001Right. Uh we do have a a hard stop by seven for sure because we have a meeting after this as well. So uh let's get right into it and uh looks like everybody's here that's on the committee. Uh so we won't do an official roll call, but everybody is here. Uh we'll jump right into consent agenda. Has everybody had a time to take a peek at that? Any questions, concerns, anything more from Margaret on um we do have another hire that will be adding for April 28th. We hired a media specialist which was a a replacement for a person who had retired this year. So sure, that was considered a hard to fill position. So, we went ahead and found a good experienced candidate and we're looking forward to her joining us in August. Uh,
002we did recently extend an offer to the assistant principal position. I anticipate that that may also be on the April 28th um board consent agenda. And just as a reminder, we asterisk those people that are added in between today's meeting and the board meeting so that you know which ones were re the most recent additions. All right, Diana. So, I have a question um with Can we We can't really say names. Can we or can we? It's about there's a leave of absence position that's in there and it's for a chunk of time and then another chunk of time with a summer in the middle. So in a leave of absence don't we typically suspend the um benefits etc etc. Yes. So in this particular situation, benefits will be yes through the summer but not
003effective at the end of the month in which the the beginning the leave begins. So if somebody takes a leave beginning the end of the month and it's not an FMLA qualified leave, then whatever benefits they're carrying end at the last day of the month under when the leave becomes effective and then they go into unpaid leave status. In this case, there are two different types of leave. One is for the um leave of absence for the rest of this year and then there's a second leave request that is for a full year um from 20 the start August of 25 till the end of 26. So that explains because it's two separate leaves but they're in one line. So the rest of this year is one leave. Correct. And then that's why the summer
004is there and then next year. Okay, that explains it because I was wondering why the summer was there, but that that clarifies it. Thank you. Great. Uh, I think I hear correctly. Um, an offer was made to build the interimm um assistant principal position. Assistant the associate principal. Associate principal. Yeah. At the high school. Yes. Okay. Fair. Any further questions? If not, that will move forward uh as a consent agenda for the full board to look at. Uh summer school consent agenda. This is just a continuation of the recruitment for the summer school program that we run every year. And this is just a list of the people that have been added since the last uh uh consent agenda that we um presented to you. We anticipate that most of our positions will be filled.
005Uh, I think as you know, anyone that has done this more than once knows that we continue to have summer school hires will trickle in throughout the rest of the summer based on u people coming and going, which happens a little bit more frequently than it did in past years. And then also if there are any new um needs that are developed during the course of summer school like if we have uh special needs for someone and we don't have sufficient pair of professional support or we need to bring in some other type of support staff hires then we do that on an as we go basis and and these are all these all sunset at the end of uh summer school. there's no continuing employment that's associated with with these particular appointments, but I
006think overall we're in pretty good shape uh for summer school hiring for the children. Any questions on summer school? I have one. When you say Margaret, we're pretty good shape. Would you can you put a percentage to that? Are we like 60% 50% ballparkish? like 80 90 80 90 wonderful confident but yeah I think 90 plus% but I just remember last month it was a lot of the high you know a lot of the bigger stuff this is more elementary so the bulk of it is done perfect thank you that was my understanding any further question seeing none that will also move forward to the full for uh the draft resolution. Um, I don't know if anybody um wants to speak on that or if you just want me to take over on that, but
007So, this is a continuation from last month's discussion when we were talking about the various pieces of information that are included in the personnel section of the um consent agenda. And and at the end of our discussion, uh there was an action item that had been identified to modify the consent agenda to include the certifi only the certified staff and administrator hires that um are are made, which is the statutory requirement for information that's provided through a consent agenda to the board. And so this is just the draft language um to fulfill that action item that was assigned to me. Good explanation. Thank you. Any any questions on that? Seeing none, that will move as well. All right. Now, I'm going to turn to you again, Margaret, and would you like to talk about collective
008bargaining? Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the time to mention this. So, we h do have a request from the Watertown ULE, which is the collective bargaining unit for our certified staff and they have made a request to um begin negotiations for this year. They their initial request had been uh to almost begin immediately and and we did not have you know we have not yet met as uh as this committee or as a full board to go through the process that we normally go through for uh to develop the collective bargaining proposal or proposals that we are interested in in presenting to the water ule. So, I just wanted to let you know that that process has started because once we get the request to bargain, we do have to follow up and give some
009type of response. We will be talking more about like potential proposals and things like that in close session, but um that that process has now commenced more or less with the first request. And as some of you know, this can go on back and forth for quite a while as we work through proposal development and as well as um what types of schedules we can work up with the collective bargaining unit to establish negotiation sessions. So more to follow, but it's now you know before it was something that was going to happen. Now we are in process. Any questions on that? That was a That was informative. Thank you. Uh, next I'll be looking for a motion to go into closed. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. And then we'll do
010a voice vote. Close. So, why don't we start with uh I'll run down the list as it's in order here. Charity. Yeah. Diana. Yep. And Dan. Yes. All right, we are in close session. All right. So, we are in close session. Uh, we're going to start talking. Oh, wait a minute. Uh, online we have Do we know who that is online? Let me just see who I have here. Um, hire family, I will need to put you in uh move you out into the waiting room. Jason Bull and uh 6083773400. Could you please identify you? Are you a member of the board? Okay. I will move you also to the waiting room. Okay. So we have uh Margaret Brady me and Jason B online. Jason, can you hear us? Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very
011much. Thank you, Craig. Good. All right. Now, we're in close session. Okay. All the Yes, I think we have I think you are still recording. Yeah. Pardon me. I think you are still recording. We pause the screen share, but I don't think we close the recording if we're intending to stop the recording. You're right. We will just going very slow with my cursor. Yes. So, so I think we are Yep. Back and open. All right. Being back and open, we are going to be looking at the 2526 certified staff contract renewals. So, this is um the schoolboard resolution that will as forwarded to the board usually in April so that we can issue contracts um for the certified staff. This is more or less a companion resolution to the staffing plan resolution. So what you
012saw in this the staffing plan the um these contracts reflect what the staffing plan has set up for next year. And then so I guess the best way to think about it is it's a companion. It's the people people part to the position part. Gotcha. Any questions on this? Seeing none, and we'll move forward as well. Uh take a couple minutes. We can talk about future uh meeting planning. So, we'll be coming up to the May. And uh so far, we got consent agenda, support staff notices, uh summer school staff. Those are going to be kind of standing things I think for a little bit. Uh employee wellness committee update and the planning for health and dental insurance uh for 2026. Is there anything else in May? I mean we've got some contract talks to
013maybe start discussing or um we we may need to talk about negotiations and scheduling that depending on what we come out of the board meeting on proposals. Um, so maybe a special meeting for that or Yeah. Um, and then, uh, just a reminder that health and dental insurance in our district renews on a January 1 basis. And so I'll be asking Al Jerger and Heather from our brokers from USI insurance brokers to zoom in or attend in person and they'll give an update on our plan performance which will then help I mean the plan performance helps decide what our renewal rates will be for for 2026 and that's something that we will want to start planning for and be aware of. Um, we we do have a certain amount uh budgeted and anticipated in anticipation
014of increases in health insurance because the market seems to be pointing in that direction for most of our uh surrounding area, but we are not yet quite sure what or how much that increase will be. We'll have a better idea um once we get our latest update. We're meeting with the brokers later this month and then we'll get an update and bring them in to all of you in May. Um, anything else you guys think should be done? Um, is it possible to maybe have a survey of paras and find out how we could get them more hours if that's what they're seeking? Stuff like that that we can maybe work out. even maybe sharing paras with another district so they get a full 40 or something like that. I'm looking at you. I mean
015it'll take a minute. I don't think it'd be accomplished in one month, but so I mean the district currently since I believe 2012 has been hiring pair of professionals intentionally at a rate of no more than 28.75 hours per week in order to [Music] um to uh not reach the threshold where we're required to provide health and dental insurance, right? I would imagine other districts are doing the same. Could we share with nearby districts, share a pair and then get a full 40? I mean, is that we can we can always look into those ideas. Yeah. I'd have to I'd have to think about how that would that would work uh to cover total costs, right? um because you're going to have 100% of the salary shared, right? But then you're also going to have
016100% of the benefits shared as well. And if they're already paying 100% of the salary and we're already paying 100% of the salary, um we would be sharing increased costs. Yes, they would be less than doing it all our own, but it would still be increased costs. Well, I'm just talking about hours. I'm not talking about benefits. you but I talked to parent recently and that's why yeah but if they if they incur those hours right and we're the hiring agent we would be um responsible for the benefits so I would have to then contract and charge the school district that they're going to an equable share of that okay so so you don't get out of the benefits just because they're going somewhere else somebody has to be the hiring agent and that would
017put them into full-time status which would give benefits okay were they specifically looking for benefits as part of they they they wanted more hours because then then it could just be sharing available positions with other districts nearby just for awareness if there's like job boards and postings and things like that if they're not looking to have a co-op position essentially. The the the the difficulty around it is they need paras for the same time we need paras. It'd be different if they were uh you know running a second or third shift and we could say but but you know they're going to essentially hire at the same hours of the day or want to have those premium hours, right? So that's why I was hesitant when I was thinking about how how would that work
018and thinking through that in my mind like I would still want them for the premium times uh that we want Paris for. I don't know if a district would want the less premium time for the same cost, right? And so I I good question, right? And and we'll think about around that more. Um or it just has to be this board saying, "No, we want a philosophy change. We're going to start um hiring fewer pairs, but we're going to, you know, give them as many hours as we can, and we're gonna um pay them benefits." Is there a conflict of interest clause in employment? Like can a work in another district without causing a conflict? I'm asking. Do you know like some employees, you know, like I couldn't work at AT&T and then go work
019at US Cellular? Yeah. So, so they could, right? They could have other jobs. Um, it's just that when we hire somebody and in their letter of intent, we ask that they hold this as their their main job, right? And anything else uh shouldn't come into conflict with this. And if it does, that may be a rationale for us to say, you know, thank you, but no, thank you. So, yeah, you're right. They But they can. Good question. And Dan, great idea. I appreciate the out of the box thinking. Great. I have two questions about the calendar. Um, this this year we looked at uh a staffing plan in March. Would it be advantageous to look at that staff plan in February? Yep, we did. We started it in February. It's just there was there's questions
020and and because of the amount of uh cuts we were looking to make, right, it led us into a little bit more. Uh but we did start early in February. Okay. And then the other the other thing that I would encourage a committee to consider is putting on the calendar in either November or December um district uh administrator well administrative non-renewal renewal discussion. Those happen in December. December by statute they, you know, your your deadline is is we we give you two months. Yeah. Heads up and warning, but we'll continue to leave it on there. I don't see it on here. That's Yeah, it's not on there. It's not on here, but good point. Good point. Yeah, if we could add that because because you're right. Uh and and we I remember doing that this
021year in December as well. Uh we need to get it done. So, good point. I don't see it on there. Can I throw an out of the box thing on since we're talking calendar, please? The first week in May is typically teacher appreciation week. Is that still going to be My reason for asking is it would be nice if we as a board would send a thank you to the teachers and I always think about it and it's too late to get something from the board out. Is that something that would stem from this committee? You know, I thought about it from the planning committee, but we're often times so I'm like, "Oh, thought of it." Now, I don't know if it gives us enough turnaround time, but as we think about the staff perception,
022certainly employee survey, um, one of the things is that board and staff relationship and they do work very very hard. So, it would be nice just if it was something from us. I don't know what you all think, but I'm just like a card or a thank you, an email, a a something that just says, "Hey, we appreciate from the board's perspective. We appreciate you and all that you do." I mean, in the district where I worked before, the board provided cookies or muffins to each of the buildings as here's a just a token thank you, whatever. So putting that on the calendar as a discussion but putting that as maybe not for today obviously it wasn't in there but in the calendar for next year we're already the deadline. Yep. So could we add
023that to the March meeting just because that would be the preliminary like the idea generation meeting and then in April you can finalize this is our plan so that if there's support or whatever we can roll it out that first week of just so that there's something I'll put it on for March. I forget every year to put it on the calendar. So, thank you. I got a question from Margaret. Yes, sir. You mentioned that uh with the health insurance you deal through a broker. Yes, we do. Who Who is the broker? USI. It's called USI insurance. I'm aware of them. Okay. So, you do not let it out for bids. You do it strictly through the broker. Well, the the broker provides um benefits, guidance, and counseling as to whether to go out for
024bids. Like when last we just finished a a a series of years where we had rate caps in in effect and the rate caps lifted this year and um we met with the broker then and had talked with the broker, the committee had talked with the broker about it. Is it smarter to go out to RFP for bids or should we are are we better positioned to negotiate with our existing provider to to keep our rates low lower or lowest as we could. And as it turned out at based on um our the way our plan was projected to be used as well as their guidance, the committee had decided that they had set a goal for the broker. I think it was 7% that they had recommended and then the broker came back um
025after negotiating on our behalf with ports benefit which is our current health insurance plan and they they held to this the 7% increase. We made a little bit of plan changes and our premiums went up uh a a bit and then we made those adjustments in order to to contain the cost. So, um we do rely on them for market data and they provide a pretty thorough um report and um uh data about not only our plan but also like what the market looks like and and who the biders might be on a plan like ours that so we do do quite a bit of planning before we just like say okay understand. Okay. Additionally, uh, does our attorneys do they advise us also in reference to that? Uh, I'm not sure in what way.
026Well, the legal all the legal implications that we run into. So, so some of the I mean some of the legalities of health insurance plan administration are included as part of the delivered service from USI and they have a a a benefits consultant team that works with us and so they review our documentation, our enrollment, our eligibility standards. Um and then if we had questions about like do we have to enroll or disenroll a person they would provide the guidance um and some legal guidance up to a certain point and I mean there's a certain point where they will say you know that decision is best covered by your district representation and because it goes beyond the scope of legal legal services that USI would provide. So, it kind of depends on the Yeah. Um,
027back to calendar. Uh, anything else on the calendar? All right. Uh, we got the calendar and I'll be looking for action items. Uh, any new action items that came out of this? Margaret, you got uh So, any list? The action items I'm coming out with is to move forward with the staffing plan resolution for next week's board meeting. Um provide um board members with the uh job descriptions for the WHS administrative team as well as a breakout of additional or more specific duties of each of the roles up at the high school inclusive of the dean in pardon me inclusive of the dean. including the dean or the a no inclusive of the dean. You said the administrative positions but I think uh the intent was also to capture the dean um modify the teacher
028or the uh calendar to include admin contact teacher appreciation. Oh, did I miss that? Um, no. I was just thinking that with the with the questions around um that that Carl was asking around health insurance and brokering, maybe we want to have that as a future topic, but I didn't I didn't mention it. I was just thinking it. Yeah. And I would imagine that would come up some of those questions too next month uh when we talk when we talk about um did we miss anything? That was everything I remembered. All right. Looks like it was captured very well. Thank you, Margaret. So, you're welcome. I do have one question on um like I know we had talked last month about updating the action items completed. Is is that do you want me to report
029that out in the agenda for the this month? Like do you or do you want me to include it like in the summary? I was just trying to figure out where you were expecting to find that update. So I assumed here but the summary uh Diane if I remember right you kind of were talking about that is yeah I had thought just once we started that okay where is it going to be the easiest for people to look and find. So my initial thought was board docs y because as people look in board docs you've got a current action items and you've got the previous ones but if someone's got a better suggestion but for highlighted I mean just to be able to have a discussion around do you want it in meeting here or
030in the summary at the full board meeting I don't think anyone ever needs to it's just you know for going back for reference how many times do you go back and you look and hey was this taken care of and just a quick and easy place to find it. So I have an idea of including it in the summary which I'll we can maybe test drive next like when I do this month's summary I'll include like the past and the and the future action items so you can see like an update of those action items that were done and checked off and then also the ones that are added here for and then just kind of see if we can get a pattern or rolling. I think that's a great start to it. Yeah. Okay.
031Okay. And then we'll just look and maybe the meeting at the chairs or whatever. We, you know, we've just got to look for some sort of consistency from committee to committee, right? Just so that you know, and find out what's because right now we're we're trying a lot of different things to find something that works. Yeah. Absolutely right. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh, all right. Looking for a motion. So moved. All right. Second. There's a motion and seconded. All in favor? We are closed. Completed whatever. Ajourned. That that that word too. Um perfect. Thanks everybody.