001All right. So, the recording's on, Margaret. >> Recording. >> Okay. Uh, all right. So, it's 5:30 on Monday, July 21st. We're going to go ahead and start the human resources committee. Uh, we're going to start with the public comment section. Uh, public comments are uh allowed to be two minutes in length and they can discuss anything that pertains to committee that you are going to present at. Is there anybody that would like to make a public comment? Okay. All right. And then we're moving to the consent agenda. So, the consent agenda for this month includes several teachers um that we hired for uh actually two teachers that we hired and then some uh resignations from staff that have accepted positions at other organizations. I don't know if there were any questions about the consent agenda.
002Um, I did add the human resources support staff summary, which is appointments that we've been making for support staff throughout the summer. This will get increasingly larger as we we just uh posted our paraprofessional jobs for 25 26. So, our building admins will start interviewing for those. We just opened up applications. So, that'll take a number of weeks to get through, but I would suspect by next month we'll have a much larger support staff summary. Okay, >> we um do have I will give a staffing update next month with respect to where how we're set for certified staff and support staff for the start of the school year. >> Okay, questions, anyone? Nope. >> Nope. >> All right, and then we're going to go to the employee satisfaction survey. I'm going to hand it over
003to you. >> Um I don't know. I don't think anything's up on the maybe just this screen >> but by way of uh introduction it's nice to see everybody again nice to have already given some background I'll go through the first couple of slides again because I realize there people uh online especially who may not have been in the last meeting uh and then we'll get right to it you will see that things look a little bit different this is the executive summary Mark, can we just put up the overall report? >> Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to do that. Tara, I mentioned it was my first time using >> Google. I'm just trying to see how I can minimize the people that are on the sidebar there. I think I'm not sure.
004I think the by meeting tools and it might let you change the layout. Margaret whole screen. It's getting bigger. Well, we do have these meetings out here, right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And they're in board bags for sure. You'll have to go ahead, Derek, while I try to figure it out. Um >> Okay. Because I'm like just kind of going through the all these different tools. Well, the the first as you're doing that, the the thing that I want to talk about is the overall report rather than the executive summary. >> The 25 page one. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, you want a different present a different >> Yes. >> Okay. You want the full presentation? >> There. >> This is good, Derek. >> Yes. >> All right. There we go. So,
005>> hit it. >> This is the staff survey report. We did the staff uh we did the staff, student and parent surveys all roughly at around the same time uh which is to say in April. So this uh closed in May. Next slide please. Thank you for doing this. >> Yeah, >> by the way uh as last time I will go through some of the background of our company respondent information and then we'll get to the uh results and analysis which are the interesting parts and then wrap up with some questions. Next slide, please. I know that everyone in this room has already heard this, but I'm just say this again for folks at home. Uh we are school perceptions. Our mission is to help educational leaders uh gather, organize, and make strategic decisions. We've
006been doing this for like 25 years, millions of surveys, etc., etc. We do this a lot is I think the point that this communicate. Next slide, please. So, for this survey, closed on April 25th, 332 respondents. That's a 60% participation rate. It's roughly the same as last year. What's different about this uh survey report from the last one that I showed you, the uh student and parent surveys, this was the first year that we had done these for Watertown, so it was just baseline data, but staff we've been doing for a little bit. So, we're going to see we have longitudinal data on this one. So whereas last time there were a lot of columns that had like just n dashes in the thing, here we're going to see like change over time. So 332
007respondents, 60% participation rate, fairly similar to the last year. Next slide please, Margaret. Again, similar uh breakdown to the uh parent survey data that we went over, which is to say Watertown High being a place where a lot of people are has the most respondents. Next slide, please. What best describes your position? 44% classroom teachers, 16% instructional aids, pair professionals, 12% support staff, 3% admin, 10% choose not to answer. Uh, and then we're going to get into index analyses. As always here, fivepoint agreement scale. Heard this last time too. We don't count uh don't know slash doesn't apply. There is no neutral. So agrees are fours and fives. Disagrees are ones and twos depending on how strongly you agree. And uh disagree possible to get a mathematical mean of three. An average of four means
008the average respondent is agreeing with the proposition. That's going to be important. Okay. And the first thing we're starting off with is our indexes. So, academics, engagement, support, student experience, and staff experience are the indexes that we see. Uh, current score, previous score, percent change. That's what we've uh got in this one. Everything is fairly steady except for academics, which shows a uh 4.9% decline. For reference, I went through and did some two-tailed tea tests today. For a survey with 300ish respondents, in general, it takes something around 5% like that degree of change. It it varies by the specific item, but around 5% change is what moves it to statistical significance. So as you're re uh with this particular survey, so as you're thinking about interpreting results, changes that are basically less than 5% are
009in we can't tell if that's just random change or if there's something real underneath it. 5% or more there's something real and the direction is right. So if it's like a 5% drop, that's real. And in in both cases and uh with less than that, we can't see. But it'll also be important to look at the overall pattern. Like if you're seeing items continually trend in a specific direction, that'll matter as well. Okay, next slide, please. Individual items are based on the same uh response scale. Next slide, please, Martin. The amount of work I am asked to do is reasonable and manageable. Each one of these survey sections are broken down in terms of uh declining uh percent change. The amount of work I'm asked to do is reasonable and manageable. Uh current score is
0103.51. Previous score is 3.26. That's a change of 7.67% in a good direction. The amount of work I am asked to do is reasonable and manageable is one of the big predictors of uh staff retention. And so it's it's an important one to be going up. And so it's good that it is. I have access to the technology support I need. I have the materials and supplies I need to do my job well. I feel comfortable sharing input and concerns with my supervisor and administrator. Those are all again those percentage growth is small statistically indistinguishable from zero is what I'm trying to say. We can't tell if that's just random variation or if it's uh for real. But it is important obviously that 94% of staff agree with I have access to the technology support
011that I need. Uh and again good that uh staff in general feel comfortable sharing input and concerns with supervisors. Next slide please. I feel safe at work. That is the single biggest predictor of uh staff retention. 88% of people agree with that. I'm going to come back to that uh a little bit later. So keep that uh everybody's head most days. I look forward to going to work, have healthy working relationships with co-workers, I have the technology I need to do my job well. All of these again holding steady high levels of agreement. Next page, please. Our school student discipline practices and policies are effective. This looks bad. I'm going to look down at the bottom one. Our staff handle student discipline in a consistent manner. Also 43% agreement scale. 2.76. 2.76 for that one
012even though like it's change from the previous score is big like that's trended in the right direction. That's the first thing to note. And the thing to say about these two items is that what we have found looking into our data is that everybody discipline is bad everywhere in every single school district. These two items don't really predict very much about staff retention until it starts impacting I feel safe at work. If teachers are feeling safe at work, this is annoying. It takes up cognitive load. It makes their jobs harder, but it's not driving them out of the district. That's an important thing, a important way to interpret. If you want to improve teachers feelings of safety at work, their effectiveness in their job, then school discipline is where you focus it. So like making
013those numbers go up by 9% in the case of uh effective discipline practices and policies. That's the step that makes the school safety number or feelings of safety go up. So that's great. I just want to point out or just put those numbers in some comparative context that 2.76 is looks low. It's not low in comparison to other districts. Teaching isn't easier anywhere else is what I'm trying to say. It's always difficult in this particular thing. I have opportunities for training and professional development. 81% agree that's also improving. In the last year, I received useful feedback to help improve my work. Those scores are higher than last year. Again, those are both like below 5% uh change. So squishy in terms of the certainty. We what I would say is like when I say two-tailed
014t- tailed test two-tailed t tests for these uh things I'm using like uh a cutoff an alpha of 05 which means I'm trying to be 95% certain it's not noise with both of those like 3.87 having looked at that one that's like I am like 93% certain that's for real. So that's what I'm trying to say doesn't reach that threshold but it's still good. Okay, next slide. Our staff does a good job job of educating our students. 96% agree. That's great. Up a little bit from last year. Staff input is valued. Information important to my work is shared with me in a timely and effective manner. All students in our school are respected for their values and beliefs. Now we start seeing uh differences uh going the other way becoming negative. But again less than
0155% means we don't really know what's happening. Staff input is valued. uh 61% agreement is slightly more concerning and it's a little bit of variance with uh what we saw on the first slide people people feeling comfortable sharing things with their supervisor. That's that's an interesting discrepancy. Next slide please. Our school has a process to ensure every student has a connection with at least one adult up 13%. Social emotional needs while students are being met up 6.81%. 81%. I have training and uh support to work with students from district background. District administration is doing what it takes to make our district successful. Both of those are up nearing 5%. That's good. Next slide, please. District's pay practices are fair. Uh up 4.42%. All students at our school are given equal opportunities to learn and experience
016success. 76% agree. up 3.41%. I'm recognized when I do a good job and our school supports students from diverse backgrounds. Both of those are holding steady. I feel supported by my supervisor administrator when I uh make a decision. 76% agree down a little bit. The district seeks input from a broad group of staff members. 52% agree down 4.4%. And then of course the same items that came up last uh time with parents and that we'll see again repeated with students. School board is doing what it takes to make the district successful. District is heading in the right direction. Our parents and community support this school district uh all dropping precipitously. And the context for this again is there was a failed referendum in April and the survey was delivered right after that. So this tracks
017with uh with the the facts on the ground. Again, the district seeks seeks input from a broad group of staff members. That's down a little bit and is a third part in the like I feel safe sharing concerns and input. So there's there's a discrepancy between perceptions of whether the district is coming to people asking for input and a general sort of comfort level with giving input to the supervisors. That's just something to note. Uh next slide please. Here are the additional items. These are custom for uh Watertown. Uh Watertown Unified School District has a clear mission, vision, and plan. Up 11.86%. Uh 71% agree. I have adequate prep time to focus on the teaching and learning aspects of my job. Up 9.63%. This is again it's a custom question so we don't ask this
018of everybody but I it is the complaint that we hear in comments across Wisconsin is that there is not enough uh prep time. So to have made a 9.63% improvement is big there. It's clear to me how my performance will be evaluated by my administrator 7 up 7.62%. That's great. The students in the uh Watertown Unified School District show respect for staff up 5.45%. only 51% agree but again that tracks with the same the discipline items that we had which were 2.76 both those so I'm satisfied with my benefit package 70% agree I know what is expected of me at work up 2.32% those are just holding steady but 90% agreement there our school supports equal opportunities for students with special needs going through all these is is not all that important. What's more important
019is looking at the percent agree and the percent change. Everything is 80% or above basically except for all genders when it's 78% agree. And the change there is down uh significantly but still at a 3.64. That's the only that's the one that has shifted. It feels like uh percent agree would have been significantly higher last year and it it having dropped to 78%. the massive okay what I'm saying about like the negative 10.57% change in the average score or in the current score versus the previous year while 78% of respondents are still giving it a four or five means that it it is the likely interpretation is that a lot of people who would have said five last year are now saying four not that a lot of people who are saying four are now
020saying two is what I'm suggesting That's the That's how to keep those two columns together. Percent agree, remember, brings together everyone who's answering either four or five. And the average score is obviously taking all of those into account. Okay, next slide. These are the top five scores of most improvement. Having a process to ensure that every student has a connection with an adult. Clear mission, vision, and plan. Having adequate prep time, school discipline, practices and policies being effective, that's great. And the amount of work I am asked to do is reach reasonable and manageable. Again, the reasonable manageable amount of work, discipline, practices, those are two of the biggest predictors that we find across all of our surveys of uh teacher retention. So, when those are in your top five most approved, that's great. the
021other stuff is uh custom to Watertown but are also just what the research literature says like these are also conducive to staff happiness and well-being. Ted Nitsky of Caesar 6 likes to say that like people only really need two things. They need to like know what the rules are and they need to know where they stand and having that clear mission and vision having adequate prep time serves that mission. Next slide please. Bottom five scores are the least uh improvement or the most negative growth. All students in our school are uh respected for their values and believe the district seeks input from a broad group of staff members. Uh both of those less than like below the 5% threshold. Keep that in mind. And then of course those same three items that we talked about
022in the last meeting about district level things. Top five scores by averages. Our staff does a good job of educating our students, having access to the technology, having healthy working relationships with co-workers, having the technology to do the job, and feeling safe at work. Again, great things to have in the top five. Next slide, please. bottom five. Staff handling student discipline in a consistent manner. Both discipline questions are in the bottom five. They're always in the bottom five again for every district. Our parents and communities support the school district. The district setting the right direction. The school board is doing what it takes to make our district successful. Again, immediately post referendum. The real telling one is going to be the net recommended score. Next slide, please. How likely are you to recommend the district
023as a place of employment? Here we see a smaller number of eight nines and tens than we did for parents. Now it is roughly a quarter of people who are actively going out being like you should if you're thinking about getting to teaching or working in schools generally water is a place that you want to do it. much more many more neutrals and uh you know a a what I would regard as maybe a concerning number of people filling out two one or zero um for that that's 14% of uh staff. So an a change in terms of the overall average on the 10point net recommener score of uh 8.8% downward. Can I interrupt and answer? >> Yeah, I mean, >> how was it? How was it different for parents? You said uh this this
024part of a survey, how was it the parent response is different? >> Let me look real quickly for the net recommener. >> Yeah, >> it's going to take me just a sec. >> It was a lot more topy. >> It was. Yeah. A lot more toy and and a little less neutral, fewer on the bottom. Let me get those real quick. One way to recommendation. Uh yeah, it was 18.8% of parents gave it a 10. 7.4 gave it a nine, 19.5% gave it a an eight. So significantly more top three. And at the other end, it was like 3% 2, 1% 1, 3% zero. A way to interpret that difference for me is that is is essentially like uh as we talked about parents when they're asked to think about their kids experience at school
025very happy with the with what schools are doing. When they are asked to pull back and think about the district level that's when they get a little squeamish. Staff have a little bit more mixed experience when they're thinking about their day-to-day life. things are improving, moving in the right direction. Discipline as it is everywhere continues to be a thing and their worries about the district from the like the macro level might make them feel a little more reluctant to uh recommend it to the okay to others. >> Thank you. >> That that was the also the the end of the presentation basically. >> Anybody else questions? But yes, hit me up with some questions. >> No, you gave us gave us a lot of the raw data after the last meeting. So, I really appreciated
026that. It was fantastic. It really helped me understand uh some some of the finer details, but it's a great presentation that you put together. >> Thank you. And always happy to answer any follow-up questions that come up later as well. And thank you for making the comments available to you. >> Oh yeah, no problem. >> It is your data. >> I do have some questions about the comments. Um I I'm wondering why the district does not allow paras access to Skyward and to put in referrals if they're responsible for staff members or for students >> behavior referrals. Um, well, yeah, as I was going through the comments, I repeatedly saw a par saying that they don't have access to Skyward and they're not able to put in student referrals. And in order for a parent
027to put in a student referral, they need to find an administrator or a teacher that can enter in those referrals. And I'm just wondering why we're doing that. >> Yeah, we most of the time it's they should have their classroom teacher being doing that. And the reason we do that is to make sure that we're forcing that conversation uh from the parah to the teacher. Um they're really, you know, in the in the classroom, the teacher is the one who's in charge of that environment and making sure they know what's going on. Par is there as a helper, right? And so making sure that the parah understands that there's a pathway to that information. If par doesn't feel comfortable sharing that with the teachers, they can always share it for with an administrator or myself
028or whoever else. I I didn't get the impression that they didn't feel comfortable, but more like their referrals that they request are not being put in. And I'm not saying that is the case. This is just based on the comments that >> that's concerning. And if that's happening, they need to us. >> Okay. >> So, anybody else questions or are we moving on? Okay. So then we're going to move on to the turnover and exit survey report. So I have with um your packet today the uh the turnover the historical turnover report that had been done from 19 2019 to 2024. Um this has been presented at a couple of HR committee uh meetings over the last year and a half. Um what I did then was add uh the at at the end of
029this presentation in August of of 2024. The HR committee then had asked for u six month updates on um a on turnover information and that's what's included. Um we didn't do anything on the July one or the um yeah the July 1 to December 31 turnover. Um so I added that. We've never really had that onto uh um onto a an agenda. So, so this is the six-month report of where we're at so far for this year. Um if you just look at the the simple turnover calculation from the 19 to 24 report you know our admin um turnover is a little bit down from um was at 13% it's now at 5.9%. I'll just hit on the ones that are really our biggest groups which is our teachers has are showing a 1.1% turnover.
030our overall six-year uh report had 6% as our turnover and our um our um I'm sorry, our admin in yeah our overall um our turnover from 23 24 was 6% and so we're at 1.1% right now for our teachers. um that will probably when it's totaled up and turned into an annual statistic will go up a little bit more. Um so uh I I think I I am not real sure what this committee wants to do with turnover data. We've presented it a few times. Um we've presented exit survey data as well which is also included. Um, you know, this is another six-month breakout of the most recent six months. Um, and here again, you can see the chart along with some, uh, graphs that basically display the same information on the chart. In terms
031of what, you know, I'm not sure what the committee wants to do with turnover data or how you want it presented um, on on an ongoing basis. So we I mean we count numbers. We do a simple turnover report. We do do exit surveying throughout the course of the year. Most of our turnover occurs at the end of the school year, beginning of a new school year. Um, for example, our paraprofessional turnover will be a little bit low and then right before the start of the school year, it's a typical pattern that pair of professionals will send in resignations saying, "Hey, I've decided not to come back this this year." I mean, that's almost a predictable pattern. So, >> before we go any further, I just want to say thank you again, Derek. We can
032give you any any last comments or questions. We just went right into the next agenda. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Gam, if there's anything else we need, uh, we'll give you a call. But, um, thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thank you very much. >> You have a good ride home. >> I'm sorry I didn't. >> Sorry, Derek. >> We just We're just so efficient. We went right out on the next item. Sorry. >> So, I noticed that your turnover from prepares is 11%. Is that unusual? Um, I can't say that it really is unusual when we look at like the overall pattern of turnover. >> I mean, in the time that you've been here, have you seen that? >> The applicant pool for par profofessionals and other support staff positions have had
033has had a marked decrease since in the time that I've been here since 2018. We have far fewer applicants since COVID. We have um applicants that are far less qualified. Um and we have, you know, a labor market that offers alternative support staff employment that includes full-time employment and fringe benefits has had an impact on our on our paraprofessional recruitment. I mean, all of our paraprofessional positions with the exception of a maybe two or three grandfather positions are considered part-time positions. their hours are intentionally kept at uh um 28.75 hours a week so that we're not moving them into mandated benefits eligibility. That was a cost savings decision that was made in 2012 and has been in place. Um costing out you know when we have at various times considered proposals to increase some of
034the paraprofessional positions to full-time benefited positions but the cost for that equals about five paraprofessional positions. So, in order to have in order to have those ongoing benefits maintained and to carry the financial responsibility for one full-time benefited paraprofessional, that means that our staff would need to be willing to give up four other paraprofessional positions in order to staff that. And obviously, from an ours staffed position, five part-time people provide a lot more coverage than one full-time person. So I um we haven't really had any serious sustained uh consideration of those models once the issue of the fiscal condition of the district was brought into the mix. So, so in the corporate world, I'm not sure what you do here, but in the corporate world, when you can't do a full-time position with benefits, >>
035and your your um part-time position without benefits at normal pay is not getting the job done. Uh you bump the pay to get people where they need to go. Is that something you've looked at? We had a support staff salary program or a study that we did last year and rolled out a new pay program which significantly increased >> the special ed pair of professionals. I think they were bumped up want to say $2 an hour in terms of pay. We do know that currently we probably are a little bit behind the market on that particular position, but our other positions also experienced um like various levels of bumps in order to respond to market data. So I mean we have done that. We've also done staffing incentives where you know um special ed pair
036of professionals in particular are a very um difficult area to fill but we've done things like we have uh reimbursed people for their uh they are l a position that requires a DPI license. So, we've reimbured them for um um their $125 license fee that they need to to pay. We've um uh done things like incentives for working extra shifts for substitute parents when our absenteeism levels were were so high. So, we've tried various incentives over the years. Um, I I will say our recruitment is probably I'm certain it's not unusual for this labor market in this community and in this general geographic area. We are all struggling for special ed pairs. We do literally train people from the minute they graduate from high school, they move into a special ed pair professional position and
037we train them from scratch. We we have a a training an online training module that we provide at no cost for inexperienced special ed pair of professionals. We have some longer term pair of professionals that serve as mentors. Um, but I it's a it's a labor uh part of the labor force that is very sensitive to um wage differences and or the ability to have full-time benefits. Uh but our we recruit parents, you know, we do alerts and notifications to parents because sometimes that corresponds with parent schedules that, you know, work out at mutually beneficial for both the parent and for us as an employer. We've tried a number of different um strategies to increase our special ed pair of professional uh applicant pool. Uh, you know, if you look at the Wisconsin demographics or
038the Jefferson County labor demographics, this is going to be an ongoing labor problem for us and probably every other um employer like the quick trips and the classins and things like that. I mean, we don't we I do know like Classen, we have lost people to Classen, we have lost people to Fisher Barton, uh, we have lost people to Quick Trip. Uh so it you know there's a price sensitivity with that group and there's also like a a flexible qualifications issue that makes that group particularly um movable from an employment standpoint. I I noticed that while your Now he's gone, but um while your teachers um had an overall positive satisfaction result, um I didn't see the paras broken out. Is there someplace that they are as far as satisfied with their work environment sort
039of thing? >> So are you referring to the employee satisfaction survey? >> There's a those are broken out by um >> yeah various Yeah, they it's not just teachers and everyone else. >> Thank you. >> Their accumulators will limit anything that's five or less so that you can't ident. I'm sorry that I wasn't here early enough to come shake your head and say hello. >> Um so thank you for preparing all of this. I I you know coming in so new I was interested in retention data. So, I'm asking you a broader question on this and I'm looking at the January 1, 2025 through the June 30th, 2025 employee turnover document. Okay. Just to clarify. >> Yep. >> Is there anything in there that strikes you as unusual? >> Um, not I don't feel like
040our turnover is out of control. Um I feel like I I mean the short answer is no. And part of it is also related to some of the things that we did in terms of meeting our fiscal responsibility this year. For example, we intentionally eliminated about 15 paraprofessional jobs and we put several of them and and notified them that their jobs would not be available to them for next year. So um when word gets out that we are doing layoffs that for some people will it influence their decision to look for other employment. So I mean that was a big factor. I think um there also almost always is that probably one of the biggest concerns that we have for pair of professionals that leave employment is that the scheduling does not work with their
041family responsibility and we have done flexible scheduling. I mean we have altered schedules to allow people to work you know earlier because they have to drop off somebody or have to pick somebody up or things like that. I mean, we will customize schedules if we have candidates that are willing to commit to working the um the at least parts of the day that we need that. So, um we can't do that for every single position, but we try to find the right mix of people to cover everything from start of day to getting them on the bus, getting the students on the bus. So, I mean, at this point, is our turnover alarming? I I would say no. I Jared I don't >> no matter of fact >> I would have expected a little bit
042more turnover realizing that we didn't pass the referendum >> right when that happens people start to get worried about their job and they want to look for something more secure >> well >> and we haven't really seen that which means you know not to the level I thought we might see it right we've seen some of it but not not to the level we thought we might see >> but you're giving me the answer that that I was looking for because when I compared the data back to 2019 and you took a average or the mean or median or whatever you wanted to do in there. It seemed to me we were we were right in the kind of ballpark there. >> I feel like we're holding, >> you know, and so so I don't
043want to make sure I understand this, but let's say I'm looking um just going to make no bones, but I'm all about teachers. Um you you can take me out of the classroom, but it's just it's hard to take the classroom out of me, you know, that role out of me. So 30 teachers under the title of retirement or resignation that includes I'm assuming any way they resigned or left and I know that we had eight retirements out of that but correct >> any termination would be included in that as well >> if we had well >> if we had any >> it we it's a simple turnover rate so it includes anyone that that left employment >> that was here and left employment. >> Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you. This was extremely helpful
044for me. >> Well, thank you. I'm not real sure like what I'm I'm trying to provide the information that you need in a format that you want to see it in. So, I am open to your suggestions and direction and guidance on how you want the data presented. I'm not sure like are are you looking for longitudinal data? Are you looking for comparables that might be out in in like our relative area? Although turnover data and a consistent way of measuring turnover in um among local school districts that there is no agreement on that. Everybody has their own special calculation as to what constitutes a termination which is why I'm very careful to say this is a simple turnover. I mean it doesn't like some places pull out for retirement or some people will pull
045out for dismissals. So So um but I mean this is these are the numbers as they are falling right now. U you know we're just getting started on our recruitment. We'll see if some of the decisions that we made at the end of the year in order to meet our staffing and fiscal responsibilities what you know that plays heavily into our recruitment. We don't know that yet because those jobs literally were posted at the end of last week and think a couple of them were posted today. So >> I I I think at least from my position as a board member, I think what I'm looking for is to see that we hold this thing steady and as people talk about referendum past and and possible referendums in the future, how how they are looking
046and thinking and most importantly acting >> on that and to see. So longitudinal is helpful because it gives us perspective of years where we didn't have situations like we've had this year. >> So um I'm fine with the presentation of this at this point unless somebody knows a better way to do it. I also know that um the when this was first brought up back in August of 2024, there was guidance from the HR committee at that time that we would do turnover reports in January and July. Is still is that still the remaining guidance from the committee? >> Yeah, I'm good with that. If Dan and >> Okay. I might play around a little bit more in terms of the longitudinal reporting because there's different ways to like create visuals around that that might
047make this be more clear in like what pattern are we going in and are we like are we this way or so I mean there's a lot of visual options these days in terms of of data so I'll work on that. So, I know that you added just the exit survey data for 202425, >> correct? >> Um, would you say, and I I'm not expecting you to remember five years back, Margaret, or anything like that, but would you say that with if you look on page slide five with the responses of why they left the district that it's pretty consistent throughout the past five years? Or, and that's fine if you don't know. I totally I mean this is last year and this year are really the only two years that we have reliable data
048from this exit survey process that we have been using. I mean, we we had been using a homegrown exit survey by request process before CO um somewhere in the middle of COVID, we ended up um tagging on to a beta system with school perceptions, which is a system that we currently use now, but we haven't really pulled data and we haven't really had like formal reporting of exit survey that was substantial enough to put it into graphs. Okay. >> Except for last year and this year. So, I mean that this is very much a a work in progress and we'll >> kind of like >> what Derek was talking about with the parent and student survey feedback surveys like we're just now starting to build longitudinal data that would allow me to really I mean
049it would allow >> I understand that. >> Yeah. And uh you know from some of the board members who have been here longer right um they will tell you that like data and and in this sense but also in the sense of just across every spectrum right is you know in its infancy and getting better. I mean, when I came here, it was there was a large lack of data and reporting back to the board and having discussions and and so um some of the board members who have been around a little bit more will will tell you that it's nowhere near what we want, which is why I think >> correct >> Margaret's kind of over overaggressively saying, "Is this what you like? Can I do something different?" Right. It's because >> we're still
050wondering what it is that won't be helpful to you. We're also looking at stuff on our end as administration and saying is this helpful to us and if it is okay should we uh share that part with the the board? Is that going to be something that they care about or not care about? And so we're just giving you a little bit more a little bit more to think about and then tell us you'll tell us when it's too much or that really is not helpful to you or whatever else. those are the kind of feedback we're looking for or if there's something that you can think of that might be something that you want to see more of um then we would like to hear that too because really we're really building our data
051capacity across every spectrum not just HR like every spectrum so remind yourself of that in your head whenever we ask you about data and if there's something you'd like to see or something different or more information of some kind let us know and we will look at it we won't be offended. We're we're here to try to, you know, do this together. So, >> well, and we also have better access to data reporting. I mean, we had some old systems that we that were not u like user friendly enough, you know, required a programming degree to be able to extract a report. And so like reporting is much more avail much more easily available to nonIT people than it was in the past which makes it easier to pull that stuff together and lay it
052out and also to you know display it in various ways. or >> start question possible and I realize that's a hard question to answer but and looking at I'm looking at the factors contributing to leaving on the exit document and the second one is excessive workload and I want to take it back to the par profofessional because I know that that par profofessional for some classrooms is extremely important and do you have any kind of a sense of whether or not people are saying that is a major contributor to that being one of the reasons they're leaving at the pair is we don't have we don't have as many as we used to um you know there's part-time and it appears to me reading through the comments that a lot of people are concerned that
053parents are uncomfortable and are not happy with how things are going here. So if if there is a correlation even if we maybe maybe if it's more anecdotal >> right than than statistical then certainly would seem to me that would be something we would want to pay some close attention to. >> I mean we can certainly do that. I just again would go back to, you know, we send we send a message to certain groups of staff when we say we don't need 15 of you anymore. Yeah. >> And these jobs are being eliminated or in one case replaced with a different like I mean one of the decisions we made was to eliminate four longerterm care professionals in favor of a a certified staff member. So, um, certainly from a culture standpoint that I'm
054sure sends a message to to people. They're they're an interesting group to try and get the right mix of culture and pay and things like that to um make make them a happy group. But we will continue to try and I mean I think our administration has been very clear certainly Jared has been under his direction has been very clear about we need to fold that group into u our workforce in a way that u um gets more engagement and buy in and acceptance of them as a part of the an important part of the team. Hello. >> Lori had something. >> Um, yeah, I think it would be helpful to get access to the comments from the employee exit survey and I notice I don't have access. >> Um, so I will talk with
055Rob or Rob and Derek. Rob is the exit survey guy. Derek is the other side of the survey um for a comment analysis. I I mean there's we do have a confidentiality uh promise for these particular um surveys and exit surveys especially in the numbers that we're getting make them vulnerable to losing anonymity because they they aren't as like heavily completed as the entire workforce. So I can I I can ask them for a comment analysis for sure. What she's politely saying is a clause in our contract with them uh has it so that if they're going to do this data uh search for us, >> right? >> That when they meet with the employees and have them go through their process, >> they say to them and we will make sure that your your
056comments go through but that your anonymity anonymity is >> right. Anonymous, >> right? And so um they can possibly which is why what they will do for us is they will do a comment analysis and bring us in themes or um uh if if they feel like there's comments that won't um you know violate that that employees um you know sharing of that information in a confidential way which they thought um they won't they won't do that. >> Interesting. And we knew that when we signed that up that I mean we that was one of the things that we said we're okay with that >> because we would rather have information even if it's filtered through you right >> than not have the information at all that that they might not give us right. >>
057So so we would have information filtered through them um rather than not have information at all. >> If we all answered the same question in this room on a piece of paper type it out or whatever and we all put it in a pile and then we pulled them out. be pretty easy to figure out who wrote what based on the voice and all that. >> Good, good, a good possibility. Yeah. Right. Anyway, >> at least and it's different than doing that with a room full of 550 people. >> Yeah, it would be nice to get like a more specific shift rather than these huge categories of something's wrong in this direction. >> Let's see what they come back with first. Okay. Right. They they may come back with something helpful. They may not. This
058is this is why we're engaging you with what would you like to see? Sure. >> And we'll engage with them >> so we make good decisions. >> Yeah. >> Second that. Go ahead, Craig. Oh, I'm sorry, Dan. First, sorry, Craig. >> Go ahead. Craig doesn't say anything yet. >> Um, first of all, I'd like to say I appreciate the um the effort and going through this data as well as uh providing exit survey data as well. I think that it's something that I think this committee has been asking for for a long time and I'm glad to see uh I'm glad to see that. Uh couple of things that I wonder about would be uh right now we see turnover rates but we don't really have any type of measuring stick uh to compare that
059to. Uh is there a we can only compare that to previous years. Uh is there a way for us to potentially get uh a mean and a median uh across other districts? >> Well, we can maybe do that with the districts that employ school perceptions, right? >> Okay. >> Uh so there might be a way for us to think about that, but we'll ask that question. >> Okay. That would be that would be one. >> The state also has an annual I mean they do an annual data collection for turnover but it's just it's high level by how many in how many out. >> Yeah. And you also don't I mean they don't they won't sort them out by special ed para versus you know I mean they don't have the same categories we do
060either. The other part is uh you know the the served exit survey um it looks like we only have 22 uh respondents. So overall it sounds like there's not a lot of takers on exit surveys or is there >> you know actually I thought we had a pretty good response this year compared to previous years which were less and we had more people going out the door but I I didn't bring those numbers with me. I certainly can go back and calculate the number of invitations I sent to what the participation rate was. I did not pull that. Do we do we solicit an exit survey from everyone that exits the district? >> Pair of professionals and teachers. >> Okay. >> Um actually, so I'll support staff this year. >> Okay. So if if they
061decided to exit the district, they're getting >> right contact for exits. >> And I think this is really I mean it we started using this it was in beta form and we didn't have a lot of of takers. So I I want want to say that like from a valid response rate and actual like really like implementing it more from an institution from an employer standpoint. it really the last two years we've been really actively exercising using it but it it wasn't as um you know we're just testing it more or less for the first couple of years when they because they were just testing it you know they were like hey we have this we do you want to be a beta tester for this survey and we and we had said yes and
062so I mean it doesn't like some of the data from the past was more test case such that it isn't reliable enough to be able to say here's a good reporting out of exit survey data. >> Okay. >> So I can I mean I could pull the stats on that from like our participation rate but I I I do want to say that exit surveying has for the most part been done on an as requested basis and we have not put a high emphasis on it. um with the exception of the last two years when we started to really try to dive into like why are people leaving and I think that that's a function of again a a tight labor market and a dwindling labor uh pool for us to recruit from. >> So
063you say somewhere between a sample size of between 10 and 20% that >> I I I mean I don't know if that that is good or not. I will I I would have to check with them, Craig. And I don't know like in comparison to other employers that use their system. I did not ask for comparables in terms of hey, is our rate is our response rate good, medium, bad, you know, I did not ask them that. >> Yeah. And just a reminder like um we are we are you know it's it's it's hard to say when you're leaving year two and going into year three of a new system to say we're still new at this but we are and and um the the good thing is is that you give you can give
064us feedback and if we find that over the next year or two it's not doing what we need, we'll look for other places out there. I mean, there are plenty of places that do exit surveys. Some of them have the Cadillac of services and you're going to pay for those and some of them aren't. Some of them are going to be more business relatable than school relatable, you know, those kinds of things. But um we just want you to know this is where we are in the journey and continue to have like the conversation because we will get to a place that really serves us way better than I mean we're already way better spot than we were but um which was I mean you guys can hear uh very u informal you know very
065uh every once in a while requesting an exit survey of somebody or somebody somebody who's leaving said can I a exit survey. We were like, "Yeah, sure." Uh, we kind of got one and pulled something old out of file and right um to a much more formal approach. We're paying somebody their services their services um are are working through and being tested. Right. So like I just >> can I that's the journey we're on. >> Can I ask well okay so it's been implemented for two years where you send it out to every employee that leaves the district. Um like I understand that these are contributing factors here on this graph but what changes has administration made from the data from the past few years to retain employees? >> Go ahead. So I mean you
066already heard some of them uh you know from not only uh are we doing um like information and data seeking around uh pay practices, right? We're doing that for our primary professionals. We're doing that for our teachers. And uh we'll be engaging that again this year for our administrative team. Um that's some of the the the big the biggest things that we're hearing and seeing also from a cultural standpoint. We're trying to um understand especially uh this subgroup of pair professionals. Sorry. It's really our hardest group, like Margaret said, to to understand what brings them in, what keeps them here, and what doesn't keep them here. Um, and we're hearing a lot around salary availability. We're hearing a lot >> for just pair of professionals or districtwide. >> So, I mean, we take So, it
067what's it's not that we never paid attention to exit survey data because I I do not want to create that impression. direct >> but we never for we never really reported turnover or exit survey information to any board committee but we we as an administrative team in the time that I have been here we notice when groups of people are leaving I mean it it's part of what our work is and then within our our central office team we would discuss hey we have four or five people leaving from ex school we need to get with that building administrator and find out a what's going on and b is there anything that we can fix or if we see patterns of people going out the door and talking to them as they're going out the
068door I'm going to this employer or I can't work these hours or things like that then we would follow up and address those issues on an ad hoc basis as they came up so I I I don't want it to be like we've never paid attention to people going out the door because we certainly have worked with numerous admin building administrators in terms of hey why is this department turning over? Why is the entire department turning over? What is going on and really try to untangle what is happening here that we can influence or change so that people want to stay with us. >> Right? This survey is only one form and one snapshot of all that we do. >> Correct. >> But you know if you're asking from a retention standpoint, what kind of
069conversations do we have? We have conversations about culture. We have conversations about pay uh benefits uh you know for sure you know and and >> we we have those discussions internally and with the board uh as they come forward uh and as they come forward through the HR committee especially uh when it's when we talk about doing a a salary review or we talk about you know why is it um that um we've made the choice again to um not offer that position as a benefited position. versus a benefited position and those kinds of things. Um, and and you'll see and hear more of that as as you go through. But, um, those are some of the things that we talk about all the time. I don't know if that helps or if that answers
070your question even or what what we're looking at or what what we've been doing, but I was asking you because you're the one I just was wondering what initiatives have been made because I'm not based on what I'm seeing, it doesn't look like turnover is an issue, right? like I asked for it because I didn't know if turnover was an issue in the district and it doesn't seem like a a dire situation here. People are in mass exodus in the district. >> But I think our our biggest group is the pair professional. And that's the hardest group that we've had >> to try to find what what really works. And like Margaret said, the the the people applying for that position or that type of position, um those applicants look very different than um the
071types of people who were applying even four or five years ago. Uh and and I I hear that from all over the place, you know, like not not just school this school district, other school districts, but also other employers are saying the level of employee that they are getting versus what they were used to. um it has shifted somehow. >> I think that this is just my personal opinion. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we won't offer them a full-time position or give them benefits like and they are expected to work extremely hard in the classroom because the teacher needs to focus on performing the lesson. So the parah is there to deal with all of the other things going on. So I would assume that they feel very
072undervalued in their role across the state. I'm not even saying with this district. I'm saying across the state. I think me personally, I think that's something that needs to be looked into. We're not going to change the culture here with peers if we keep on treating them like they're, I don't know, McDonald's high school employees. Please, Dan, >> Tammy, um, we're not ignoring them. That's what we're trying to solve, you know. Um, but the loss of benefits we had when I would uh sub in, you know, for a pair or with a pair, um I don't understand how anybody wanted that job at all. It was a tough job. And then you take away benefits, >> right, Dan? That's why I'm saying maybe we need to look at some other potential. >> Right. Right. But,
073uh if we give them full-time hours, then we have to give them benefits, you know. So, it's kind of that balance. But just a couple of comments Margaret that u comparison to class and quick trip and Fisher Barton that information I really like because if I had to make a choice which job I would take it'd be in one of these three places. So that that competition of stuff and then you also said that we'll work with their schedule needs and so forth. the that area this the kids need to have the same person every hour that they're in that room. I mean, that's ideal, but we can't do that, right? And so, do they do a three-day week? Do they do a um >> Well, it depends on the person, right? Oh, >> we
074we are very customizing schedules which makes it really hard for really our our teaching staff and others to make sure that I mean we have sometimes >> you know um things written in IEPs about coverage right for the students minutes right that they need >> and to try to piece meal maybe three different schedules together to make sure that that one student's covered and I'm not lying when I say that we've done that >> um you know it gets to be a difficult task. uh and uh does lead to having you know a little a little less but you know the where we are with our budget um if we could cost out what it would be to have everybody go full-time in benefits but >> that we're talking about that's a it's a very
075>> expensive cost and I will tell you we've moved more into having you know in other places right we've moved more into having uh you know cleaners and stuff instead of full-time custodians right because we know that we It's a choice that we have and we we realize that they a lot of times function mostly similarly. Custodians can do other things that a cleaner can't. Um and uh that's why we have that that as a different job description. But but we've moved more towards getting more and more part-time cleaners uh because we can flex their schedules a lot more. We can be more creative and we can have more of them than we can of custodians who are full-time benefited in higher pay. I would say the one of the biggest complaints that I've heard
076from parents and grandparents is is that the, you know, their child or their grandchild isn't getting the one-on-one that they need. Well, we don't have enough parents to handle that. And when my son was a um special ed teacher, he had a runner and that kid would take off once in a while and they had to send cars out to get him and stuff. you know, it's it's uh it's not hard to lose a kid like that who's going to take off. So, that I'd like to see the numbers, you know, raised and and we could keep them, but it just we got uh we have to give them benefits, full-time hours, and I don't know we can do that. So, that's the dilemma. How do we get them and how do we keep them?
077>> I don't know. People generally invest in their employer what their employer is willing to invest in them. Dan, >> you're you're not wrong. >> That's just the harsh reality of life. But Carl did have Do you have anything more? Because Carl does have a question. >> Enlighten me. What What What's starting pay for a pair? >> Uh 1885. >> You got to be kidding me. No wonder you can't find them. I pay kids 20 bucks to mow my grass. >> Well, Carl, I'll come and mow. >> Yeah, I'm sure. How many hours? >> Oh, I will. >> You talking about the small one? >> Small lawn or the big one? >> Five acres. >> Mower or riding mower? >> Definitely a riding mower. >> Well, so what? It takes two hours. Hour and a
078half. if you got to go around a lot of trees. >> Well, that's Let's not get into that. Let's But I I appreciate that. What about the a cleaning lady? What What What kind of starting is that? >> Um a little bit below 15 for cleaners. >> Yeah, I I clean people. >> Is there difference between instructional and special? Yeah, this is stretch out parents get 166 as the starting. >> So they get like $2 an hour less, >> right? Is the money that's been allocated and I and I haven't scrutinized the budget to find the exact numbers yet, not our budget, but state budget. I know there was an amount of money that came in for special education. Um will that be available to help in the parah for the special ed because those
079numbers are high 67 paras and seven resigned. I mean that's not a high number of resignations don't get me wrong but that's a lot of parents but in order to keep them I'm assuming some of that money is available to keep that salary or that pay package available. Well, I mean, in terms of my role with respect to setting pay, I can work within the board approved pay schedule and that's what I'm working with. We will >> recently we just did a market study, right? >> Right. And just implemented this last year a new pay schedule, right, with those higher amounts and and those were commensurate with other school districts. I mean, around us and our side. I mean, like we we did a couple of different factors that we look at >> um which
080we do for all sectors of our pay, right? But we we not only looked at paras, but we looked at our cleaners, custodians, all of our support staff, and we implemented a new pay program this last year for them. >> Well, I think water's unique. It's still I think it's still unique in how many special ed students that we have. I was on the board years ago when Bethesda changed its approach and all those students came here and it changed dramatically how we had to handle that. was I mean it was huge and I'm assuming we still have some of that even though Bethesda is no longer bringing in you know clients but they're in the district. So >> yeah I think we have almost 20%. >> Oh okay. >> Anybody else? Good luck. >>
081It would be ideal if we could uh have an employer that could fill in a 12-hour shift sometime in the week to give them 40 hours at least, you know, no benefits. But like if >> But the problem is if you get over 32 hours in a week, Dan, you have to offer them benefits. >> No, I'm not talking about >> He's not talking about us. He's talking about pairing with another employ. say that they go to Quick Trip and work a 12-h hour shift or go to class and class has 12 hour shifts. typically done in a swing fashion I believe though >> we we actually do uh or have I don't know if we do right now um but we have employed um our paras and we've worked around bus driver schedule >>
082uh you know and said hey you drive bus come here parah then drive bus right and there's two different employers there because then rightway is their employer for the bus driving and there ours for the other but um we we have tried to work schedules around and incentivize that kind of stuff. >> Have you found that advantageous and workable >> worked for a couple and again I wouldn't know Margaret because you might know more than I worked for a couple and and and that but it didn't work for most different kinds of people often too that are >> involved in those things. It was a great idea. It really was a great idea to try and get somebody to piece those two together. >> Anybody else? >> Yes. >> Okay. Go ahead, Carl. >> There
083is one available work pool. >> What's that? I hate to say this, but you know, those people that are incarcerated in your uh prison systems sometimes are let out to work like uh >> well, they can't be felons because I don't think schools districts can hire felons. >> A lot of drunk drivers that >> I don't know if that's a good idea either, Carl. What if they're having a bad day? >> I'm not saying for the bus driver position. No, no, no, no, not at all. >> Okay, Sam, would you stop? >> I mean, I'm talking about people. >> I I was cleaning job. >> Oh, yeah. The cleaning thing. Yeah. >> I can't think it does that. >> You just every once in a while you throw this dry thing out there. >> Oh,
084god. >> Oh, sorry. Gosh. >> Anyway, um not to make light there. There are we are trying to find multiple ways multiple ways to really find employees right uh it's out there everywhere and the balancing thing is is really difficult um you know trying to find the right balance of you know pay benefits uh hours um even like like you guys said it's it's hard you go into a classroom right and all of the things that that teacher is needing help for and asking them to do Right. It does take special skilled people to figure out how that works, right? Um but when you're starting to get into the 20 uh 25 bucks an hour, 30 bucks an hour, you guys know what our teacher uh starting pay is, you know, uh on an hourly
085basis. Uh you know, you start bumping into that, you know, and we're starting to pay them near teacher rates. Okay. So, this district is 33rd in the state per pay. Out of all the districts in the entire state, we are the 33rd highest district. >> Yes. And we're the 60th largest. I >> I'm assuming that that most likely is topheavy with teachers and administrators. Rightfully so, right? because they're the most educated, so they would have the most >> our administrative pay is um if you look at distribution of pay and our comparables, and maybe Margaret, we should bring that as a future agenda item. Um you would be surprised at what that looks like at with comparables. >> Yeah. >> And districts and the amount of pay we have per student on on a per
086student basis. >> Okay. So, you know, I just want to make sure that you know you guys that's a good piece of data for you guys to have because I hear out there a lot of times too that we are administrative heavy. But if you take a look at it as the number of administration we have and the dollars that we're paying on a per student basis, the number of students that those administrators are are to care for and look after and educate, right? Um we fall very low on that comparison chart. I I just looked um Will has a a little tool out there to compare >> u school districts and I I checked the administrator like not the administrator pay but how many administrators >> that you have >> even how many versus
087how much I mean because those are going to be pretty >> we call in the middle of pack um I I still I it still boggles my mind that we need that many administrators per student but you know that's another conversation But we we are not outliers. >> There there's a reason I I hung that little list over there in the corner. And that list is out of the date now. But that list over there talks about all of the uh federal uh and and uh requirements that have been put in place since I think the 60s. Every time the government adds more on, you got to find somebody to help with those reports and uh doing those things and grant and that's just not that's not even on the kids side. >> Yep. You
088see that in the corporate world too. anytime you add. >> As you've seen in this district especially the amount of students who um require extra services, our EL students and our special ed students comparative to our our regular ed students, you're going to have more administration and those numbers have gone up. So, and like I said, if you look at comparisons though, we've done a pretty good job of saying we're we're not gonna we're not gonna bleed into that or the other things or whatever. No, we're right in the middle of the pack >> and and we're really trying to keep that down. >> But I think it's good for you guys to actually see the real data around that because you're going to get pressures from people out there that say, "Oh, we're administrative
089heavy and oh, a lot of money going out." Well, if you want some comparison points, here they are, right? Because I I I I don't want I I want to say this. I got paid a good salary and I'm very happy to get the salary and I thank you every day, right, for the salary I have. Uh but I I refuse to have people say that this district is overcompensating and over administrating because it's the data just doesn't support that. >> No, but we do need to we need we do need to push back on, you know, if we're required to do all of this reporting and you need somebody to do it. This is this is why we have to have this many people. And I think we we really need to have that
090discussion at a later date. As a matter of fact, you will see uh like uh on that support staff side, we do have a higher number of support staff than a lot of school districts do. Uh we're at one of the top >> Yes. >> uh school districts for extra support staff, right? And so >> that being pair of professionals >> pairs. Okay. So, uh, you know, I I just I want you to make sure that you're utilizing the real data and numbers and not just how we feel or what we're feeling or hearing because I'm not I'm not I don't want to downplay what's happening in the classroom. There's real work that's needed. That's why we that's why we have over years put money into those areas, right? But I I think you just
091really need to see the data points uh to make sure that you're informed. Where are these regulations coming from? The federal or the state? >> Depends. They're going to be a lot less or a lot fewer from the federal government. Now, >> that's good. But most of the time, the state forwards on um because what what happens is it comes from the federal government into the state governments and then the state governments forward on also with their little tack that they put on to it, right? uh the government, the federal government says, "You must monitor this." And then the state government says, "Yeah, we'll monitor and this is how we're going to monitor in our state, right?" Then they pass it on to the locals, right? Um and how how they choose to do that
092is really a, you know, multiplication factor of what the state wants. >> So, >> go ahead. Um, Margaret, is it possible for you to succinctly give me a summary of who the PARs report to, who is overall at the at the ESC level is responsible for the Paris, who does their um their evaluations and how that is handled so that we know how that's working about feedback that we're getting from them as well as the people they are reporting ing to which is presumably the building principal the teacher right >> so the pair of professionals do report to the building at the building administrator at the building in which they are employed and that that's who does the interviewing and hiring for the the individual groups of paras. We don't have a central paraprofessional coordinator
093although our director of curriculum instruction will work to and our director of special ed and student services will work to make sure that we have adequate training resources and professional development resources available will work with the building administrators to develop like I mean we we had like last year we had four professional development days for pair professionals now we have reduced that to one professional development day for 2526 in order to meet our our budget requirements. But the U director of of curriculum and instruction, director of special ed and student services will work together to make sure that we're putting together needed resources for professional development. And we have already in terms of PD we have talked about using different strategies to allow for ongoing learning and and support in um areas that pair professionals
094need additional development opportunities but doing it within the context of the scheduled days that are available. So I mean we we are working on that but there isn't just one person responsible for at the whole group of pair professionals unless you want to be a chair >> but we get feedback on on whether they're doing their job well and how if if the workload is manageable and all of that is coming presumably from the building. Okay. >> Yeah. But we also um we also do rounding sessions where we make ourselves available as administrative team from the central office. We go out to buildings and we ask people to sit with us and talk to us about, you know, what they're hearing, seeing what, you know, what it feels like for them in their positions. You
095know, we try to listen as much feedback as we can. Uh, and then we we do that a couple of times a year and, uh, we bring back the data from from that, you know, to you guys to say, here's what we heard, you know, here are the themes that we're hearing and here's some of the things we're working on. And I will tell you like the last couple of times we've said pair of professionals is a thing right now, right? And we know it's a thing. We're trying to continue to work at that. Um we just there's so many confines in in it to to think about um and try and find the right solution. >> Sure. Thank you. And and just for the new people, and Sam and Craig got correct me if
096I'm wrong, but uh we had a choice last year of getting rid of one of the assistant principles and instead we got rid of five parents. Is that correct? >> The dean. >> It was a dean. >> The dean position. >> We got rid of the dean position. >> No, no, it was between >> it was between the dean and the parents. >> Dean at the high school. >> Yeah. We eliminated five parents to keep the >> deed. Yeah. High school. They eliminated five parents to keep the date. >> Okay. >> How'd that work out this calendar year? >> We'll find out. >> Oh, that's for this upcoming year, >> right? >> And they were all in the library, correct? Weren't they all li Oh, five paras. Four of them. library media specialist pair, library
097media pairs that were um that those positions were were eliminated and then I mean most of those individuals moved into and displaced other pair of professionals that had lost service. So those were five jobs that are >> that was to hire another library media specialist teaching position. So we got rid of nine pairs. >> No, >> I want to say >> overall >> 12 >> from the high school. >> No, from various places. >> Various different areas >> as part of our budget cut package. Our staffing >> staffing plan >> plan that was approved. >> Okay. Anybody else questions, concerns, anything they'd like to share before we move on? >> If you're not working with DVR, I don't know how much DVR has interactions with DVI or people who are associated with DVR, pretty good
098resource. I don't know for full-time or even part-time paras that can get pretty intense, but for a lot of those other minor positions, >> we have cleaners and um um we have worked with uh food service with successful DVR relationships and job coaches. So we have we have used DVR when we have the opportunity. >> Always a good reminder. Thank you. >> Yeah, great. It's a great program. I agree with that. For sure. >> Oftentimes fits when you want the when you're looking for someone to fill a smaller amount of hours. So >> it was it was a really good experience on that. >> Okay. So then we'll move on to D. Administrator contract renewal process and timeline. So this is more like a recap from our last HR meeting. Um it was discussed that
099we would when administrator contract renewals came up uh Jared would present to us um how he feels about the administrator. We would also potentially see their actual review and then Jared would present to us the strengths and the weaknesses. We can ask questions based on that review. We're just bringing this back to have an official conversation at the HR committee before it goes to the actual board. Anybody would like to add anything that they think should be add if they're uncomfortable with that? If they're comfortable with that, any input at all? >> This would happen in December. >> Sounds like a reasonable plan. >> Okay. So then we'll move to move that to the board agenda this month to put in place that we'll see the administrators yearly evaluations and then Jared will present us
100in December how he feels. Okay. Go ahead, Craig. >> So why why December? >> Because that aligns with the contracting information that'll >> and and they will be halfway through uh their year. uh they will probably have had uh or either they will have had or they will have had scheduled their midyear connection uh with uh myself or uh Jenny or Jason uh to talk about where they've gone with their um their educator effectiveness uh goals for the year and where they're at. And so we'll be able to bring you uh as much recent information as we can on where they're going with educator effectiveness and all that. >> Um so in the event of a nonrenewal that deadline is in >> uh January >> January. >> Okay. >> January. >> So even so it
101gives us a little bit of flexibility >> to be able to qu >> have any further questions have another meeting or discussion whatever. Yeah, >> that's up to the board. I always felt like it would be pertinent to have that discussion earlier than later, but um you know, I I see your rationale. You'd rather have um time to have a midyear evaluation and have information to be able to present to the board. If you do that in December, does that give you time between that and the deadline um in January for any remedial steps to be taken if the if it looks like this might be someone we wanted to rescue? >> So, um if we were at a point uh with any of our administrators where we were on an improvement plan, you would
102know it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um and uh you know, that's that's about all I can say with that. uh and and if we're if we're not at that point, right, they are going to be in the educator effectiveness system. We're going to talk to you about uh goals and strategies, strengths, uh weaknesses, uh the discussion points that we're having with them, and I'm going to be updating you along with that. Um and um I have no, you know, no qualms. uh and those of you who've been in close session with me before, uh when we're in close session to talk about how I feel and where things are going and if I feel somebody should be on uh an improvement plan or not, um I've had those conversations and those people around
103the table who've been through those already um will will tell you, yeah, there's no problem with Jared saying what needs to happen or get fixed, right? And or working on that um because I' I've done all of those things when I've needed to. So, um, this is more, you know, again, trying to, uh, understand what it is you you guys want. Um, you know, having you look a little bit deeper into their educator effectiveness, uh, and their goals for their buildings and how they're coming along with that. And, uh, certainly a midyear time like that is is perfect. And it does align with uh contract discussions, but it aligns with contract discuss discussions not for right now, but we say, "Okay, a year from now, Jared, if we need to be on a different path,
104that's when I want to hear more stuff from you because then I can put the path in place, right?" And we would then have a path uh and discussion points along the way that says, you know, a year from now, your your contract's coming due. you know, uh, we might need to think about things differently. >> So, so that that's what, you know, and once we get on a regular schedule like that, um, and what Tammy is saying is, you know, uh, outside of, uh, how we've done that more informally, uh, we're trying to get on a more formal schedule of that now. >> So, any other questions? >> Anything anybody'd like to add? >> No. All right. So, at 7:01 p.m., we're going to move to close session. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Roll call
105vote. Sorry. >> Oh, can I have a motion to go in close? >> I move. >> Okay. Carl Jane. >> All right. So, I have Craig Wortman. >> Yes. Jelane. >> No. >> Oh, just committee members. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, Jolene. >> Yes. >> Okay. And Dan, >> yes. >> I think that's the only committee members here, right? The rest is Oh, and Carl. Sorry, Carl. >> That's okay. >> And you know what my vote is? Yes. >> Okay. >> Are you sure? Are you sure, Carl? Do I need a piece of paper to give the Lynn for the roll call? >> Uh, no. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, um, we have to before we get into business, we have to make sure that we shut down >> shut down the owl, shut
106down the recording, put anybody in a waiting room if there is people in a waiting room. >> Same here. >> So, Yeah, if there if there's a Google meet >> there would be but uh is is there anybody online still? >> Yes, there is. Let me see. Go to the three dots over there >> right here. >> Yeah, I think there's a thing that says >> remove from the cross. >> Oh, is there a way to put them in the waiting room? Those people are not there. Okay. Well, I guess we just have to remove him from the call. >> Okay. Betty Ramirez, I need to remove you from the call. Um, as this is a close session. Greg, >> Greg Kulick, I need to remove you from the call. >> Uh, CWZ, I need
107to remove you from the call. >> I don't know who this one is. >> Sorry. >> Um, uh, telephone number 608 ending in 00. Are are you part of the district administration or um a member of the board? >> No response. We'll move. >> Okay. I'll need to >> Sorry, I >> Okay, so that leaves you and Sarah Kelly. >> Sarah Kelly, you are the only person left on the call. I need to stop the recording.