It might mean that we cut... Some how in other ways
122I don't know what they are but I I just feel there's something a little flawed in the thinking that a compensation study allows us to justify a low salary because everybody else is paying the same low salary to that category of Employee so my feeling would be if we can if there's some way to get out of that box and say as a school division we we value every single person and you know, the whole livable wage thing. And we all know $15 an hour. Who can live on $15 an hour in the city of Alexandria, right? So again, I'm just, and I think what I love about this board is that I know we all kind of have the same philosophy and I know that Dr. Hutchings does as well. And I don't feel
123like I'm trying to be pie in the sky. I think I'm trying to be in keeping with our equitable. approach to things so it's yeah, just the core value that that we may be the ones who Do it differently than all the other school. So I agree with you miss Laura And I also think that, you know, as I said before, we do have to look at all of the employee groups. And in regards to the paraprofessionals, I mean, there are other things that we still do need to explore. And those are some of the conversations around consistency with their time and their schedules, having conversations around their lunch duty and breaks. that they have at the school level. Those are things that are happening this spring as well that are discussions that are separate
124from the compensation study, but those are also, I believe, you know, a form of an incentive in how you're, you know, making sure that it may not be compensation, but how are we ensuring that you're getting, you know, what you really deserve in regards to like a lunch break, those types of things, and hours. So we're going to be working through that throughout this spring as well. Mr. Suarez? Thanks, Chair Anderson. Yeah, I would say that I agree in principle with what everyone's been saying, and I share this sort of concern about the sort of disrespect for the teaching profession, the fact that we need to elevate the teaching profession and treat the whole... Profession of education with more respect in our country. It's a huge societal problem And I guess sort of in my
125reflection of what's been said, you know, I'm thinking back to you know This is my second budget process the first budget process. We had some bumps in the road I thought dr. Hutchings and the team you made some really great adjustments this year for the budget process in terms of Helping you know working with the board to get out in front and with the priorities we're going to be aligning on those priorities presenting you know what those Priorities were to the public and then aligning the budget to that and so I think you know this year I feel like the budget process moving that much more smoothly I think going going back to the sort of these comments and my question from earlier I think something that we could all get more sophisticated and is
126understanding the revenue side of the equation. I think for far too long, the board has kind of been a passive recipient of, you know, this is what the city allocation is, this is what the state allocation is, this is what the, you know, grants are in the community, and just kind of accepting that as a given. And so I hope that maybe we can think about, you know, whether it's in a work session or in conversations in the future, a way to maybe front load that revenue conversation going forward. cycles so that all the board can really understand how all those pieces sort of go in on the revenue side and so that we can sort of to miss alderton's point you know be more effective in coming up with proactive solutions on how to
127change the narrative around acps because the reality is is you know we just had a communication study last week where realtors are you know telling people don't send your kid to acps you know that's what our taxpayers are hearing you know when they buy a house here you know and we have to disabuse those sorts of perceptions in the community to get the taxpayers more invested in supporting our schools. We need to have the same conversations perhaps with our state level representatives and legislators. And I think, I personally know I could use some skill building in that respect and I'm sure all of us would benefit from that. So it's just a reflection in terms of maybe how we can front load that revenue conversation. Perhaps for... part of this budget cycle. And it kind
128of goes back to my question from before, like, you know, if the Democrats vote for that at-risk add-on? Is that something where the calculator changes and then we can maybe have some more money for this year? Because I think given the unique needs of our division, we need to push that lever as far as we can. And going back to the paraprofessional conversation, I frankly think a paraprofessional here may need more training and have a level of sophistication that's more creative than in another school division. If we're talking about whether TAG is a push-in or a pull-out, what are the... what's the paraprofessional's role going to be in that kind of situation? So I just think there's a lot of things, you know, going back to what has been said about thinking outside the box,
129thinking creatively, I think that's another area, maybe thing we can think about more in our budget process going forward so that we can, you know, not only, because we do always feel so constrained. And I think if the board feels like it's putting its best foot forward on that revenue piece and helping staff in that respect, you know, then we can get to an even better place. Dr.. E. Thank you. Did you miss Chanty? Did you want to say anything before me? I'm sorry. Oh Sorry, you look like you look like you had something to say over there Since this is the meeting. I get to ditto everybody else. Terrific, great. Dr. Hutchings, since this is the meeting to talk about personnel, I just wanted to ask, if that's okay, I can ask you a
130question from in the personnel reports. One of the groups that I certainly hope get in a future compensation study are the parent liaisons because I also think that's another position that. Could stand a pay a pay increase probably but I just I was wondering this kind of came up miss Laura brought it up at the board meeting I was wondering how the Reorganization if at all was going to be affecting the face Center and where the parent liaisons are housed Looking in here. It looks like There are bilingual parent liaisons that are becoming bilingual specialists. I just want to make sure we're not losing any Parent liaison so I had a question about that and then the other thing was This is page if anybody has the book. It's page 121 122 and 123 In
131just looking at like the different areas Positions by program and seeing sort of where positions are seem to be going down. I noticed that both in transportation and operations and management, they seem to be losing positions. And I know those are areas where we've had, you know, certainly a lot of, you know, concerns, complaints from the community this year. And so I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit to some of those changes in the transportation and operations and maintenance. So one we are not losing any of our parent liaisons, so that's that's not on on a part of our proposed budget when In regards to the reorganization, the only title of the department is changing, and that's for the overall title of the department, which will now be Community and School
132Relations. But there's still a face office. There's still, you know, all those departments haven't changed. It's just the chief of school and community relations is now going to bring communications and community partnerships and all that together. So it's just giving. a name for all of those offices so that that doesn't change in regards to our transportation piece you will see a We used some of the bus driver vacancy positions to help us offset the cost of the compensation increase that we are proposing in the budget so One thing and I shared this with the with the bus drivers a couple of weeks ago or last week when I met with them prior to me doing my proposal was We have a total of 19 vacancies that we haven't filled, some of them in two years.
133And we are at a place now where we're still not 100% every day. I know that. But we are way better off than we were just two months ago with even less, you know, bus drivers. So we are still retaining the 10 vacancies, but we're using nine vacancies. to help us offset the cost to increase those salaries and that's to help bump up people who are already here and working in our schools. So that was a part of that plan. In regards to the facilities. The decreases in the FTEs some of those FTEs actually are set aside in the reserve fund Because we're going through this reorg with our facilities and operations We did not want to specifically allocate names of positions when we haven't finalized the responsibilities of those different directors and we hadn't
134had the approval of The reorg at the time the budget was proposed so we set those aside So over the next couple of months we can begin to identify What are the positions that are needed to support this new structure that we have so those FTEs are set aside? Miss Nolan Thank you so much dr Hutchins because actually that was prompted me to ask two questions at the reorg one that you just spoke to is that do you feel the confidence that you know when there's new positions that are created there's going to have to be folks that support them or resources that are dedicated to the Position in order to set them up for success So thanks for answering that question that like that that has been thought through and that the positions have
135been set aside and all the resources to succeed and so thank you for that. So then that leaves me with my last question in terms of the rear. Can you just, I know... Pass boards and situations have occurred when during the budget it was sort of a surprise to the board that you know There wasn't an understanding that certain positions were being lost like do you mind just publicly sharing how there's no other? Positions that you know you you you presented your org chart that that's what's the hang There's no other like hidden positions because I know and again just so just to clarify for the public sake because I mean good point just so just so folks can can know that I Had a parent call me in a panic and bless her heart,
136as my friends would say, is that she actually looked at the budget and the day was that there was a concern about, like, oh, gosh, are you guys taking away the elementary school librarians? And we're like, no. So if you could just publicly state that the, you know, you... Yes. So when I presented out, and that was something that was very intentional, and it was something that actually came out of a lesson learned even from last year from the board, was that we want to make sure we're being transparent around any changes or any decreases or elimination of positions. And those were all highlighted in the presentation to the board. There's nothing secretly behind in the budget that you're going to find. Somebody's not. here or not going to be here in the future. And
137another thing I think is important, and I shared this with, I can't remember what group I was talking with last week, but you have to be careful when you're looking at the 500-page budget because sometimes, so for example, if you don't know how to read it, right, because you may have, it may look like you have a minus librarian, but that there's a plus where you see encore. or vice versa. It's in another section in there. You just don't know that that's where it is. So sometimes items are moved to group positions into one category, and they're taken out of their individual FTE, like librarian. It might be grouped in a group of FTEs that totals eight. So if you don't have all those specific details, it makes it somewhat difficult to find. And that's
138why we wanted to front load information of anyone that's being eliminated, that that is already up front. You're not going to go find it. Nobody's going to be telling the board that somebody's eliminated. The superintendent's going to be informing the board that somebody's eliminated, and it won't be a surprise. No surprises on both ends, right? We don't want surprises. And then just on that, since you mentioned the 500-page budget book, the budget office is working on our bite snack meal. So our bite is the budget at a glance that you see on 16 and 17. Our snack is the where the money goes document, which will be presented at our second work session. It's already been sent out to BAC and principals. And then our meal is the 500-page budget document. Great thing. Mr. Turner
139Because I know people will be interested and I know they went straight to the budget line when the budget was posted the custodial line I see a decrease in two custodians from FY 20 to FY 21 if you could please explain Sure, as we said last year that as custodians are leaving then we would not refill those custodian positions. So as any So any custodian that leaves to get another job or retire those positions, we're trying to avoid the same situation that we've had in previous years with backfilling vacant positions. So I don't understand. So there's a decrease in the proposed. So there's a decrease. So someone's leaving? Yeah. So if somebody retires or resigns from a position, we don't post it in as a vacancy to hire someone. What would end up happening is
140it's now outsourced through our company. And that was a part of the agreement that if any custodian moving forward resigns, you know, retires, leaves the organization. I get it. So two are retiring or two are leaving. Two are not returning for whatever reason multiple it could be multiple reasons. Thank you for super any other question Dr. B Has thank you for that question miss green since you asked that I was wondering the schools that have transitioned to the contract custodians I think it was GW and Minnie Howard. I was just wondering if you could update us on how that's working out over there So I think that will be a good point that we'll make during our facilities update. I know that's coming up in February So I'll be sure to have a section that
141provides a report on you know work orders and Cleanliness of those builders. I'll make a point to do that. I had one small question about so we're gonna have Staff moving from one building to another are there any extra compensation hours slotted for that So, yes, we do have a practice in place where when staff members are moving from one location to another that they are compensated to help with packing those materials. In this particular situation for Douglas MacArthur, I'm assuming that's the school that you're referring to. That's the only school that should be moving, right? I'm like, that's the only school that's moving, everybody. I don't want any more emails tonight. So you know their their situation is not similar to how like Patrick Henry was going right across They were just carrying a
142box over you know right in the back Their stuff has to be low that you know it has to be packed and it's shipped to the school And then they have to go and unpack so yes, we do have procedures in place to compensate staff for moves Super great. I just wanted to thank Mr. Torres, too, for his thinking about we do need to get more on the advocacy bandwagon. And I'll have to say I was very happy that... Mayor Wilson invited me to their legislative because we had met and he said you know you should come to our time when we were meeting with the legislators, so I got to be in that meeting and hear what was interesting and what was very smart is that Miss Taylor went and asked them all to
143give their priorities before saying anything to see what was very fascinating And what I will tell you is that the shock to me was because of the changeover, there's so many issues that they wanted, so many things they want to change, that even though we think it might be good for us, we were not on anyone's list. And so that was like, wha. So just to tell you that, that was a big shocker that I was sitting there and thinking, no one really mentioned. Education except for actually the things that you were working on but it wasn't about funding You know it wasn't about there was no funding and you know so what we we did have the legislative breakfast in Arlington But actually dr. Hutchings I have talked about having one here next year
144so that we can really talk about our issues our funding needs And we did read you know what so I did I did because Jennifer gave me, she sent me because I told her I was going to the meeting and she saved me the trouble of looking for our legislative, I did share that with the legislators who were there, our platform, and they did say to me, no one's ever done this before. So there's definitely some room for improvement there and I think that, and then actually at the legislative breakfast. Delegate Herring said she might want to meet, but I think the holidays and it just didn't work out this time, but we'll keep on that. And I think if we do it on legislation, because we don't have, even though we share someone who
145advocates for us, we do have different needs. It's good to really have our own relationship with people. So thanks for bringing that up. Would you like to, Dr. Hodge? I was going to say that, you know, the superintendents, we're also having that same conversation. We used to, superintendents as a body, a group, used to go and actually lobby and meet with our legislators. And it hasn't happened in several years. And we were just talking with our Virginia Association of School Superintendents to say we really need to bring that back because what ends up happening is we're relying on. our legislators to speak for us. And sometimes they have sound bites and bits and pieces of things, and which they're good advocates, but actually coming from the superintendents, I think is a lot more, we believe
146is a lot more powerful. So we were not able to get that in this year, but we are pushing to have our Virginia Association of School Superintendents to get back to lobbying, having superintendents actually lobby in Richmond. Definitely good, definitely good. Anyone else? Do you have anything else? January 30th will be the second work session. We'll be going over it non-person. So don't think you have the week off because we have a retreat on Tuesday and then we have a meeting on Thursday. So we still, that's why the other one's not until the end of the month. All right, then I think we're done. Thank you, everyone. Yes, that's a good point mr. Turner could you you have that candy to know that So the deadline to submit questions is noon on January 23rd so
147a week from today And that's the same day as the I don't have them. Sorry It's in the budget book. It is in the budget book. Correct. It's in the budget book. It's on the new calendar that was just adopted tonight, as well as the superintendent's proposed budget presentation as well. Yeah. Right. And it is in your calendar. So if you look for it, it's in your calendars. And I will say, I realize that we have questions due at noon, and then we actually have a public hearing that evening. So I told, so that's the thing, it's always massaging the calendar because there's always something, and if you move one thing, it impacts everything else. So I did make a point of that at PTAC so that they could let people know that, you know,
148questions sooner rather than later. You don't wait until the hearing. So maybe they heard me. Maybe I'll send another message to the PTAC president just to say if there's anything. They see that's just glaring that they should let us know before the public hearing I believe you might be getting some from BAC as well Perhaps oh good. All right. So yes. Thank you everyone