001I could. Yeah, I could try. It's worth it. Well, I Great. Okay, fantastic. It is five o'clock. We are here for the HR meeting. Um, committee member uh Mike Higgins did let me know that he would be unable to attend um tonight. Um and so we do have a very full agenda. Um and as far as um we will be needing to conclude our meeting at 6:45 because we do have a special board meeting starting at 7. Um and just a reminder I you know as far as like meeting and things like that. Um we want we do want to make sure that we stick to the stick to the items as closely as possible. Um, if there are other items that come up, feel free, you know, to email me and things like that.
002Um, and um, I typically do also I don't know all who's online or whatever as well, but um, and I I do give first dibs to committee members and things like that as far as um, conversation and and things like that. So um, so first up we have health insurance renewal. Um, and we have our representative here, been working with Margaret. Um, so I don't know if we want to maybe start out with intros. Sure. So, um, for those of you that were not here in the earlier part of the year, we had taken a quick look at what our health insurance plan was shaping up to look like for an October renewal. Um, we did get our renewal rates in for uh, 2025. We were on a calendar year health insurance plan. So, um,
003we had asked Al Jagger, who's our account rep from USI, who is our broker and benefits consultant, to come over and talk a little bit about that renewal. I think all of you were here for the August presentation or the Oh, no, it is the August. What was it? The one we had a few months back, probably been June, I'm guessing, or April, May or June. me. We had a presentation that Al had done kind of setting the stage for what our plan was looking like at how in terms of uh claims performance and um just kind of setting us up for this meeting tonight which is the uh official notice of renewal that we have received. Um and and so I'll just put your presentation up now and you want to go ahead and
004take it from there. you want. Is it all right if I talk here or do you want me to stand or you do however is comfortable for you? You can have a seat at the end there if you like. Whatever works for you. All right. Well, um appreciate the setup. So, what's part of your I understand uh documents that you had received included the slides and I'll walk through the slides. Um, I'm not going to necessarily uh speak in great detail other than explain what it is that it's getting to. So, the last meeting we had with our claim levels are high. And when in health insurance, especially at the number of members that we have, our claim experience drives our renewal more than like if you're a small employer, you're pulled with everyone else.
005With large employers, in large part, your claims are your claims. And that's served us well for the in over the years. And if you don't mind expanding to the next or going to the next slide. So what we'll touch on is you know how do we compare and contrast to our peers because part of the question was we want to keep our cost in you know uh single digits mid single digits 7% I think was a specific target. And how do we get there if based on our claim levels we're above that? Uh so we'll the the real areas of levers I'll call it is plan design and then contribution. What is the plan design for the staff and the value of the plan design and how does that compare to the rest of the
006world and what is the contribution? What's coming out of paychecks and how does that compare to the rest of the world? So, we'll do some peer comparisons and then we'll look at what the calculation that uh your your vendor that represents your health insurance is quartz. Uh what does their calculation look like and how aggressive did they get based on your claim level and then from there how do we want to address you know whether it's plan design or contribution to get right to your budgetary target. um and then take you know questions and by the way I'm pretty informal so feel free to stop me at any time just so um next slide we'll start talking about uh some of the benchmarking information. So what this is showing we have three plan designs and
007in those three plan designs you know high, medium, low, however you want to describe them. Um, and what this demonstrates are the blue ones shows, you know, the plan design name and specific uh the percentage of value at the end. And if you um if you look at the specific percentages, what is it? 94, 85, and 80.5 um are the plan values. What that's basically saying actuarial value. Sometimes when you look at traditional ways of comparing, what's your deductible, what are your co-pays, what's your co- insurance, and it's kind of like everyone's eyes start rolling back of their head because there's a lot of variables. And how do you compare and contrast? Well, what we put plug in all the data and say, what's the actuarial value? Well, the actuarial value is basically saying for
008every dollar and claims that your members have, how much is covered over the course of the year? So that 95 cents out of every dollar is your richest plan and a little over 80 uh cents in a dollar. And when you look at peer group, the peer groups include employers in Wisconsin, employers with 250 to 500 staff. And then lastly, Wisconsin public schools. And what you see is Wisconsin public schools is specifically at what is that 80 88%. So you'll see we have a plan that's a little bit richer and plans that are a little bit less. So we give our staff options, but in the end we're right where we sort of want to be in terms of plan design from peer comparison. Next slide. And then this speaks to okay, what's coming out
009of employee contribution? What's coming out of paychecks toward it? And you see our range, you you have, you know, anywhere from $35 to one on the single. I'm sorry, 131. 131 on the single. And then on the family, um, what do you see? 87 to 328. 328. And mean meanwhile you look at Wisconsin public schools you see uh where they fall in the mix uh a little bit higher on the single and somewhere in the middle in terms of on the family for perspective school districts in general about 75% of staff and same with us 75% of staff are in a family plan. So uh a majority of focus might maybe we should gravitate more toward the family looks like but in the end once again we have a competitive offering in the three tiers.
010Please is that um so the the looking at the family coverage you've got 328 196 and 87 and the Wisconsin public schools is 249. Is that like an average of Wisconsin public schools? Okay. So, um, thank you for asking that because being where we're located there's there's a world toward Milwaukee and there's a world toward Madison and there are two different worlds. Uh, in terms of what those costs are. Uh, I can tell you in Madison it's going to be less and Milwaukee it's more um and not a more than um where we are. And as a result, we we need to be a aware of both in that regard because in the end we we attract and retain staff in both directions and obviously in the middle. Next slide. So this just breaks down
011in further detail each categorically and how we fare. So it's a again I'll without spending a lot of time and I know you have a full agenda. It really is reinforcing a lot of the same in terms of how we compare to our peers. Uh if you don't mind advancing the one slide I really want to get to is now this one. What this does is what's the average cost per month for those staff members? Because there's one part that's the contribution right out of their paycheck. It's the other is on the plan design value. So, what's the average cost per month? Um, when you combine blend the two and when you look at it from a family standpoint, we're competing pretty darn well in all three of the categories. So, this is the setup
012to the renewal. Where are we at? How do you know if we're going to squeeze a part of the balloon? What part of the balloon do we want to squeeze in order to get to our budgetary target? Right. Next slide. So, and we can advance at this because this is again more of the same breaking down the details. Some individuals, you know, as a follow-up might have additional questions. So, the part that's important to understand on this is, you know, when we last met, this shows the breakdown of two years worth of claim experience. And that two years is what goes into um the renewal calculation. And when we look at, you know, the fact that um the most recent 12 month snapshot for every dollar that was being collected, when you add in administrative
013costs on top of the claim cost, courts are spending Thank you. courts are spending more on claims and administration than they were collecting. And that's when we got a little bit nervous. Well, this is the purpose of this is to reinforce full transparency of how they got to where they got to. And oh by the way, part of our narrative that we agreed to in the last meeting was was how do we make sure we get the most aggressive pricing and we made it real clear if we didn't get to that 7% or close to that 7% we're going to have u to revisit the whole picture. Well, they their calculation methodology came up with over 20%. When you get to line 19 in this whole equation shows over 20% their released amount in the
014increase was 9%. So and when you combine the combination of what their claims levels and the fact that they have one of the most aggressive contracts with the providers and their main providers. We'll talk about that a little bit. um and that they agreed to get even more aggressive on pricing than what their calculation is. It's a seems like a pretty decent narrative. Next slide. So, this just shows the transparency of okay on a single and on a family rate, what does that translate to when you start talking about the percentage of the increase? Um and it just shows, you know, the 9% um when you have the trend and when you apply it to each of the the loss ratios and year-over-year when we see we had, you know, 90% in 23, 97% in
01524 and the year to date we're trending at a um um better year, but you know the 105% u and the fact that we got you know 4 and a half% % 6% 6% 9% renewal releases. We're doing better than what the loss ratio would suggest. And a side note that we often use when we compare to our peers, we're doing well in each category, whether it's claim levels, especially our renewal relative claim levels. And lastly, we often use the state plan. ETF state manages uh approved clinics and then locals we can access it as well and we look at how that's been running and they've been average around 15% increases the last two years. So I would just reinforce that we've been able to outperform that as well. Um so we've appreciated that's worked
016very well. Thank you. You and then next slide. Um when we we talked about status quo renewal, you see the 9% u from a monthly premium and the purpose of this is to show okay these are the specific rates again full transparency and what that translates to single and family. It also shows enrollment in the different plans. And what you can see in the far upper right is, you know, when we talk about the HMO plans, we we offer um three different plan design, three different deductible levels. And we also offer three different networks. So in other words, the network with courts is just offered in the HMO and then you have in and out of network and a point of service and then you have a more national network on a PO. So technically
017we're offering nine plans and a majority of the individuals are in the upper right hand corner plan which is the HMO plan with the uh high deductible HSA eligible and that's the plan that received call at the 8.3%. So question that with some of the questions that were asked last time for consideration. Okay, we have nine plans. What if what if we were to consolidate plans? Would we get a better renewal? So, first and foremost, we're at a blended nine. What if we consolidated? Well, when we looked at that, the reality is, okay, for the point of service, there's what we we went back and forth with underwriting. We got the movement on the global, and then we tried getting a little more uh fine-tuned, and the short answer is no. Um, and as far
018as the top providers being used, the other thing we looked at there, most everything's being used as a network, even the point of service that gives freedom of choice. Um, Watertown Regional Medical Centers as number one utilization. U hospital and clinics and Aurora are the next categorically and to be expected. And when we transitioned, as a side note, when we transitioned originally with Quartz, um we did spend a fair amount of time looking at who we aligned with, who aren't we aligned with, who has the best pricing for those providers, who who doesn't, and we landed there. And the dynamics frankly haven't changed in that regard. Next slide. And I just make a a note about that PO plan. That plan currently is part of a person's retirement agreement which will be aging out. And
019I mean, as far as we know right now, we're not aware of anyone new that would be needing that type of regional or or regional access to providers. So if we were going to cut something that just seems like that would just be a natural due to nonparticipation. But I don't know that it would bring us any like savings. So a it wouldn't bring us the savings but b it would bring us administrative clarity right efficiencies. It creates confusion and it's not necessarily being used to why have the additional handle. Um, so you know, there's a couple of approaches that are ultimately outlined and again I'll I'll kind of do it in the fast forward basis so you can um ultimately get to any of the other agenda items. But um you know when we
020when we look at it we can do plan change um we we answered the consolidation doesn't necessarily have the additional efficiency. So the next slide we talk about plan change. So if we wanted to if the objective is to get 7% um changing the deductible from 1100 2200 to300 2600 uh would get us at or below the seven uh 7% and then you see uh what would it change on the premium contribution and then that's on this one plan design and then the other plan sign 1600 to uh 1,800 on a single about 3,200 to 3600 on the family. So that would again get us budgetarily from a plan design standpoint to where we would need and then if we decided okay maybe the plan design is in the category what's the contribution look like
021and the contribution impact which hits every paycheck to every uh month you see um the single and family on the three different plan designs you see it would go from single 131 to 160 and the family from 328 to 401. So um that's call it a um the first plan design. Second plan design you see the single go 78 to 102 and the family 196 to 257. And then lastly on the most popular plan design, you would see the single would go from $34 to $48 and the family go from 87 to 122. Um, and you know, many districts as they weigh compare and contrast which of the two options make the most sense, plan design or contribution. you know, it it can become a matter of it's certainly something that's debated. Plan design may
022impact the individuals that utilize the insurance the most. We're talking what 15% maybe 20% of the staff. Premium contribution impacts everyone, right? Because it's hitting their paycheck every month. And I'm not here to tell you one's right or wrong. I'm just explaining that's the summary I would share as far as a difference between the two. Please um where did we come? And I don't know if maybe this is a question for Margaret or Sarah. Um why a 7% target do we So I think that was the discussion that we had when Al was here last last time previewing which was that we had talked about like best case scenario it would it would be we had been on rate caps for the last four years at 6%. And um we wanted to make sure that
023we were carefully managing the expenses associated with health insurance just knowing that it's a huge part of the budget. And so I think we sent Al away um saying that if he could get us to 7% that would be great. And so what Al is delivering to to us today is possible uh um ideas associated with getting to the 7%. Um if we don't make any change at all, we will have a 9% increase in our premiums. And then we would adjust without any plan design, without any contribution rate changes. We would then just adjust everybody's premium contributions to reflect the change the 9% increase in um premium contributions. There's also like a little almost a minimous change to the HSA the uh high deductible health plan maximum or minimums. So I think they're going
024up50 $50 $100 for um 2025. So I don't know Sarah do you want to speak to the budgetary impact of seven versus 9% or um what you have going um with respect to budget planning? Yes, certainly. Um, so I obviously I always like to save money, but we did include the full 9% in the preliminary budget. So that is already included in the preliminary budget that we've been looking at at fiscal and that the full board will see in September. Um, so that is reflected and I think we were anticipating a higher increase this year. We knew that that was coming. So we did plan for it. Um, so I don't know if that impacts, you know, if we want to try to reduce down to the 7% this year knowing that next year may
025also be a large increase. Um, we don't have a cap, am I correct, for next year. There is no rate cap. So, we really don't know for sure what that will look like. And then we will be in kind of a little bit more uncertain territory financially next year with um all of the planning that we're doing right now for budget. So, um, in my opinion, I think that we it would be great to get to 7%, but it is not necessary because we do already have the full 9% in the budget. Are you getting any market signs on what what might be happening in 25 26 that I I mean that might influence the decision? um you know unfortunately medical trend continues to be higher than I'll call it 7% as a whole. A
026lot of that is around prescription cost. That's one of the bigger drivers in the equation. And so, you know, as far as from the looking forward standpoint, if I were to say, you know, to Sarah's point, okay, we don't have any caps next year. Might it be a big one, big increase again? We are giving from a court standpoint, we are giving them a lot of focus on how do we change our prescription cost? they ultimately did change the pharmacy benefit manager to get better pricing to help us in the upcoming years. So, you know, I'm optimistic. I'm hopeful. I can't give you a guarantee because there's no cap, but I do think there's some things being done to help mitigate that from being an uncontrollable amount. So the best I can answer is, you
027know, we've outperformed the rest of the world in large part for the last four years and I'm optimistic that we can do that again. I just to Sarah's point, I can't guarantee it. Thank you. So, kind of what we're looking at, and I'll invite questions if we have any. Um, so kind of what we're looking at is as far as what options that we might recommend as HR and bring that forward to the full board. Correct. So, we would we would have a resolution approving the 25 uh renewal. So whatever the recommendation that comes out of this committee tonight will be what we take to the board meeting next week for um the renewal contract for 2025. Okay. So, in our options as far as what that provides, um, we can, correct me if I'm
028wrong, we can take the 9%. Or we could choose one of the mitigation measures as far as like keeping it at or bringing it to 7%. So, either a plan design change within that or an employee contribution change within that. Um, do we have any more questions of Al as far as like the overall? No. Okay. Diana. No. Okay. Sam or Fred? Okay. I don't know if there's any board members on the line at all. No. Okay. Um, I mean, when we're taking a look at just as far as like for a discussion point, um, and I I don't know, we all, you know, wish would all stay the same, of course, you know. Um but I think I guess as I was processing this and taking a look at this and okay so from
029uh you know the standpoint of employee you know retention recruitment you know we want to be conscientious of those things but I think we also have that you know fiscal responsibility piece that we have also been you know talking about as a full board um and we we know that it's coming we don't know if it you know I don't know what the the current plan is if it's next year the year after like we know that that's a concern for us. Um I guess I tend to lean toward I mean first I have really appreciate l all the the information and everything that you do for us and you know um and Margaret you know you two work a lot together as far as like okay can we you know and bringing us different
030options. I appreciate this presentation because I think it makes it very clear. It's very understandable um as far as what these things mean and the impact of it. Um if I'm taking a look as far as like the math goes. So when we say per month, is this based on like nine months out of the year or 10 months out of the year? Is it a No, it's a monthly premium that is So it's based on a 26 26 pay period per year cycle, which is a full year cycle. Okay. Okay. Um, so for example, the if we're looking at that one chart, so the most popular plan, I guess I just kind of took a look at this one just because our most popular plan is the HMO family in the 1650 3,3300 deductible.
031What slide are you on, please? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Slide 12. So I'm just kind of like walking through this like, okay, what how does this, you know, come together? So if I'm looking at that the HMO plan the top across going to the right corner we have 180 families enrolled in the HMO plan the 1650 3300 deductible. Okay. So that's going to be facing an 8.33% increase. If we go to a plan change to on slide, hang on. If we go to a plan change on slide 14 for this seven to to get us to the 7%. I guess that's what I was that's kind of where I was considering. And so we're looking at if you go to the HMO family of the the second example there, the 1,600 3,200 changing those
032deductibles 1,800 to 3600. So that's a change for people of $200 and then it would be $400 as far as like what they would pay for the deductible. Okay. If you take a look at the family HMO increase, it would be $5.52 per month. So that would be an increase of 66.24 plus let's say the $400 for the family deductible, right? So 466. If we take a look at the next slide and we do it from a contribution change. Okay, the third example there, the 1650 because that's where the majority of our people are in a family. That family would be 354 a month times 12 is 420 and what was the original deductible? 3,300. Okay, so keeping that the same. So it would be so either example is right around No, the first example,
033the plan design change is more burden on the employee. Did I do my math right? Does that sound right, Al? And I think rudimentary terms. Yeah, it it depends if you're the impact on I'll call it around 20 to 25% of the staff would be the high end of the percent that would be impacted with the plan change. And I say that because not everyone's hitting those deductible levels. Sure. whereas and so um that your your math would be correct for those hitting those deductibles which would be again somewhere around 20 to 25% and then the other 75% clearly the contribution would be hitting the majority of them a little bit more more okay okay well typically if a district is facing this I'm speaking in major generities right now where Do you typically see
034them choose the plan change or the contribution change? Because like you said, no m this group is going to have this and this group. So when you when you look at this group, this is beneficial to them, but it's not to this one. So looking big picture for a district maybe our size, what do you see as the trend as far as where districts lean toward? And I know there's not going to be a magic bullet. There unfortunately isn't. Um, I can tell you the Milwaukee direction was just was, I'd say, most always more on making plan changes because it was all about how much what their paychecks look like. So, how can we make it the most competitive paycheck? That would be more of the Milwaukee area. uh Madison area traditionally direction would be
035more on protecting the plan design and um so putting it toward contribution that's starting to change. We're starting to see some of the I'd say uh districts that in the Madison area that many would keep an eye on most closely like the Sun Prairies and the Wanke. They're making plan changes instead of contributions because to attract and retain the next generation of recruits. They're more f they just look at their paycheck and as a result they're making plan changes and understanding that that next generation is more interested in this. Thank you. My followup to that is the decision we make this year does it does it need to be consistent next year as well because we're going to have the same conversation next year. Does one guide the other or not really? Well, no. I
036the only way it impacts next year is when we could do our peer comparison again next year. You know, one will will be adjusted in our end, but let's see what the rest of the world does. Right. Right. I just want to make sure that we weren't having a preconceived it's not locking you in. Thank you. Good question. Thank you. I guess when we take a look at that and like those considerations and things like that, um I mean I'm tending to lean I don't know how the other committee members feel, but um I'm tending to leave to lean I would tend to lean to keeping it towards the 7% increase. And I think um I think you brought up good points as far as the plan change may not affect everyone and that keeps
037more in the you know in the paycheck realm. Um you know you're looking at a difference of you know 30 30 bucks a month you know as far as um the 5.52 if we took a look at that example that I had used the 552 versus the 35. So I would tend to lean towards a recommendation of a plan change to the 7%. Yeah. May I add one additional? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. that would probably support that is it's an HSA plan design and when you save more premium than the Richard plan design the staff members would have the option to deduct the additional amount that they're saving or the less that they're getting out of their paycheck they'd be able to put toward the HSA which helps offset the additional plan design change that you
038kind of follow the logic of that thought. So, as you were making that suggestion, I just think that's noteworthy. That's not a detail we necessarily covered now that I I didn't cover now, but I thought that would I don't know, Margaret, do you agree with that? Save me. No, I mean, you just you put it into your HSA to offset whatever the increase. I mean, people will likely be doing that anyhow because there's an increase this year for the the uh deductible minimums. So people usually adjust their HSA contributions based on the um whatever the IRS says for that year is the minimum threshold for high deductible health plan um participation which then influences how much they put into their health house health savings account. Thank you for that thoughts. Diana Dan, I could go
039with either actually. I mean, I think the 9%, you know, since we already have is fine. But those are some good points about the flexibility it offers the employees with this 7% too. So, I'm not u leaning one way or the other. I feel similarly my slight lean is trying to get to the 7% this year and making it clear that we really tried to hold this to 7% that you know that to do what's best you know to retain that paycheck for employees. We know health care costs are skyrocketing. We're gonna do the best we can. And I think we just need to be transparent that our conversation revolved around how much the employee can keep in their pocket while maintaining good health care, you know, and knowing that next year we're going to
040do the same, but I don't think we're going to be able to keep a 7% increase next year when you look at the trajectory of how it's going. But just if we can at least owe that one more, it's built in. I mean, like I said, I could go either way because 9% gives us a little bit a little bit more in the budget, you know, that can be used somewhere else, too. But you're leaning towards seven. I'm leaning towards seven. I'm okay with that. You're okay with that, too? Okay. So, just to make sure that I understand the the recommendation to the board is to change the plan design to increase the deductibles and out-ofpocket costs to get to the 7% increase. Yes. Yep. That would be slide number 14. Number 14. Yeah. Were
041there any other non-committee members that felt, you know, because if we're if Dan and I are sitting on the fence, you know, could go either way. There may be a comment that someone has that could help. Maybe we see something that we haven't seen. So that way we don't get to the full board be like, "Oh, you know, is there anything?" Um, can I just jump in and say that I did do some quick math here while we've been talking and based on what the district spent for health insurance for employees last year, the cost savings between the 9% and the 7% is about $134,000 just for context. So, it's not much anyway. Thank you. If I would say something, I mean I I have a conflict of interest in this and I I probably
042shouldn't be commenting on that, but I always vote the uh then I don't know if you can. No, I was say defer to the the board and the committee and to do the right thing and that's just it's just the way it's been. And I think it's something, you know, I I think we all, you know, probably feel the different pulls, right? Like, you know, employees, I mean, employees are why we exist, you know, to serve the kids and and things like that. And, you know, we want to have good staff and part of that is, you know, providing b good benefits for them. Um, the other part of it, I mean, I we can't ignore the financial responsibility piece, I think, of it either. Um, and yeah, I get it's only a h 100,000,
043but I I think sometimes we say that like, oh, well, it's only 100,000. Well, it's only 50,000. And I think as those things compile, um, you know, I think this brings about awareness and, um, it's not a huge jump. I think it's a, you know, it's a small share for everybody that way. That's kind of my I was just excited to hear it wasn't three to four to 500,000. I know. Well, right, right, right, right. That was my excitement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was Dan's look, too. Oh, okay. At least that's the way I read your look. Okay. Yeah. I I think we're good with 7%. Okay. So, Okay. All right. All right. Sounds good. You are correct then, Margaret. We'll um we'll put that forward as far as a recommendation to the board next
044week in a resolution. As far as um slide number 14, I mean, I really appreciate that we're keeping, you know, like we're not changing it drastically as far as like where people go to the doctor or the overall, you know, we're staying with courts. We're staying, you know, like so I think those are, you know, a positive thing as far as that goes. Um, and hopefully this continues to serve everyone well. Okay. Anybody have anything else for Al? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Al. Okay. Thank you all for that. Um, letter B, we are moving on to the um consent agenda. This will be a resolution to put forward for um next week. Margaret, do you have any comments or anything about that? Um other than this
045is a reflection of having filled all of our certified staff positions. I mean, we did have four additional hires um over the last few weeks and we uh started the year today for uh new teacher orientation fully staff. So, um we're feeling like we're in a good spot. There's a lot of interviewing going on for pair of professionals. Um, I'm sure that by the time this hits the board meeting on Monday, there will be a couple additional therap professionals that have u agreed to join us for the 24 25 school year. So, we're Congratulations, Margaret. That's a very good place to be. It's a lot of hard work. I'm sure there's a lot of paperwork, a lot of things flying around. Yeah, I think it was a combined effort on part of central office staff
046and administrative support and all of our um interview teams out at the various buildings. So, people really stepped up over the summer. Uh we got a a jump start on some of our more difficult to fill positions by working in January to recruit for those. So, um yeah, we're feeling like we're in a good spot. Okay. Fingers crossed nobody makes any different decisions over the next week and we should start out okay. Okay. Excellent. Margaret, I have a question about all the football hires. It's like the whole staff turned over. That's kind of unusual, isn't it? Coach. Yeah, I know. I know that. I'm just, you know, typically just renewals, but they're not all new, are they? Because if if it's a new event coach, I can see turnover in the staff getting their own
047crew. Well, just traditionally it hasn't been the whole staff usually. You know, that's I'm just question of uh if there's anything that we I have no information on the uh dynamics. I can certainly ask Jamie Cap to a follow-up report, but I don't know that I have any just a curiosity. That's Yeah, I tell you follow Jamie. He he tell you the specific details on that. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. A lot of them are new names, but it is a new head coach. Yeah. Change the the previous head coach had been here a long time and so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the staff went with him. He left. And these are a lot of younger. It's a a new Am I correct in this that just at a glance it seems like we
048have a lot less turnover in hires this year than we have or am I just because it's been spaced out I think it's because more spaced out over the summer that it seems yeah I think last year we had about 30 and we had 36 this year that's just because it's spaced in summer one collection Okay. All right. Sounds good. Good questions there. All right. Letter C. Preliminary exit and turnover reporting. Um this had been something um as far as um let's see we had had this as far as um an action item you know and the the different things that we had talked about um you know like as a district you know we're looking at you know more data kinds of things and I know in HR we don't typically talk a lot
049about data I mean Margaret has a you know as a has a feel for you know which positions are turning over and things like that. Um but we wanted to you know our employees are our most important you know asset we have and our most expensive one and things like that. Um but as we're looking at you know more data driven discussions um taking a look as far as like okay so are there you know what can we learn from this data are there certain positions are there certain years are there certain um perhaps buildings um and kind of the idea on this information is that you know it could help us with um you know perhaps salary studies or requests and budgets um even even culture like okay is there a you know is
050there a best practice going on for certain positions and things like that. Um and so I think as far as um you know we need our people and just kind of taking a look as far as what what does that look like you know where where are where is our turnover coming from and and what can we do you know in taking a look at that. So, um, that then became one of our action items and Margaret was able to pull some of that information together. For clarification, termination, it says termination and retirement. Termination means either contract termination and or resignation. Correct. It's either a resation. It's a resignation. It's resignation and retirement. We I mean, I don't even or just because it says termination that has a differentation to it, but it terminates their
051contract or they resign from their position. I mean, it it's most often I can probably pull up the names of the times it hasn't been voluntary because that is a rare experience here. So termination is anybody that is coming in resigning uh from a contracted position or a non-contracted position and is not eligible for retirement benefits under the Watertown Unified School District retirement plan. So there are resignations or what we would consider terminations. Included in those numbers are people that may indeed have the had the ex low the life experience of retirement but because they did not m meet the threshold for retirement benefit eligibility here in the district they're characterized as a resignation. Um, the other thing I just want to point out is the total turnover statistics are termination and retirement divided by
052the total that were on that report as of one day in time. So I did not pull retirements out. This is a a well discussed concept among the HR community. What is the definition of turnover? How do you calculate it? It's so um uh it it's there is no common understanding of what turnover is among school districts because each district has a a tendency to uh prefer its calculations one way or the the other with or without voluntary or involuntary terminations with or without um retirements. So this is just a straight calculation. Whatever fell into retirement and termination was used as a the number to to calculate against the total. I will also say that from a data integrity standpoint just because this is pulled from a system that is not set up to perform
053HR dashboard uh metrics that uh you know like the 1920 data that was our first year using the Skyward system. It was also our first year that we had people reporting their work time um in that system electronically. There were various adjustments that were made to fields as we went through the year in order to best place people for the most accurate processing of payroll and benefits. So, you know, I I think we captured everyone um after going going through the spreadsheets, but I can't say that it is I will not speak to this as being 100% accurate from a data standpoint. just knowing that we that we have made changes um over time and we don't really have a report set up to capture retire uh turnover on an ongoing basis but uh based
054on the preferences of the committee. If you let me know what your preferences are, we will set up a report so that we can monitor that on an ongoing basis um so that I we capture the information that you want as time goes along rather than doing five years of look back because that's quite a bit. We some we also had had a request for um transfer data. We don't track internal transfer data among support staff to any great deal to any great deal. I mean we move people around from schools to assignments to buildings among support staff quite a bit throughout the school year based on student need or staffing needs or cover for the leave or um based on individual preference. So I mean we can track building locations over time. And that's
055a biperson an uh review of like a couple hundred people's uh personnel records. So if transfer data like that moving from building location to building location is something that you feel you want reported on that we will definitely need to know because that is going to require some individual reporting and some manual uh refinement of the data that comes out of the system. We also um do not track on up until now. Well, we we have this data. I should say it's just that we don't track it into a metrics or report dashboard reporting um format like somebody else had asked about uh other types of transfers and so I can go through the various spreadsheets which I did and tell you that you know like we had two involuntary transfers in 1920. We had
056all of our uh only one voluntary. The rest of our transfers in 2021 which were five but were um um involuntary. We had two involuntary in 2122 and four voluntary uh two involuntary in 22 23 and five voluntary uh 23 24. We had one involuntary, two voluntary, and then in 24 25 we've had four voluntary because we did not make involuntary reassignments. When we make re involuntary reassignments, that means that we have the staffing plan for an upcoming year and we have the the teacher rosters that we know we have contracted with. And then we're adjusting enrollment based on what's coming in in the spring. and we will take a look at, oh, we have too many people at Douglas for that staffing level, but but um Lincoln is in need of a different of
057a staff person based on their enrollment. So, those are involuntary assignments that are are made. Um we've done a couple over time as based on budget and enrollment. Um, but most of the the staffing for this year, well, it's all been valid. We didn't really make any involuntary assignments for this year. So, okay, Margaret, which positions do you find the hardest to fill and which one has the least amount of applicants? Well, I would say our uh special ed pair of professionals are the hardest to fill right now. We are hoping that the effects of the support staff salary that's being plan that's being rolled out this year will have a positive effect on that. I mean the biggest drawback that we see in the um special ed and instructional para recruitment is that they
058leave us to go for positions with benefits and we we don't have anything to counter that type of uh arrangement with. So we have lost a couple pairs this summer alone primarily because they're going to full-time with benefits. And for those of you that aren't aware, we hire all of our PAR positions at uh positions that work up to 28.75 hours per week. Um which is 5.75 hours per day, per school day. Um we we do that in order to uh make sure that we are not meeting the threshold for ACA eligibility. So, anybody that works consistently on average 30 or more hours per week needs to um be offered uh uh health insurance which has been a a budget control technique for another number of years. So I think in 2012 was decided that
059all of the paras that uh were benefited that those as they aged out would be replaced with part-time 28.75 hour positions which is what we do today. And the the fewest number of applicants in what area? I would say in the PAR area, we had four applicants this this week. We had four interviews this week and I think all four of them will be offered a job um by weeks and assuming their references and background checks are meet our requirements. Um I just have a couple of questions and then I'll get to Craig. Um what does okay when I'm looking at the different job classifications? Um I'm just kind of wondering as far as like what's the difference between administration and supervisors? So we have six usually we think around 16 administrators. They're considered um
060contracted yearround administrators. They are um building principles, associate principles, and then all the central office staff. Okay. We have six supervisors that supervise custodial services, nutrition, our district accountant, um Chris Malloy, our data s supervisor, uh said Sheila already. We're trying to include the other ones. It's okay. I won't know who you're missing. supervisors have exempt level positions but they are not contracted um district office administrators or they are not school licensed administrators. Okay. Okay. And then like for cleaners and just kind of like the the classifications there for um I was looking at like cleaners, custodians, paras is that well I know does do all of those positions are does that only reflect full-time people or is that full-time and parttime? Well, all of our cleaners are part-time. We don't have full-time cleaners. Okay.
061Um and the custodians for the most part reflect both full-time and parttime. although we don't have many part-time uh custodians. Okay. Okay. Thanks for that clarification there. Craig, you had a thing. Yeah. When it comes to I mean I'm trying to understand like u a couple of things and maybe to try to get some context behind here. I just trying to understand. So the total number is the total number of real estate cleaners that we have that on that date that on that date on Yeah. Okay. of the employees in that classification. Sure. So, so when it comes to like um like positions like uh custodians and maintenance um how do how do I know what like the goal of staffing is as far as like so 23 24 we indicate um 25 custodian and
062maintenance and yet it indicates a 16% turnover. Well, uh perhaps our goal for custodians and maintenance professionals is 30 individuals and and there's a shortage and there's a turnover because of being overworked. Uh I guess I'm just trying to understand a little bit more about how we're using this information um to to drive decision making. Um especially when I also look at another category on this particular list that had had a lower turnover in 1920 2021 and now we have a larger turnover later on. Um and when do we start asking questions of of supervisors then uh whether or not this is normal? So a a couple things about the totals. So the totals are everybody that served in that that was placed in a job classification for that plan year at so for 1920
063it says 29 that might be 29 people that work through the whole year or it might not. And a good example of that is with our um with our teachers or special ed parents. Like we filled one job last year four times. So that one job is going to show four hires and four terminations on a on next year's termination report. And that has happened much more frequently than in the last since we came out of the pandemic than it did in 1920 or 20 well 2021 in general is kind of seen as an off year just because that was the middle of all the pandemic experience. So, so somebody had also asked about did we increase our staff from 470 something to 544. Not necessarily. It's just that we had that many people to
064to account for during that particular year. So, I mean, filling mid-year vacancies was something in 1920 before the the pandemic, you never would fill a midyear vacancy. People didn't leave. They signed up. They stayed. And I mean, it was unheard of that you would leave in the middle of a school year. Coming and going throughout the year for pair of professionals. I mean, that that aspect of our recruitment function, our employment function has become an ongoing uh continual basis. We have never had uh turnover goals set for this organization or any determination of what threshold of turnover might be considered acceptable. Like I said, this is the first time that any of this data has been pulled or put into any type of reporting. Um how do we fill vacancies? We have had maintained the
065status quo um um for whatever has been approved for the staffing plan. So we bring a staffing plan each year to all of you. You approve that staffing plan. That's what we fill up to um um for that year. Uh in the support staff areas, we don't add support staff. We just use whatever existing vacancies might come up as a result of attrition. And then there is some consideration for whether do we need to fill or not fill that job. And if it's not filled, it just kind of hangs out there as a vacancy for a while until we get to the following year's budget and staffing uh plan. But right now for this year, we have a staffing plan. We're filling to what that approved staffing plan was. and anything that would be over
066and above would need to come to would come to the board as an additional FTE. So like Sarah sometimes has those transfer service positions that come up paras frequently and we might add a new position because we have a new student with different needs. So So I guess that I guess I'm still kind of confused a little bit. I I I think I understand that the staffing plan seems to drive a lot of the decision- making that we make, but when does this piece of information, how does this piece of information drive our decision making when it comes to um like supervisory roles and stuff like that? I mean at some point uh and other extraneous this um things that kind of contribute to our turnover rates because uh if if there's a problem in
067a particular area, let's just say we have a supervisor that you know uh for whatever reason people aren't able to get um get along with and want to stick around. do we need to make an adjustment in that particular uh department? I mean that that would be one of my concerns. The other concern is maybe there's another explanation behind what's happening there. Um and and when I'm seeing this information, I I want to be able to form an opinion based on um based on whatever rationale give uh as far as that's concerned. Um I I just want to make sure I I understand how it's being used. So, I mean, we don't set turnover thresholds as like a performance measurement for any of our supervisors or administrators. I mean, we can I can certainly take
068that back as a suggestion to Jared in terms of his consideration for setting um performance standards. Again, this is the first time that we have ever pulled any type of longitudinal uh turnover data. We do occasionally become aware of environments that are of concern in terms of the work environment and the culture. And I mean that it we're small enough that that becomes noticeable relatively quickly through uh resignations or through um concerns that are expressed formally and informally to administrators to certainly to jar to me. Um I think people will come to um Jason or Jenny or Sarah also and if those concerns if there's enough informal data coming from a a particular area we are um we go in and we start working with that administrator and um talking with staff and finding out
069what is it that we need to be addressing. I mean we will hold we will hold group sessions. That's also where part of our rounding really comes in to help is that we go in we talk with people we get you know a firsthand accounting of what the culture is and what their concerns are. I guess I guess I would encourage administration to consider this as maybe another another thing to consider looking at when when evaluating that particular situation. Thank you Craig. I will take that back to Jared and make that recommendation. My final comment after everybody else was done, but that's kind of along your lines. I'm strugg first of all, I appreciate the time, energy, and effort to go in to pull some data to look at. I'm struggling to find how this
070data helps us to to make a decision. What would we use it for? And I'm not being critical. I just I'm not maybe I'm tired. I'm not able to wrap my brain around how this is going to help us make a decision in the future. And so, while it's good to we're at I thought we had a higher turnover than 5% or 8% or 10% of teachers. So, I guess as if we go to look at this again, what are we hoping to achieve? What decisions are we hoping to make out of it? Because yeah, it's great to have data, but if it's not helping us to make a decision, I don't want Margaret or somebody else spending hours of time to pull something together that doesn't give us value to make a decision in
071the future. Like I thought it was interesting to know how many chose to move from one build, you know, voluntarily, whatever. Okay. Does that help us to make a decision that's not here? Um, so what are we looking for? what information do we want to to or need? And if this doesn't do it, then I don't want to task Margaret. I'm not being whatever. I just don't want to task her to do something just so we have data. You know, just having numbers means nothing. But if you ask me today, I don't know what decision we're making based off of these five pages or whatever it is that we're looking at. Maybe I'm just not looking at it the same way. I understand where where Craig's coming from that if we're going to have some
072go then okay what are our guiding questions so then how do we look at that but we haven't talked about how we disseminate the data so right and and I guess my my my biggest thought is um you know yeah we can look at anecdotal information about you know exit interviews and and things of that nature which gets passed along to administration and we can look at um we can look at Well, how uh the staffing plan and how it aligns with that, but how do you know when there's actually a problem like statistically in turnover and and that and that might be a valuable piece of information for HR to um to move forward with um because it statistically it might I mean you you have a good take on how many people you're
073replacing in a particular department um and At some point, you're going to start to ask some questions. Maybe some numbers behind those questions would be helpful. Just just a thought. And I think um you know, and Margaret, you might have more ideas as far as like, you know, what what can this data tell us? Or maybe maybe Jason does or how however that however that works together. I'm not a you know data specialist but I guess um you know in in taking a look at this I think you know it's like okay we talk about you know salary we talk about um you know there for a while we talked about absenteeism you know and things like that and so um you know it's like I I guess I just feel like if having this
074information like you know we have an idea like oh okay our turnover isn't as bad when I sat in one of those focus groups you know somebody was like oh yeah we don't have any turnover The other person was like, "Oh my gosh, we have so much turnover." You know? So, I think this just kind of helps us to I I agree. We don't want you to just spend your time doing something that's not going to matter. But I think it it gives us an idea as far as like numbers wise, this is what it's telling us. And then if we are having a lot of turnover and you you know, you can pinpoint it and be like, well, the salary, we're hoping the salary will help with some of those things. Is that kind
075of so I mean I can certainly pull the numbers together and report you know annually on turnover based on various job classifications that you know once I have that set up as a report it's easy enough to generate it on an annual basis. I think part of um what I'm wondering is like in the central office environment when we're collecting the information from all of the people the administrators and the employees and all of that on an ongoing basis and we start to see oh all of our speech and language pathologists are leaving. I mean we are we're living in that in a way that we are very much on the front end of that phenomenon before it like before we would pull a report on turnover. We would be like looking Sarah would be
076in my office saying did you see that fourth resignation came in. We would be talking at central office. What are we doing? What let's get out in front of this from a recruitment standpoint. Let's talk to these people that are on their way out. Do we know what the issues are? Do we know what the concerns are? So, I mean, that's what we do on a like all the time basis when when we start to see developing situations. And I will say that our team is very much committed to trying to get out in front of issues before they develop into a statistically high level. We would rather say, can we get in on the front end and start some in informal culture building and and problem solving rather than wait to have it come
077up bear be born borne out in a report. And the only the only caveat I would add to that though, Margaret, is that if if there's um if you feel like in a particular department that you just replaced x amount of employees on a regular basis anyway, and that's normal, you know, and and it just happens to be that that that happened like three years in a row and that just sort of becomes like that's what's normal. Um, but without some longitudinal data that might suggest otherwise, you know, you wouldn't necessarily recognize a problem, right? I agree. I I agree. And there's usefulness in that for sure. And I guess I maybe maybe the best way to say that is we are watching turnovers and resignations and retirements and keeping an eye on it in
078a way that hopefully we are paying attention to trends that we see over time. But I will also acknowledge that we we don't put it into formal data reporting which we certainly can do so that I mean maybe we need to do just a better job of displaying that yes we are monitoring this yes we are seeing this we are seeing that trend we are seeing this improvement or uh things like that. So, I can appreciate where why some of this information would be considered um important, but I'd rather do it and get it all set up so that I'm not doing five years worth of data at one time. Sure. Um as I kind of bring this to a close. Oh, yep. Fred, two quick things. Are you monitoring when people change positions if
079somebody's leaving goes it goes from one school to another? Do you track that? So, we trans we do for certified staff. We keep uh pretty good records on that. We do not have put that in any type of reporting. I can pull buildingto building transfers or relocations. Um but right now I I will need to have work with our Skyward people to set up a separate report to be able to um fashion that in a way that we get it on the front end because it like once it's in there and you run a report at the end of the year you we are not going to remember oh that person voluntary voluntarily applied for that vacancy as an internal candidate as opposed to Sarah reassigned that person over to um a a different building
080because the student also moved there or something. So, we just need to we would we'll need to set up some like data field adjustments to be able to capture that on the thought there is that turnover isn't necessarily the only metric that you may have or an issue. You could have people who are moving positions within the company that it could cause, you know, you know, hey, look, there's a lot of people who are leaving Webster and and you know, it's not that they're leaving, you know, and it even is if they're volunteering for other positions or things like this. That could be a metric that we want to track. Yeah. And my my only other cons comment here and I'll keep it short is that you're wonderful with this stuff Margaret but if you
081leave and you win the lottery we all this becomes anecdotal if we have this set and we have it in reports and everything you know as somebody changes like this we can just keep that process to the next person we have those instantiated I think we need to get to that right where it's institutionalized. Yeah I agree I agree with that. Thank you. So, would it be would it be fair, Margaret? I know you and I had a conversation as far as like backtracking for transfers like Fred was talking about. Doesn't really seem like that's feasible, but it's something you could set up going forward. We can certainly set it upward. Yep, that would be great if we could add that. And it would it would it seem like something that of course not you
082know having to go back five years but does it seem like this would be something feasible to maybe do a report out on this like every year summer or something? Yeah. As long as I know that that would we can just add it to the HR planning agenda as like a standing item that Yes. there's enough system in here that it's not a huge undering of okay it's a manageable piece okay I think that would be helpful for the you know different reasons that we brought up and stuff like that just kind of having an understanding of that yes okay wonderful thank you all very much for that discussion on that item um next we are going to go ahead and move to um the employee satisfaction survey action plans Um, we're going to give
083that item about 15 minutes or so. Um, because I know we do need to go into um closed session and things like that to keep us on track. So, okay, that's good because maybe we can take another 15 minutes for next month's agenda. We have one strategy that we are building bringing to you today which we had talked about as a result of the uh survey that we wanted to uh focus on student behavior. So um Sarah has is here um had worked with the team to develop uh some action plans associated with that item. We also will be looking at the communication um items but we are in a point where we are waiting to see what comes out of our uh our strategic plan. So, we know that people are feeling like we're
084not communicating like what's our plan, what's our direction, what's our vision. And so, that is an an area that we'll be focusing on from a communication standpoint. It'll include the rounding that we do and have already set up, but we will also then incorporate a plan to roll out and be communicating uh the strategic pan plan outcome that's on the board's agenda next week and be able to work with our our staff in terms of what does a a living breathing strategic plan really look like? like, okay, the board approves this and it has nice language in it and it's um great for uh uh in the one handout, but what does that mean? How does that come down to my building, my department, my job? So, that will be another area that we'll be
085working on developing some communication strategies with and I'll bring that uh to next month. I do need to talk with Jared a little bit more about okay how he sees that playing out and it does to some extent rely on the outcome of the strategic plan. Okay. Could we and I you know we'll we'll go through these documents. I kind of envisioned as far as like the employee satisfaction survey. I thought maybe last year we kind of had like a document that was like okay employee satisfaction survey one two three if we could I could put that together. Yeah. just because I think that that kind of gives us a vision as far as like yeah what's that you know what that's tied to. Um so one on that list will be uh the student
086behaviors. Okay. And and so Sarah I do you want to speak to the plan for addressing student behaviors. So we have several things that we do um to be proactive but also there are steps that we have to take to be reactive when things go on. One of the proactive measures is really focusing in on those building level teams um to build systems and structures so that we are teaching students what it looks like, feels like and sounds like to follow expectations in a school setting which is going to be different than a home, different than you know out in the community. And so one of the pieces and this is a very 30,000 eye level view right you have that in board docs is to um and some buildings already have this team is
087that I'm so sorry Sarah is are you looking at the positive behavior supports building lever structure document okay thanks is to um build a team if they have not yet done it with that specific focus who is going to be on the team is very specific it's going to be a vertical level theme. Um, and we want to include a variety of people because people have different views and different opinions. They also see children in different ways. A classroom teacher sees them in a learning environment whereas perhaps a pair of professional sees them in a not structured environment. And so we have to take that into consideration. So I put in here who and um the focus a little bit about the different roles uh for these and then the subcommittees that are crafted within
088these building level teams to focus in on data communication incentives mini lessons and those mini lessons are where you're really going to get your bang for your buck. So on Monday mornings after a review of the data let's say that there is uh the sixth graders um have an issue right the team has already come together identified what that issue is crafted a precise problem statement which tells you the who the what the when where and the why they have crafted a solution action to prevent teach prompt acknowledge correct and they are teaching those on Monday mornings to that specific grade level it is ondemand data on time based in revolence um relevance um to cor correct issues and to prevent further issues. And so this is a very um uh what do I want
089to say? This solution works in every district that I have ever worked in, that I have ever crafted, that I have ever um implemented this. This solution works because teams are gathered and they are looking at the data and they are motivated to do this. This is about building culture and a climate for learning um within those buildings and this is part of it. It's like the RTI process for behavior. So, as far as so some of some of what I what I hear and you know the frustrations and things like that out there um you know well there's been you know there's been focus groups there's been you know this group and we come together and we um you know talk about it And that's nice, right? Um, and so it comes and goes
090though. What's been happening is it's come did its little way and it left, right? This is building a system and we have to build a system and it needs to have longevity over time. It also needs to have buyin from staff. And so when I was talking with Jason and Mike this morning regarding Riverside, they um they had already had a team, but that team needed a little bit of an overhaul and a new focus of what it is that they were going to do. And and don't get me wrong, this takes time. This takes time on the part of of these participants. It takes time to build these systems in the buildings. Um but our students really do need this level of support. the teachers need this level of support. And I think that
091when the um when everyone is rowing in the same direction in those buildings because they're going to do it differently at different buildings, when they're rowing in the same direction and all of the students have the same expectations for what it looks like to walk down the hallway and every teacher has ownership over every child and we are all celebrating all of our children um and holding them accountable in the same way using the same language. It makes it very clear for children. They know what to expect and they know what will happen um if those expectations aren't aren't there. And children are learning. They're learning what to do. They're learning how to learn. And this is part of learning how to learn. When we take a look at that, those pieces of it, then
092how does it come together as an overall district initiative? Because this is per building, right? It is. But every everyone is going to be doing this. Okay. So, someone is overseeing that. Is that someone you Okay. All right. I just wanted to, you know, like is there ownership somewhere, you know, as far as how that comes together, you know, and it's me building um systems in collaboration with those building leaders, the administrators, it's really important that they're visible and they're present in this process or their design. Sometimes it's a dean, sometimes it's an AP, sometimes it's a student service member. Um but that's a very important step. I have always had um a parent perspective on those teams as well. Um and usually it's been someone who has had the luxury of of you know
093having time during those meeting times or um you know volunteered in the buildings or whatnot. And so they're also looking for those people to participate as well. Um there's a lot of information that goes out to families about this. there's a lot of tips for home and tips for things um that they can instill at home, right? Here's what we're doing at school. Here's some tips for home, too. Um but that's their piece. And so, in collaboration with our parents and our community, um I think we're we're going to see some good gains. Okay. My last question and um what how would you expect like what what are like the outcome hopes for this and like what kind of a time frame like I mean you know we're starting the first we're starting the first
094day of school and so you know usually you know expectations you know if school there should be expectations that are taught on a regular basis as part of a Monday morning routine um well every day and then it goes to Monday mornings but the first six weeks of school are absolutely essential in in establishing those expectations and following through. Again, common language, common expectations per building, but it's the same type of system that is going to be implemented. Takes three to five years to do this and to really see outcomes longstanding. Within the first year, you should be able to take a look at your data from the year previous and see a significant decrease. We also want to make sure that our data is showing a true reflection of our population. Meaning we are
095not um over um referring students for behaviors um at a larger percentile than we have them in the building. I'll give you an example of 20% of our population um will is students um from Germany, right? um then we should only see 20% of our students from Germany having referrals instead of 60% of our referrals are to students from Germany. Does that make sense? Um so there's pieces of looking into the data and disseminating who are we what are we doing? Are we doing this well? If not, what are we going to do about it? And then there's the accountability and fidelity piece. Thank you Diana. I like this and I like structure. Yeah. My question that maybe I just don't see it on here is a thing that I've heard over the years is
096kids get sent to the office and nothing happens. This is there somewhere in this piece where we where someone has delineated these are office referrals. These are suspensions. These are automatic. This this is dealt with at the classroom. How is that reflected in this? Whether it be so that way the teachers are very clear, the parents are very clear and the students are very classroom managed versus office managed is a matrix um based upon all the expectations in those buildings. So they craft their expectations so they don't already have them and then what is managed by office what is managed by the classroom that is done by the team and that is done by the building usually very very common amongst the buildings right that was my next question the team very common amongst the
097buildings as well and so that is all done by those teams yes that's a huge part of this work that the team does excellent Dan did you have yeah but I'll wait for Well, um, you know what? Just because we have limited time, I'm just going to hit committee members first, please. Thank you. So, um, how much flexibility do teachers have within their own classroom? I mean, it's the art of teaching, right? Well, right. So, they they have a lot of flexibility. So, if things are are classroom managed, every classroom has their own way of um their own climate and their own their own culture in that room, right? the own way that they do business, but as a building, they all have common understanding. If Mr. Boltner does X, Y, and Z, Mr. Boltner
098needs to go see Mr. Whitaker because of whatever major issue you had. And so they developed that as a team. The wonderful thing about this process is that all of the educators in that building that includes well actually all of the staff including custodians and an office um they all have an absolute say in how their building structures this and how they work through it because it has to reflect who they are and what they believe in too. Again, there has to be though overarching themes that are very similar because if Mr. Vulner is a Lincoln student and he goes over to Webster, right? The expectations aren't going to be that much different over at Webster, but there is an art to this and there's an art to teaching and so you want to give
099autonomy to that art as well. I'm sorry. I don't know if Kger first were you. All right, if you don't mind. Um, I I I generally like this. I I think it's a step in the right direction. Um, so I'd be eager to see what happens with this. I I would pass along this piece of information. um that I've heard uh concern among the staff is the lack of follow through in the past and I'm hope hoping that there's going to be um you know some rigid following of this sort of uh procedure that's put put forth so that at least we know whether or not it's going to going to be effective or not. just that's where that accountability and fidelity measure is really important for those teams and they have a very specific
100form that they are going to be using during their meetings that goes through the precise problem statements and their solutions and then their accountability measures they have to monitor themselves but again the building leadership also needs to monitor that to make sure that they're making sure that this is still working and if it's not that's when the SOS comes out and says hey what do I do how do I fix access um and then we'll come in and we will fix some magic wand. Yeah. So, uh two questions quick. Uh first question clarification about the percentage of student referrals based on demographics, right? When you said um uh the example of 20% of the student body is German. Y um yeah, it you might not have been saying this, but what I heard perhaps incorrectly
101was we only want to have a matching proportion of the total number of referrals. We don't want to overidentify certain subopuls of our students. So if you have a hundred students and 20 of them are German and 29 students are misbehaving in class severely, but 20 of those 29 students are Germans. Do they all get sent in even though they make up a dis a disproportionate amount of the total referrals? So that wouldn't be a disproportionate amount. What we're really getting down to is that if we have 5% of our students are minorities, they should not have, you know, 50% of our referrals. Gotcha. Okay. That would be disproportionate. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So like repeated referrals, correct? Okay. Gotcha. What are we doing to meet the needs of all of our students, but our data
102will show us, our data does show us already some disproportionality. Okay. And how are we going to meet the needs of our students uh so that they are um learning and have those barriers to learning removed so that we are all doing our best. Yes. So there's not repeated offenses being being uh given or taken or whatever the grammatical correct correct term is. And then the other question I had was so this is a uh positive behavior document. Uh it's a positive behavior intervention system. it's tied in with that. Um, how does that relate? Because when I was looking at the last agenda item, when I was looking at the responses for exit surveys, uh, over and over again, it was behavior, right? Whether it was uh, whether it was from the angle of mental
103health and or it was from the angle of there's a lack of follow-through, almost every single reason for leaving was largely behavioral. So, I'm curious about the punitive discipline angle that works along with positive behavior supports because from what I have read, positive behavior supports while they can be useful, they tend to diminish over time as students become accustomed to the positive reinforcement that comes with appropriate behavior. Okay? So, the positive reinforcement, if you're talking trinkets, that's external, right? That's extrinsic. We want to build intrinsic motivation. When you talk about punitive, we don't do punitive in in our schools. Um we have appropriate consequences for major or minor um behavior issues that that come up, right? So let's say that there was a major issue that we needed to do a suspension to expulsion. Okay,
104we might see that as punitive, but that is a logistic consequence for a major disruption to the safety um or welfare of themselves or others. Okay. When it comes to students, let's say that Johnny threw a snowball in Jane's face during recess. You're not supposed to pick up snow. Don't throw snow. Um and they do that and and Jane has, you know, an ice ice pack at that point, right? So, yes, we have a consequence. Um the school is going to make sure that they have their consequences in place um so that a student is learning from it, right? When we give kids detentions, when we give them suspensions, they're not learning from that. They are at home maybe playing video games and it turns into a vacation. So, how are we crafting our consequences
105to make it a learning lesson um so that they know what it feels like for the other person, right? We're gaining some empathy. We're gaining some kindness, but also this has become an experience that they have walked through instead of being removed from so that they learn through that motion of working through it with our staff, right? Who are there to support them every step of the way, but we also need to support our staff so that they feel empowered to teach and that we're removing some of these barriers. It's a very complex system. That's why it takes three to five years to do it really really well. But we should be seeing some really great outcomes within the first year. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. That's a very robust explanation. I
106appreciate it. Awesome. All right. Thank you very much for the details. Thank you for your dedication to this um because they, you know, we've all felt the what this can do, you know, for so many people, students, staff, families, administration, and things like that. and to be have a to have a comprehensive specific plan. Um, you know, as far as that goes. Um, could I would it be fair as far as an action I Thank you very much, Sarah. I appreciate that. Um, would it be um as far as like an action item coming out of this for the um employee satisfaction survey? we have like a document next time that you know outlines one two three or one two or you know whatever something like that that just to kind of give us a
107a specific um snapshot of what's going there. Um excellent. And then letter E, start of the school year and staffing update. Real quick, I just wanted to uh let you know that 36 of our educators started today. We are um this is their first day of orientation and it all sounded like they're coming back tomorrow. So that's the even better sign. We will Oh, there we go. We will um be hosting our um back to school all staff program on August 27th starting at I pulled it up here on my cell phone. Uh you're you are all more than welcome to join us at 11:30 in the commons for the all staff lunch. Um we will begin serving at about 11:15 for anyone that needs to get in and out. Um and then from 12:30
108till about 2:00, Jared will be hosting the um opening of school and our recognition program. And those historically have been times where uh board members have shown up to greet our students or our staff and welcome them back and just basically have a visible presence um at that event. You don't need to stay for the whole thing has been my past observation is that just the opening part. We've had board members that have been there to you know just to welcome informally. Um there's no formal assigned role or anything like that, but it's a an area that we get some positive feedback on in terms of staff feeling like, oh yeah, board members are there, too. And I have like many celebrity status for an hour or so. So, um I don't know about that,
109but you know, I think it's important. I give out a lot of high fives that day. Just let you know. It's good visibility and it's really it does matter. I mean, people do know take notice. So, um if if you're available and would like to join us for lunch, you are more than welcome to do that or to welcome the group in at um staff usually come in through the front door around 11:15, 11:30. You know, we usually have a team of people out there welcoming them getting them all set up. So, so we're looking forward to that. And that's it for uh staffing updates and uh start school year. Excellent there. uh September as far as what's my heading here? Future agenda items. Um taking a look at that. As far as September is
110concerned, we'll have consent agenda, school year calendar work group update. We'll have that and we'll have some human resources policy. I don't know if we will or not. I just have I just know that it is in the middle of going through the policy review committee and I didn't wasn't sure whether um there were policies that were going to be referred over here or not. So I just put that in as a placeholder. Perfect. I thought I would add the satisfaction survey followup and documentation. That would be great there. Um, I was taking a look at ah shoot. I'm sorry. I I had it pulled up um as far as action items from last month. Did we do rounding dates? Um, I have we set rounding dates for this year. Okay, we have I'll pull
111those and report those. We can do those. Sorry, I thought I had my our three things or action items from last month to carry to this month to make sure we're catching everything. So, um, okay. Now, we will be going into closed session. We won't quite make make our 645 goal, but I'm hopeful that we can we will still have it before 7 o'clock. So, um, do we have a motion to go into close session? Okay, Diana. Diana, motion. Dan seconds. Roll call. Roll call vote. Diana. Um, Dan. Hi. Tina. Yes. So, we are now entering. Do I need to It's not on the committee. Oh, Mike's. We are now entering into close session at 6:41 p.m. Okay, one one moment. I need to stop there and close. Yep. Well, sir, pyramids. Johnny Dler threw
112snowballing.