001It's a smaller list. Oops. Sorry about that. Um, it's a smaller list. Any comments, Margaret, on the consent agenda at all? Um, I would just say that we are anticipating a couple changes. Um, Tacy has uh rescended her resignation and will continue working as a custodian for us. And we also did have an accepted offer over the weekend for the WHS associate principal. Colleen Good will be on um next Monday's resolution. She is currently a uh the department team leader for special education at the high school. She's been here, this is her second year teaching here, but she has experience having served as an interim director of special ed and also uh um a dean of students at another school district. So, she will be added to the uh consent agenda for Monday, but that's
002it that I know of right now. Okay. Excellent. Anyone have any questions or comments? Nope. Okay, seeing none, we will move on to that. Thank you much Margaret for that um report there. And then um the calendar work group. Yes. Um as a little introduction, you I have to say Margaret, thank you and the team of everybody that has really worked hard on this and has shown as far as the process and things like that is concerned. Um this of course just to give a little background um this of course came up um you know at last year when we voted on calendar and it's it's come up actually for several years and so for this to become an action item and for us to be able to follow through with all of these different
003pieces um has been an exciting process where we've we've been able to see some movement from that. Um and so Margaret, you know, took it, formed this formed this team at different levels. There's been different people involved and um we we have some work out of this. Margaret, I'll let you take it. Well, thank you. So, um I am uh glad to report on behalf of the entire workg group team that uh participated in all of this work and provided a lot of important feedback in the development of options. So this is just a summary of the work that we did. We were meeting since a August 17th. Um we had a couple admin meetings where we laid out some goals from the admin side. We also had board input. We took the guidance that
004all of you had given during the various discussions um and then developed a couple of options. We tested those options with uh surveys. And I know I'm going really quickly through this, but I happy to stop and answer any questions along the way. Uh distributed and collected the survey data. We came up with a recommendation for 2526. Um, we did also do some rather extensive research on neighboring and best practice district calendars like what were the similarities or differences as and was there any relevance as it related to the Watertown Unified School District calendars. We had a live discussion about that. Um we did have uh like and we still do have interest in continuing to explore the idea of other innovative options but for the purposes of this discussion pretty much limiting it to
005the outcomes that came about primarily from the work that was done in preparing some possible options and then also um using the response from the surveys to those options. So, we had um three separate surveys that were sent out to the Watertown High School students. We had a set a survey sent out to staff and a survey sent out to um families in all families in the district. And out of that, we had as of last Thursday, we had 49 responses from the high school. So the high school student survey, just keep in mind, is a very small sample. Um, we find that in 2526, we had a clear preference for the modified traditional. And just to refresh your memories, the modified traditional is the one that has the shorter Thanksgiving break. It's not a
006full week at Thanksgiving. It's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and has us out and that's um has graduation that first Saturday in June, which I believe is June 5th. So that was the preferred model for 2526. You'll see that the students did have some interest in exploring other options. Uh probably out of the idea of exploring other options. The greatest interest in terms of survey responses in doing that was with the student group. You'll see that in just a minute. But they appeared somewhat um split amongst the traditional, the modified traditional and then also the idea of exploring other options for 2627. The family survey shows a very clear preference for uh the 2526 being uh the the modified traditional and um there's a minimal amount of interest in 2627 uh for the uh any other options
007and there's again for 2627 a clear preference to continue with the idea of a modified traditional model. Now, when we did this, we did not really send out like a specific example of 2627, but we thought since we're surveying, we just want to kind of maybe take the temperature a little bit more clearly for 26 27, we're really focusing on what we were going to see in 2526. And as you can see from the family survey that modified traditional the red in the pie chart is um very clearly the preference. And then staff survey also had a very clear preference for the modified traditional for 2526. They were a little bit more inclined to explore other models. Um and but again for 26 27 they had a a majority interest in continuing with the traditional
008modified uh um version of the calendar. So that brings us to tonight which is that we were looking to get from you some recommendation for the 2526. I can say speaking on behalf of Jared and the central office team, we would make a recommendation for 2526 to adopt a a modified traditional model. And I I know in previous discussions we had talked about two-year calendar adoption and the central office team felt that based on the survey that it was a safe recommendation, a good recommendation to to make a recommendation for both 25 26 and 26 27 being adopted as a modified traditional for the two years. Um, and then if the committee agrees with that, I would prepare a resolution. If you wanted me to prepare a resolution for 2526 only and hold off on
0092627, I can certainly do that, too. Um, but I think as you saw from the survey that there's like kind of an interest in maintaining or going back to that 3-day week at Thanksgiving and committing to that earlier graduation date. So, so I'll open it up to all of you for your discussion and I'll uh take whatever recommendation and guidance you have going forward. All right. So, I I I appreciate the family feedback on this. Uh, you know, along with the staff and student, but I think the family feedback is was truly important. Um, I'm I'm good to go forward with the with the resolution. I'm supposed to modified traditional. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I agree with Mike. And I think uh the fact that that would take something off of our work
010schedule for next year I think is plus. [Laughter] [Music] I would agree. Um be prepared that it could get broken into two separate resolutions. Typically when we have a double kind of thing like this, sometimes it gets voted, you know, let's vote on the first one and then on the second one just in case. Um, but I'm fine good with leaving it as one to start with because they're pretty similar. My recommendation would be when we go and look at this then for the next goound for 2728 um if we are going to do and I think it would beh who best to do an additional survey at that point in time but I know comments that I've gotten was it's hard to say we'd like some other type of calendar without seeing that and
011so I think that would have muddied the waters at this point um but going forward to see what the appetite truly is that hey here we could stay where we are but this is something a little out of the box. I'm a visual person. I would have voted for the modified traditional just cuz I don't know what the outside would be. So that's just my suggestion down the road. I think the runway is a little short right now. I think that as as this workg group has put things together maybe there's some front loing that can be done for the future. Excellent. I would agree as well. Um, and I think, you know, as as we were going into this, um, so I I think a couple of things as this as this evolved, I
012really appreciated, Margaret, how you took this, you organized it and, you know, really came through with the things that we were looking for. you know, we were looking for our I appreciate that we had had that thought as far as like, okay, do families, you know, because our our idea was like, okay, well, let's maybe go back to shortened Thanksgiving, get out before double digits in June and um I appreciate that this survey that you know, and you carried through this process and so we have the data to be able to look at that and I can appreciate that what we were thinking was consistent. with you know what we got as feedback. I would have also appreciated that if it would have been you know like no way we want to stick with the
013traditional you know because I think that that keeps us in touch with things and that you took a look at all three groups. Um because it's important for employee retention. It's important for families and you know what they're looking at. Um so I would also support um a you know two-year modified um yeah modified traditional. Um and I know we had kind of talked I agree with you as far as Diana like at some point um you because the work has already been done recently with that group to say okay these were these were the other options um and I know we didn't dive into um uh collaboration time on Wednesdays whether that's stays or goes you know I know we didn't um you know go into that because I know that that had been
014a question because that's feedback that we get from families. Um, but I think maybe that's a that fits into a longer term and that's not our thing. If you had not brought that up, I was going to bring that up as kind of an unsaid dangling thing out there that is also often associated with calendar. So, we did solicit comments, you know, textbased comments, and the comment analysis shows that there were some common themes, most of them centering around graduation and early or late and Thanksgiving a week or or a shortened week. But in in the interest of being totally transparent, in the family responses, 11 out of the respondents did mention an interest in either getting rid of early release or re repurposing or re repurposing that time or rescheduling Wednesday early release in
015a way that um that made for more like consistent dayby-day scheduling. So, they had a full day. There was a preference from a couple people to have that Wednesday as a full day. Now, we talked with the calendar work group about that because that had come up during the course of some of our discussions. And when I talked with Jared and the team here, there was agreement that if there is interest in exploring changes to early release that that we should make that as a recommendation to either the whole board or just I don't know how you all are operating committee to committee but that that would require a project or a research study on its own similar to what we did for ready set where we said to the ed services people research this
016from the instructional side from the professional practice side and then come back and tell us how you want to fill those days or not fill those days or schedule or not schedule and so in talking with the central office team and with Jared they had also said that which is that if there's interest in exploring that or potential ways of changing that early release that there should be an independent project that's separate from the calendar workg group and done in advance so that there's enough time to make a decision that would then feed into the calendar work group or because the calendar is is mostly like counting days looking at you know making sure with their contract specifications student contact specifications and and you know taking all of that but actually like how the days
017and time is spent is something that has been at least recently for the last year or two under ed services. So I and I I I don't know David I I know you're not on the HR committee but I and I don't know how that would like flow through but that seemed to be the next logical place for that question or that interest in that particular topic land. Jenny Boris is not happy with me. So can I can I add a comment to that? Yeah. Yeah. Let's I mean I think it's appropriate that we talk about it here at HR then maybe kind of figure what um I know there's been commentary on both sides of that coin. My cautionary tale here is we are in the process of a number of things. The strategic
018plan the referendum you know another piece but also many different levels of curriculum adoption right now. So in my thought, if there's ever a time that teachers need that time, this would be it. So if this is something that we're going to think about pursuing, if we could table it for 6 months, a push it down the road a little bit to have that discussion at a later point in time, just knowing all the things that are that's out there right now considering the bandwidth of everybody involved. Just my thought. Good. I think that's good. the two years will also give us a chance to explore that for join the meeting. So maybe that would uh you know give us time to look at all those things. Agreed. Yeah because it's something I mean just
019from the calendar perspective if this is already set we we wouldn't be looking to make changes to the calendar till 2728. So that gives time that I would think would give time to well I figure out I guess I wanted to ask and then well mostly ask. So first of all everything I see on the on the Skittles chart the colors looks great. Thanks. Okay. So questions about setting up for two-year run. Um is there a a two-year window? First of all, is there a second one so that we can see them side by side? Right now, we if per Diana's comment, if we wanted to approve a two-year run, then why is there a document showing what that would look like? So, because I I don't see it. Sorry, can I can I interrupt?
020We've kind of we've and maybe this maybe this leads to that. I know, you know, kind of maybe as the chairperson for, you know, for ed services, we've kind of been keeping the discussion to the committee members and then if there's, you know, discussion other than that, then we asked to bring it to the full board meeting. Okay. If that's okay, if that's I didn't know if that's where you were going or if you were going to the Well, I was going to answer the ed services, but Okay. Okay. But the my comment in that and when it can be brought up is what I don't see in this and once again maybe I'm towing over a little bit. Where are the major tenants? The tenants of this is we have to have so many
021days. We have to start after Labor Day. We have to finish in the teen in the single digits of June and we shouldn't have any more than two days of an orphan in any one week of programming. But I don't see those rules. And so the question I'm going to ask you at the full bed at the full committee is what is a modified schedule? You have all these terms out there, but it doesn't mean anything to me because they're just words that are out. As far as ED service go, uh if those major tenants weren't affected, then if early dismissal or ready, set go in or out, the calendar would flex to accommodate them because they weren't part of the rules of the tenants. I.e., If the state suddenly came in and decreased the
022number of days or added number of days, the major tenants would be accomplished if we had those written down. These are our tenants of setting a schedule. If if there is programming that changes whether because state mandates additional PD or uh we vote in services to eliminate early dismissal, your tenants of design would flex to accommodate that because those are agreed upon or how to flex based off of what ED services may design, ready, set, go, early dismissal, etc. What I don't see are those tenants listed here. They had to be incorporated at some point. Yeah. And that's kind of what Yeah. That's what we've been working on. That's what Yeah. the work of that will be. Um, so I and then I guess sorry the last time that it was brought up at end
023services was three years ago and there was a very good presentation which was a repeat of a presentation that had Cassandra had given once before but in my first year on the board one of the board members asked for the early dismissal to be reviewed and Cassandra and Dave Vitali brought it up and that's the last time ED services looked at it and that was three years ago. So, if I can talk to Jenny about it because she wants you to be her favorite person and figure out if there's a reason to if there's a reason to look at it again. I just haven't seen a lot of energy on it from anybody aside from that comment right there. Otherwise, I'm going to say it's been codified for all practical. I have I have no
024comment on ready cycle. But so I just want to circle back to what the committee had recommended last month when we came and said here's some possible ideas and options and the committee had said let's survey for 2526 and find out what's what in terms of 2526 first because that might then help inform us on what the next step would be for 2627. So we had talked that the committee was ready to say we might just go with one year or we might go with two years because the survey might depending guide us into on that second year. And when we at at the admin team, the central office team looked at it. We said it looks like the favorite way of going is a modified traditional version which then I bring back to you
025to say do you want me to do a a 26 27 modified traditional V version which keeps in mind the guidance that that had been developed on for both years or do you want to hold off on 2627 and then make that as a separate resolution? solution or do you feel I I mean we need something for 2526? Mhm. But the question is then do you feel comfortable including 2627 into the resolution for Monday or do you want to hold off on on that to for more discussion setting aside anything else having to do with early release or anything like that? I'm thinking I'm hearing that we're comfortable going forward with modified traditional for both and if we maybe have those because then you'll have that schedule mapped out in there right the colors clearly
026and big enough that everybody can see them. Excellent. Excellent. Um, and then as far as including the information then as far as the calendar. So then we will so then for next Monday we'd have those that resolution with those two calendars in there, right? Um, and then if people want more information, then we can refer them back to the charts and the survey from this from this meeting. Well, the draft, so that's how I understand it. The draft HR or the draft board agenda that I saw had it as a resolution, not as like part of the strategic discussion. Okay. Anything else? Okay. But I mean, that's just what I'm just looking at. I don't usually I think that's what I mean does that make sense? Does that give us enough information? Okay. Okay. Okay.
027So then beyond that so we've got that part right. So then beyond that is that where different options beyond that I guess the question is do you want the workg group to continue to do um more in terms of exploring innovative options or or keeping that research going or like formalizing some of these other like the balance calendar, the the um 4 day a week calendar. Do you want do you want them to continue some work? You know, maybe not right right immediately, but do you want them to continue working on developing those in a more concrete way for example for 2728 or for or do you want to take a pause on that work for a while and then decide? I think it would be good to do it while it while the iron's
028hot. You they've got all the information behind it. If you wait a year or two years, you've got turnover, right? You know, who's you know, not that it's a bad thing, but then you're starting over again. So, at least they've got the work under their belt to start with. You know, okay, just kind of put a rough draft together, then it can sit for six months, a year, whatever. I do like the suggestion of what are those rec or those pieces that we said were non-negotiables those tenants as David mentioned what are those so that way they're in a document because when this comes up in three years there may be different people sitting around this table there you know so here's what we said at that point in time is this still what we
029hold true to or has enough change in society where we might need to revamp that but at least having those pieces and then earmarking where is this going to come back again to this committee. We can't wait a year and a half, you know, because two years. So that survey would go out in about a year that all right, we're one year into it now. Would you like us for the next two years to explore something different, but at that point they need to see what different looks like, okay? So they can think about that impact. And they need to have more than a week to respond to the survey because they don't know what their schedule might be. If you're looking at that non-traditional type thing, they need some time to process it. There's
030some those are some big changes to the status quo officially. Okay. And I think too I I mean I I appreciate that too because it's like okay, the work has already been done, you know, as far as that goes. And really as far as like the details of what goes into it, that's what the that's what the calendar group specifically talked about. And so there's different requirements on days and hours depending upon elementary, middle school or high school. And so the principles know that. I think it's the the principles know those specifics and that's so they figure those out and bring that forward. So then we know the recommendation fits all three levels. Right. And there's also semesters and check. Yeah. And all the the different nuances there. So they figure that stuff out and
031just bring it. So we can have confidence knowing that they have those details and know that those requirements are met but I can develop a resource list of the premises that we use the assumptions or the understandings that we use. I can't say other than the DPI hours and minutes I mean which we tend to exceed I mean depending on the level a lot or more than the minimum expectations. Um beyond that a lot of the understandings and practice have been things that have grown here in the district over time. They're not like codified in a a policy or administrative guideline or things like that, but I can certainly put that into a documented form so that like there's this shared understanding of what the rationale was to use to develop or what the basic
032understandings were when the calendars were developed. Sounds good. Anything else regarding that? We're good. We're good. Okay. Excellent. Thank you, Margaret. Okay, I feel like that was a monumental accomplishment, everybody. I That was so good. I'll feel better after next month. So good. So good. All right. Um then going to letter C, the exit survey process. Um, I know this is something that we had brought up just as far as, you know, when we're looking at consent agenda and we know that we have some of those hard to fill positions and retention and, you know, are there themes and what is the process? And so that's kind of um where we were brought to as far as this and the the speed at which the process is um you know carried out as far as
033like you know are are people sharing the the information so that it's relevant and timing and things like that and so um Margaret you put together some information for us. Yep. So this is a a process that for the most part we are using with the exception of reporting out to the HR committee. But um just u know that when somebody first submits a resignation that the direct supervisor or the building administrator does have an individual conversation with the person to see if there are things that provided that we want to retain that person. Are there things that we could do differently that might convince that person to stay? And that usually is a onetoone at the building level. And then if there are any possibilities to negotiate some changes, most often that would be
034in the form of scheduling changes or perhaps assignment changes. We work to see if that will be of mutual benefit to the employee and to the students and to the the staff and and building. So, so we work through that. If that is um is possible, we will we will do that. And we have we have adjusted people's schedules a lot uh particularly at the support staff level where we have a little bit more flexibility to do that and not a lot of other um options in our toolkit to offer from a retention standpoint. Scheduling is one area for support staff that we do look to make you know reasonable adjustments if that means keeping a person on board. So we will do that and then um we will we will start sending out within
035two weeks of the ending employment date uh the school perceptions exit survey. We do usually accumulate a number of people before we load those into school perceptions. we can do that more frequently um than we have been in the past. We usually have been doing it much more based on like end of semester at end of the calendar year, end of the school year and send those out and then we would focus on the the key areas that were highlighted in the sample survey that was included in in um as an attachment on this topic. Um, I then do review the exit survey data that's sent through school perceptions and I can gen certainly generate reports off of that. And um, we do do more frequent monitoring during if there's periods of high turnover. If
036there's one school that seems to be having a high level of of resignations in a short period of time, we do hone in on those and and try to do like individual followup to make sure we're capturing that, but we'll put it into a more formal basis. What we are looking here for here in our exit survey data is themes that we can report off on. Uh we do tell people that the exit survey information that they're submitting is um confidential or anonymous and and that does present some reporting off challenges on a frequent basis for this group particularly because generally if somebody if the sample size is five or less that is considered a break an unsafe level at which to to report uh data because it's so easily traceable to the individuals. But
037to the extent that we have a a sufficient number of people to protect the uh anonymity and confidentiality of the data, I um would will bring back exit survey reports probably most likely in July and January. We don't have enough turnover on a quarterly basis to be able to say we can do quarterly turnover reporting that on for sure on a consistent basis. Now there might be some quarters where we could based on how many people are leaving um like the August, you know, like the the July to September quarter, we could probably pull a quarterly report after that. There's usually turnover during that period of time as people find other jobs or they decide not to come back or whatever. Um, but then once we get past like September or October, the turnover usually
038drops because and we want it to drop because the school year is underway and we want things to like settle down in terms of our recruitment. So it's unlikely we would be able to have enough turnover to be able to reliably say every quarter we can report but we can certainly report in July and January and maybe you know that that in between quarter um between um like July 1st to July um August September to September 30th that quarter We could probably pull enough data from exit information to report at at that time, but it would be like three quarters, not a full quarter on a regular basis. I mean, I think if Oh, I mean, I don't want to speak for everybody. I mean, if twice a year makes sense, then twice a year
039makes sense. I mean, I don't I don't know how you guys feel about it, but if we have a consistent, then we know we can put it in our agenda planning, we can, you know, that kind of thing, but So we will use that data also as it goes with strategic planning initiatives and like that all-in team pillar we look at um turnover data u so that is basically the process that we'll use it I mean we have been using an exit survey uh process we just have not been reporting out on that on a structured basis and we certainly can start doing Yeah. Do we survey retirees as well? Everybody. Okay. Questions, comments. Are we talking about the other documents too or just this one? This was kind of like the process. I have
040questions on the survey and other things, but I'll wait till we get there. Um, on the sample survey document, might as well go for it. spec I didn't know if you were going to talk specifically about that. We've already talked kind of about that at past meetings. So, I didn't want to jump the gun on record though. Oh, cool. Yeah, we can. Yeah, go for it. Um, so looking at the survey itself, a few general questions, a couple specific questions starting with number two. Sorry, it's on the It's really not number two because each page is different. Um, it's actually slide four, decision to leave. When we ask what school district you'll be working with next year, I'm wondering why we're asking that question. How does that benefit how does that information benefit us? It
041seems like personal information, does it really matter what district they're going to? It does. There's a trend it I mean it does if everybody is leaving us to go to Okano and there's like positions. Okay. I mean that I was just curious. I didn't think of it from that perspective. That might then prompt some additional questions like what is it that Okano is doing to like attract our our staff at that rate? Um no that makes sense. Thank you. And then number three, why did you consider a new job in the first place? How is that question different than number one? It it really isn't, but there might be something else. There might be another there there. I mean, it's a way of asking again like did was there sometimes there's a precipitating factor that
042isn't covered in this. Well, and that was my rephrasing that would be something like other reasons why you would be leaving or why you're choosing to leave. Something a little more direct. I mean, if I was you, I'm like, well, I already answered that. No. But if there's other reason, you know, oh, it might be a conflict with what it might whatever just Yeah. Are these questions directly from school perceptions? Kind of like the employee satisfaction survey. Okay. So, that was another piece. All right. Then on the if you guys don't have anything else, I I'll keep going. I don't want to go in the reflection section, there's all the different reasons that could have been factors in there. That would be slide five. As a teacher that talked with a lot of different people
043in my career, why they would leave, I didn't see anything there that says to be at home with my family. Yet for some that is a major reason why it talks, you know, it says closer to home. The last one on there right before number two says to be closer to home, but that's different than to be at home with them. So that was just a thought in there. So we could pull that out. I know there's a work life balance question there, which is where some frequently that issue of I want to spend more time at home for whatever reason. is usually No, and that's fine because I didn't look at it from that perspective. I looked work life balance of okay, I'm giving this it's just taking too much of my time as
044opposed to being totally at home. But no, I'm if it fits there, great. I'm these are just suggestions. These are not mandates by any means. Um, in the additional thoughts I don't know why they put a slide number on it. Maybe it's the same one. Um, the things I Oh, these are just my additional thoughts to it. That's why I'm like, why is there additional thoughts section? Um, maybe there's something in there. Share specific examples how we could you No, this is for you, Margaret. Sorry. How could we use the strengths or improvements portion to make our district better? I'm just curious. Give me an example or two. It talks about things that you could improve. What do we do with that? So, I take that information back to the central office team and see
045if that aligns if there's an alignment with other information that we're getting from people. um um that are currently working here because sometimes there is I mean sometimes there's like yeah we're hearing it from people leaving. It's a big enough issue to get people out out the door. We might are we also hearing that internally because then we need to maybe look at what what is it that we're doing and what types of things might we want to explore in ter if if the idea is to lessen the turnover or um uh uh um well it would be to lessen the turnover I guess. No, because we we're trying to focus on data driven decision making. Correct. And that's exactly what this is doing. So, that's was I was kind of hoping. I just didn't
046want to assume. Um I wonder if it would be if it would be who of us to place a spot on here where if you want to leave your name optionally, leave your name. I know as I exited I would have loved to be able to fill out a survey and leave my name and my phone number because we didn't have the onetoone kinds of things. Sometimes meeting with the building administrator if there's sometimes you can't talk to the building administrator and so just having that whereas if you don't put your name on it there's no way to get something more concrete. So it's an optional piece. We do offer in-person exit surveying in place of the online survey. We give people the option do you want to come in and talk um and or
047do you need a paper survey? Do you we give a number of different options so that people aren't feeling like and then we also do include a statement is if there's you know this is uh for purposes of evaluating the workplace but if there's something specific related to your own personal employment experience that you want us to follow up on you know please let us know that directly and Then maybe I'm wrong on this. Maybe I need to look at this through a different lens. My last question on the survey is this seems more teacher focused. How do you feel that it fits for our cleaners, our clerical, our admin, our paras, you know, I tried to think of it through that lens, but I don't know those l, you know, many of it could
048be, but do you do you notice that it fits each of those subgroups pretty well? um like if you look at the reasons for leaving, these are kind of universal reasons that people might consider leaving. I don't think they're unique to teachers. I No, I don't think any either. And and I'm because my primary background is teaching. I'm looking at through that lens. That's why I'm simply asking. Yeah. Do you feel that it fits all the subgroups pretty well? I feel when I look at this list of reasons for people leaving that it encompasses everyone look at from No and I'm thinking in both that slide and slide five. Yeah. Does it feel? And I'm not critiquing. I'm just wondering does it does it fit? It it really does fit our reasons that people are
049leaving that I had been a sub and I had been a parah. I would say that those would have fit like looking at it from looking at it from the Yeah. No, I think it's good. We do we have to ask that because it's it's all positions and I think that that would have fit for me and then I only have one other question but it's actually based on your next document. So if there's any other questions on the survey which next document the turnover turnover so the turnover report I think you'll remember we talked about show us this and had gone through a couple months ago. Yep. Yep. My question is just I'm curious and I don't know if we can have this data or if it's too specific. I'm curious what the breakdown
050is by level. Elementary versus middle school versus high school. Um when my kids were in elementary school, it seemed like a revolving door for elementary teachers. That's seven, eight years ago. Things have shifted since then. Um, I know that we've heard different things about certain schools compared to others, you know. So, I'm just curious. It's it's hard I want to say harder work. There's a lot more responsibilities at the elementary levels with all the different kids coming in, whatever. Um, so I'm just curious if there's a higher turnover rate elementary compared to middle compared to high school, which I can break out. So that would be my only break that out piece in there just to see and if we consistently see that our elementary schools are in the 20% but our secondary middle high
051schools are in the 3% you know then maybe there's something we need to look at there. That would be my only thought. Yes, I could certainly do that. Thank you. It's a good question. Thanks. That was my last save my best for last. Oh, come on. Don't you have 10 more? Come on, Diana. Just kidding. Yeah. No, it's good. It's good. Um, you're good, Mike. Yeah. No question. I have a couple. Diana covered everybody. Um, I'm sorry. Did you have your hand raised yet? No. Oh. Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry. Um, okay. Two comments I guess that I have and I'm not sure what anyway. two comments that I have. Um, so when someone when we're looking as far as like the process is concerned and someone does an exit exit survey like informally with their
052supervisor, is that documented anywhere? Um, is it formally documented? No. Is it documented informally? Usually yes. like somebody will send me an email saying, you know, so and so is leaving because they need benefits and they took a full-time job here or Okay. Do you know I mean yeah, like more in a general sense that they want like make sure that they are actually doing that human interaction piece. We actually do generally know okay often I mean more times than not for sure why PE specific people are leaving. Okay. very like we collect that information. It's just often much more anecdotally than like in a structured way. So, so how is that recorded then in your Well, we have it on a spreadsheet now. No, no. I mean, when it's the anecdotal stuff, does that
053then go into your d your data that's collected? It it may not go into the I mean, exit surveying is done by the employees. I mean we can we collect the information and track it now on a spreadsheet what that re reported reason for leaving is um sometimes it gets kind of personal to and right so but we don't we don't align what they say on their exit survey information with what they report I mean we just know be it's a small enough district within small enough buildings for us to to know like the specifics of why someone one individual employee would be leaving and we use that information on the front end like I said when the building principal is talking but it's not the type of data that you would collect and report
054off on um out of a personal conversation is that what you're like a onetoone conversation so I guess I'm missing the point you said that there's the option to take the survey paper and pencil or interview process, right? So with the interview process, does that data somehow come into the data set that we just looked at? So if somebody came in personally for an exit survey, we would use the same set of questions. Okay. And we would we would input that on their behalf into the into the exit survey. Got it. That's what I originally thought. And then my Yeah. Okay. Sorry. No, no, that that's good. Um, and then I I don't know if maybe so one of my questions too was I appreciate that you included the exit survey sample because in looking
055at that I did want you know like I did want to know like oh okay so they are able to get specific um because typically when you know we've heard like a general overview you know as far as like I mean when we're going through consent agenda obviously that's the most, you know, the information that's out there. And, you know, and I know we we we don't talk specifics and things like that, but it seems like there's been kind of an overview as far as like people may be leaving for different jobs, you know, maybe that's what they mark on the survey, but then like I'll get personally contacted and that's not what they're saying, you know? So, I didn't know if there's a way, and I know people can say what they want in
056a survey, you know, that kind of thing, but I didn't know if if the school perception survey or if the exit survey is capturing accurate feedback or I mean, I don't know if there's different ways to ask the question, you know, I mean, you kind of went through that and stuff or if other schools encounter that at all. I don't know, but I wanted to ask. I mean, I guess that goes back to the whole issue as with any personnel matter is that if they're reporting something to you individually as a board member, I it's my understanding that that should be reported the specifics of that for followup should be reported to Jared and or me to follow up directly with the the employee on. And so like that is concerning if it gets if
057it's like a totally different reason that somebody else is and then we don't have we don't have the opportunity to follow up unless the individual board member reports the specifics to Jared or again like to me I then like I don't know what to do with that. I I mean I'm I'm not going I I don't have the option to act on it. Right. And and so I I don't know what to tell you. I Yeah. I just didn't know if it, you know. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I know. But how does that come together? I get, you know, if I get the information, I I will follow up if I am have that opportunity to do that. Yeah. No, that's fair. That's fair. Those are the only questions I have. All right, we're all good
058on that. Thank you, Margaret, for that process and everything. And and I I mean, I think um then that would would that then become an action item as far as the exit survey data report out twice a year and then we can build that into the future planning? Yeah, a regular calendar. Yeah, that sounds good. All right. open benefits enrollment update. So, this is just my courtesy announcement to just keep you fully informed that we are doing our open benefits enrollment. We've rolled it out. This our annual open enrollment um for uh various fringe benefits including health and dental and um section 125 plans and things like that. And so, as just to as you will recall, we made a change in the plan design this year which was rolled out. We had some increases
059in the premium and um we did roll all of that out uh last week Monday and so we're in week two. It will run through November 22nd and the feedback that we have gotten is um none. So okay. So, so I just wanted to make sure that you knew in case any of you are contacted or questioned that you know just recall we we made a slight plan design change and um but that we haven't received any um comments one way or the other. It's been rather routine and just people doing their annual enrollments for the benefits that they um are interested in to meet them their their needs or the needs of their families and going very smoothly. So that's all I have to say about USI and our benefits enrollment. Excellent. Excellent. Anybody
060have any questions about that? No, we're good. Okay. All right. Excellent. Then as far as um future meeting planning, we have that pulled up. And so as far as um December, of course, we'll have consent agenda and then that will then include um admin renewals and extensions. I thought that usually came out in February. Uh Jared asked me to put it on in December. Oh, okay. Because I was going to say it's also listed in February. Okay. So, we're bumping that up. Jared asked me to add that. Yeah. Okay. For December. Okay. Okay. So, that's important for us to note there. Um, we'll have an employee wellness committee update, a support staff salary update because Margaret's still going going through that process on everything. Um, and then substitute staffing report because that's kind of usually
061when we start to see some movement in there and see what that's going to look like. And then, of course, the Oh, yeah. We already put consent agenda in there. Anything else that we would need to add to the agenda to December? Oh, not for Oh, okay. Go ahead. Um, for January, y we uh met with the uh Cingham Butler consultants on the teacher compensation Oh. program and the model and the study that's underway. and they had after they met with us um and at Jared's recommendation, we will have them on in January for um a kind of a mid review update as well as I'm sure that they will be seeking guidance from you in terms of how you want to go forward with respect to options or model development or what things you
062might really want any potential options or adjustments to the current model. Um so so they met with us for a couple hours today and and um the outcome of that was that we thought it might be a good idea to get this committee involved in the discussion in January. they still have a little bit more work that they need to do in terms of refining uh the information that they will bring back to us, but that is um it will likely be a um significant amount of time to talk through. Okay. So, we can all kind of plan on a little little more time than in January. Okay. Thank you for that, Margaret. Um, okay. So then if we're looking at action items, um, what I think I hear that we're taking a look at,
063um, well, we've got the exit survey process, the report outs in Jan, wait, July and January. Okay, July and January. Does that sound they capture that right? Okay. Um, and then the calendar work group um item B, we will have one resolution with both of the calendar options. Um, and then is it like in a year then we do kind of a survey or what do you think the timeline should be as far as like putting forth those alternate those alternate calendar ideas? Do you have any thought? Anybody have any thoughts on that? I just I don't know that we gave that a specific thing. So we were saying to develop the options for 2728 about now or in in the over the next few months. Okay. and then holding that until uh maybe a
064summer spring late spring summer discussion and then deciding if we want to take that out to survey for 2728 and beyond. Is that does that sound? I think so. I'm okay with that. Okay, that sounds good. Okay. So, that'll be an action item there and then the resolution. Yeah. And then I'm sorry, do we have clarity on the Wednesday early release I and what we're doing with I I defer to the U board committee. What I is it? I might think uh consultation with the board leadership in terms of how that kind of the process how that how that evolves. Where does that Okay. So, we're kind of not we're not sure as far as like where that goes if services wasn't planning on taking that up to Well, you only had 11 respondents. Okay.
065Yeah. And I'm just telling you, unless I was here, I wouldn't know about it and I wouldn't know. It's a directive, but I agree with Margaret, either board leadership or central office if it needs to be brought up again. But right now, it's not on Jenny's radar. Right. Which Yeah. Which that's Yeah, that's completely fair. Well, it's not on anybody's radar for the next year at least. Correct. Just to be clear, the central office team knows the outcome of the survey and they are well aware that I was going to say 11 out of 200 is not a majority make. Right. But like Dan said too, if we go to a nontra, you know, in that non-traditional schedule, that conversation will arise naturally. So, I'm not sure we need to have an additional conversation prior
066to that because that'll be a natural conversation. Is this Oh, go ahead. I think the concern from the workg groupoup perspective, from the teacher perspective, was that if a change was going to be made, is there a genuine understanding of how that time is used? And and um I mean it was clear from the teachers that were on that workg group that that is valued time and and their questions were do people understand what we're doing? Do they understand how we use that time? Do they understand? we would need to know like what what would we do instead if we didn't do that. So I mean that was one part of the feedback that we got and then the other part was the 11 responses on the family survey that was just like get you
067know stop doing that from a scheduling standpoint. And so, but the actual design of how that time is used by teachers, I mean, because it's early release for students, but it it's not the end of the workday for teachers. And I don't know that that is always to the extent to which that that is fully explained and known. And then the teachers were like, what how are we going to get that work that we get done during that time done? And I think from the parental standpoint once a week having that, you know, what do I do for child care? How do I, you know, that is a legit concern um as is the teacher concern. So trying to just to find that balance. I don't know is it when they when you have an
068early release day that still counts as a full day. Correct. And so that's where even trading the minutes off for one professional day a month doesn't necessarily work because that's a day off of school. You know, it comes into minutes, it comes into days. So just trying to creatively think outside the box. I don't know if there's a way. it would have to be a whole evaluation thing that you know like how does it fit into the overall plan and things like that. So, um I'm not sure what to do with that because we've had questions on that, you know, like that's been that has had questions and so um okay, then maybe we can um sokification if people don't realize, you know, the question came up, do they know what we're doing? Right? The
069answer is no. Many parents don't know what's happening. they you know so how can we make that more transparent hate to say do another you know I just my question is maybe that's something to think about how can we make that more transparent so that it's out there maybe it's a matter of I don't want to do another survey but it's pictures of this is what Douglas did during that early release day you know here's pictures of the collaboration you know it's it's that communication piece right and that transparency piece in a staff newsletter for example, you know, just something. I'm just trying to think of ways to show that there is value to it because I know there had been conversation among board members in the last year of do they do teachers still
070really need that time and and it wasn't a question of they don't need it. It's do you know just asking the question again transparency what do we use that time for? How are we using it? So I think that's a good thing. Yeah. To bring up regardless. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll kind of marinate and see where that's going to go, but we'll we'll at least we'll have that in the minutes as far as Okay, that was discussed and we we'll have to figure out what what path that's that's going to take. All right. Do we have clarity on our action items? Do we have any questions? Okay. All right. All right. Anybody have anything else? Okay. Great. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for your input, your questions. Margaret, thank you for your work
071and the team and everything. We stand journ 634. Thank you, Margaret. Um