001on it. >> Oh, yeah. Aaron test. >> Yeah. Good sound. All right, it's now 5:30 on February 16th. We're going to go ahead and start the HR meeting. Um, I don't see anybody here for public comment, so we're just going to go right into the consent agenda if anybody has any questions about it. Is there anything you want to discuss about it? You >> I do. I yes I have one comment I would like to make which is that we as you can see have done a lot of extracurricular hiring for the spring season as well as some noncertified staff appointments to round out the staff for the rest of the year. There is no consent agenda in tonight's meeting, but right before I came into this meeting, I received the resignation of a teacher
002who will be leaving at the end of the school year, and she her name will be on the consent agenda for next week. So, there will be one item on the consent agenda. So, that was all, >> can I ask you why so many track coaches? Um, I don't know that answer, but I will find out for you. >> I can find out. >> Go ahead, Linda. >> Um, being new to this committee here, um, the extracurricular just seem to be a lot of So, are those resignations under the staff resignations? The extracurricular, >> these are all appointments. Well, these are um resign. These are actually I believe appointments for um Yeah. Yeah. I Oh, I think >> Linda, I think there was just two staff resignations and then there's that highlighted extracurricular letting you
003know we have >> these are appointments that are are starting. Got it. >> And we are the spring musical has some very welldefined roles and so these are appointments and I we should clean that up a little bit before. That's >> the next board meeting for Yep. No, thanks for pointing that out. >> Anything else, guys? Okay. All right. And then we'll go to the employee satisfaction survey timeline. So, Margaret, whenever you're ready with that. >> So, I am ready with that. Um, but I included this in board docs. This is the standard procedure that we've used for the last five years to um administer the employee satisfaction survey. You will see that there is a proposed timeline which would work nicely with um with the historical timeline that we've used. We do try to
004keep about an approximate um sameness to each year's administration of the survey so that like we don't get everyone at a time when it like there's a different uh dynamic going on like we don't do February and then we do May one year and and bounce back and forth because there is some consistency in how um how our staff feel based on various times of the So um this is a proposed timeline. It's it's um very very much like the timeline that you all approved last year. The proposal I just always include. So that I mean I think all of you have spent a fair amount of time with the school perceptions people. So some of these folks look familiar to you in terms of their bios and and their participation in various surveys with
005the school district. so they have a good idea of of you know like what our processes are and how we roll our communications out and things like that. So, and then there's also a sample survey which includes the standard questions plus a set of six questions that had been developed three years ago by uh the HR committee. The standard questions are not um open for editing because they are part of a larger survey universe where our questions are measured and compared against other school districts. The standard or C or the custom questions are ones that are specific to the Watertown Unified School District. We just started those about three years ago. are trying to build up some longitudinal information to see like how we're trending in those specific areas. Um, but if there's any additional
006questions that you would like me to have school perceptions add to the survey, I u that's certainly within the committee's ability to do that. Assuming those additional questions are on page enumerated page seven and I think it's actually the page seven as well where it says additional items. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> And is it also the next page too recommendations on >> the recommendations one is what's called their net promoter score. That's u a standard question that is like the summary question that everybody uses to measure if we had one question to measure oursel against. We use the net promoter scale score. I think you see that in a lot of like marketing information and that's a very common surveying practice lately. >> Sure. >> What do you Oh, sorry. Um, I don't
007see any um questions in here about interactions with parents. [clears throat] Did I miss them? I didn't see any. >> Um, I I do not write the survey. The survey is a set of standard questions from school perceptions. >> So, it's okay. >> So, I mean, >> can we ask I mean our school is not known for great communications with parents. We do okay apparently, but there are other schools that do a fantastic job and I be hearing about it and I'd ra I'd like us to do a fantastic job and I think that starts with with a focus on that. >> So you want a question in like the additional item section. >> Yeah. Something about you know their interactions with parents it with the goal of is it positive? Is there something we
008can do to help? We need information. We we're starting with zero information on this. >> There's one place on the set questions where it is where parents are mentioned instead of search and is on page six. It's the fourth item down. It goes with to what extent do you agree with each statement below? District seeks input from a broad group of staff members. Um and there it says our parents and support this district. ask only question in >> and that could mean anything. That could mean they ask referendum. >> No, I'm just saying it is the word the word shows up. >> Yeah. >> Do we want something like are parents responsive when you reach out? Right. Because it's the surveys or teachers taking, right? So, we don't want it to be like are you
009talking nice to teachers? Because every every teacher would or to parents because every teacher be like, oh yeah, of course I am. I think it would be nice to get um some some teachers feedback on what would be helpful questions. >> Would you ask on a certain >> ask because they're the ones that had the interaction of the parents. >> Um and at this point we don't even know what questions to ask because we haven't discussed this with them. I also wonder what kind of question banks school perceptions always has a very very large question bank and so Margaret can go after your suggestions as well as asking school perceptions what questions [clears throat] dedicated to communication with parents and see what they come up with you >> okay I was going to ask Margaret
010what's been the response rate of the survey as far as teacher participation >> and and do principles have to fill it out too? >> Everybody fills it out. >> Oh, last year >> I think we did have >> it >> was pretty the response rates pretty high. >> Oh, that's wonderful. Okay. >> I can send you the like last year's the summary from last year. We have that. I mean, we go through that in July usually. Okay. We go through the um survey responses and and um our comparison and our la comparison with other school districts as well as our longitudinal data. What? So we administer the survey in spring and then we uh school perceptions collects that they'll develop a presentation and a summary of of the outcome of the survey and then they
011come back to the HR committee and do a presentation and then we also share that at administrative um um cabinet or administrative inservice at the start of the year when we have our two-day retreat. >> Thank you very But I can send you last year so you can see. >> So from last year um Linda there was 332 respondents and a 60% response rate >> which I think was a little bit down from the previous year. >> I can um if you go to the July 2025 in board docs, it has all of that information readily available in there. Linda. >> Okay. Thank you. That would have been her first board meeting after >> being [laughter] Dave and I were like we were processing a lot that night. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> You
012don't have to send it. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yes, >> I appreciated that. um we don't sign a contract that it's they just give us an invoice for the work that we we ask if that's huge and and I appreciate giving the hourly rate so we know exactly what >> you talk about school perceptions is that same you know that's how it's done I don't know >> it is that is how it's done they do it they submit an annual proposal we're not under any type of binding contract on a yearby-year basis We take it every single year and review if that's what what the committee wants to do. >> So you had said that the only thing that added is additional questions. The rest you can't add or remove. >> The the rest are
013part of a standard bank of um school perceptions questions that are measured against all of the other schools that take the same survey. So, at one point we had a completely custom survey and we discontinued the custom survey because there were a lot of questions related to how do we compare to other school districts and we couldn't answer that question. So then the HR committee, I want to say it was 5 years ago, opted to go with the standard question plus this bank of additional questions that they had crafted and then we've been doing that for the last three years. So the standard has been in place for five. the um the the spe the special additional questions have been I believe it's three years that this is that we'll be using those additional questions.
014Those additional questions are just measured against ourselves. They're not measured against any like outside um other school districts because nobody else asks them in that way and there's no data that's collected >> [clears throat] >> um to measure uh us against anyone else with those specific items. >> Oh, I do have a question um for page six um about the equal opportunity section. So our district decid our district made the decision the board made a decision to go back to original 2020 title n whereas gender is not included in the title n uh verbiage in our policies and procedures. Um so is it mandatory to have the first question in section two and if school perception requires that that's fine Margaret. So at the bottom of page six under number two, our school supports equal
015opportunity scores. >> It's over here. >> Okay. Cuz I'm my page six is >> different. >> Oh, okay. I mean, I can ask if we can have that language altered. I mean, I don't know that. I I certainly can ask. >> Okay. Thank you, Margaret. Other than that, I have nothing else. >> Okay. >> Anybody else have questions, concerns, or can we move on to the employee handbook update? >> All right. Um, so the employee handbook update is in the administrative content because it's all under draft uh status. And you'll see that there's a link to the Google folder which all of you have had all along. Um, that includes like the crosswalk between the old and the new handbook. Um, and then two versions of the edited handbook that we had gotten from Niola.
016I did print a PDF on um on that. Um, I'm just logging in here. I didn't have my I did print the PDF of the second version such as it is as of the last meeting that we had which was um last Thursday. So the way that we're approaching this is we have small teams that are doing comparisons between the old and the new handbook. The um as those com as those comparisons are completed I have been editing the NEOLA handbook to either like to clarify some of the things that people had. The old handbook has more detail in it with respect to like certain processes and practices like calling in whereas the Niola handbook is much more like policy oriented. >> It's under it's under eight. It's not under C. It's under a way
017at the top. You see the little file there? That's Sorry Margaret. They were just looking for the administrative [clears throat] >> Oh, the administrative content. >> It's under a Okay. Sorry Margaret. Go. It's okay. So, I mean the Google folder is there for you to look through at your pleasure in terms of what types of resources are being used to develop the Neola handbook. There's a PDF there that um I pulled from the latest draft that I was working on as of yesterday afternoon. You will see that there are numerous areas that have a yellow highlight and those yellow highlights are things that we need to cl I need to clarify first with Lynn with respect to where we stand in terms of the policy development. Um I will bring next month as you've requested
018a finalized version for you to approve as it stands as of March. But I do want you to know that there's some policy work that looks like it has the appearance of maybe not being completely wrapped up by the time the end of March rolls around, in which case we can approve a handbook and make a recommendation for a resolution to the board in March. But please know that we will likely need to do an update before the beginning of the of July 1st, the effective date in July 1st, depending on what work is being done with the policies and how these are all progressing through the policy committee process. So that's not a big deal to me, but I do want it I want to be upfront about it because I don't want to
019bring a handbook to you in March and say, "Here, approve this. We're all good. jobs done and then bring it back in June and say by the way now you have to update those obviously if there's updates after the March approval of the great and and this will include the big body of changes in March but as policies are approved or changed or modified we are going to have to keep keep a practice of periodically reviewing the handbook to make sure that it's kept up to date because that was not something that we did very well with the old handbook and it kind of aged itself out of useless usefulness and and I don't want that to happen going forward. Once we have a nice new handbook, I want to be able to keep it
020updated on like a regular annual or bianual basis depending on how many policies change and then um that way it stays current and more relevant more useful for everybody in terms of understanding like what the employment dynamic is like here. So, I but I do want to point out that it is likely that I will also be bringing back some other edits before July 1st. And I don't want you to be surprised by that, saying, "Wait, I thought we did that back in March." And it's like, and that's fine. I mean, the district retains the ability to change the handbook um as policies change. That is uh very much a a right of the board to do and we have done that in the past although we've usually done it by tacking on appendices and
021then you have like a whole bank of appendices that you are trying to flip through rather than like integrate it into the text of of the handbook itself. So that's where we're at with the handbook. I will say that having uh there's some key teachers on that group that have been super helpful in um in developing the crosswalk between the two and asking really good questions about where things fit and how things are um maybe changing between the old and and the new handbook language and and I've really appreciated their their input and I will do a big shout out to them when I bring you a version in March. questions. Anybody? >> Don't use too many big words. >> Oh, I'm sorry. [laughter] >> Um, Margaret, I do you want to more regularly like
022stay ab breast? Yes. Gameplay handbook. So looking at the policies, is it the 30,000 and the 4,000 policies, the professional staff and the support cha staff that will largely affect this ever >> alter and operations >> and because the operations area has a lot of um HR related policies. Okay. So, um h how would you like that to flow so we can stay aggress? Is it like if it comes up in policy you want us to let you know or do you want us to like have HR like you we could discuss an HR or a policy that might need to be changed and bring the policy just so we can stay a breast and stay on top of it. Really, I think that's the work of my office where it's our job to keep
023track of new policies that are being implemented that affect the HR area and like I work with Lynn on a lot of those drafts and and we go back and forth on that type of like the the writing and the updating, but I would think that that should be the responsibility of this office to know when a policy that's passed needs needs to be set aside and included in a an employee handbook update. >> Okay. I just want to make sure >> Yeah. No, that would No. No. Absolutely not. >> All right. Other than that, I don't have any questions. Anybody else? >> All right. Future meeting planning. >> So, future meeting planning for next month will include the employee handbook that we just talked about. We will be bringing um based on the outcome
024of of um other meetings between now and the next HR committee, we would be looking at bringing the uh 26 27th staffing plan. That's pretty near if not at completion for review and then for passing to the board at the March board meeting. Now I say that and I say that it is all subject to all of you approving that and also whatever happens between today and that next HR committee in terms of any other decisions that might be made. Um we will be bringing the summer school consent agenda. We will I'm sure have a consent agenda uh for next um for next month. And I kind of think there will be some other issues that develop between now and March. But um I'll just let >> and teacher appreciation >> teacher appreciation planning. Um
025there was a time when uh the HR committee had indicated an interest in coordinating uh teacher appreciation week activities uh um that were initiated u on the part of the board which is separate from the activities that had been initiated on the part of the administration andor anything that's done in the specific buildings. So, I don't know if that's something that that um this committee is is interested in entertaining, but they had asked that that be put as an agenda item um in March so that you had adequate time to discuss what if anything you wanted to do in terms of like special [clears throat] recognition for teacher appreciation week, which is the first week of May. Is that usually correct? teachers in the room. Thank you. [laughter] So, that really is at your discretion.
026>> Yeah, I Well, I guess >> we should do something. >> Yeah, I'm thinking we should as well. Yes, but I didn't want to make that. >> Okay. >> I didn't want to make unanimous decision, guys. >> Buy a couple pieces of Boon's Farm to Riverside Park and have a good time. >> Do they should I include that in the minutes, Carl? >> [laughter] >> Do they even make balloons farm anymore? [laughter] >> You can pick it up, but normally, you know, the younger 20s, put it in their cart. [laughter] >> Nobody take note of that. Okay, so >> you already ordered it, Casey. [laughter] So anyhow, I will put it on for um next month's agenda and then you can decide you know what the next steps to be. >> All right. So the
027action items. >> Yep. So from January we had the strategic discussion topic which he had we had covered in January and then we had a close session um for the 23rd to discuss CPI and bargaining appro proposals which you all know was rescheduled to this evening following this meeting. And then um action items going forward. I have two action items to follow up with school perceptions on in terms of parent related questions and a question about the equal opportunity question. And um yeah, that's all I have. >> All right. >> Well, then I think that's it, guys. We'll call it at 6 at 54. >> Wow. >> Under 30 minutes, guys. Yeah. >> Okay. We have six minutes. >> Yeah.