001Okay. Recording in progress. Hey Jason, can you do a sound check for me please? Loud and clear. You hear that over there? You want me to speak louder? You said no. No, no, no. We're good. We're good. Oh, did Oh, okay. Oh, there we go. All right. Well, we are set and ready to start our HR meeting. Um, a note as far as um just just kind of wanted to bring this up because of our the things that we do have on our agenda. Um, I just wanted to remind everyone that we're talking about generalities as far as, you know, whether it be contracts or um, salary and things like that. We can't talk about specific people or specific things that would be need to be for a closed door. So, I just kind of
002wanted to remind us about that if that we do end up, you know, with specific questions about that um, for certain things. um you know certainly um probably Jared, Margaret, Jared, they would be your resources for those um specific things. So I just wanted to to mention that for us before we get started. Um and so we have got our consent agenda letter A here. Um and what you'll notice as far as that, I know we kind of have some questions about um a couple things on here. Um, a couple things that you will notice as far as we've got, um, all of the administrative contracts are on the or should I just let you explain it, Margaret? Oh, no. Is that okay? Okay. I don't step my bounds. Um, we we have all of
003the under staff appointments. Um, we have all of the administration um contracts listed on there. Um, this is a new way of doing it. anybody step in. Yeah, I'm sure you'll give an explanation, but this is a new way of doing it. Typically, I believe that we had half in one year. There are two-year contracts and so we had half one year, half the next year. Um, and typically we would go through this approval in like February, March, something like that. Um, but there was a desire to change how we do this, right? So, what right now the way that it's set up, we have a a group of people that are approved one year and then we have another group of administrators that are approved the second year. So, we're constantly approving um contracts
004for administrators every year. And typically, administrators are on two-year contracts. And historically, the district has hired in so that we're only doing one round of approvals every two years. And so what this is is our effort to align all of the contracts um on so that each two every two-year cycle when they're up for renewal, all of the admin contracts will come through at the same time. And that's particularly important in light of some changes that are likely to be discussed in the upcoming year as it relates to the structure of administrative benefits and um how we align everyone into any potential benefit changes that may um be occurring. And that's a conversation that we will be bringing to you in the future. And um generally it just provides for some administrative efficiencies in terms
005of monitoring who's up for when and um and and um it ju it just provides cleaner operational efficiency. Other things that you want to say Jared? No, the again the the rationale for the change is just like all the other groups um we are we are in the need of doing a market study as well as a contract analysis of other uh positions similar uh throughout the state and certainly within our cohort groups that we've been looking at for our our uh non-certified and our certified staff. So the the next logical group is the administration. We've done non-certified and we're in the middle of certified. The next group will be the administration. And generally school districts do administration on an every three-year basis because they're the ones that have the most uh change in them
006uh compared to like teacher contracts and so on. They just have more volatility um and there's a lot more movement. That's why uh and so this is marking a time for us to say let's get everybody on the same page with the what the expiration date so that way when we make changes we don't make changes for half the group now and then the other half of the group when their contracts come up right it's it's an alignment process that we're looking at any questions about that or any things that you would like us to think about but that's the rationale behind why I guess for me it brings to question um I just worry about like turnover all at one time you know if you're thinking about that like okay what if we have
007um half of the you know administrators that for whatever reason aren't aren't going to be coming back whether they choose or you know whatever it is um whether they choose or you choose then Yeah. What? Whatever. Um then all of a sudden you've got everybody, you know what I mean? Like everybody's contracts come up at the same time. Um that thought came to mind. And then also as far as like, okay, so if we have referendum or not or changes that we need to make, does that affect contracts that way too? Yeah. So I I would share like first of all um the first thing you're worried about I think is very unlikely but could happen either way as a board you could say we're tired with all of you and we're going to end
008contracts and pay people out right uh and get rid of everybody if you wanted to. Um conversely if there was a walk out uh we could all walk out anyway. there's an out fee in our contract, right? We we just share with you we are terminating our contract on our side of the end of the deal and here's your out fee, right? So, those things could happen either way if any party chooses. It's unlikely though that everybody all at once uh would have that or even half of us all at once would want to do that, right? So, I think that's a very low-end worry. Okay. Uh you know, for for you guys to think about because it could happen anyway. Um, so and the second part was uh basically if contracts needed to end
009early or you know maybe it was a a stacking changes or you know things like that. Yeah. So uh if contracts needed to end early there's a provision for the board to be able to uh end a contract earlier than its termination date. I'm sure there would be a discussion about uh damages um and and whether or not uh you need to pay those depending on what the real rationale was, right? If somebody does something that's, you know, illegal, hurts kids, whatever else, right? You're probably going to be able to um terminate them, you know, because you'll have cause uh and there probably won't be any discussion. Matter of fact, our termination is lower than cause, right? Uh so you have a a really good like the board has done a pretty good job to
010say uh we uh have garnered ourselves the rights as a board to really be able to terminate somebody with really low um need for a rationale. Right? Your threshold is very low, right? We don't have to go through it through the process, right? Uh and and that's how you have it written in contracts. Now, if you were a just cause contract, you would have to have a lot of rationale and reason for termination of an administrator, right? Um, so with the contracts the way they've written now and the way that the administrators have accepted them, I don't think you have to worry about that. You could still probably dismiss without much due um uh diligence on on your part. Um, and again, it's more of a legal opinion than my opinion. Uh, but you would
011want to ask your attorneys like what is that about? But really the threshold for you and our administrative contract is very low and it favors the board quite a bit. So if you still wanted to get rid of somebody probably could fairly easily. Okay. Okay. But again also on our end of it what we have is we have the ability to tell you and just say we're done on this date and here's our out. Right. And so we have that on the administrative side. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions or things that you might be worried about navigating? I'll bring up a topic because I know that it's uh on on some people's minds like where are we with the evaluation process, right? And and does that have to come into consideration when we're looking
012at these contracts? Like are we completed with all of those? Um and for instance, uh administrative evaluations, right? They're on ongoing process. I would say if we had an administrator who was on a an improvement plan, I would say let's not deal with that contract right now. Let's deal with it when that um when we can do a full review of that. But if there's an administrator or administrators who are in good standing um and they're not on an improvement plan, I don't see the harm or the detriment in putting their name forward. And I certainly have put forward names of all those under my control. So, uh, you know, I I want you to know I don't have a, uh, an administrator right now who's in that process of an improvement plan or that
013I'd be worried about extending their contract for another year or a two-year contract depending on how they would align on that schedule. Anybody have any other questions regarding the consent agenda? Also, if if you're worried about where we are in the process of my evaluation, if you feel more comfortable to pull me off, I would be fine with that, too. Okay. So, if if that's the if HR wants to to wait and and make sure that that's completed, go ahead, pull me off. I'm okay with that. Well, I was going to ask kind of what our thoughts are regarding that. Um, just because I know that like from the standpoint of it's a different operation. Well, now we're talking specifics and I brought it up. You know, as long as you don't get into my
014performance with it, we know from an operation evaluates Jared. Jared and his staff evaluate everybody else on the list. So, it's clearly a different operation. So, I don't think we're talking about personnel specifics here. We're just talking about the process. Okay. in the process is that we haven't completed our process but Jared just mentioned that he probably hasn't completed his process with some of the people in my rational and decision. It's a matter of where does the board sit in the completion of our process. The likelihood of what it's going to result in and when it's going to finish and is it going to finish in a reasonable time frame that's going to allow us to get Jared's name added to this where it doesn't look I should say look where it's not inconvenient for
015anybody Margaret and her uh uh market references or rolling out new benefits packages. But if we take Jared off this list, then we better get a meeting in with Diana and the finish the dates by the end of February. And so far, we've not been able to do that. So, it's on us as a board to both if we take them off, then it's a collective commitment to get them back on by the end of February. And if we can't do it, then leave them on. So, that's kind of where we we got to pick one or the other. We can't have it both ways. And just the quick synopsis, it's not that we haven't tried to get that done. Uh dates have been challenging. We tried for November, we tried for December, we tried
016for January. Now we're into February. Just trying to get all of them and working with Lynn. Um and I talked with David about this too forthcoming in the next year. We're going to have these dates pres-scheduled to make it easier because right now trying to find that um Lynn will have those dates out hopefully by midweek so we can get those and it's I mean technically that evaluation should have been done end of December. Yeah. Because January we have going through and it's just been a lot of other things have come up that were more urgent. Um I can't get into specifics won't get into specifics there. I don't want to say there hasn't been an urgency, but there hasn't really been a true true urgency, if you know what I mean. And the fact
017that I mean, I think you just said the words I was looking for in a good way to say it. The fact that it's not an urgent thing to complete this process. I think we all kind of know where where the process is going to end anyways. So, I'm more than comfortable uh leaving him leaving Jared on. I'm comfortable leaving him on. I'm okay either way. I can I have a preference of separating separating the superintendent position. I'll say that um just because it's a different process, you know, as far as like these evaluations are done differently than, you know, the board. Um I I mean I understand we're in a different you know perhaps this year is a different position and so if the majority wants to go forward with this I mean I
018you know that's fine I can I can support that but u my preference would be from an operational standpoint because it is different um you know and there's a different sorry that'll be my next question there but um so I will support what the committee I have a question then. We talked earlier about the fact that this movement is being done because of a lot of other operational kinds of things. If we pull Jared off at this point in time, does that have intended or unintended consequences for some of those operational kinds of things? Well, if you I mean you are up for a renewal. I I am up for not I'm in I'm in mid. So I would be again you have runway. Uh you know it would be different. I would be saying
019something different to you right now if mine was done at the end of 25. Right. I would be saying, "Listen, um, you guys have to make a decision and you have to make a decision really quickly here. Um, by the end of January, you absolutely have to give me a notice of non-renewal if that's what you're thinking." Right. Right. You're not in that spot. Which is why I said, you know, listen, if if you want the comfortability to say we went through our whole process, that's fine. just know that I will have some explaining to do to my staff who understand that this is where we're going, right? Um they they understand that we've put together uh this for your reaction and I will just have to walk it back and say, "Listen, they they
020they understood uh what I put forward. They agreed with what I put forward, right? But there's a different process for me and they want to see that process through before they do this with me." Right? That's all I would have to say. Follow-up question. Yep. Next year comes around and we are Johnny on the spot and our stuff is done by the end of December, you know, is would your would you still be in that list of would it look the same in two years or what? You know what I'm saying? No. If it depends on what action you took this year, right? We're trying to get everybody aligned. What I'm saying is in the alignment, one thing I'm hearing is to pull the superintendent out because it's different from the other administrators. Is that
021the goal is to have the superintendent in that in two years so everyone's together? Uh our goal is to try to get everybody's contract on the same end cycle so that way if you make changes to our benefits as a group, right? um then we all enter into that new contract discussion with you simultaneously not at different times right across maybe different boards right so that that that is the that that is uh where I have seen some things go pretty south pretty quickly the the board takes the first half and says we're going to do uh this new contract with these benefits and whatever else right and says to the second half we'll get you next here. Um, and then there's turnover on the board or a change in outcome and then they go,
022well, um, sorry, you don't get that. But then these people have this contract, right? And then there's this weirdness between everybody. We don't want that. We want to make sure we have like if we're going to do a group mentality, a group switched, you know, or the board's going to have to be pretty strong to say, listen, we're going to treat each one of you very independently and differently than any other one, and every contract's going to be maybe a little different. Some school districts do that, but that's a change in philosophy that we would have to really navigate, which is going to cause some turmoil maybe and some turnover. What we're trying to do is navigate so that we don't have both of those kind of issues. We're trying to navigate which is what
023they expect and what will be comfortable which is we're get everybody on the same pace again. We're going to negotiate as you know these contracts as a group and this is this is the group that's going to get whatever benefits and then we're going to move on. Okay. Um and so that's that's what we're aiming for. U we're open to do it however you want. I just have to know what it is you want so that I can help navigate that. I'm good leading him on. What's it? I'm good leaving him on. Okay. With that understand I mean I can understand that as far as like the different benefit packages and things like that. Um, one more question I have and then um, however on here like so the two-year contracts then for administration would
024start July of 25 and would be for two years. Correct. So yours says July of 26. That's correct. So how that's off in alignment. Should all these be rewarded to extend them through the 27th? That's what the end they will that's my point. It doesn't say that some of these are two-year contracts and some of these are one-year contracts. Essentially, if we're trying to get the alignment that this is my question, Tina, that somewhere in the resolution and the staff appointments should be lining everybody up to if to conclude on June 30th of 27 or July 1st of 27. That's just that statement is missing from this document, but it's what I heard everybody in the room say. I think Tina may be getting at the question of well Jared, if yours is in 26
025and and others, why don't we just give these others a one-year thought. That's what I'm That's what I'm wondering if we want alignment. So, we we do want alignment. However, the only way that you can do it that way is to give everybody up there whose uh effective date is the 25 school year or excuse me, the 7125, right? You would have to non-renew their two-year contract, then give them or issue them a one-year contract, right? Can't extend a two-year. You can extend a two-year contract. That's what I'm saying. It's easier to give a one-year extension because the law benefits that, right? So, looking at anybody who has a 26 expiration, they get a one-year extension. It's easier to do it that way and is less um you know that than than to try to
026give everybody who's on a 20 one try to give everybody who's in 25 expiration a one year to match up because of what you would have to go through to get to there. Right. That's that's you Sarah Jen Pennington and uh Casey yeah maybe one other at 26. So, why aren't we two-year contracts for every in 25 and a one-year extension for every in 26 is ultimately what I think you're attempting. That's what we're attempting to do. Okay. Well, then it should be I don't want to say split up and worded that way, but just to make sure we're on the same page as what we're doing. Yeah. And then they would all be a 27 expiration and nobody has any Margaret or I can I can split it out between extensions. One year extensions
027don't bother Jared. you or the people who are going to be impacted by the Sarah and Jen Pennington and No, and that's why I said it's easier to do it that way because here's the thing for the board and for the administrator, right? That is seen as a mutually beneficial thing that both would accept, right? That's easy to do. If you want to tell somebody, currently you have a two-year contract, but I'm going to only give you a one-year contract. They're going to say, no way. You're going to say, well, we can do it anyway. we just have to not renew you and then offer you a different one. Um that that gets messy. I would just say give the four people the one-year extension and everybody else a two-year contract is how the resolution
028or the the consent agenda should be worded. The resolution could be need to make that a little more and and I'm I need to state this because really uh as we're going through this process, we didn't take into effect or even have any discussion on who was a 25 or a 26. So, I don't want you guys to think that I'm trying to navigate something to get myself another year. Like, that that is uh the last thing that I want you to think I'm doing. What I am doing is I'm trying to get everybody on the same page. And if it happened to be that I was in the group of 25s, I would just be looking at trying to have another two-year contract with you, and we would be having those discussions at this
029point in time anyway. And I would have been a little bit more um naughty on the spot with you reminding you, you guys need to get this thing done because you have to make a decision. Right. Right. About my contract. I haven't been chomping or or championing that discussion because listen, I know I've got another year on my contract, a year and a half, and I know you'll get it done. We're not under the gun with that. If we had been, I would have said, "Listen, you guys got to get this done for me because you need to be able to tell me whether or not you're going to renew my contract, right?" And Jared and I have had multiple conversations along those lines. Along those lines, just where are we at and part of
030the planning? what do we right you know with that and saying and that's why we took the route we did uh changing up the evaluation on a midyear like this versus uh you know doing it in a year that was an expiration year because that would be difficult. So there there is a methodology to all the stuff that we're doing. I just want to know how you guys want to navigate it so that we can make sure that Margaret has her marching orders and we can communicate communicate communicate communicate. Right. I think we do need to make sure somehow that the board understands that we are then granting because the superintendent is our employee that the board understands very clearly then that this is a one-year extension in addition to contract. Correct. So that goes
031into the minutes because if it's not in the minutes then it didn't happen. So that's a clarity. So we just, you know, want to make sure that that we understand the, you know, decision that I think they they need to know that for anybody who's going to have a one-year extension. I mean, the other ones are under my control, and I'm suggesting to you, um, this is what it is, right? But remember, that's just me telling you what I operationally think you should do. You're the one who is still the contracting agent, right? You can tell me no, I don't like your idea, but this is what I'm telling you I think you should do for anybody who's on a 26. Right. Okay. Thank you for the discussion on that. Any other questions regarding that?
032The only other one question that I had as far as the extracurricular um appointments. Um Margaret, can you just remind us this looks like it's winter sports that are already going. And so so these are just we break our extracurricular appointments into fall, winter, and spring. And so they those that are are more or less renewals get pushed through now for winter. We have yes some of these have been not all but some of them have been our recruitment of baseball folks. We've had some turnover in that area. I mean we haven't in the past broken out whether it's a recurring appointment or the result of a recruitment. Um uh we don't usually maintain that much data on all of these coaches. Um especially at the assistant and JV level, they come and go quite
033quickly. Um sometimes so so that this is just a con collection of um either recruitment or renewals, right? Can I do a piggyback question? Yeah. So on that, some of these are renewals. I'll use um a couple of the names on here for for boys basketball. They've been with the program for a couple years now. I'm curious. It's now the middle of December. Can you just remind I know we had this conversation a couple years ago and I just don't remember the answer. Why don't we have this done like in October because the seasons winter seasons start in November. So here they already are part of the program. I understand new hires take that off the table right now. I understand that. But the ones that are recurring, and there's a number of them on
034here that we have had in our district for a number of years, um, can you help me understand why we're doing it the middle to end of December when we're almost a third of the way through the as opposed to October and November? I I do not know the background for each of the individual appointments. So, I mean, I don't track it that closely because most of them are routine. And so, let me rephrase the question. I don't know. Winter winter sports, um, extracurricular appointments, why aren't those in generality on the consent agenda for say November or October as opposed to December. And and again, I I would have to go back and look at like when do when do we get the extracurricular assignments? So we send those out to RMS. We send them
035out to the high school to Jamie Kather. And when they come back in, I don't monitor every single extracurricular appointment that comes through. So I would need to go and pull all the data and see what the specifics are related to why do we sometimes have winter people coming in in winter and sometimes coming in in fall? Because I think if we if I I suspect if I go back and look in detail at everybody that's been forwarded as an extracurricular assignment that I'll find a collection of people from fall that included some winter sports and some fall sports. So, I mean, I it isn't that closely monitored of a process, and it isn't as formal of a process as we do for other positions like teachers or pair of professionals or and and I'm
036not trying to tell anybody what to do or how to do, but like scenarios where if there's not a deadline, it's just well, whenever it kind of trickles through. So, I'm just wondering, is there a deadline that's in December? And I don't need the answer right now. It's just it's a question I had. I know that a couple years ago I had a similar question. It's like we're we're partway through the season already and now we've got the upgrade. That just it didn't add up to me. So I will I will find the answer but I don't know if I mean I will have to come back to and if the answer comes for the spring because I'm going to have the same question in the spring, you know, as they come through because spring
037starts in March. I hope we're not getting these appointments in June because that just doesn't make sense to me. Like you think you'd have them on the list before they start coaching. Is that what you're saying? Or within the month, you know, or in that first month that they start, you know, spring sports start in March. Yeah. So maybe there is a reasoning for it. But in March, you have all those assignments done because they started. You know what I mean? So that it just the timeline was just a little off. I didn't understand. I like I said I'll have to do a deep dive into the details of what the timing is on each of the extracurricular appointments that we send out and any given month we have numerous ones coming and going. So
038you know we like I said we don't we don't maintain like um resignation data or turnover data on those. Yeah. Um it's extra and so not as closely monitored or as closely um put into a system. I don't I'm not requesting a deep dive by you have your hands full request you know without that I won't know what the answer is and I mean if I need to go and ask okay the I mean we have several people involved in the appointment process for extracurriculars. It's not as formal as our recruitment process for um regular positions. So I will need to go and and find out more and I'd be happy to do that and happy to bring that. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sounds good. So put that as an action item. Okay. With the
039understanding that it won't necessarily come back with information for next month. Maybe it'll take a little bit of time and however that comes together. Okay. All right. Excellent. Employee wellness committee update. Okay. This is exciting. I loved these slides, Margaret. Thank you. So, so the employee wellness committee is off to a little bit of a slow start this year. we were um the trying to get things aligned with the volunteers that we have in terms of meeting scheduling and things like that. So I wanted to provide from the last update that we've done to the HR committee. There have been some things that have been done by the committee. Again, again I want to remind everyone this is a volunteer grassroots uh no resources type of effort on behalf of of a group of employees
040that are interested in employee wellness and um well overall well-being. So, uh, we had a couple of newsletters at the end of the year in spring and then right before everyone h headed out for the, um, summer. Each of those included a challenge. Uh, the challenge challenges thing seems to have taken a level of interest. People seem to like that they're responsible responsive to our our requests. Like for example, the first one was if you get to the end of the newsletter, that's when you found out there was a challenge to go back. And we actually had 18 people that said, "I did. I filled out all the quiz and and um and then the same thing with the mental wellness challenge over the summer. We had people who tracked a few items that had
041been designated in the in the um the summer newsletter. And when school started, we sent out an email saying, "Hey, did anybody uh do do any of the summer challenge?" And people responded and sent their their um uh responses to members of the wellness committee who then assembled small prizes. The prize re the prizes are basically like small little um items that are basically uh school district swag that we use for recruitment and for other uh community events and things like that. So it's not we're basically just kind of swiping a little bit of the inventory to respond to um those. It's not anything that is People love that. They do. We get really good responses from like the little water bottles or the you know the um the stickers that we sent out and
042um things like that. We try to make it so that we can send the prizes via interdep department mail. So that limits our like capacity in terms of the size and scope of prizes. But it has a blanket. We don't we don't give away blankets again. So, so that is um one thing that it seems to have taken um is starting to gain some traction among our workforce. We also right now have a a kindness challenge going on. I and I included this the ch the challenge calendar that we're working off of. Um there was some thought that holding people to being kind every single day of the month of December might be a stretch. So, we picked 12. Um, we do have a meeting tomorrow afternoon where we will be reviewing. Come on now.
043We can send somewhere. People can't be back at this number. No. Um, instead of raising the bar. Well, we could try. So, well, we started at zero. They're raising it to 12. So, we're starting at 12. I mean, we don't have school every single day of December. So, I mean, it's basically has the opportunity to cover virtually every day of school. So, um that and that is um going on right now. I've just anecdotally heard some people talking about, oh, you should put that in your kindness calendar and stuff like that. So, people are paying attention nice to that. We do do email distributions of health and wellness oriented quick read type material that we receive from the employee assistance program, we receive from USI and that we receive from um um U employee assistance
044USI and courts. So they they all distribute um like little quick read posters that we um distribute and or post at each of the schools. Um, we will be talking about formalizing some plans for after the holidays at our meeting tomorrow and are continuing to look at there was some talk at the end of the school year. The committee was going to tap into Melissa Lampy for um exploration of an idea of a wellness video. Um, and and I don't know how far that went. There was I saw some email communication. I don't know whether they were able to pull it all off in light of some other priorities that people had during the summer and that Melissa was working on with respect to strategic planning. But that's an idea that we will be also
045talking about tomorrow. And I mean in general these are individuals who are interested in both the health and well-being both physical and mental health and well-being for the workforce and are trying really hard to come up with creative ideas. Um I meeting scheduling is a a really super big challenge be trying to find pe time that is respectful of the workload that everybody has and trying to find time that does not interfere with other committee schedules that a lot of these people that participate in this committee are also on other um curriculum and safety and other types of district level committees. So, um so that's where the employee wellness committee is and um yeah, excellent. Thank you for that report and that update, Margaret, that is so exciting that Margaret has to have a lot
046of kudos for this. Just those of you who were around the table, two years ago, we didn't have anything, right? and to see all the excitement uh that that committee is doing and working on uh it it is big. Yeah, that's that is a extra load of work that Margaret put out. So congratulations Margaret. It really is meaningful work and it is a lot to do. So thank you. Yes, thank you. Agreed. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Because we had talked about that in relation to, you know, different health items and I love how you guys have have, you know, expanded it and even taken on like the challenges like Okay, that's fun. Excellent. Okay, next thing. I know we're behind on our agenda, but I feel like we have enough buffer in here that we're
047um should be able to accomplish our um meeting and and complete it in a timely fashion. So, next we have a support staff salary update. Um I know this has been going has been ongoing um Margaret included an implementation plan um and so you've been working on that um for months now and I know that you wanted to um give us an update on on how that's going and some concerns and challenges you've had with that as well. So, this is just an update of a timeline that I shared earlier with the committee and um you can skip through most of it down to the um revaluation request for RMS. So, so we went we went live with the program. We did inerson and video meetings with all staff that were uh um affected by
048the change in the the salary structure. We had some questions. We followed up with people. We talked with individuals and other small groups and and had everything fully implemented and operationalized and audited by a October 23rd. In between the time that we were did our meetings and we um had a full implementation, we did have one request for an expedited appeal in order to potentially provide a retention offer to an individual. We did the reevaluation and realigned of a couple positions or one position at RMS. Um that was supported by documentation and endorsed by the consultants as an appropriate reevaluation. Um our attempts at retention however did not work and that um it was they just were not successful. Okay. Since that time we have had um other appeals that have come in. I've had
049two from food and nutrition services, u two from the clerical appeals as well as a request from the high school to realign the structure of their clerical team in in general. Um the appeals were due December 1st. Those are all that I know of at this point. Um, but what appears to be the the issue with these appeals is potentially one that is associated with something that we knew was happening. And just to kind of refresh your memories, when you approved that schedule, the schedule, the the board approved a schedule that was priced at 66 and 2/3 of the market as the median spot. We had 60 people that even with that 66 and 2/3 uh spot as the median that were priced over the top of their ranges. And so those individuals have come
050forward with either appeals or with concerns in general as to where's my wage growth. We have not made a final decision in terms of how we are going to handle that particular group of people. There are a few different options that can be uh considered. Um but here the the situation with the people above the ranges are that they are long-term and frequently high performers. people that are relied upon to keep op operational operations running smoothly within buildings or within a certain function. That's great for us that we have long-term dedicated people in the organization, but essentially our data says that they are priced over the market the way it is. But this is creating some uh cultural angst at the building and amongst both the employees and our administrators in terms of like what
051do you mean they they don't qualify for any additional wage growth. So that is a concern that we are struggling with how to approach and um resolve. I mean, we we can't re-evaluate every single job and continue to move people up because then that affects the overall internal distribution of our job alignment within the organization. Um, I did talk with Jenna Bidwell about the situation from Cottingham Butler. um she will be on deck and willing to talk with the committee next month when she she was scheduled on deck for a update on the teacher pay project that we currently have. But she when I talked to her last week, she's the we can talk support staff salary as well. But this is an emerging issue that we will be asking for more direction on from
052the HR committee and the board. Um because our it our options are somewhat limited. um our as you all know probably more than me our financial uh resources are increasingly limited and we are positioned in a spot that is favorable from an outside market perspective. So I wanted to bring this to you because I know that there has been um um concerns expressed by longerterm employees. I know they've talked with me, they've talked with Jared. I suspect some of them have reached out to board members and and um just bring this to the surface in terms of yes, we are aware of it. We are exploring potential solutions, but it's kind of a difficult place to be in um with respect to those long-term employees, especially those that are like the heavy performers and we
053have limited opportunities if any for them for potential wage growth um outside of maybe CPI. That is the scenario. Thank you, Margaret. I know that that's not an easy an easy report to give and I know that you know everybody's worked really hard on you know the salary study and we're you know the direction we gave and things like that. Um, I'll reserve the rest of my comments if anybody has any questions or comments regarding the Trying to remember back thinking it. It's a while ago we talked about it, but there's always a like a bonus structure available for, you know, on top of base and would that be able to help that situation? Are you suggesting doing supplemental pay outside of the base? Correct. on top of this program. Well, I mean, I know
054this because this program runs outside of CPI as it is, right? Right. Uh so really, uh what you're talking about is what you're doing supplementally already. Yeah. If if you're suggesting we do some bonuses on top of that, then then I I'm okay. I'll listen to that and we can give you ideas. But I I just it was an idea, not a not a statement to go do. Just a would that work? Is it I I know we're up against budget constraints obviously. Are you talking my What's that? Are you talking lump sum? Yeah. Like what you mean like what we've done for like substitutes or something like that? I thought we've done it for subs. Yeah, we have debt bonuses for subs where or hiring bonuses or right where they're paid in a lump
055sum and not added to the base rate. We don't do that for teachers. Okay. Unless it's a recruitment bonus like a sign on bonus and then they get a lump sum. Is that something maybe Jenna would would have some idea about and sure because she'll come and she'll present to us about the other things and then I I mean I appreciate you making us aware of like this is where we're at and then maybe she can kind of give some ideas to us. So my purpose in bringing this up is to get some sense of um where the HR committee is going to fall with respect to potential changes or if the committee feels that we've done the best that we can. We're going to stick to this the schedule as it is. We're going
056to have to recognize that longer term employees are, you know, they're going to hit their max and their wage growth beyond C potentially CPI is limited and that's like a function of the market that is not something that we're willing to look at. I I am taking the and whatever guidance you give to me tonight back to Jenna to give her some preparation time to come back with ideas that would be potentially palatable for the committee and the board to consider. This is our first year doing this correct structure. So, I'm hesitant to make changes or to propose changes at this point until we know a little bit more. Um, I understand where you're coming from. It's like, okay, we we kind of got our toes in the water. Maybe revisit this conversation in a
057year, in six months. Look, you know, still have the conversation with Jenna, but where are things at and and kind of go from there. So yeah, you don't want to have your most veterans not receiving anything and staying into things because then that their worth doesn't feel honored and respected. Yet if you start making changes before we know what's going on overall, um I don't know if we're going to get the full feel, if that makes any sense. Yeah, that's my opinion. Yeah, I I know that we had set, you know, our eye at the the bottom of the top, right, the 66 and 2/3 percentile, right? Because we thought that that was equitable pay that was above the midline, but wasn't certainly the most, you know, luxurious school district out there, right? Um, so
058we came to that number as palatable. And really, I guess what we're saying is unless you decide to navigate that piece differently or um take a look to the outsiders, we are going to have people at that rate and above also at at teachers. You're going to have the you're going to have the same comeback with a number of teachers who are paid at the top or past the top of our salary, our current salary schedule, right? That are going to be above or well above that uh top third or you know the bottom of that top third. The question is is how do we want to react to that? Because um historically we have been a well-paying school district. Like did we set our sights too low? Do we need to change some things?
059And and like Dean says, maybe we need a year to have some more of that conversation. I don't know. But um just saying that we set that uh as our as our aiming point, right? And we found out like there are a group of people and there will be teachers in the same group, you know, that are that are so paid that they're not on the schedule. When you say outsiders, are we talking about the school districts or are we talking private business? Uh they they they did a cross-section of both. Uh especially for our non-certified staff, right? So if you did custodial services, some of those were school custodian, some of them were, you know, hospitals and whatever else. As we go for teachers, of course, we'll just use school districts data. But for
060some of those functions, administrative assistants and whatever, they they looked at comparables in the workforce. J, but I think what Jar was talking about the outsider ones, we targeted this. So you've got the top x% and the bottom x, you know, that top x% I think is what you were talking about as an outsider that they didn't they didn't see this as fail. Yeah. They didn't see the same wage increase that this chunk did. So they're kind of just sitting and didn't get a whole heck of a lot. Yeah. And matter of fact, it's going to make them even more snagged than they were. And that was an unintended consequence, I think, of our program. But nonetheless, that's that's what happened. And it will happen again. Uh because we have the same parameters in place
061for our teacher model, right? We're going to have some people who are going to be off that grid on the top end that they're going to get really stagnated should we um not do something differently. and in in a year, in six months, whatever. Um perhaps the conversation is it may not be this percent. Maybe it's just this percent for the you know, unless the board I don't know. Unless the board's intent is that, right? Like, hey, you got to the top really quickly. Enjoy the top as long as you're there because that's our top. You know, if that's the if that's the answer, then that's the answer. you know, I think I think we'll be looking to recruitment, but it may be the answer, you know, and I don't know, is that similar like
062when I was still teaching that once you're the top, but you got your CPI, there was opportunity for um different bonuses throughout if you were you know, that's a different conversation. Opportunity, stipened activity, right? That's what we call stipened activity. And that isn't like that is not part of No, that is not No, that's we get support. My only other question and this is a minor one. Is it a typo on the thing? The very first one July 10th, 25th, 2025. Should that have been 2024? Oh, yeah. Good night. We'll check in with you on the rest of the meetings later. Okay, great. Thank you. Um Margaret, thank you very much for the work that's been done for carrying through what for for bringing this forward to us. Um you know, we've talked about in
063board operations as far as yeah, we want to know when things are going well, but we need to understand the challenges as well, and we need to understand some of the consequences of the challenges. And so, thank you for bringing this forward. Thanks for, you know, giving us this detailed information. Um, you know, I obviously we need to pay respect to our fiscal situation. You know, I mean, if we all want to be here, you know, we have to give respect to that. Um, I guess I would be interested as far as um, you know, what Jenna might be able to bring forth. Um, okay. If we if we stay at the 66%, wait, whatever. Sorry, I forgot the percentage, but we stay at the 66. What are potential consequences of that? Um, you know,
064would that mean um, you know, we have 20 people who are in that sector and this Yes, that could mean that we lose these people. That's a you know, retention piece. Well, what are the other effects of that? if it's the um you know um person who is the main administrative assistant and I'm sorry if I'm not using the correct title um but if they're the main you know person that someone sees when they come into the school and they know the kids and the families and and they know how the school operates that way. If we have that person leave, how does that affect the beginning of school and people, you know, having all their correct or does it not? You know, is it are people cross trainin and things like that? I guess
065I want to know some of the consequences maybe that we're not thinking about. Um or maybe that we don't see. Um but then also as far as if we're like, okay, if we decide to like, nope, you know what, these people I mean, oh, I know people are so valuable. Um, and I appreciate and respect what they give to us. However, if we change the 66% um what percent would that look like and what are those budgetary consequences because of that, you know, and it maybe it's like, okay, well then when you have, you know, is some of the support staff then bumping up to the wages of beginning teachers, you know, like what are the long-term consequences of those decisions? Well, and I want to piggyback on that. An unintended consequence. If you start
066having all of it be the same, I'll say a one-sizefits-all. Everybody gets the same whatever. We recognize our fiscal responsibility in the situation we are right now. You don't want to have to cut teachers to meet that. And now class sizes go from this to this. So, that's an unintended um because I bet if you asked a teacher, "Do you want an extra $1,500 a year or do you want to go from 28 to 33 in a class?" That would be an interesting conversation piece. Um so, it's just those it's Yeah. And that's why I just don't know if we have enough information yet to go in that, but these are great at least questions. So, we have all the puzzle pieces to make that decision. So action item is talk to Jenna and um
067ask her to develop some uh information as it relates to potential uh bonuses or um payments for people at the top or over the top. Um and and then develop some scenarios on what would happen if we went beyond the 66 and 2/3% as our median for our salary schedules and then what the financial impact of that may be as well as um a discussion as to potential intangible consequences that uh might occur as a result of not changing or offering additional payment. I I would say that's accurate. Does that sound Does that help? Okay, good. That was what I needed there. That Okay, wonderful. Thank you, Mark. Right. Substitute staffing report. All right, we're getting an update there. So, um we pulled our 23 24 and uh uh fill rates and absences. This is
068obviously high level. It does pull out the people that have been absent for um FMLA absences that are kind of counted in a separate absence category. Um the the table that you see there with the actual numbers is um laid out in charts following that. I think you can see that 23 24. So I should say in terms of the titling elementary and secondary mean teachers instructional and special ed mean paras. So I that didn't come out as clearly and um you can see that from that our our staffing levels for 23 24 were a little bit better in terms of well I should talk about absences first. So, our absences in 2425 are down at the secondary level, above the same at the elementary level for our teachers. Um, there's arguably not much change
069in our paraprofessional absences for both of those years. Our fill rates are um I think everyone kind of has an idea about this is that our teacher fill rates are are in in today's market considered pretty high. If you can get over like 75 80% of a fill rate for teachers, that's considered good. Our fill rates for our uh instructional paras are usually about half of the time we can fill those jobs. Our fill rates for special ed paras are horrible. Um but I will also say that our spe our f our challenges in recruiting special ed paras are also quite significant and I had mentioned this to Tina when I talked but I mean the quality of the candidates that we are having apply for special ed jobs despite quite a bit of extensive
070advertising and you know employee recruitment and um you know posting everywhere that we can think of the caliber of the candidates coming in do not not make them a good fit for special ed pair of professionals and when I when I say not a good fit I'm looking at only the most minimal qualifications for our special ed pairs so can we get them licensed and we have had some hires that no we cannot and are they you know are background checks sufficiently clean enough to support a good, you know, this being person being a a sound hire for a school district working with kids that have special needs. And um recently the number of people that are not fitting our hiring criteria along those lines have been kind of high. And so the I mean
071we can't find regular people to fill those special ed positions. And um we have had some success in recruiting people that had promising employment performance with the district and and then for whatever reason most of often it's either I'm leaving to get a full-time job with benefits or um I have other scheduling school or child care uh situations that don't allow me to to reliably show up in a regular position. Those individuals we recruit into the subpool so that we can maybe perhaps uh get at least a few shifts of work from them as they are available and they have been open to doing that. Those individuals that are are leaving for those personal types of considerations. But I the recruitment scenario uh for special ed paras here in this district as well as throughout
072this entire region is really challenging and um we continue to have a challenging applicant pool that we're dealing with. I mean we are taking as many steps as we can uh to recruit additional candidates. Um, we have had ongoing job postings. We've had I mean right now I have my little cheat sheet here. We've had uh teacher and para jobs posted on Indeed. We can handshake which is a a um applicant uh system that's used by many colleges and technical colleges, universities. Um, we're running ads consistently now daily in the daily times through December 24th, which I just want to mention that the ad space on the daily times is quite expensive. Um, really very fruitful anymore. Um, how many wondering any valuation on maybe that one considering it's an expense? check back when we
073start to get numbers above one for applicants. So most of our applicants are we indeed although I would like to say that the quality of the candidates that apply on Indeed because Indeed has this automatic apply where you don't have to extend any effort at all other than just click I want that job that job that job. I mean we we vet those applications frequently find that if we get like a third of them in for genuine employment consideration that that is a good response. So I mean people from foreign countries applying for jobs um and because it's it's so easy in indeed once you make your profile you can apply for thousands of jobs that um you know just by clicking yeah few buttons. So, that isn't that I know that it's a go-to
074spot for a lot of job postings, especially in the um technical and um retail and clerical and and entry level areas, but it it takes a lot of you you get volume, but it's not necessarily always. Okay. So, I I know that Jared is rounding. We have rounding updates at some point. Um, but we are not hearing the same level of panic or upset about substitute staffing that we had last time this year when we were doing our rounding. Um, so so I mean I don't want to say that that we're in an ideal situation, but we seem to have addressed some of the bigger concerns as it relates to pair professional or as it relates to substitute staff. Okay. Um we are continuing to bring new people on as as they come in. I
075mean I know that they were looking at somebody today that had applied and and then they pull that those application materials and you know send our follow-up application and new hire documentation and things like that background check release forms and things like that. I will be doing a support staff or a substitute staff survey. I think some of you were here in 22 23 when I did that. And I also have run a focus group in 2022 for substitutes which I'll again do and invite people over um for anyone that is interested in like participating in in a small talking face to face type group in spring. And we do continue to monitor where we're at in the market which is favorably placed. It's not top of the line but it isn't the middle either.
076So, you know, we're pretty much kind of um placed in somewhat in alignment with that 66 and 2/3 to 70% market right now for um for um substitute daily rates. Okay. All right. We do follow up with all of our retirees after the 75day waiting period to see if there's interest there. Um, so that where we're at. Awesome. I'm sorry. In the interest I was just gonna say in the interest of time as we Does anybody have any questions regarding the substitute? Yes, I do. Um, the overall absences, are those absence hours or are those absence people? Those are days. So, elementary. So, overall absences. What do you mean by they are days? So absences. So I'm on slide two. Yep. So absences are counted in either full days or half days. Okay. So basically
077if someone is absent full day. So it's kind of like it's like a per person kind of thing. I get it. Okay. Um thank you. My second question is if you could help shed a little bit of light without going too deep. This is just September to November. secondary last year was over 150 160 more absences than this year. Um was it I mean I know they did some work with the math curriculum stuff but that doesn't attribute to 150 days. So I'm just curious do we know is there a trend because elementary is pretty similar instru the pair professionals are pretty similar special ed is pretty similar that one just had so we had some conversations with the building administrators about some trends that we had seen without going into all the details but
078there were some definite patterns of like casual sick calls that or calls that were really I I mean just like that sparked some curiosity and some questioning. And we had talked with both of the secondary administrators as well as their teams about what was driving this increase in absences. And we had encouraged uh stronger oversight of absences and setting forward a more direct message about absence or attendance expectations which once we called out some of those things um they seemed to have relatively fast turnaround in terms of corrections. Um there were certain key dates that seemed to be um driving a high number of of absences and I mean at times there were certain people that you could reliably count on calling in sick on PD days or the day before a break or things
079like that. And so we started like pointing out some of those individual trends. So, I know that there were some individual conversations as well as some staff conversations, full staff conversations related to abs absenteeism needs to to be reduced and we need everybody here every day if we're going to be telling our kids. We need everybody here every day. And there were some direct messages that were sent at the secondary level. And we did notice um that we are having fewer call-ins and some of those call-ins like there was a really big difference on PD days this year compared to last year in terms of well I'm glad you brought that up because like where I worked before there was a separate way to call in for a PD day for a day before a
080break. There were different parameters that you had to meet and I didn't know if we have something that was much stricter. We have guidelines but I I mean there are times when the reason for the absence is like doesn't fit the guidelines but we do try to there is more strict enforcement of the guidelines that are in place and more questioning about absences like I think we got a little bit casual and I will attribute that to uh co where we got very casual about attendance because it was more like please don't be sick you know, and that type of No, thank you very much. Good question. Thank you, Margaret. I appreciate how thorough you guys are in giving that information and and exploring, you know, all the options that are out there and everything
081like that. Um, future meeting planning. Um, in January, um, we do have a full meeting. We'll of course have consent agenda. Um the biggest portion of that um of our January meeting will be the teacher compensation model update. Um and you then parsed with together with the support staff salary update because we will have Jenna here from our consulting firm and then the exit turnover reporting just like we had um previously determined the different um updates on that throughout the year. Um, so based on that, anybody have any questions about future meeting planning? No, ma'am. No, we're good. We're just throwing stuff over. All right. Just because I didn't wear orange. All right. Our last our last item, our action items. Um, which I think you so wonderfully restated there, Margaret. You have Tell us
082what you have as far as action staff. um ideas for addressing concerns related to the sports desk. Yep. And then um I have um taking a look at the timing of extracurricular appointments as it relates to the seasons and recruitment persons or replacement persons recurring. All right. Does that sound like you wanted you also wanted the consent agenda broken out? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Margaret. Thank you. That would be another action item. I don't know if that's an action item. Just to just to restate the needs, but it's good to have it stated to make sure that we have it. Yeah, it should be in the minutes, but not action. Yes, you said that. I should clarify this is uh these are one year extensions in the minutes. Yeah, because the action items
083are things that would be coming back at future. I still think the consent agenda as written doesn't give an indication as to what the new dead the new end dates are. There's nothing in there that says how long those are being renewed till. So it it needs clarification one way or the other, right? Not just in the minutes, but I'll edit those. Yeah. The actual consent agenda will be edited. Exactly. Yes. Yep. And then that's part of, you know, our responsibility as, you know, members to, you know, check that out, you know, beforehand. and we'll partner together so that we can make sure we all understand it. There anything else as far as action items or clarifications or anything? No, that's enough for me. Okay, great. We're all done. 6:14, we're adjourned. Thank you all.
084Protect her.