001So with that so perfect and it is 5:30 so we'll get started um and we'll look at the consent agenda. So the consent agenda for this week is or this month is a little bit uh smaller. We had a couple of expected retire resignations. Um the two from food and nutrition services were not exactly expected, but we have already made some good ground in extending offers to other candidates for those positions. We hired a limited term FIED teacher to take the place of somebody who's going out on a long-term leave. and we've had a continuing number of special ed pair professionals that were hiring um mostly at the high school. The extracurricular appointments are posted and I know Diana, you said you had some questions related to um the postings for extracurricular positions. Um, right
002now we have uh one head coach opening that we're recruiting for for lacrosse for boys lacrosse. Uh, we have had four applicants for that position, although none of them have experience in coaching lacrosse. And then we are interviewing for some JV girls softball positions. I know Jamie was looking at conducting interviews over the next couple weeks. Those are the only two that uh two areas that we're currently recruiting extracurricular people uh assignments for. My question that was revolved around yeartoear so the softball head coach returns back. They're are they on the consent agenda or are they not if they're a returning coach that's employed in the district? Um we just started adding uh recurring appointments. um for softball is and that's a I'm speaking in general. Softball was one of them for example um uh
003let me look. So the girls softball head coach is not on there but the the varsity assistant is. Okay. And I can take that back to Jamie. I know that I I mean I I don't know if he has confirmed all of the spring appointments yet, but I can certainly find out. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious because this looks to me like a lot of JV and assistant varsity, but there is a V a lacrosse head coach. So, I'm just curious on what's our process. Um, is our process that all of them are on here on the consent agenda year to year or if it's a employee in the district are they kind of grandfathered in and not join the meeting? So, I know that we did just start adding within the last couple
004of months recurring appointments for um for extracurricular assignments. I don't know if all of those assignments have yet been finalized by Jamie, but I will find out and I will send an email back on what what we are what our timing is related to um those recurring appointments. Okay. Thank you. Sure. And do you have any questions? Nope. Dave. Uh, no. But Diana, can you um, sorry, if you ask the question again, Diane, I mean, I don't want to say what's the concern, but what's the goal? I mean, what do we what would we what do you think we want it to be? Maybe I missed that in your question. So, last month when this came up, Yep. there were winter sports that were approved on consent agenda halfway through the season. Yep. And so
005it's kind of like, okay, so what's our process? Now, I'm excited to see that we have spring before the season starts, yet not all of them are there. So I'm just wondering, what's our process? Is our process that all of the coaches, it's kind of like a batch enroll or a batch approved or are some grandfathered in and they don't go through consent agenda? I don't understand the process. I'm looking for guidance on the process. I think we decided we were adding all of the um the um the recurring appointments as well as the new appointments. That was my understanding. That was my thought, too. And that's why I'm just kind of surprised that some of the varsity head coaches have been working in December or excuse me, January, February with their spring teams already
006and they're not on this list. That's why I'm just curious because they have already been working with their teams, right? And we do know that people will start working before they show up on a consent agenda because some of them work um numerous year like around the like around the whole year and at various times. And if we waited for the consent agenda to show the the appointment, we it's likely that they would not be conducting practices or team meetings or other types of sport activities. So no, I understand that it's Yeah, I'll wait and see what your email says from there. It's just it's confusing for me that some are on the list and some aren't. yet. I know that and they know that they're um coaching in the spring. So, it's just a
007little confusion, right? I will try and get get that sorted out because I know there's a lot of questions about extracurricular and I'll just say quite frankly in our our world that is not like the highest level of oversight, right? So I and now that there's more increased interest in that, we will um pull out that information and get it reported in an orderly fashion. I mean, we kind of know the process and how people are appointed and some of it is tied to how we pay people and set up the appointments so that we are meeting. And there's a fall, spring, and winter schedule for payment of those um appointments in a certain way. They have they're paid very differently than all of our other payroll. And so we just make sure we have
008them on the consent agenda before we activate them on those extracurricular payment schedules. But I will um I will find out and get the details and I I can put that as an action item. Well, ju just hold off on an action item just for a second, Margaret. And and given that the question came up at last month's uh meeting to best of my knowledge, and it's not something as Margaret Afford appropriately stated, this is not where her focus is as the HR director for the district. Uh she's got bigger fish to fry with teachers and paras etc, etc. And by no means do I personally want to add work to her or her department. At the same time, I like Diana would say, "Listen, if we're gonna have a process, let's follow the process."
009The process is established with rules and we know there's going to be exceptions, then it'd be perfectly acceptable to see the fall sports extracurriculars on July 1st and the winter sport ones on October 1st and the spring sport ones on February 1st. I mean, maybe not February 1st, but you get the point. and in which case we put them in buckets and we try to get them in front of the HR committee andor the board in those time periods. But at the same time, given that this is somewhat of a new request, before Margaret starts writing down action items, I just want to assert that this is indeed what the HR committee wants her to do because I can't say that there's been a unanimous general agreement that this new effort that we're asking Margaret
010to do, from my understanding, is worth the time and the benefit to us as the, you know, governors of the district. So if it only takes her five minutes, then yeah, go for it, Margaret. If it takes you five hours, let's think about this. So I understood. And if you recall from the last meeting, the question there came back to it was more of a um onto Jamie K, what's his process? So this wasn't a big task on to Margaret. It was just looking into what's the process of it. Yeah. Um, so that's I agree. We don't need to excuse me. We don't need to task Margaret with a ton more things. Totally agree on that. But we do need to clean up our process. Yes. Because having a consent agenda, for example, last month
011with winter sports and they're halfway through their season. To me, that was a little Yeah, I don't know. So, this is great improvement. Well, now I'm just looking at, okay, where are we going from here? That's all. So, I guess the way to then summarize that, and Mike and Dan, uh, I appreciate your input. Diana's obviously already, is that it's not so much Margaret we're telling you what to do, but tell us what you're doing. Yes. I I hear you. And I mean, and then if we know what we're doing, if we know what you're doing, we know like that's a like I want to say we know what we're doing and why we're doing it. But you, you all aren't sitting in that office every day and hearing the v various, you know, different
012stories of this person left and now we're going to put that person there. And so I I understand what you're asking for and to bring I it certainly is no um big deal to put build some clarity around this so that people feel like they have a good understanding of what it is that we're doing even though we feel like we know what we're doing. So I feel like you know what you're doing. I I feel like what it is but if we have to approve agenda it's going to come in front of us we better be able to I hate rubber stamps. It's a team effort here. So, um, I will talk with our threeperson team and we will get things set up in an orderly fashion for reporting. So, now can I assume
013that that was clarification of extracurricular appointments? Yeah. So, I just wanted Yeah. So, there is like we don't have a strict timeline in terms of appointments. Like I said, we do try to get all of our appointments done in a way that allows us to get that extracurricular payroll schedule honored because there it's very scripted in terms of when we start certain like fall sports, we have three installments on certain payroll dates that are spread out. So, so we want to make sure that Jamie Fiser, our our payroll person, has that information upfront so that she does not have to do a lot of of um off cycle type entry into the payroll system. But that being said, we deal with people and people move around a lot and they come and they go and
014sometimes we do do offcycle adjustments to our extracurricular assignments based on things that we didn't see coming and and um certainly with the JV groups and the assistant groups that is a common enough occurrence where people come and go a little bit more quickly in those roles. um the the the pay for those positions don't tend to be like the type of position that you think I'm going to hold on to this for life. And a lot of times it's based on people's changing personal commitments and personal obligations and they decide I'm I'm not going to be able to fit that into my schedule anymore. So, so there are a lot of different factors that go into how each of these people end up for the most part on and when they end up on
015the consent agenda. So, I will I will work with our group. I'm confident that we can bring about like more clarity and understanding so that you feel confident that there's some rhyme to our reason. Okay. So, all right. We will move on then to the exit or turnover read. All right. So I have that. Um am I sharing that? No. So I I on the big board anymore. Oh, I'm sorry. So um trying to figure out here. Okay. So, here I did a a quick uh summary of people that have left the district since July 1st. Um I I will say that in in our world, um this isn't there isn't a lot of high concern related to the turnover that we've been experiencing. Um, I will say that our special ed paras remain an
016area of concern. We did at the beginning of the school year experience a number of people that left shurers. That wasn't completely unexpected because we ended up combining classrooms in our special ed area. it. Uh we combi combined the first and second grade with the third and fourth grade because the case loads had changed and we we reassigned a teacher to a different position. And some people that had been exclusively assigned to one classroom for a number of years had felt that based on some of their changing personal and family situations that it was a good time for them to end their employment. Um, one of those went into the subpool, another one terminated to take care of of her family. So, those sharers positions were not completely unexpected just based on the the program
017changes that we made. Um, the place that's a a little bit of a hot spot is the special ed paras at the high school. Um we have had uh several rounds of hires in those positions and uh we are are dealing with a candidate pool that is marginally qualified for those positions. Now to offset those marginal qualifications we have amped up our training. They just did a a new training a parah training today that was very well received by our the paras that attended that. Uh what we found is that people go into the positions at the high school thinking that they are up for the challenge of handling some very um uh very challenging student situations that require a a very high level of care and attention. And so we have been working with
018Josh and his team and the teachers in that area to see what we could do uh to try and get people to stay in those positions. Um attendance is an issue with that group that we've been hiring and I mean it has been something of a revolving door this year. Uh and I would also say that we are not highly confident every time we stand extend an offer on whether a person is going to stay or not just because they are these are not highly qualified individuals. And we do require them to go through a significant amount of train online training to become designated as highly qualified. But that takes time and investment in the job and that is not always what is wanted by some of the people or they don't understand the role.
019I mean we we are we are not in any way hiring people that have a good understanding of uh a special ed role. We have people come in for observations. We have them, you know, talk with the teachers in that area and are trying everything we can to retain that, but it remains an area of concern. So, um, other ones in terms of our teacher turnover, those were not unexpected. um clerical position but I mean our our turnover rates in those areas are not extremely high. Uh so I don't know if there are questions related to the turnover information. Uh so Dan, do you have questions? No, this is pretty much what we talked about the last time Paris special ed paras in particular for sure at the high school is seems to be the
020hot spot right now. Diana, do you have questions? No. And nothing from David. Um I I appreciate the information. Uh, I know we're in capable hands. Uh, so I I know you're doing I think we are trying to really up our concentration on supports for that group of employees. All right. Then we'll move on to uh teacher and support staff salary updates. All right, Jenna, I am going to allow you to share your screen. and give me a minute to find. Do you want to go ahead? It looks like I'm able to. Okay. Yep. Yep, we are. So, those of you who don't know her, uh, Jenna Bidwell is a consultant with Codingham Butler, Cottingham and Butler Consulting. Um they did do our support staff salary project last year and came back to join us
021with our teacher pay plan pay model uh project and we invited Jenna to come in and provide a little bit of up of an update on where we're at in the project as well as uh we have some guidance that we need from all of you on how you think we should best move forward what your thoughts are related to that and I will let Jenna go ahead and take it away. Sounds great. Thank you so much. So, as Margaret indicated, uh we want to provide you with a bit of an update on the work that we're doing specific to the teacher compensation project. Um we've got some feedback that we've gathered um through this process. We're going to share some insight from a external market competitiveness perspective, give you some uh perspective or or
022view on some of the things that we're thinking about as we are considering um the teacher compensation model. And then the last piece, this pay philosophy discussion is uh something that's impacting broader just than the the teacher conversation. It's it's part of and kind of a carryover from the support staff piece as well. So, um, Margaret, I hope I captured that piece accurately. Um, and and we'll dive into that a little bit more here, uh, in just a little bit. This is the current teacher compensation model, um, in place for the district. And so, uh, big picture highlighting, uh, kind of core elements of it. There's essentially four different levels of educator. there are um kind of targeted years of experience, but also then um performance outcomes and and objectives that um the district expects
023or anticipates seeing from um educators at each of these different levels. The idea is that there's opportunities for pay increases as you move from one level to the next. And then in addition to that, there's opportunities for uh base pay increases related to your summitive or every three-year teacher evaluation cycle as well once you move into those those levels. So um again, the each of those levels are identified by a pay range. Um but beyond that, there's there's not specific um steps or specific movement within each of these particular ranges. Part of the initial process of getting started was to get an understanding of kind of the current state. What was um the understanding of the current compensation model? What were some of those pain points? So, we had um we had conversations with administrators
024and and the HR team to understand from their lens. Um but we also had uh created a survey that went out to the teachers as well. again an opportunity for us to kind of understand what what's what's going on, what are what's the current state look like? Um what do those pain points look like? What we found was that there was this overwhelming sentiment that the model was somewhat rewarding what they had thought the district was intended so intending to do. Um the the biggest kind of uh takeaway from that was really that if the model that's in place today is the model moving forward, additional education or communication is needed. There's still some murkiness to how does it work, how does somebody grow, how do they progress, those types of things. In addition to
025asking about the current model, one of the things we had asked in this survey was like help us understand from uh the teachers perspective, what types of factors would they like to see considered when determining compensation. And so there was a kind of a laundry list of items. And the top three items that were identified um were years of experience, the education or the formal degrees as well as the license or certification piece. Other factors that they were asked to weigh in on were things like prof participating in professional development or leading professional development, mentoring, participating in district leadership roles, their um evaluation scores, market influence, those types of things. and all of those other kind of categories, if you will, have received less than a third percent of uh a third of the the
026indication or or request that they be considered as part of the the model. So, um just some some kind of context to uh sentiment and feedback um that that we were hearing as we were getting started with this as well. Can I just say, Jenna, that out that the 246 responses is really good. We have 281 um certified staff members. So, the response rate on the survey Jenna had done was kind of 85%. It was an 85% response rate. So, really high uh response rate. Yep. Um, one of the other pieces that is kind of important as we're thinking about the the teacher pay model is also understanding the competitiveness of the pay model. And so, um, listed up on this particular slide is the different districts that were utilized to measure and establish the
027external market. This list was um pulled together and and um established in partnership with the administrative team, thinking about, you know, who are those districts that are similarly situated to you from a geographic perspective, but also similar in size. Um and so trying to kind of identify what would be those uh appropriate comparable districts to establish that market. The way we measure teacher competitiveness from a market perspective is still kind of breaking them up into bachelordegreed teachers and master degree teachers and then looking at it from this increments of time to kind of gauge the competitiveness. And so on the the first half of this slide is the uh first in red is the increments of time. So how much total teaching experience does an individual uh teacher have? The second column is going to
028be the district's average rate of pay for a teacher that fits. The top grouping is going to be all the bachelor degree. The bottom grouping is going to be all the master degree teachers. The end count is simply telling us the number of internal teachers that fall within that group. Then the uh fourth column is going to be the market measurement. The second end count is going to be the market uh number of of individuals or incumbents within that. And then market index on the far right is simply telling us how does your average pay compared to that market average. So using that top line um less than two years of teaching experience the average rate of pay was 51143 in the district that included 17 different individuals. The market measurement was 50,868 that included
029167 incumbents. And so we see that the district is sitting just 1% ahead of that market measurement um by the the first zero to two years of experience. So when you look across this at each of the different tenyear groups and you look to the right to see how competitive we're sitting, what we're finding on the bachelor degreed position is we're in a highly competitive position of across the board we're sitting at 105% overall market index. Again, we see some variation and fluctuation around that at each of those different increments. On the master's degree table down below, you'll also see that our average is also sitting at 105%. But it does have a little bit more variation to that. So, our starting point for those master degree teachers is a little bit further behind the
030market. Um, and then we we work to close that gap as you move up the the tenure group. Any questions about this market competitiveness? Uh just on the question uh pay is this uh hourly pay times 2080 or contract? Does it include anything uh additional or I don't want to say there's bonuses but it I mean what else is it total compensation or is it just take home W2 pay? Yep. It's going to be their base compensation, their base salary. Uh so it would not be any sort of additional uh coaching pay, stipen, those types of things related to it. And everything is controlled for the district's number of days. So when we measure the market, we see that there's sometimes fluctuation around contract length as well. And so all of the market data is
031kind of controlled for the district's uh contract length as well. Okay. So and and no uh uh union non-un retirement savings, etc. Correct. that that's just just W2 adjusted for days, right? That's exactly right. Yep. Okay. I have a couple questions. Yes. And and Margaret, you might be best answer to answer this. The uh the top two on both of the years of experience, the 25 to 30 and 30 and above. To me, it seems like those are very low in numbers. number of teachers that are hanging on, you know, until they retire. Yes. Isn't that low? Um, I don't know if it's low. It does fit with our age demographic, though. I mean, we at I may maybe 10 years ago, uh, 2012, we had a lot of people that were um, in the
032higher levels of experience. The reason I know that is because we did an an early retirement incentive at that time which at least 25 people took advantage of. Um in 2012 and then again in 2017 18 it looked like there was a lot of incent trying to incentivize people with more experience leaving early. All of that seems to have been related to budget reductions or a hope to manage costs better. Uh we don't have that. We don't have a high group of a high number of people in the uh the 50s in age range 50 and above anymore. We have most of our teachers are con are concentrated between the 30s and 40s now in the in terms of their ages. And then we have a growing number of 20somes coming in as the uh
033as people retire and we replace them with less experienced people. uh um you know, we might see well we might see this change over the next few years because we had some benefit changes that kicked in this year that had been decided quite a number of years ago where the availability we no longer have health insurance and retirement as a benefit for teachers. the last person that was eligible for that uh res retired last year. And so now we have an alternate benefit that is available to people that work here years or more, but it's not uh it's not enough to cover a family. We have a what's called tax sheltered annuity option where we pay into a tax sheltered annuity in lie of providing any type of of retirement health insurance and it's $1,500
034a month for five years but our monthly premiums for most people are like 800 for a single plan 2300 for a family plan. So, if anyone has a spouse or or still has dependence, they they um would not be able to cover that. That's an upcoming topic of discussion for all of you, I'm sure. But um so so one of the things that now will be a hindrance to any type of early retirement will be the availability of of health insurance that would bridge the gap between whatever early retirement 55 57 60 62 until they're eligible for Medicare. And we don't have a bridge for that other than that tax sheltered annuity which for some people is not sufficient to cover what their out of pocket will be to have health to have health insurance
035coverage. So we I I mean I can anecdotally report that I've talked to several teachers that have asked about that and unless they have access to health insurance through a spouse, many of them decide that they can't can't cover the cost of health insurance um with the amount that they would be getting through their WRS pension and other sources of income. So, um, but it is a declining group and I I mean we've are losing another six, I think, retired that are coming up this year. Uh, but it's much smaller than it was even when I first started in 1718. So, my other question was about um the somewhat what are the other options? Have you seen other school districts have options other than these big three? Uh yes, I actually have. If I can
036take us to the next slide, I'll share a little bit more about that if that's acceptable. Okay. So, um here's some kind of context around some of the things we're exploring, some of the things we're thinking about. So uh one is this opportunity to possibly simplify the pay schedule and the approach. So um again understanding that the feedback we've heard and and gathered includes uh feedback both from the teachers but also from Margaret and her team and how they have to administer the compensation model that exists. And so uh one concept is is thinking about and exploring you know do we go from those open ranges that are identified today by level and look for something that's maybe a little bit more uh predetermined in terms of that that movement. We also are focused on
037the reducing some of the complexity in administering it. And so the the challenges of leveling up but also summitive year increases and making sure that those are all being tracked and then applied appropriately is something that um is an administrative burden today. And so trying to ensure that whatever the model looks like that that is also trying to um have an attempt to to reduce or simplify it as well. In addition to, you know, simplification, I think it also is about having clearer communication or a better understanding for individual teachers as well. So, new ones coming in as you're continuing to recruit, but also those, you know, here in the district and helping them understand what is their pathway for continued growth, development, and wage increase. um along with the the structure design and thinking
038about it, we're targeting a you ensuring that we continue to maintain that competitive edge. So, we looked from a market perspective and and we're seeing that we're sitting a little bit ahead of of the middle of of the road and so wanting to ensure that whatever that new system looks like that we continue to kind of keep the district in its its current position. Again, continuing to value advanced education. So um going to the question of like what are we seeing in other models, part of this process was not only measuring the market but also collecting other uh pay plans and exploring elements of um different factors that are looked at, different consideration that's that's out there. What are other districts doing? So we do continue to see a value on advanced education. Part of
039this review and part of the modeling is to look at thinking about do we increase the value of that. So one um part of of the rationale behind that is the idea that continuing education is expensive and so it's an investment for individuals and wanting to make sure that there's a balance there in in kind of the the return on that investment. Also continuing to value that national board certification and attainment. So the idea was that um the district still would value those kind of ongoing learning and commitment to um that higher certification and education. Another uh component that we're exploring is this idea of um a water town kind of dedication. And so it's the idea that um there's an opportunity for a small differential for those who have been with the district district.
040So um the idea is that there is some value to continuity in educators from one year to the next from a student perspective. And so also wanting to acknowledge um that retention piece and so looking at at kind of building that into the pay model as well. And then the last piece is this formalization of of hard to fill. So in the current model as it is today, the use of of retention bonuses um has has been in place for some of those areas where the market is is kind of dictating a different type of pay. And so um trying to really help the the district to be able to respond to filling those while providing flexibility in how we handle it on a year-to-year basis. So these are some of these elements that we
041are um suggesting and and kind of looking for looking to as we we look to develop the model. Um there are different pay models out there, but I would say that the majority of them still continue to have some um some sort of linkage to the education, the experience, um time with the districts and and being able to account for kind of that progression within the the profession as a teacher. Any questions about these types of of factors that we're considering? Um, a couple and they may you may not have to answer them now. Um, I'm going to I'm going to say I'm going to reask Dan's question and that was, if I'm not mistaken, uh, overwhelming feedback was that the current model quote unquote somewhat rewarded what the teachers believe it was intending to
042reward. So, Dan asked, "What were the other options besides somewhat?" like I I assume that meant it it very much uh rewards what it's intended to reward or it totally misses the mark on what it's uh intending to reward. So his question was what were the other options besides somewhat if I is that correct Dan? No, but that's a good question. Okay, that's what I I wanted to know what what was the other option if you're on a liyker scale and I got somewhat and what and you answered well you've given this to a lot of different districts. We know where we rank in pay. How do we rank in communicating what the pay rewards? Good question. Okay. So, I apologize. I I did not answer. Maybe that's not what Dan asked, but that's what
043I thought. That's okay. So, um the the question that was posed to them was like a strongly agree, somewhat agree or disagree kind of a scale to gauge the temperament or understanding. So um to to answer that question, how do you align from a communication and education perspective on the the pay model, it's complex and so I I mentioned it's complex from an administrative perspective and it's not clearly understood across the board. And so, um, I think there's a gap there and, um, that's something that I think is is a true challenge when a pay model grows in complexity. So, more factors considered, um, varying approaches from um, possibly one year to the next or at different stages, those types of things can add uh, to some of the complexities of it. Okay. So, it's
044only a three-point model or a five-point model, but either way, we could be doing better on it because you've seen other districts do better on it than just somewhat. So, I Oh, go ahead. So I think part of the issue is Jenned showed the schedule and the history of pay in teacher with teachers and Dan you might be able to speak to this better than I I can has always been a very defined scripted what they called step in lanes. So cells going this way and cells going that way and you only progressed based on you know your mast's plus three credits or a year of service and so it was and and this model that we're using now when it was introduced in 2015 16 uses broad ranges and I don't know if you're
045familiar David with broadband pay scales but it gives you a a number of different levels of varying ranges. And then you interview your person and based on the person that you have in front of you and the needs of your district and the market and um various other factors, you would say, "I'm going to offer you this within our range because" and then that person says, "No, I want a little bit more." before you make your decision and and either offer or say, "I've gone as far as I can." And so that concept is not well established in school districts because it is such a departure from steps and lanes. And so like these whole career ladders that are used quite commonly with broadband ranges in the private sector. This the model that we have
046aligns more closely with that type of compensation philosophy than it does with the steps and lanes which are very scripted scheduled ways to progress from zero bachelor's degree to 30 plus 30 years plus something. And and so part of the lack of understanding is the whole concept of that type of of pay. Okay. And and then you answered my second question which I I don't I I'll mention but I don't think I have to ask it is that I'll just say roughly a year ago and uh Tony Arnett was much more of an expert on this or at least a historian on it than I was and maybe Mike and Dan but I know he was as I recall adamant about going back to a steps and lanes model and I remember an HR meeting
047where he's like we're not going back to preact 10 that that this is the one that we like this is the one that works for us. So, let's not start talking about going back to that. So, pre-act 10 is the step. Exactly. Precisely. And so, I just remember Tony saying that and I'm not saying he was right. I'm just saying is that I recall that conversation and that was going to be my next question is how does the broadband compare to steps and lanes and not in the spirit of where we've been and where we've been trying to go. I just wanted to ask the question. Nothing in here suggests that we're going to go back in that. No. and but I'm just trying to put it with into some type of context in terms
048of what some of the the issues are. The other thing that the current model emphasizes more experience. It gives you uh discretion to make offers based on market. It gives you um the opportunity to negotiate on a onetoone basis with a candidate more than you can with a steps and lane system. and it places the least amount of value on length of service. So it it does not place it places a higher value on increased professional certification through national boards or comparable certification and masters and maybe some additional professional development based on your level and and then your performance within like a level three or level four. Those are that's the main emphasis for pay progression in that model. It gives a nod to length of service. We think this would be like a a
0490 to six year teacher, a 6 to 12, 7 or whatever the like estimated ranges of experience are. And and it does s set some minimum teaching years of experience to get into each lane. But under that model and under the philosophy at that time, it was we want less emphasis on um rewarding time in the district and more emphasis on performance and um leadership and increased expertise as a at within teaching practice. And so that is also a little bit different than like the mindset that teachers were coming out of after act 10. And I mean it just see it seems like the district made a really big leap to that concept and maybe some of these other districts that Jenna is talking with have more of a in between phase. Is that fair
050to say Jenna? Yeah, I mean I I think you hit it and explained it really well. It's it's this idea of how far are we going to take the element of performance and um what type of clarity can we provide around the emphasis of it um within the pay model. So I only then comment on your last slide which your last slide is questions but on this slide particular is your uh bullet 1.3 which is support clear communication and understanding because if we're already paying at 105% it's not like we're private industry where we can target that the 90th percentile and still balance our budget. So 105% in my mind is about as good as we should be targeting because we're still trying to keep our you know our fiscal responsibility and yet we're still
051trying to be a destination for teachers to come to. So there's no way we can advocate for 110 and 120 to try to woo these teachers. We just don't have the money for it and nor do we necessarily have to because we're already pretty darn competitive as as Jenna pointed out. But if we're only scoring a somewhat on the we know what we're being rewarded for and we know how to move up, then the number one bullet on this last page is technically bullet number four, but it's support clearer communication and understanding. And if everybody knew they were making a 105% of the surrounding districts and they also knew how to get further up on the scale, why wouldn't that be my top two priorities? I mean, aside I liked all these other measures. I'm
052just saying is that I I agree with the slide. I would just my takeaway is they're well paid and we should let them know it and and then if they wanted more and if they wanted more, they should know how to and how do I get more? Well, this is what you got to do. We'll let Jenna send that message out. Okay. Or maybe the court doesn't Well, I wouldn't say in that way, but you know, we're being recorded. I know people could be listening. I'm just saying is that everybody wants more pay and we all know that there's not a single person out there who doesn't want more pay and and every single company out there has to come to a r realization that it's just not always there right well and so you
053have to come up with a message that says hey these are the ways you get more pay and you focus on the the broadband system of those things that add to it. So I will say that we are in a rebuilding period with respect to communications around the pay plan as it is right now. And part of that is due to rebuilding a lot of established processes and procedures that were disregarded or extremely lightened during CO where performance was uh performance evaluation and management of the performance evaluation system was not the highest priority. And there were times where it was like just thank everyone for showing up at work and give them and so and so the like the the the adherence to the expected process for the educator effectiveness model in terms of really
054living out the intention of that performance evaluation model. was relaxed and and we are have been working particularly this year with all of our building principles and our central office team and CISA 6 to really increase the level of expertise in in administering that system and working with teachers to make sure that they understand how that integrates with your pay advancement. And the same thing for what's called the leveling up process. We redid we had a a homegrown uh data tool that we were using to track leveling up applications and things like that which were kind of monitored from a performance standpoint during the last few years but we have reworked all of that this year and I mean I've been working with Jason Bull on that to make sure that we are completely aligned
055between what the educator effectiveness side of the house says about where people are at and what the payroll and eligibility for pay advancement is on on the business side of the house. So I mean there are efforts that are being done to increase the communication and the understanding around a system that had been much more lightly administered I guess might be the best way to say that. And um I see Diana has a question so I'll stop. My question goes kind of based on what you were just talking about Margaret and piggybacking on David's comes back to process for me anyway. Um yes we need better communication. It sounds like our process is a bit murky. Whenever you whenever I do something you don't want to make a lot of changes until you figure out
056what's working and what's not working. And it sounds like in the murkiness, we know that we're paying competitively. So that's working. So I guess my thought is before we start making a bunch of other changes, it sounds like we need to get rid of some of the murkiness, tighten the ship up a little bit to determine what is or isn't working because we haven't really done that yet due to COVID, due to administration changes, due to restructuring, all those other parts and pieces. That's just my thought. Well, and I think that's an area that Jenna is um exploring once we provide some guidance on how we want to move forward. Did I lose Jenna? Nope. I'm here. Oh, okay. So I don't know, Jenna, do you want us want to speak to some of that?
057Because I think there was a desire to keep elements of our philosophy, but also a desire to develop something that was more easily understood. Yeah, it's it's a balance, right? And so, um, Diana, I think you make a good point of, um, are there are there changes that can be made that don't completely overhaul the entire system, but do create some of that clarification um or or clarity to to the process or the model. Um, and so to to Margaret's point, I think that is that's what we're working towards establishing as we pull um the model together uh formally. And so, um, there we do believe that there are things within the the current system that, um, likely can carry forward. Um, but we also think that there's opportunities for for clarification. And yes, um,
058just I think it's important to know that the overall um, average compensation was showing that it's competitive, but those are averages. And so with having some of those open ranges comes flexibility, which means that there's um possibilities of of variance. And so there might be some kind of corrections that need to come out of this process as well to make sure that we have uh people aligned um appropriately or as we intended. We also have to remember it's a double-edged sword in a sense. From what I'm seeing, our teachers with only a bachelor's degree are paid pretty competitively compared to many districts. Many districts you hit a brick wall if you don't have your master's degree to move forward. So, as we go to make changes, there's going to be some eb and flow. And
059we just have to make sure we're never going to please everybody in this. So, how do we make sure that we don't lose too many people in our change of process? What criteria do we use to measure performance? We use a educator effectiveness model through CISA 6. It's a ma a state approved evaluation system for uh that's done conducted on every teacher every three years. And then in addition to that to level up teachers need to make a separate application that shows like enhanced performance and enhanced participation in things like um presenting professional development being uh de demonstrating leadership in the building or at the district level uh showing you know innovative new practices that have been adopted by a building or things like that. So I mean there are two different components to measuring
060the performance but at a minimum the educator effectiveness model must be done and that's a mandated requirement for performance review. Have you like that? Um well I don't administer it. I'm I'm certified in administering it but our building principles have been responsible for doing the direct performance evaluation of the staff that they supervise. So um the it's very well it's a very detailed process and heavily documented and u we use a CIS 6 platform that um and comes with some consultants to help our building principles uh provide effective performance evaluation that is like evidence-based and and that includes things like the collection of artifacts. It includes things like conversations and informal and formal observations. Uh includes data collection and analysis of data based on what's happening in each individual teacher's classroom. So it's quite detailed.
061I mean, I would just say from an HR standpoint and certainly having some um experience outside the world of education, it's probably the most uh detailed performance evaluation measurement uh instrument I have ever seen. And um it it it requires some training and and we have been doing a lot of that. We've had CISA 6 in here, I want to say, three times so far this year, and we'll probably have them in more to do additional training on both how to conduct the performance evaluation, things like having difficult conversations, things like completing the forms and evaluating the data that's submitted and things like that. So, there's a lot of work being done on that this year. Um, but there is no question that is very much a detailed process. Very good. Any further questions? So,
062do you want to go into your the questions that were looking for guidance on, Jenna? Yeah. The last piece here um is one in like I mentioned at the the onset this kind of crosses over uh beyond just our our teacher conversation and and is something that we're seeing on the support staff side of things as well. So the question that we have kind of posed before the the group today is this idea of situations where individuals are at or above the maximum of a designated pay range and how we uh should be thinking about handling those individuals or those situations. There's three different scenarios or situations that or approaches I should say to this situation that we um see in practice and I want to just walk through those and then um look look
063for some feedback or reaction to this. Yes, Margaret. Yeah. So, I just want to make sure that everyone understands the the level at which what of at which we have people in these types of situations. So when we converted to the support staff salary schedule that we're currently using, we had I I will say approximately 60 out of 200 people that were over the maximum of their market range and so are above the maximum step and some by fairly significant amounts. And what we're finding as Jenna is exploring possible development of a new model is that we may very well run into that same challenge with the teachers. So that if we make changes to realign our resources in a way that fits the market or years of experience a little bit better and and
064and create clear definitions and progression expectations through pay ranges. um that it is likely we will have a number of people who are situated above what would become a new maximum of our pay range. Currently when we have a new a maximum an increase like the CPI increase what the practice has been in this district has been to increase the maximum and the ranges by that amount and so the it's for constantly moving up but as an expectation by the amount of CPI and and so whatever there is no hard maximum on our pay scale scales under the former system. And what we're looking at now is with the current system, we'll again be coming up on CPI and we'll need to have some clear direction on are how are we going to handle those
065people above at maximum or above in terms of their potential for pay pay growth or a growth in wages. So okay does that is that do feel free to edit that Jenna as much as you want. No I think that was that was my understanding as well as kind of the current state. So the idea is that when there are uh individuals above a pay range maximum there's uh three different approaches described. So the first one is what we call a hard red circle approach. The idea is that that individual's pay is essentially frozen, stays right where it is, and um there's no additional increases or compensation for those individuals until those pay ranges are moved forward so much so that their range or their pay falls back in line in that pay range once
066more. So, um, a hard red circle is is you stay right where you are until that that max has been aged forward, um, and you're back within it. A soft red circle, and this is the most common approach, is this idea that an individual's pay is frozen, but on an annual basis when there's conversations about uh adjustments or increases, oftentimes a lump sum payment is identified as a way to acknowledge or reward those individuals. So the idea is that it's a non-basebuilding one-time payment and you don't continue to grow that problem beyond the range maximum. Again, those individuals um in a soft red circle approach would fall back into the range eventually as that range is is pushed forward, but that the um annual pay increase opportunities are limited to those lumpsum one-time payments, not
067a base building element. The third option is is kind of what Margaret was alluding to before is that there's no limit. So, um you don't really utilize the maximums in this third option and wage growth can continue. This is uh probably the least common approach um and does beg the question from a paid philosophy perspective of why did we put a range maximum on um in the first place. So, um just some some kind of perspectives on how to consider approaching um the the situation or scenario of somebody being paid above an intended or targeted range max. And do you have thoughts on that? Well, obviously I'm not in favor of no limiting, but um I believe I was under a hard red circle and there were times when I thought, hey, that's an interesting
068job over there. if I had taken that job. I mean, you know, once you're once you're settled into the job, you know, you're there. And and I don't mean to, you know, limit pay for really good teachers, but if we're going to have to make cuts in the district, we've got to have limits somewhere. Mhm. And so I like the the what we're doing now based on your description, Margaret. I think it was better than the one I was under because then it was just accumulating credits, whatever credits you could get just you could move up on the pay scale whether it was a decent course or not. Right. But right now to be clear, we do not have on the teachers, we do not have a a maximum that we hold people to when
069we negotiate and administer CPI. We have been moving the minimum and the maximum upwards to by the amount of CPI. So like last year it was 3.75%. We increase we did not increase the teacher minimum but we did increase the maxima for level three and four. Well, isn't that referred to here in the individual rate of pay within the range again? You're you're saying something else other than that. So, what what we're we're saying is that we like if we take the support staff, we have support staff minimum and maximums and then we have a group of people that are above the maximum based on the market study that we did. So when CPI comes around and let's just say it's like two and a half% or whatever then anyone in the um schedule will
070be advanced by 2 and a half%. As they move through to the maximum of the range, right? But and then there's other potential for a step increase again to the maximum of the range. But these people that are at the maximum are over. The question is, do we take everybody that's at the maximum and continue to build a new maximum that's equal to the amount of CPI or do we hold that maximum based on CPI and those people that are over get a lump sum that's like let's say equal to the maximum of of uh the annual CPI at the maximum and then they get a lump sum but their base rate stays the same until this range grows enough to co to cover those red circle people. I will say that I mean I
071know that there is this feeling in the district that the soft red circle would be better than a hard red circle. There's not a lot of support for hard red circle from an administration standpoint and certainly when I was talking to Jared earlier because th that is a huge disincentive. Um but the the question is like what direction do we want to go in with these people over the map? I tell you that I I have I've taken over companies. I even taken over employees and then hired employees from other companies and then had to figure out how to get them adjusted. And when I encounter people in that area, um if the base is CPI, anybody who's outside my range gets half CPI. And that's just what it is. And eventually if they're there
072for five or 10 years and they're not so far out of the range, but while you know Dan and Mike are getting two and a half%, Margaret's getting one and a quarter. Yeah. And that allows the bottom to catch up by just doing a half CPI. And they know it. They're getting a raise. And it's not just a bump in a one lump sum. It's an actually increase in their base. It's just not as big of an increase in their base because they're already outside my my target. My market range is just half CPI. Yeah. Similar to the soft red circle, but it's Exactly. Yeah. It does increase their base, but it it allows everybody else to catch up in a similar way that the soft red circle. in which case I don't have an
073issue with either the soft red circle or obviously if we could uh manage it logistically the if everybody else got two and a half you get half that because you're outside the range but that's just another idea if it was practical. I don't have a preference but I agree. I don't think I'd like the first or the latter. Diana, do you have Yeah, I agree with what David just said. the first and the last are not appealing at all. Um, you have to make sure that you're you're giving some sort of increase to those teachers just to what amount that is. Which one I guess I would like to see if I guess I'm thinking about how do both of those impact us financially. the soft red circle where it is um a just a
074lump sum versus the half CPI like David suggested. Both acknowledge the teachers um in terms of getting a raise. Both kind of help the rest catch up. What does that look like from a financial or from a fiscal standpoint? The impact. So Sarah, are are you available to speak to that? Um, yes, I am. I I don't have it calculated out or anything obviously, but a lump sum payment is going to always be just a one-time payment. So, it isn't going to grow or get any bigger than that. It's just that year, it's that cost and then you move on to the next year. If we were to do the half CPI, that would help in controlling costs definitely, but that would still be a cost that would be adding onto itself and growing. So
075people's base would increase still and then that base would increase that much more the next year. So it does still grow at a faster pace. So it would have a bigger financial impact than the lump sum payment likely in the long run. Um but both of those would certainly help to fix the costs better than no limiting at all. So yeah, right that's exactly what I was thinking and especially as we're looking at referendum the question just becomes which is better for us at this point in time as a step forward maybe not the perfect step forward but at least it's a step in the right direction and and I would say Sarah I'll I'll agree with everything you said obviously year one if you're not too outlandishly above the maximum the half CPI is
076going to be definitely the less or dollar amount because everybody else is getting full CPI of the max lump sum and as opposed to half CPI of what their current base is which presumably is in greater you know significantly higher than the max. However, as you point out it compound it will compound but it will only compound at half the speed of everybody else and eventually the top end of the range will catch them. Once again, it might be a horse a piece and and it really depends on the three to 10 to 12 people who are in there and how much they're above it to say it, you know, how it's going to be the long-term impact. But, uh, I think everybody on the here is saying some variation of the soft red circle
077is at least palatable to the people in the room and the people who are receiving it. uh whether that's lump sum or half CPI or some other permutation I I I it really depends on where they are compared to the max of the scale or how close they are to metriculating to the next one because Sarah you may only have to worry about it for one year they're not compounding they get a half CPI this year they get three more credits and they level up to the next one and they come in at a different area which then allows them to get the full CPI the next year and not cap or take it as a lump sum. Um, so I'm not I can't tell you concretely that the half CPI is better, but I
078can see a couple of variations where it sounds like it would be if you were able to limit the compounding factor of it. Yeah, that's by by graduating to the next level. But I it all depends on the actual numbers in front of us. That's kind of where I was at too, Dave. Uh I I I like the I like the one-time payment myself because it does give control over that, right? Um yeah, you know exactly what it's going to be from here on out. Correct. One time. One time. And and then next year we can talk about it again, right? And if we still need to do that for enticement, we we have that ability. But it's, you know, also also performances, it can can be linked into that. So that that onetime payment,
079I think uh I I like that approach myself. It gives us flexibility uh but it still limits uh is what my thoughts are. But I think you're right. Everybody's kind of something around that soft red circle is yeah is what I'm hearing as well. Does that help Jenna? Yeah. I mean I think this is a really good direction as we um look to to continue to build this out and model uh for for the rest um for this committee's commit consideration. Absolutely. All right. Are there further questions or concerns? And do you need anything on this? No, I think we just needed some guidance in in terms of philosophically how you would see each of those particular options. they do have a big employee relations impact depending what your what the decision is and it's
080good and or bad and um so we just wanted to make sure we were moving along in alignment with the philosophy that you were hoping to see from us and that we weren't going one way or the other without um checking in and making sure we're all on the same page. So thanks. Well, thank you Jenna. We appreciate your help on that and thank you for your explanation as well. Uh we will move forward then to uh the calendar. Yep. So um consent agenda for next month is um not going to include administrator renewals because we did those already in December. That's typically when we do them, but based on some extenduating circumstances, we did those in December. But I'll still bring a consent agenda. Um, typically we also do negotiations planning and uh for
081uh and and what process we're going to use to develop a proposal for CPI negotiations. I don't know that we will be in a spot to do that. It's the first year of a state bianial budget. Sarah Duncan, do you want to maybe weigh in on whether the timing is a little bit early on planning? I mean, we can certainly plan around process and things like that, but from a a like when do we strategically want to think about holding negotiations? I think we might not be in a position to to make those types of decisions in February. Sarah, any comments from you? Sure. Um I would agree with you Margaret. I think that it would be uh good to move ahead with the process maybe you know process planning I should say but we
082have two big things. We have the referendum in April and then the state bianial budget which hopefully will be done in the summer. But those are two big question marks on um what would we be providing as far as wage increases for next year. So, we um have talked about our plans for reducing costs for next school year, no matter if the referendum passes or fails, but we really haven't had conversations yet on what would be the plan for 2627 if the referendum were not to pass. So, um I think that trying to hold off a little bit on negotiations would be wise this year just to kind of see how we are financially if that referendum passes and then what the state is going to provide if anything for schools. Thank you, Sarah. And
083then Employee Wellness Committee will give a little update on the work that they've been doing the last few months. um which yay to them. It's a grassroot com committee and they are they are really owning it. So um and then we'll go over the proposed employee satisfaction survey timeline in February. Just question on the previous the negotiation. So everything Sarah and you just said combined. So we're not planning in February. Does that mean we're also not scheduling it in March and then we're just pushing off? Well, we won't know. I know. Exactly. Yeah. And so, but there's two parties to this negotiation. Do they does the other side the table? There's a little back and forth that is usually done in terms of Yeah, we did I don't remember last summer. I don't Sometimes we've
084like not scheduled in until October or November because we don't know when the state budget comes. But I mean, I haven't received any requests for negotiations. I don't anybody know that we might be pushing this off a couple months? No. No. It's kind It's kind of understood because from like from their perspective too, they want to know. Yeah. They want to know. Yeah. What like where the funding is coming from because that will influence their strategy for negotiations as well. So, it's and another another wild card is to what is happening with the Act 10. Um I did see today that several unions filed to try and get this to the state supreme court. So, um, they may potentially be waiting to see how that all shakes out as well. Yes, good point. Yep. So,
085um, that's all I have. Do you have anything else to feel? Uh, Diana, do you have anything else you want to attach to the agenda for tonight? Nope, I'm good. So I mean there is a possibility I will add something related to the conversation we had with Jenna if we move things through in a way that and Jared is gives some direction in terms of we got to take that to the HR committee. I mean that's always a possibility but I would let you all know that in advance. Well, with that being said, uh, looking at what I got for action items, uh, revolving around the consent agenda, you're going to get some some clarification on process. Um, other than that, I don't think there was really anything else unless that sentence hearing nothing. And
086just I guess one other comment is that right now Mike has agreed to act as the interim chair. Um, I expect that after the next board meeting, we'll appoint a I'll have discussion either with Mike to make it full-time or another board member to take on the full chairmanship position. So, thanks for pinch hitting Mike. Yes. And uh that may end up it's an interim chair position right now. So, appreciate it. Does that have to go to the full board? Isn't that something that just the president usually appoints? I just I just appoint them. I've just been lazy. No, no. I mean, does that need a full board discussion? Oh, it does not. The president appoints chairs. Perfect. All right. Well, with that uh being said, uh I think we're adjourned at 6:49.