HUMAN RESOURCES / Spring 2014
INDISPENSABLE TOOL for SCHOOL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Shifting Gears Navigating the Changes in
Human Resources Health Care Reform
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INSIDE
Illinois Association of School Business Officials Update Magazine / Spring 2014 / v.21 / i.03
HUMAN RESOURCES ISSUE
Shifting Gears 24
THE NEXT ISSUE: OPERATIONS Focusing on student centered services.
Shifting Gears: The Next Level of Health Care Reform Health Care Reform will continue to be complex and in a dynamic state of change. Understand the pitfalls and traps that come with the Free Rider Penalty to allow a smoother transition. Cover Story by Susan Relland
Point of View: A New Teacher Compensation Paradigm In the face or tremendous financial difficulty, Skokie School District 69 negotiated a salary schedule that secured a viable financial future for the district. By Quintin D. Shepherd and Eric M. Miller
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PERSPECTIVE
FROM-THE-PODIUM Human Resources: How Balanced is Your Rate of Change? 07 FROM-THE-OFFICE Two Key Issues on the HR and Business Agenda. 09
ARTICLES
Facing the Aftershock As many districts face their third season of reduction-in-force decisions under Education Reform, we have better insight on the impact for both HR and school business offices. By Therese L. Hodges
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FROM-THE-FIELD An Opportunity to Network and Build Relationships. 11 FROM-THE-DISTRICT On the Right Track: Aligning business and HR through position control software. 14 PATH-TO-SUCCESS Why isn’t everyone more like me? Discover a simple yet eyeopening truth. 18 SCHOOL BUSINESS 101 HR issues keeping members up at night: PERA, payroll, insurance exchanges and more. 19
In Search of a Superintendent Attracting and retaining a superintendent who is a match for the district and community is a large undertaking. External factors such as pension reform may affect the process. By Thomas Leahy
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C NNECTING FMLA and Worker’s Compensation
The intersection of these two laws can be tricky to navigate. While both serve to protect employee and employer, they differ widely. By Tamara L. Mitchell 4 |
UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014
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RESOURCES
ON MY LIST
Balancing a Diverse Equation Recruiting teachers to match student demographics is a challenge that will require alternative methods and creative solutions. By David H. Hill and Bradley L. Shortridge
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A culture of gratitude sets the tone of each staff member’s work experience.
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THE FINAL WORD Great Ideas from Great Illinois ASBO Members Beth A. Reich Business Manager Grant CHSD 124 Beth believes that since districts are in the business of educating students, they are only as successful as the staff they employ. Once the best person is hired, HR maintains the success of the district by providing continual, timely and applicable professional growth to further their development.
Navigate the Shifts in HR: Teacher recruitment, SB7, pensions, healthcare reform and more.
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THE
MAGA ZINE
UPCOMING SPRING
Illinois Association of School Business Officials
SEMINARS
Northern Illinois University, IA-103 108 Carroll Avenue DeKalb, IL 60115-2829 P: 815.753.1276 / F: 815.516.0184 / www.iasbo.org
Update Editorial Advisory Board
Check out www.iasbo.org and click on Events for the latest Calendar of Events included in the UPDATE mailing for full seminar listings including location and PDC sponsorship and register for professional development today.
PDC COORDINATOR MEMBERS Richard A. Lesniak, Ancillary Services Kristopher P. Monn, Educational Enterprise Grant L. Sabo, Facility Management Cathy L. Johnson, Financial Resource Management Kevin Dale, Information Management Robert J. Ciserella, Information Management
March 2014
S 23 2 9 16 23 30
M 24 3 10 17 24 31
T 25 4 11 18 25 1
W 26 5 12 19 26 2
T 27 6 13 20 27 3
F S 28 1 7 8 14 15 21 22 28 29 4 5
April 2014
S 30 6 13 20 27 4
May 2014
M T W T F S 31 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 28 29 30 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10
S 27 4 11 18 25 1
M 28 5 12 19 26 2
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W T F S 30 1 2 3 7 8 9 10 14 15 16 17 21 22 23 24 28 29 30 31 4 5 6 7
June 2014
Paul A. O'Malley, Sustainability
S M T 1 2 3 8 9 10 15 16 17 22 23 24 29 30 1 6 7 8
W 4 11 18 25 2 9
T 5 12 19 26 3 10
F 6 13 20 27 4 11
S 7 14 21 28 5 12
Amy McPartlin, Materials & Services Management
BOARD & EXTERNAL RELATIONS MEMBERS Nelson Gray, President-Elect Kurt J. Hintz, SAAC Chair
AT-LARGE MEMBERS Sandra Kwasa, Illinois Association of School Boards
Location
Phyllis A. Hanna, Glen Ellyn SD 41
ISDLAF+ School Finance Seminar
Naperville
Susan L. Harkin, Comm. Unit Sch. Dist. 300
8:00 am
Best Practices in Purchasing - AAC #1443
Naperville
3/12/14
8:30 am
ISDLAF+ School Finance Seminar
East Peoria
3/13/14
8:30 am
ISDLAF+ School Finance Seminar
O'Fallon
3/14/14
8:00 am
Consumerism & Healthcare
Naperville
3/14/14
8:00 am
16th Annual Risk Management Seminar - AAC #1283
Naperville
3/17/14
8:00 am
The Value of Lasting Leadership - AAC #806
Naperville
3/18/14
8:00 am
Legal Standards for the Management of School Personnel - AAC #820
Naperville
4/7/14
8:00 am
CPMM Facilities Certification Training & Exam
Algonquin
4/8/14
7:30 am
Building Systems: HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing & Technology
Naperville
4/14/14
8:00 am
Developing the Leaders Around You - AAC #1163
Bourbonnais
4/16/14
8:00 am
Developing the Leaders Around You - AAC #1163
Collinsville
David Bein, Jennifer J. Hermes, Glayn C. Worrell
4/22/14
8:00 am
The Value of Lasting Leadership - AAC #806
Mt. Vernon
David H. Hill, Luann T. Kolstad, Ann C. Williams
4/24/14
8:00 am
Learning to Lead by Applying the Five Levels of Leadership - AAC #1360
4/29/14
8:00 am
2014 Legacy Project at Clearbrook
4/29/14
8:00 am
Leadership Requirements for Moving from Good to Great - AAC #481
4/29/14
11:00 am 2014 Illinois ASBO Foundation Golf Outing
Schaumburg / Elgin
4/30/14
8:00 am
63rd Annual Conference & Exhibitions
Schaumburg
6/2/14
8:00 am
Learning to Lead by Applying the Five Levels of Leadership - AAC #1360
Carbondale
6/9/14
8:00 am
Developing the Leaders Around You - AAC #1163
Naperville
6/13/14
8:00 am
The 360 Degree Leader: Creating a Positive Leadership Culture - AAC #1164
Collinsville
8:00 am
Leadership Requirements for Moving from Good to Great - AAC #481
Mt. Vernon
Date
Time
3/11/14
8:30 am
3/11/14
6/18/14
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Session
UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014
Peoria Arlington Heights Schaumburg
John A. Gibson, Homewood SD 153 Eric Miller, Skokie SD 69
STAFF MEMBERS Michael Jacoby, Executive Director
815.753.9366, mjacoby@iasbo.org Susan P. Bertrand, Assistant Executive Director 815.753.9368, sbertrand@iasbo.org Angie Byers, Communications Coordinator 815.753.9371, abyers@iasbo.org Rebekah L. Weidner, Staff Writer/Editor 815.753.9270, rweidner@iasbo.org Brett M. Olson, Designer 815.753.7654, bolson@iasbo.org Tammy A. Curry, Designer 815.753.9393, tcurry@iasbo.org
Illinois ASBO Board of Directors Hillarie J. Siena, President
Nelson W. Gray, President-Elect Susan L. Harkin, Treasurer
Mark E. Staehlin, Immediate Past President 2011–14 Board of Directors
2012–15 Board of Directors
2013–16 Board of Directors
Dean L. Gerdes, Cathy L. Johnson, Lyndl A. Schuster
Illinois ASBO Board Liaisons
Kurt Hintz, Service Associate
Advisory Committee Chair Michael A. McTaggart, Service Associate Advisory Committee Vice Chair Terrie S. Simmons, ASBO International Liaison Debby I. Vespa, ISBE Board Liaison Laurel DiPrima, IASB Board Liaison
Privacy Policy
All materials contained within this publication are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed or published without the prior written permission of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. References, authorship or information provided by parties other than that which is owned by the Illinois Association of School Business Officials are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.
PERSPECTIVE / Board President
FROM–THE–PODIUM Human Resources: How Balanced is Your Rate of Change? The most important asset to any service-oriented organization is its people. For schools, the successful delivery of educational services is dependent upon a qualified team of dedicated individuals to carry out the district’s mission and achieve successful student outcomes. Unlike the infamous “widget," upon which successful business outcomes may be measured by the number of units produced, student achievement cannot be quantified, as evidenced through the use of ever-changing, standardized benchmarks that fail to adequately measure increased student capacity and growth. As budgets tighten, schools are expected to maintain a mandated level of output without impacting the quality of its outcomes. This unique factor serves to overburden the district’s existing staff and has a long-term, negative impact upon the human resources of the organization as a whole.
Hillarie J. Siena ASST. SUPT./BUSINESS AFFAIRS GLENBROOK HSD 225
SIMPLY SAYING
Achieving a healthy balance requires a greater degree of human input and collaboration than ever before. In addition to economic pressures, schools face changing dynamics within the workforce and within the student populations they serve. Demand for multi-lingual and other specialized student services has increased, as well as regulatory exigencies regarding compliance with emerging mandates such as employee health care and performance evaluation. The school business official is faced with an unprecedented challenge to not only balance the district budget, but to balance the district’s internal rate of organizational change with external forces. If the rate of change outside of the organization is faster than the internal rate of change, the long-term health of the organization will suffer.1 Achieving a healthy balance requires a greater degree of human input and collaboration than ever before. The mammoth challenges schools face, both now and in the future, can only be weathered through the efficient and effective use of human resources. Positive change is possible, with strong lines of communication being the key element to success.
Nowhere is this more important than within the collective bargaining process. The process of collective bargaining can no longer be reserved for the sole purpose of renegotiating expiring agreements. The focus of active negotiations must shift from a functional to an operational perspective, with a broader scope of employee engagement as the basis for collaborative decision-making. Through active participation, this process will formulate an internal network of organizational leaders, who will effectively serve as catalysts of change. It is through the utilization of their greatest asset that schools can continue to keep pace and thrive.
FOOTNOTE: 1. http://www.chro-exchange.com
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ILLINOIS ASBO VALUE OF THE PROFESSION
The Illinois ASBO Value of the Profession Series is an indispensable tool for hiring and training business office personnel.
RESOURCES INCLUDE:
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION GUIDE Get step-by-step guidance to bring a school business official into your district.
ROADMAP TO SUCCESS
Find a path of professional development at any stage of a school business management career.
EVALUATION GUIDE
NEW!
A tool to help effectively evaluate and get the most from school business officials!
FIND THESE RESOURCES AND MORE: Visit www.iasbo.org > Resources > Career Resources 8 |
UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014
PERSPECTIVE / Executive Director
FROM–THE–OFFICE Two Key Issues on the HR and Business Agenda Spring is in the air! That means collective bargaining and personnel planning for FY 2015 are well underway. As I looked over the articles in this issue of UPDATE, it occurred to me that the depth and breadth of the human resource agenda for this year is larger than ever before. Of course, our authors have developed some insights and information that address the key issues. It is obvious that two primary issues will occupy the time and energy of business and human Michael A. Jacoby EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR resource professionals this spring – collective bargaining and the impact of complying with ILLINOIS ASBO the Affordable Care Act. Of course these are deeply linked. When you boil it down, the money expended on these two issues will approach nearly 80% of district resources next year, which makes them very important to the proverbial “bottom line.”
SIMPLY SAYING
The money expended on these two issues will approach nearly 80% of district resources next year, which makes them very important to the proverbial “bottom line.” In regards to collective bargaining, I am already hearing much about the need to finalize a contract by the pension reform deadline of June 1, 2014 in order to have it grandfathered. For some, this seems like the last stand related to growth of pensionable salaries. It is yet to be seen whether this seems to give management an advantage. However, I would caution that pension lawsuits have an excellent chance of overturning the current deadlines. Be careful about engaging the “hurry-up offense” as you bargain this spring. The Affordable Care Act has the potential to change the whole dialogue about employee benefits. While some believe it will secure health insurance coverage for many who are uncovered, I don’t think anyone can predict the
substantial operational and financial impact this will have on covered employees or their employers. From decisions regarding full and part time employees to penalties for Cadillac plans, businesses will change the way they do business and school districts will need to change as well. With benefits firmly seated in collective bargaining agreements, I predict there will eventually be a battleground over this issue like we have never seen before. All this is to say – dig deep into this issue of UPDATE! You will likely find that this one stays on your shelf for a long time, as these issues are not going away.
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SERVICE ASSOCIATE ASSOCIATE PARTICIPATION PARTICIPATION REWARDS REWARDS PROGRAM PROGRAM SERVICE
GET INVOLVED. GET REWARDED. The more you participate in Illinois ASBO, the more you gain from the relationships you shape with school business officials and fellow vendors. Your involvement is also earning your GAINS points – redeemable for valuable rewards at the Annual Conference in 2015.
See where you stand and all you have to GAIN!
Vist www.iasbo.org > Membership > Vendors (Service Associates)
PERSPECTIVE / SAAC Chair
FROM–THE–FIELD An Opportunity to Network and Build Relationships It’s Annual Conference time again! Another opportunity to network and relationship build with Illinois ASBO members. Networking does not have to be specific to customers; it is also important to network with your fellow Service Associates. Getting to know others that work in the Illinois ASBO market can help increase your personal network tenfold through sharing relationships and making warm introductions. Kurt J. Hintz There are many hospitality options available at the Conference for networking: • The Foundation Golf Outing kicks off the Conference on Tuesday afternoon followed by a gathering spot that evening for everyone to meet up. • The Wednesday night exhibits and silent auction is a great opportunity to mingle with potential customers and Service Associates in a more laid-back environment.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER PERFORMANCE SERVICES, INC.
• Later that evening, Casino night is the place to be as everyone re-gathers for late night entertainment. • Thursday night in the Renaissance Gather Bar is the final opportunity to network with fellow members and Service Associates before the conference raps up on Friday.
SIMPLY SAYING
Networking does not have to be specific to customers; it is also important to network with your fellow Service Associates. Networking with fellow members can also happen outside of organized hospitality time. Both Wednesday and Thursday night include free time to take clients out to dinner. Be sure to take advantage of Thursday morning’s PDC meeting as a venue to share your expertise, followed by the Service Associate Annual Business Meeting before the exhibits open.
The theme for the 2014 is “Indispensable.” As a member of Illinois ASBO, I hope you see the Annual Conference as indispensable to your relationships within the industry. Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions of me or any of my fellow SAAC members in regards to networking at the Conference.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Sarah Beyne
David H. Hill, Ed.D.
Therese L. Hodges
CEO Digital Schools, LP
Asst. Supt./Business Services Comm. Cons. Sch. Dist. 93
Serves on the Illinois ASBO Leadership PDC and has served on the CASBO “action by design� strategic planning initiative. Sarah is a frequent speaker before industry groups and has authored a number of articles on topics of importance to the education sector. sarah@digital-schools.com
Earned his CSBO endorsement from NIU, Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change and Master of Arts in Secondary Education from Roosevelt University. Dave currently sits on the Board of Directors for Illinois ASBO.
Partner & Attorney Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn LLP
Thomas Leahy
Carrie L. Matlock, AIA, LEED AP
Eric M. Miller
Consultant, Executive Searches IL Association of School Boards (IASB)
Principal DLA Architects, Ltd.
Asst. Supt./Finance & Operations Skokie SD 69
Is completing his sixth year with IASB as a consultant with the Executive Search Department and finance trainer for school board members. Tom was named the AASA 2006 Illinois Superintendent of the Year and has 41 years of experience in education as a teacher, principal and superintendent. 12 | UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014 tfleahy@adams.net
Since 1994, has been practicing educational architecture including Life Safety and 21st Century Educational Planning for more than 40 Illinois districts. In 2007, Carrie became the first female Partner at DLA. An active member of Illinois ASBO since 2007, she is the first Service Associate to graduate from the Leadership Institute. c.matlock@dla-ltd.com
Has been in school business management for 10 years serving both urban and suburban districts. Eric is on the Illinois ASBO Budgeting and Financial Planning PDC, is an at large member of the UPDATE Magazine Editorial Advisory Board and is now in his fourth year with Skokie SD 69.
hilld@ccsd93.com
Concentrates her practice in school and public sector labor law. Her primary interests include board governance and policy, public employee personnel issues (including evaluation, supervision and dismissal), collective bargaining and contract implementation and student rights. thodges@hlerk.com
millere@skokie69.net
Tamara L. Mitchell
Susan Relland
Craig A. Schilling
Dir./Finance & Business Operations Bradley Elem. SD 61
School Benefits Specialist American Fidelity Assurance Co.
Associate Professor Concordia University Chicago
Began her career in the school business office as an accounts payable clerk. Has worked in elementary, secondary and unit district settings. Received her MS in School Business Management from Northern Illinois University.
Creates Health Care Reform educational resources for customers and monitors developments in the law. Previously, Susan was an employee benefits attorney and actively involved in the Health Care Reform legislative debate. She consults, writes and public speaks on health and welfare plan issues. Susan.Relland@af-group.com
Has spoken throughout the United States on school business management issues. He is also the coauthor of three books. Craig has served as President of Illinois ASBO and on the Board of Directors of ASBO International.
tmitchell@bradleyschools.com
craig@sbmpros.com
Would you like to be an UPDATE Contributor?
Quintin D. Shepherd
Bradley L. Shortridge
Superintendent Skokie SD 69
Asst. Supt./Finance & Op. Genoa-Kingston CUSD 424
Is the Field Superintendent for the American Association of School Administrators Ready by 21 initiative, president elect for the IL ASCD and an adjunct professor in the fields of law and organizational theory.
Earned his CSBO endorsement and Ed.S from NIU and a Master’s in Educational Administration from Michigan State. Brad has 14 years experience teaching and coaching and nine years in administrative roles including athletic director and assistant principal. bshortri@gkschools.org
shepherdq@skokie69.k12.il.us
Contributions to the UPDATE Magazine are solicited periodically to enhance the content of the Magazine. If you have an issue that you feel needs to be brought to the forefront, present your article ideas to Angie Byers at: abyers@iasbo.org. Keep in mind that issues are themed so your contribution may not appear for some time, or we may choose to distribute it in some other format. The issue themes that we will be soliciting articles for next year include: • School Finance • Non-Traditional Programs • Legal Issues • Technology We look forward to seeing new faces on this page as we continue to make the UPDATE an indispensable resource for school business management.
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ON THE RIGHT TRACK ALIGNING HR AND BUSINESS THROUGH POSITION CONTROL SOFTWARE
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UPDATE Magazine Magazine // Spring Spring2014 2014 UPDATE
FROM–THE–DISTRICT
By Sarah Beyne
CEO DIGITAL SCHOOLS, LP
Craig A. Schilling
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
Personnel costs can represent up to 85 percent of a district’s operating budget. Human resource departments need to manage employees, while business departments need to manage costs. Both departments have a vested interest in accurately monitoring the number of positions as well as the activities associated with each position. Yet, in many districts, human resource and business departments reconcile personnel costs separately. This is because there is no shared data control system that meets the needs of both departments. To meet the needs of both the HR and business departments, position control software can add value to the budgeting process, allow educational leaders to better track and manage staff and provide more accurate reporting, among other benefits to your district. DEFINE POSITIONS WITHIN THE DISTRICT Position control can be defined as a “system,” generally software-driven, that precisely defines and authorizes every position within the school district. Position control software generally allows for the electronic workflow approval of each position, as well as specifies the costs associated with that position including statutory and district paid benefits. Position control systems also provide significant audit control over hiring since every employee is attached to a specific position. Without an authorized position, there is no authorization to hire.
In addition to authorizing and defining each position, comprehensive position control software gives districts the ability to track, monitor and manage positions. This would include the ability to create reports that show the number of authorized positions, their contractual obligations, full-time equivalency and vacancies. The best systems allow for the entry of position control data as it is known. For example, this would include the ability to enter an employee’s retirement date and create a vacancy two years in the future, which is a significant tool for multi-year planning and budgeting. It is important to remember that school district data is not static. The processes to regulate or monitor activities that drive the data must be dynamic.
The ability for district administrators to accurately monitor all authorized positions in a district is the ultimate value of position control software. www.iasbo.org
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MONITOR DYNAMIC DISTRICT DATA School business administrators are constantly challenged to provide accurate budgets and projections. The key to doing so is to have accurate personnel information – historical, current and future. In order to accurately budget and project personnel costs, it is essential for position control software to be date-driven. Date-driven simply means you can frame any question about the positions you have in terms of the past, present or future. To demonstrate the power of a date-driven position control system, think of fielding questions on the number of positions and the costs to your school district. Could you get that information in real time at a school board meeting, a negotiations session or while at a community meeting? Needs neither stop nor start with the district office. Position control is an essential tool for decentralized budgeting strategies. Position control allows principals, department chairs and teacher leaders to monitor and manage positions in the same manner as the district.
Even in smaller districts, position control can be used to streamline and more effectively align resources, workflow processes and authorizations. Position control software is really the first line of defense for inadequate or missing internal controls. Further emphasizing the need for position control is the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the need to monitor and manage eligibility in a date-driven environment. Being able to define every position is key to ensuring accurate compliance reports. Due to PPACA and other future government regulations, position control software will only become more important in the coming months and years. “When I’m working on the budget, I need to see in realtime positions and funding, including for vacancies. I also need assurance that authorization for extra duty work is given and allocated against budget projections. This level of position control brings the fiscal stability that a district must have and from my perspective enables me to effectively budget and manage expenses.” David Bein Assistant Superintendent of Business Services East Maine School District 63
INTEGRATE ALL KEY INFORMATION Meeting needs while adding value requires that position control be much more than the “base” definition. What your position control software should do for your district is to provide date-driven integration of all key personnelrelated actions by position. This enables accurate budgeting and reporting and it will lead to a strong return on your software investment.
To ensure sound business practices and electronic workflow processes, the software should also allow for: • Authorizations prior to ANY transactions • Accountability for the individual for any hiring, budget or timesheet activity • Checks and balances between personnel decisions and budgeted appropriations
Essential elements of position control software include: • “Non-FTE” employees (i.e. paid only on timesheets) • Substitutes • Extra duties and assignments: - Extra hours/overtime/comp time - Coaching and other stipends - Student activity supervision - After school/summer school programs and more
These processes need to be dynamic. Authorizers for a particular request are added and/or modified based on what rules are triggered by a particular request. Authorizers can approve, decline and modify a request (which may change the authorization workflow).
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Update 20132014 UPDATE Magazine/ Fall / Spring UPDATEMagazine
FROM–THE–DISTRICT / Position Control Software
REFLECT YOUR DISTRICT’S BUSINESS PRACTICES Position control software has limited value unless it can be configured to your business practices and processes. An “off the shelf” approach will not result in the position control value that most districts need. Position control software should provide administrators with the flexibility to establish or modify a district’s business rules and practices to preclude fraud as well as rein in waste and promote best practices. Implementing a position control software system is the ideal time for reviewing and modifying business practices and processes.
“The value of position control software is to automate and account for the personnel processes in a school district. In order for this to occur the school business leader must take into account the culture of the school district. Existing processes, particularly extra duties and contracts, probably have a long history and are ingrained in the culture. Position control is a tool that must take into account a district’s existing business practices. In the right hands, position control software can evoke lasting financial benefits and reflect best business practices.” Rich Lesniak Director of Business Services Lockport Township High School District 205
GARNER ADDITIONAL VALUE FOR YOUR DISTRICT Additional value when implementing software driven position control system should also be examined and can come in many forms. Examples might include the ability to link positions and substitutes to ensure the appropriate expenditure of funds, the ability to limit overtime hours by position or the ability to maintain a record of all personnel changes to a position. Further value may be obtained from the ability to efficiently create and/or eliminate new position (including freezing or closing open positions) and/or modify positions to a different full-time equivalency (FTE), funding source, work calendar, etc.
The value proposition for a district can be enormous – from monitoring eligibility for PPACA, to budgeting accurately and to appropriately allocating time to the right fund. Each district is unique. Value will vary based on each district’s needs. Aside from the system's financial benefits, a position control system's biggest benefit is transparency. Every level of management in a school district will have access to the same information and controls. “Position control software provides the tools a district needs to refine processes and procedures within the cultural constraints of the district. It provides the ability to assess data, track and to monitor in ways not evident or easily achieved before. And this, in and of itself brings efficiency and time savings.” Stephanie Croix Assistant Business Manager Lockport Township High School District 205
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PATH–TO–SUCCESS / Leadership Institute
By Carrie Matlock, AIA, LEED AP PRINCIPAL DLA ARCHITECTS
WHY ISN’T EVERYONE MORE LIKE ME? It is Monday morning and I’m listening to one of my partners prattle on about the financials in our typical management meeting. Eight of us are staring at a bunch of charts that all illustrate the same message twelve different ways. After about the fourth slide, I’m out. My mind has left the meeting and I’m now creating my mental to-do list for the day. Finally, after what seems to be an eternity expounding upon the message I got in the first slide, we are done. I think to myself, why wasn’t this consolidated to one or two slides? Gleefully happy to be out of the meeting, I urgently approach one of my project architects to see about the progress on a design. I’m told there are two options on my desk because he wasn’t sure of the directions given while passing him in the hallway on Friday afternoon. I remember back to Friday and do not understand the confusion; I thought I was very clear about my direction! It’s not that I don’t like visual references and I do not usually mind having to repeat myself. Today, my schedule is limited and so I’m slightly stressed. Am I a horrible leader? A couple months later, at the Leadership Institute, I learned the answer to that question.
A SIMPLE YET EYE-OPENING TRUTH No, I’m not a horrible leader, this is just my natural behavioral style called “Controlling Taking.” One of the many insights the Leadership Institute brought to light is that not everyone thinks and acts the same way I do. I know that sounds really simple, but the fact is we sometimes neglect to acknowledge this fact. Think about the last time you were frustrated with someone at work. If that person’s behavioral styles were more like yours, would you have had the same frustration in that situation? If you knew how to bridge the behavioral style differences to get your desired results would it have come to this? Maybe not.
After attending the Leadership Institute, I learned the not so shocking truth about myself as a leader and how my peers and my employees perceive me. Ironically, it was positive – I guess I really do keep most of those comments in my head. You see, I have a tendency to be quick to act, directing and urgent. As a result, I sometimes struggle with patience. My partners, and architects in general, are geared to be more “Conserving Holding,” and they may illustrate behavioral qualities like methodical, detail oriented and thorough. This may explain why one may illustrate the same point in 12 different ways. It may also explain why my project architect would do twice the work instead of just asking me to repeat myself.
A WORTHWHILE EXPERIENCE The Leadership Institute has helped me hone my communication skills and I now recognize that my peers, employees and even clients may need a different kind of response than what Carrie would like. I use these gained insights when I give presentations, write emails and hold meetings. The experience was completely worthwhile. Not only did the program help me to understand my audience in a number of realms, it gave me the tools to be a stronger leader who gets better results and, understands why I should have more patience with others. I would recommend this program to anyone, in any industry. It is that universal.
One of the many insights the LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE brought to light is that not everyone thinks and acts the same way I do. I know that sounds really simple, but the fact is we sometimes neglect to acknowledge this fact.
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UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014
PERSPECTIVE / On the Profession
SCHOOL BUSINESS 101 What HR issues are keeping you up a night?
Cheryl L. Witham
ASST. SUPT./FINANCE & OPERATIONS, NEW TRIER TWP. HSD 203
Have a question or issue that needs to be addressed by School Business 101? Submit your ideas or questions to Rebekah Weidner at rweidner@iasbo.org
A: One issue is the confidentially of technology to encrypt HIPAA information and how to keep information secure and confidential. Another is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We are consulting with our lawyers and attending lots of seminars to make sure we are prepared for all of the changes!
David T. Lawson
DIR./FINANCE, MCHENRY CHSD 156
A: I would say that the biggest issue is PERA reform. Our HR person is relatively new and she is trying to figure out all of the ways this will affect the teachers and other staff members. The staff is not comfortable with the changes and neither is she, but she is trying to wrap her arms around them. Part of the difficulty is the lack of guidelines from the State.
Gloria L. Sanders
EXC. DIR./BUSINESS SERVICES, CENTRAL CUSD 301
Want to add to the discussion? Add your response in the Hot Topics Group within the peer2peer Network. Then, watch for the next School Business 101 discussion for a chance to be featured in the UPDATE Magazine.
A: Payroll – we just purchased a new accounting system and were experiencing some challenges. Our HR and Payroll people had to meld their minds together to take care of that. I previously worked at a smaller district where these roles were one and the same. From my experience, HR as a whole is not as stressful as the payroll component.
Patrick O’Keefe
HR MANAGER, WINTHROP HARBOR SD 1
A: The first would be certification compliance — the infrastructure that is in place and the requirements themselves are in constant flux. Another difficult issue is the Affordable Care Act, and employees responding to all the changes that are taking place. The question is, how do we stay compliant with the ACA and keep the morale up with the rising insurance costs?
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CHANGING
LANES
A New Teacher Compensation Paradigm
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POINT OF VIEW
By Quintin D. Shepherd SUPERINTENDENT SKOKIE SD 69
Eric M. Miller
ASST. SUPT./FINANCE & OPERATION SKOKIE SD 69
In the face or tremendous financial difficulty, Skokie School District 69 negotiated a salary schedule that incorporated meaningful incentives and secured a viable financial future for the district. Rethinking Tradition In recent years, business managers, superintendents and school boards across the country have been contemplating ways to move away from the “traditional salary schedule.” In some instances schedules are “broken” in that they offer unsustainable increases or intermittent bumps, which exceed contribution limits. Additionally, there has been nationwide interest in moving toward merit-based pay or performance pay. In many instances, districts have pushed all available dollars into the salary schedule when there just isn’t room in the budget for extra compensation.
Rethinking the traditional salary schedule is difficult for numerous reasons, primarily because it is hard to disagree with the overarching concept – a teacher with more years of experience and an advanced degree may be “worth” more to a district. Given that we may want to maintain a structure that promotes educational advancement and a willingness to stay in a district, how can we recreate the schedule in such a way to actually offer merit pay, professional bonuses, or other compensatory
opportunities? Grissom and Strunk (2008) state, “…the implementation of compensation models based on merit pay requires a systemic change… Most of the merit pay programs that have been implemented build on traditional uniform salary schedules.”1
Educators traditionally value the salary schedule not just for financial reasons but because it serves as a cultural artifact. Districts and teachers agree that both continued education and experience can add value. However, Skokie The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has an official resolution School District 69 could on the matter, stating “We need a compensation system for teachers no longer demonstrate that has a competitive base pay and benefits for all and, when that value in the form of compensation packages possible, forged through cooperative labor-management relations that far exceeded the that include multiple opportunities for teachers to advance along the increases in the district’s salary scale in addition to seniority and education level.” main revenue source (AFT Professional Compensation Resolution) (property taxes). www.iasbo.org
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Seeing Skokie’s Need to Restructure
The goal was to create a sustainable financial compensation package in order to rebuild and maintain programs, increase student achievement and create a new paradigm that balanced district revenues with expenditures.
District 69 began to face tremendous financial difficulty in 2008. The passage of a referendum in 2006 was not sufficient to balance the increasing expenditures for salaries and benefits. In 2010, the teachers’ union agreed to a “soft freeze” (step, but no base increase) for two years with minimal restructuring and limited layoffs. In July 2010, a new superintendent, curriculum director and business manager joined the district and immediately began working with union leadership to forge bonds of trust, honesty and openness about our fiscal situation.
Early in the year, it became clear that significant restructuring was necessary. The salary schedule was “broken” and unsustainable. In fact, the base increases were 2.5 percent, steps ranged between 2.4 and 6.9 percent and lane changes added an additional 2.5 percent increase. Teachers had the opportunity to increase their salary by 14 percent in some cases. In addition to controlling expenditures, district administration continued to work with union leadership to build groundwork for what would become 2012 negotiations.
District 69 Demographics • Highly diverse K-8 district • Serves suburban Chicago communities of Skokie and Morton Grove • Three schools and approximately 1600 students • Three unions: teachers, classified staff and building engineers • EAV of $408,000,000 • $26,000,000 Total Operating Budget • $11,700 Operating Expense Per Pupil
Building a Foundation of Trust From the onset, administration began working on relationships with union leadership. Knowing the district was in poor financial health and that we only had about 18 months until commencement of negotiations, we recognized that there was 22 |
UPDATE Magazine / Spring 2014
a limited timeframe in which to establish a solid foundation of trust. As a result, we met regularly and as often as time would allow in order to share new information about our situation. We invited union leaders to healthcare co-op meetings to discuss plan options, Health Care Reform and the increasing cost of health premiums. We also spoke regularly about the recent past, layoffs and the likelihood of future layoffs if upcoming negotiations did not create an outcome that would allow future sustainability within our system.
Contemplating Change Concomitant with the economic downturn, we saw that other districts in Illinois were also contemplating a move away from the traditional salary schedule. We were intrigued by the conceptual notion that annual increases in our largest expenditure (salaries) could be tied to the single most impactful factor in our annual revenue increases (Consumer Price Index, CPI). In Illinois, some counties are subject to the PTELL (Property Tax Extension Limiting Law), which in essence limits the increase in property taxes to five percent or the CPI, whichever is less. For districts subject to the PTELL, CPI governs the revenue stream as a part of the tax formula.
POINT OF VIEW / Teacher Compensation
Coming to Agreement While there were pre-meetings and rules meetings, in essence once negotiations officially started with the Skokie Education Association (union), they only lasted two working sessions. Both sessions ran late into the night (early morning), but by the conclusion of the second meeting we had created a completely new compensation paradigm. It maintained the ideology of a salary schedule, but in a much more affordable range. To move away from the schedule, it turns out we needed a key. Our key recognizes an advanced degree by allocating a graduated percentage of CPI to the base of the teacher’s annual salary. Bachelor's Degree Bachelor's + 15
85% CPI 90% CPI
Master's Degree
95% CPI
Master's + 15
100% CPI
If a teacher’s highest advanced degree is a master’s, the annual increase was just 95 percent of CPI (i.e. 2012 was 1.7 percent, or 1.445 percent total increase). We implemented a floor of 1.5 percent and a ceiling increase of 4.5 percent. We interpret the key to dictate our “base” increases, having eliminated the step increase. With copious research on the impact of advanced degrees, we were also able to restructure the lane advancement pay structure, paying out one time stipends for advancement instead of thousands in increases to the base salaries that compounded into the future. Because our most expensive health care premiums were close to $12,000, we also focused on reducing benefit costs. We restructured our plan designs, created additional options and, in turn, were able to increase the employee contribution by five percent and decrease board costs by 15 percent.
Creating Meaningful Financial Incentives Podgursky and Springer (2008) explain that many districts have created merit pay systems that are quite expensive and often only exist due to large sums of money being available through grants or one-time government allocations.4 We were committed to finding a way to self-
fund our system. Opportunity spending can be merit pay, bonus structures or in our case, study groups. There is little evidence to show that merit pay increases student achievement,2 but ample research that shows that a group of committed educators meeting to work on curriculum, data assessment and student achievement can have a tremendous impact on student learning. Our intention with support of the union was to create a financial incentive for teachers to conduct R&D (research and development) in the classroom. We are interested in innovative techniques and practices that propel our system forward. It was agreed that this money would be paid as a stipend (not aggregated into overall salary). By creating contract language that gave the district approval authority over the study group process, we control the flow of spending so that as Federal or State dollars are increased or decreased, we can adjust accordingly, ensuring the district does not overextend in any given year.
Securing a Sustainable Financial Future We created a long-term solution for District 69 – not a shortterm fix for current fiscal and political realities. We did so through commitment to honesty with our stakeholders, a tremendous focus on relationships and with the full support of the board of Education and teachers’ union. These measures allowed the district to retain income to reallocate in other areas beyond salary. In fact, the district was able to appropriate funds for future capital projects, increase fund balances to appropriate levels and fund in-house R&D (or in our case – study groups). By creating a sustainable compensation package, our district is in a much stronger position to focus the bulk of our energy on increased student achievement. FOOTNOTES: 1. Joshua H. Barnett and Gary W. Ritter. “When Merit Pay is Worth Pursuing,” Educational Leadership, October 2008. 2. “Teacher Pay for Performance: Experimental Evidence from the Project on Incentive in Teaching,” Vanderbilt University, September 2010. 3. “Study Leads to End of Merit Pay Program,” Education Week, July 20, 2011. 4. Podgursky, M. and Springer, M.G. (2008). “Credentials Versus Performance: Review of the Teacher Performance Pay Research.” Peabody Journal of Education, 82 (4): 551–573.
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Shifting The Next Level of
Health Care Reform
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By Susan Relland
COVER STORY
VICE PRESIDENT AMERICAN FIDELITY ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, LLC
Gears H
ealth Care Reform has been and will continue to be complex and in a dynamic state of change. It is important to understand that complying with the Health Care Reform rules and addressing Free Rider Penalty regulations can be challenging. It is important to be aware of the pitfalls and traps for the unwary that come with managing the Free Rider Penalty to allow a smoother transition.
Strategies to Make the Shift Now Rather Than Pay Later Unfortunately, worrying about the Free Rider Penalty can’t wait. In fact, if you haven’t started yet, you probably need to catch up. Under Health Care Reform, large employers (with 50+ full-time equivalent employees) must pay a Free Rider Penalty if they:
• Do not offer health coverage to substantially all full-time
employees and their dependent children.
• Offer coverage that is “unaffordable” or “inadequate” and have at least one employee enroll in Exchange coverage and qualify for a federal premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction.
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A full-time employee is one who works at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month. Originally, effective January 1, 2014, the IRS has stated that it will not assess any Free Rider Penalties in 2014 because of the delay in required employer reporting. Many employers mistakenly believe that, because of this delay, nothing needed to be done in 2013 or early 2014. However, the following are a few reasons why employers who delay may run into issues down the road.
1
Non-calendar year plans may not really get a full year delay.
The IRS announced it was not yet equipped to collect the reporting information that it needs from employers to enforce the Free Rider Penalty, which means it will not assess penalties in calendar year 2014. The first penalties will be assessed beginning January 1, 2015. For employers with calendar year plans this delay provides a full year of relief in connection with the Free Rider Penalty. Non-calendar year plan sponsors, however, have a slightly different situation. Originally, non-calendar year plans were given a transition rule, which meant the Free Rider Penalty did not take effect until the plan year beginning in 2014. That transition rule was not included in the delay, which means employers sponsoring non-calendar year plans have two options: 1. Start offering adequate and affordable coverage to all full-time employees for the plan year beginning in 2014. 2. Potentially have a second, mid-year open enrollment for coverage to take effect January 1, 2015. In other words, an employer with a July 1 plan year may want to comply by July 1, 2014.
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2
Many employers needed to start measuring hours as early as October 2013.
For employees whose hours vary so that the employer cannot reasonably determine whether they are expected to work full-time (such as substitute teachers or nurses) and for seasonal employees, the employer may use an optional look-back period to determine whether the employee averaged 30+ hours of service per week (or 130+ hours of service per month). If an employee was considered full-time during this “measurement period,” the employee must be treated as a full-time employee for health coverage purposes for a subsequent “stability period” regardless of the employee’s number of hours worked during the stability period, so long as the individual remains an employee. For a January 1, 2015 plan year, to measure for twelve months and have an administrative period to enroll individuals in the coverage, the employer would have needed to start counting hours as early as October 2013. Non-calendar year plans may have measurement periods that start even earlier.
Plans were given a transition rule, which meant the Free Rider Penalty did not take effect until the plan year beginning in 2014. Employers also need to remember that measuring is not a one-time event but rather an ongoing activity. In fact, every month employers will need to calculate which variable hour employees who completed the first measurement period following their dates of hire will need to be treated as full-time for health coverage purposes. In addition, in order to avoid the “fall off the cliff” penalty, an employer will need to ensure at least 95% of full-time employees are offered health coverage or pay a monthly penalty of 1/12th times $2,000 times all full-time employees (even those who received benefits), minus the first 30 employees. Employers may want to implement software to assist with monitoring on a real-time, ongoing basis.
COVER STORY / Health Care Reform
Although employers should feel some relief with the enforcement delay, they should continue to work diligently on compliance because future enforcement may be more stringent given the ample time available for employers to develop and implement their compliance strategies.
3
You may need to implement an hour tracking/Free Rider Penalty monitoring system.
Counting hours worked for purposes of the Free Rider Penalty is more complicated in practice than it may first appear. To give just one example, there are specific rules for how you credit hours for employees who receive a salary or are paid a flat amount per day of service. The proposed regulations give employers two choices for how to count those hours: (1) use actual service records showing when the employee worked, or (2) give eight hours of credit for every day the employee worked. The difference between these two choices is very important. For example, if an employer has a variable hour employee whose contract states a workday is six hours and the employee works four days a week for six hours, the employee worked a 24 hour week. Under the Free Rider Penalty, a full-time employee is defined as working 30 or more hours per week, so in this scenario the variable hour employee would fall under the 30 hour threshold and be considered part-time for major medical coverage purposes. If instead the employee worked four days per week and the employer had to give eight hours of credit for each of those days because the employer was not tracking hours of service, that employee would be deemed to have worked 32 hours and would need to be treated as full-time for major medical coverage eligibility purposes. Adding this with the previous concern of when to start measuring hours, employers may want to have a mechanism in place for variable hour employees to sign in and out, so a service record of actual hours worked is available and employees do not have to be defaulted to eight hours of service. Ideally, this should have been in place in October 2013. Again, this is only one example of the complexity associated with crediting hours for purposes of the Free Rider Penalty. www.iasbo.org
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Effective Dates for Key Health Care Reform Provisions Color Key
Exchange coverage available for individuals/small employers
Provisions affecting an employer's cost and type of plan(s) to sponsor
Individual mandate to obtain health coverage* Federal premium tax credit to buy Exchange coverage
Provisions impacting plan design that apply to all plans
Exchange Reinsurance Fee reports due November 15
Provisions impacting plan design that only apply to non-grandfathered plans
Waiting periods over 90 days prohibited* Annual limits prohibited*
Administrative requirements
Pre-existing condition limits for adults prohibited*
* Effective Date is first plan year beginning on or after this date
Grandfathered plans must cover all children to age 26* Incentive for wellness participation increases to 30%*
+
Insured small group plans must cover all essential health benefits*
#
May not discriminate against individuals in clinical trials*
Insured small group plans must comply with limits on deductibles* Must comply with limits on out-of-pocket maximums* May not discriminate against a provider acting within scope of license*
Free Rider Penalty#
Jan. 1
Jan. 1
Jan. 1
4
Time is needed to test and refine strategies before penalties start being assessed.
Certain strategies that employers are considering may not work as well in practice as they do in theory. For example, some school districts have discussed limiting hours of substitute teachers to 130 per month. However, that creates an issue for students if a teacher is on a long-term leave of absence. To adopt such a strategy, the employer would also need to ensure they have mechanisms in place to accumulate all hours worked, receive timely notification that an employee is nearing the 130-hour threshold and limit the ability of the employee to work additional hours that month. Employers may want to implement new policies such as these sooner rather than later while there is time to test and refine them before penalties start being assessed. 28 |
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Jan. 1
Excise tax on high cost plans ("Cadillac Tax")
Health coverage and workforce reporting to the IRS
2015
From a practical standpoint, noncalendar year plans may want to offer adequate/affordable coverage to full-time employees by the beginning of the 2014 plan year to avoid a penalty beginning January 1, 2015
Large employers may be able to participate in Exchanges
Automatic enrollment+
2014
Effective Date has been delayed until agency guidance is issued
2016 2017
2018
Further, although employers should feel some relief with the enforcement delay, they should continue to work diligently on compliance because future enforcement may be more stringent given the ample time available for employers to develop and implement their compliance strategies. Finally, certain strategies may take several months to implement. For example, many employers are considering the addition of a low cost major medical coverage option to ensure at least one affordable option is available to all full-time employees. Others are looking at changing from a composite rate to tiered rate structure given that only employee (not dependent) coverage is required to be affordable in order to avoid triggering a penalty. Planning and implementation for strategies such as these take time, particularly if employee benefits are subject to collective bargaining.
COVER STORY / Health Care Reform
5
Employers should seek approval from governing bodies prior to implementing strategies.
From a practical standpoint, many employers are adopting strategies that assume they will pay a penalty in certain situations. Some employers will make coverage available to all full-time employees (to avoid falling off the cliff), but will not pay enough of a contribution to ensure coverage is affordable to all classes of employees. These employers assume some people will qualify for a federal premium tax credit, which triggers a Free Rider Penalty for the employer. While this may be a good strategic option for an employer, it would be wise to have appropriate governing bodies (such as insurance committees and/or board of directors) review and approve such plans before they are implemented and before receiving the first bill from the IRS.
Shifting Gears
These are only a few of the pitfalls and traps for the unwary that come with managing the Free Rider Penalty, not to mention the other Health Care Reform provisions affecting employers. Hopefully implementing some of the above strategies will allow your organization to smoothly move your organization forward as you implement the next layers of the Reform.
Copyright 2013 American Fidelity Administrative Services SB-29351-1013 Printed with permission
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FACING THE AFTERSHOCK
The HR and Financial Impact of Education Reform As many school districts head into their third season of reduction-in-force decisions under Education Reform mandates, we have better insight on the impact of SB 7 (P.A. 97-0008) and PERA (the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, P.A. 96-0861) for both human resources and school business offices. Undoubtedly, the personnel demands of Ed Reform on both administrative and teaching staff have already affected professional work loads and responsibilities. In addition, new expenditures for implementation of Ed Reform have added to school district budgets, ranging broadly from technology needs to professional development.
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Based on the experience of other states slightly ahead of us in reforming teacher accountability, we can only expect the costs and burdens to escalate for Illinois school districts. In Minnesota, researchers have priced the cost of implementing that state’s new teacher evaluation system as somewhere between $80 million and $289 million.1 While no estimates are available yet in Illinois, educators who have begun overhauling their teacher evaluation processes know that precious district dollars must be allocated to the Ed Reform efforts.
ARTICLE
PERSONNEL IMPACT Administrators in charge of district personnel have had to readjust their job responsibilities, priorities and time management to encompass the tasks mandated by SB 7/PERA. Those districts that had already been using a research-based evaluation tool (e.g., Danielson or Marzano) for teachers prior to Ed Reform were steps ahead during the initial phases of implementation. For those districts that had non-compliant evaluation tools, however, HR administrators are spending countless hours with unions and staff revising their formal teacher evaluation plan instruments and procedures.
Evaluation Plan Revisions
Achieving consensus on evaluation plan revisions is not an easy task. Ed Reform requires the use of four summative performance ratings (excellent, proficient, needs improvement and unsatisfactory) for teacher evaluations instead of the prior three ratings. Through scheduled meetings with their teacher evaluation committees, administrators must: • Resolve the definitions of those ratings. • Determine how to calculate the overall performance rating based on the sub-ratings achieved in the domains used for teacher observations. • Conduct pilot programs with the new evaluation system.
Evaluator Training
Responsible HR administrators also must devote hours and resources to training the district’s evaluators to ensure inter-rater reliability in using the evaluation instrument. This internal training is over and above the required training for all evaluators through the ISBE course modules.2 Because ISBE’s administrative rules provide for formal and informal observation components that must be implemented by a district’s PERAimplementation date (i.e., “professional practice”), many districts have chosen to incorporate the components into their teacher evaluation plans now as they develop their research-based assessment tools and processes.3 These changes in the assessment process must be introduced to teachers through training in-services.
Selecting Evaluation Deadlines
Another issue is that of selecting annual evaluation deadlines (if not restricted under bargaining agreements). For example: • If a district determines that all evaluations must be completed by February 15, that performance rating can be used to determine a teacher’s RIF grouping for that year.
By Therese L. Hodges
PARTNER & ATTORNEY HODGES, LOIZZI, EISENHAMMER, RODICK & KOHN LLP
• In contrast, a later evaluation deadline date (e.g., May 15) beyond 75 days prior to the end of the school year, when the list of the sequence of honorable dismissals must be completed and provided to the union, would exclude that year’s evaluation from being considered in the performance groupings. The result is a district having to rely on an evaluation rating for a tenured teacher that may be two years old when placing that teacher in a performance group. Moving evaluation deadlines up earlier into the year obviously imposes greater burdens on principals and other designated evaluators who must then conduct their teacher observations and prepare their summative evaluations in a shorter time frame.
Professional Development Plans
Districts have also been obligated under the Ed Reform legislation to provide tenured teachers who receive a summative “needs improvement” rating with a timely, written professional development plan. As occurs with formal remediation plans that have always been required for tenured teachers who receive an “unsatisfactory” rating, individuals on both types of plans must be monitored and given assistance in improving performance. Again, more responsibility falls on the shoulders of administrators obligated to provide the necessary oversight to coordinate and track the status of teachers on these improvement plans.
Required Formation of a Joint RIF Committee
With its union and district participants, this committee must review the performance groupings of teachers and consider how non-conforming and out-of-district evaluations are to be used as preparation for the development of the list of the sequence of honorable dismissals (i.e., the teacher RIF list). Recent amendments to SB 7 have clarified that the required Joint RIF Committee must meet annually prior to December 1st (P.A. 98-0513). Once the committee work is completed, HR individuals must gather the necessary data to prepare the RIF listing, information that includes at least the last two evaluation ratings, legal qualifications, seniority ranking and performance group placement for each teacher in the district. Districts have also been urged to verify the accuracy of their data by sending out the compiled information to teachers for their review and correction. All of this work must be accomplished in the tight window of February and March to meet the 75-day deadline of providing the RIF list to the union. Per P.A. 98-0513’s corrections to SB 7, districts are also obligated to prepare a seniority list by this deadline for the union’s review. www.iasbo.org
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Evaluating Probationary Teachers
Under Ed Reform's construct, responsible administrators now have to distinguish carefully whether the teacher's performance should lead to non-renewal rather than honorable dismissal due to reduction-in-force. Because probationary teachers who are RIFed through the performance grouping process are entitled to recall rights if in Group 3 or 4, districts, districts can no longer engage in mass RIFs of all probationary teachers. If they do so, the districts saddle themselves with the obligation to bring back poor performers who have recall rights. Thus, evaluators must devote more time under Ed Reform in documenting probationary teacher performance to support their decisions to non-renew.
Measuring Performance With Student Growth Data
All of the above is occurring even before the more onerous task begins of measuring teacher performance with student growth data, a central component of Ed Reform. As the 2016-2017 deadline approaches for most districts to have finalized the student assessments that will be used to incorporate student growth as a significant factor in teacher evaluations, responsible administrators will need to convene the second required SB 7 committee, the joint PERA committee. This group, composed of union and district representatives, has 180 days to reach consensus on the selection of Tiers I, II and III student assessments, their measurement models identifying student growth and their weighted value in teacher performance ratings.4 If these tasks cannot be resolved, the district must default to the State Board’s model plan. From the experiences of those districts that have already worked through the PERA committee process to incorporate student growth, we know that the selection of appropriate student assessments and metrics to determine their impact on the performance evaluation rating takes many hours of education, discussion and often outside facilitation.
FINANCIAL IMPACT Needed Technology
One of the more obvious costs related to Ed Reform is that of technology. Portable laptops and tablets afford administrators greater ease in taking notes during their observations of teacher performance and preparing their evaluations. Districts are spending dollars to purchase these useful tools. Under PERA’s required components for the evaluation of a teacher’s professional practice, evidence must be collected by the evaluator through both formal and informal observations. Teachers must be provided feedback in writing, either electronic or paper, of any formal observation. Similarly, if an informal observation is to be considered in determining a teacher’s evaluation rating, it must be documented in writing.
Increased Software Budgets
Available evaluation software can ease the burden on evaluators and provide options for better collaboration during the evaluation process. Programs are also available to manage the personnel data (e.g., evaluation ratings, legal qualifications, seniority) that must be amassed by HR for creating the honorable dismissal list and making reduction-in-force decisions. Moreover, as districts begin to incorporate student growth data into their teacher evaluations, they will also need to develop and maintain systems for tracking and managing the student achievement data both for the students’ progress monitoring and for incorporating into teachers’ performance evaluations. As one business manager recently summarized the costs of Ed Reform, “Accountability requires accounting.”
Additional Administrative Personnel
Some districts have expanded their administrative ranks (or expect to do so in the future) to provide sufficient qualified personnel to manage the expanded teacher evaluation process under PERA. An assistant principal can take some evaluation duties off the shoulders of the principal, as can a department chair who is provided more release time. Especially for those districts that had never formally rated their probationary teachers, the legal obligation to now provide performance ratings annually for all teachers (including part-time staff) means much more administrative time must be devoted to the process. Districts are already examining the cost benefits of hiring outside individuals to assist with teacher evaluation, which is now permitted under PERA’s revisions to the School Code.5 Similarly, other districts are beginning to approach their unions to seek agreement on the use of teacher leaders to take on some of the evaluation work. No matter which of these various avenues for bolstering the ranks of evaluators is used, however, a district will need to shoulder the additional personnel costs.
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ARTICLE / Education Reform
Districts must realize that the massive impact of Ed Reform on the job security of teachers will not go unchallenged.” Added Cost of Consultants
As districts develop their required research-based evaluation systems, they often look to professional assistance both for administration and their teachers. Training in the Danielson evaluation model, for example, is common. Those districts that have been the forerunners in the incorporation of student growth into their evaluation instrument have also relied on consultants and facilitators to assist their Joint PERA Committee in selecting the assessments and developing rubrics in compliance with ISBE’s regulations.
More Professional Development
Ed Reform implementation also requires that dollars be budgeted for both administrator and staff training. Professional development has extended beyond the rollout of new teacher evaluation instruments to include staff training in a district’s new research-based performance expectations. Even more training will be necessary as the Ed Reform deadlines approach for incorporating student growth factors into evaluations. To gain the necessary expertise for their staffs, districts will be expending dollars on in-service training and outside seminar attendance, as well as bearing increased substitute costs for replacement instructors. Many districts will also pay stipends to those staff members who serve on their Ed Reform-related committees.
New Test Instruments
As districts research and consider options for student assessment measures, they likely will need to purchase test instruments and materials. Because Ed Reform obligations run hand-in-hand with the work districts must complete on their Common Core instructional changes, new assessments serve the dual purpose of aligning with the new Common Core standards and evaluating teacher performance.
FACING THE AFTERSHOCK From both the personnel and financial perspectives of Illinois school districts, Ed Reform’s price tag will be clearly a hefty one. While all districts understand that state mandates have a cost, the broad swath of SB 7/PERA’s obligations are especially significant. Yet, Illinois is not alone in requiring educational reform measures over the past few years and districts in many states are now bearing the associated personnel and budgetary demands from their new reform legislation. Because these costs are recognized, the Carnegie Foundation has developed a cost calculator to assist districts in estimating the time and financial resources involved in teacher evaluation.6 Districts must also manage the concerns inherent in implementing significant evaluation reforms that affect highstakes personnel decisions at the same time as Common Core standards and assessments are being rolled-out. As Morgan S. Polikoff (Assistant Professor, Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California) and Matthew Di Carlo (Senior Fellow at the non-profit Albert Shanker Institute) assert, the excessive haste in implementing Ed Reform systems hinders testing of new evaluation systems, risks errors in decisions about individual teachers and ignores the costs of making changes to not-well-thought-out systems once they are in place.7 They challenge the assumption that evaluation reform and Common Core implementation can be done well by states, districts and schools at the same time. Finally, districts must realize that the massive impact of Ed Reform on the job security of teachers will not go unchallenged. Already in Illinois, at least two lawsuits are moving through the courts that seek to overturn district dismissals of tenured Group 2 teachers who were prevented from completing formal remediation plans due to their RIFs. Another suit is attacking a teacher’s performance-based RIF on the basis of a flawed evaluation rating. Thus, legal defense costs pose another financial impact of Ed Reform. We can only anticipate more litigation in the future once student growth results also affect teacher dismissal decisions. Whether these legal costs will be offset by potential savings on tenured teacher dismissal hearings avoided through the Ed Reform RIF process is a point for future debate. FOOTNOTES: 1. “Evaluation and Improvement: Let’s Agree to Not Conflate,” posted in What We Are Learning. Retrieved on December 11, 2013 from http://commons.carnegiefoundation.org/topics/teachingevaluation-and-assessment. 2. 23 Ill. Admin. Code 50.400 – 420 3. 23 Ill. Admin. Code 50.120 4. 23 Ill. Admin. Code 50.110 5. 105 ILCS 5/24A-2.5 6. “Carnegie Cost Calculator: A Tool for Exploring the Cost of Educator Evaluation Systems” (https:// commons.carnegiefoundation.org/what-we-are-learning/2013/carnegie-cost-calculator-a-tool-forexploring-the-cost-of-educator-evaluation-systems/). Retrieved on December 11, 2013 from http:// commons.carnegiefoundation.org/topics/teaching-evaluation-and-assessment. 7. Strauss, Valerie. “The serious risks of rushing new teacher evaluation systems.” The Washington Post, May 23, t2013. Retrieved on December 11, 2013 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answersheet/wp/2013/05/23/the-serious-risks-of-rushing-new-teacher-evaluation-systems.
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IN
SEARCH OF A SUPERINTENDENT
The individual at the helm of a public school district in Illinois is critical to the ongoing success of the students, staff and entire community. The Local Education Agency (LEA) board of education is charged with attracting and retaining a school superintendent who is a match for the school district and community. 34 |
UPDATE Magazine UPDATE Magazine/ /Spring Spring2014 2014
ARTICLE
By Thomas Leahy
CONSULTANT, EXECUTIVE SEARCHES IL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS (IASB)
The board of education has many options when faced with the task of searching for a new superintendent. These options include engaging assistance from: • A private – for profit search firm. • The not-for-profit search department of the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) (typically one-fourth to one-third the cost of a private – for-profit search firm). • The local Regional Office of Education (if they provide such service). • The school district’s human resource department. • The exiting superintendent. • Conducting the search themselves or a variety of combinations of the aforementioned options. In the process, they must seek and understand external influences such as employment laws, supply and demand, the market and the impact of pension reform and changes enacted by the State of Illinois Legislature as administered by the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois…past, current and future.
GETTING PROFESSIONAL HELP The LEA board of education would be wise to strongly consider seeking assistance from a professional search firm (for-profit or not-for-profit). A professional search firm has the capacity to provide positive results while avoiding potential pitfalls. THE SEARCH PROCESS IS COMPLEX, EXTENSIVE AND TYPICALLY HAS THE FOLLOWING COMPONENTS: 1. A consultant is available throughout the process to provide valuable assistance. This would include in person meetings with the board to develop a tailored process for the search as well as access by phone when immediate questions arise. 2. The consultant assists the board of education in the early stages — approving a search timeline, developing the announcement of vacancy (brochure), identifying candidate qualifications and characteristics and providing compensation guidance. This could include: • An online survey to garner input from the entire school district and community. • Facilitation of focus group meetings in order to gain information from the students, staff and community members as to the desired characteristics of the next superintendent. • A report presented to the board of education outlining the findings of the survey and/or focus groups. The board of education could take this information under consideration when developing the criteria of the ideal candidate. 3. The firm announces and advertises the vacancy. • Most, if not all, search firms utilize the Illinois Association of School Administrator (IASA) Job Bank Web site: www.illinoiseducationjobbank.org • Search firms could post the vacancy on their own Web sites as well.
• The IASB Executive Search Department can also be utilized: http://iasb.com/executive • Other advertising in educational related publications could be utilized. With the level of technology available today, this option is not used as much as it once was. It is the LEA board of education’s decision whether to spend additional dollars for this option. 4. The search firm collects applications and verifies the qualifications, experience and the certification of all candidates. • The search consultant has the expertise to effectively analyze the content of the applications. • Particular attention should be given to the new Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) requirements now in place in Illinois. • In addition, out of state applications should be reviewed in regard to the certification requirements of the State of Illinois. 5. There is a thorough review of all of the applications. • After the initial review to narrow the field, the search consultant could be directed to personally interview a smaller group of candidates from the entire pool. • This process is used to further identify the best candidates for the board of education to interview.
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1. A list of four to eight candidates is identified for presentation to the board of education. These candidates would be those deemed the best match or fit for this particular school district and most likely to succeed in the position. 2. The search firm conducts background inquiries of the recommended candidates. This does not replace the responsibility of the LEA board of education to conduct thorough reference checking. The school board should seek advice from the school district attorney on the proper protocol for this work. 3. Initial interviews are scheduled with the recommended candidates. 4. The consultant presents the recommended candidates and provides guidance for the interview process. • The board of education could engage the firm to conduct a mock interview with a mock candidate and the board of education. This option is advisable if the board members lack interviewing experience and/ or have not been through a previous superintendent search. Interviewing with a group is not the same as conducting an interview alone. • Once completed, the mock interview is de-briefed in order to assist the board of education to conduct the highest quality interview experience. • The board of education conducts the first round of interviews with scheduled candidates. This stage of the initial interview process should be very structured. • The board of education then narrows the pool to the top two or three candidates. • The second round of interviews is conducted to narrow the pool to the preferred candidate. • The search consultant assists the board in developing a process for others to be involved in a meet and greet for additional stakeholder input if desired. • The board of education can then make a decision on the preferred candidate and make an offer to that individual contingent on the site visit and the development of the final contract.
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5. The search consultant could assist in preparing for a site visit as necessary. • It is advisable to send a delegation of two board members to visit the location of employment and/or residence of the preferred candidate. • When the site visit is complete, the delegation reports its findings to the entire board of education. If the report is positive in nature an offer could be made contingent on the development of the contract. If the findings of the site visit are not favorable, the board of education could discuss options in clarifying the questions or identifying another candidate interviewed in the second round. Once complete, the superintendent search process performed by a professional search firm should reap quality results. This is not to say that other search providers have not been successful. There have been searches conducted with positive results with numerous procedures. However, an external non–biased approach has a positive track record.
HOW SHOULD WE INCORPORATE DISTRICT STAFF IN THE PROCESS? It is advisable to utilize staff and, in particular, the existing superintendent in the details of the search process, not the selection of the successor. Current staff should be called upon to gather district information in order to publish the announcement of vacancy but not be involved in the selection of a successor or future boss. This is the responsibility of the LEA board of education.
SUPERINTENDENT VACANCIES OCCUR FOR A VARIETY REASONS: • Individuals may seek and attain employment elsewhere and leave of their own choice. • The board of education desires a change and terminates or doesn’t renew the superintendent’s employment contract. • The superintendent may choose to retire because it is time or due to the impact of TRS pension reforms, amendments or benefit changes.
ARTICLE / Superintendent Searches
DO-IT-YOURSELF SEARCHES If the board of education chooses to conduct the superintendent search themselves it is advisable to consider the following: 1. Just how much experience in finding a truly quality superintendent/CEO does the board of education possess? 2. How much time does the board president or search committee chair have to devote to the details of the search? 3. How much access to quality applicants does the board of education have? 4. What can the board of education do to check the quality and background of applicants? 5. Will doing the search themselves really save money for the district? 6. Will the board of education hire the best qualified applicant? 7. Will the board of education ensure that employment laws and protocol are followed properly? These questions need careful consideration when the board of education is making the decision to conduct a superintendent search on their own or engage a professional search firm. The cost of conducting or not conducting a search with a professional search firm is a factor.
HOW PENSION REFORM FACTORS IN The Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) has experienced numerous changes since its inception in 1915 as the Illinois State Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund. The “Evolution of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois Benefit Structure” document found on the TRS Web site presents a clear history of the changes over time. Most of the changes were favorable to TRS participants and annuitants up through April of 2010. Since 2010, the changes have resulted in a reduction of participant benefits. The pendulum has been swinging at high levels, with both favorable and unfavorable impacts to TRS participants and annuitants.
Superintendent vacancies have occurred at higher levels alongside both the positive changes to participant benefits and the more recent negative changes. The new legislation passed in December of 2013 and ensuing court challenge has created uncertainty and confusion. As a result, individuals have chosen to retire based on speculation, perceptions and hearsay. This is not advisable, as concrete facts should drive life-changing decisions. One initial concern of Senate Bill 1 centers on the effective date of June 1, 2014. Until the court resolves the constitutional issue surrounding this bill, and if upheld the rules are clarified, individuals will be concerned with the results. It may have a negative retirement impact on new district employees as of July 1, 2014. This has the potential to create a pause in quality candidate motion as well as the school districts’ ability to attract quality candidates for a variety of openings, including all categories of certified staff. This challenge in all probability will affect not only administrators but also the district’s most valuable personnel asset, teachers who are with the children on a daily basis. Pension reform and changes in the benefit structure, whether positive or negative for TRS participants and annuitants, have affected the number of vacancies during the years of enactment. This has resulted in a reduction of the number of superintendents in the candidate pool. However, this has not adversely affected the quality of the candidate pool nor is that expected to. We will of course wait on the result of the latest legislation and court challenges. In doing so, we will trust that the level of expectations, quality, dedication and energy level of individuals seeking to be Illinois public school superintendents will continue. This must occur in spite of the increased demand and complexity of the position. Our children’s future depends on it.
TAKE NOTE! Senate Bill 1 may impact current TRS participants and annuitants. A complete summary of the details of this legislation can be found at: trs.illinois.gov/press/reform/sb1.htm www.iasbo.org
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C NNE
FMLA AND WORKER'S COMPENSATION
The intersection of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and workers’ compensation law can be tricky to navigate. The FMLA applies to all public and private elementary and secondary schools,1 which are also required to adhere to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. While both serve to protect employee and employer, the two laws differ widely.
A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON FMLA Provides up to 12-workweeks per year of unpaid jobprotected leave to eligible employees to be used for medical or other specific family reasons.
There is no statutory maximum for workers’ compensation leaves.
An employee must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12 months to be eligible.
Applies to an employee from the first day of employment.2
Job protection is provided that requires employees to be restored to their original job or to one equivalent in pay and benefits. Group health insurance benefits, including family coverage, must be continued under the same conditions for the duration of an FMLA leave. Arrangements must be made if payments for the employee’s share of health benefits are required.
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This level of protection is not expressly provided by the Workers’ Compensation Act.
Employers may by policy provide this option to workers’ compensation leaves, but statute does not require it.
By Tamara L. Mitchell
ARTICLE
DIR./FINANCE & BUSINESS OPERATIONS BRADLEY ELEM. SD 61
CTING WHERE THE LAWS MEET
The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act does not directly address the FMLA,3 but this silence does not eliminate the interaction between FMLA and workers’ compensation leaves. The two can run concurrently provided the absence is the result of a work-related “qualifying serious illness or injury” and the employee is notified that leave will be counted against their FMLA entitlement. Proper notification is important as the employee may still be entitled to FMLA leave once workers’ compensation leave has ended. Unless a workers’ compensation leave extends beyond 14 days, only the first three days of absence is chargeable against accrued sick days. However, the entire length of the leave will count against FMLA entitlement. While the FMLA provides a 12-workweek annual maximum, there is no statutory maximum for workers’ compensation leaves. Should an employee exhaust their FMLA leave before their workers’ compensation leave has ended, the employer is no longer required to maintain group health benefits at the same level and may require the employee to pay the entire premium.
EMPLOYER LEAVE POLICIES
Though the FMLA stipulates unpaid leave, an employer’s leave policy may require substituting paid leave (e.g., sick, personal and/or vacation days) for all or part of the covered leave period. If required, the substitution of paid leave does not extend the number of FMLA-protected leave days available to the employee: the two simply run concurrently. If paid leave is exhausted before the FMLA leave has ended, the remaining leave will be unpaid unless the employer maintains a sick leave bank in which the employee participates. As with the use of accumulated sick days, substitution of sick leave bank paid leave does not extend the FMLA protection period. Rules governing the use of time paid through the sick leave bank (e.g., the severity of illness or injury) vary by employer. It is important to note that illnesses and injuries where workers’ compensation benefits are being paid are not eligible for sick leave bank use.
PROTECTION FOR EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES The FMLA provides many protections to both workers and employers. Knowing the basics of the law is beneficial for staffing and budgeting purposes as well as for protecting the Board of Education from legal proceedings. When in doubt, always consult with an attorney to ensure adherence to both Board policy and the FMLA. FOOTNOTES: 1. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division Website. 2. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission Handbook on Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Disease. Revised January 2013. 3. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission Website.
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BALANCING A
DIVERSE EQUATION Recruiting Teachers to Match Student Demographics
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ARTICLE
By David H. Hill, Ed.D.
ASST. SUPT./BUSINESS SERVICES COMM. CONS. SCH. DIST. 93
Bradley L. Shortridge
ASST. SUPT./FINANCE & OP. GENOA-KINGSTON CUSD 424
THE PROBLEM: AN UNBALANCED TEACHING FORCE
In the fall of 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan introduced a national initiative, Teach.gov, to recruit the “next generation” of teachers. Duncan highlighted one particular objective for this program – building a more diverse teaching force: “I’m very concerned that increasingly, our teachers don’t reflect the great diversity of our nation’s young people and so making sure we have more teachers of color and particularly more men, more black and Latino men, coming into education is going to be a significant part of this Teach Campaign.”1 Secretary Duncan’s thoughts reinforce a growing concern among Illinois educators about the gap between the number of students of color and the number of teachers of color in Illinois: • Forty-six percent of Illinois public school students are of color, while teachers of color make up only 11% of the workforce.1 • Nationally, over 40% of public schools do not have a single teacher of color working with students. 2 Research indicates that teachers with the same background as their students have a positive impact on minority student performance. 3 Studies show less than 58% of students of color graduate from high school in four years,4 creating a vicious cycle inhibiting students of color from becoming teachers. After all, who wants to seek a career in school if you do not have a good school experience? 5
POSSIBLE SOLUTION: ALTERNATE RECRUITMENT METHODS As a result of rapidly changing demographics for many Illinois school districts and the research showing the success of minority students may be enhanced through employing more teachers of color, the recruitment, hiring and retaining of minority teachers has become extremely important. Most districts have tried to attract minority teachers using the same methods used to recruit all teachers: attending large county job fairs and posting open positions on the district Web site. This method has been relatively unsuccessful for recruiting minority teachers. Some districts are beginning to try alternative methods, like the ones below.
1. FORM STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Partnering with local minority groups and universities could provide needed connections. In particular, some school districts are working with university education departments in outreach programs. One example of such a program is happening at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where the university holds a summer teacher camp for high school students. The university recruits attendees by working closely with area high school guidance counselors.6 A second example of partnership occurs at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where the university works with area high schools and middle schools to sponsor a Future Teachers Club.6 Activities of the club focus on all aspects of teaching in a fun atmosphere.
Third, some universities are looking to work with high schools to offer Introduction to Teaching classes which students can take online, perhaps for dual credit.6
Finally, a university partnership in tandem with the cooperation of state licensing offices could work to recruit minority candidates by providing alternative routes to teacher certification. Such an alternative route to certification could reduce the cost to the minority student (of both time and money) and make the process of putting teachers of color in front of students easier.4
2. GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAMS In conjunction with partnering as described above, many school districts are employing “Grow Your Own” programs. Since paraprofessionals working in schools commonly are from the community and match the racial, ethnic and economic characteristics of the students in the district, they are perfect candidates for Grow Your Own programs like the ones in Madison, Wisconsin and Carol Stream, Illinois, which offer opportunities for current paraprofessionals and other school staff or community members who are not certified teachers to obtain the skills and qualifications necessary to become employable teachers.7 Partnership arrangements can reduce tuition costs and the time it takes to become certified. Coupled with adequate recruitment, these are keys in attracting minority teacher candidates. www.iasbo.org
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ARTICLE / Balancing a Diverse Equation
3. GO WHERE MINORITY CANDIDATES ARE LIKELY TO BE Another way Carol Stream 93 is reaching out to recruit teachers of color is by posting positions in minoritybased periodicals. They believe this will reach a more diverse group of job seekers than simply posting open positions on their district Web site. In addition, these periodicals have a better chance of being viewed by family and friends of potential candidates compared to a district Web site. Moreover, advertising in minority-based periodicals can also be used to develop partnerships with local minority groups, which can assist in the recruitment of minority teachers. A second method of outreach Carol Stream has employed is attending the National Dual Language conference for the purpose of improving the integrity of their bilingual program as well as to recruit minority teachers.
Third, they surmised that for recruiting minority teachers, the large county job fairs were fruitless. Instead, they have begun attending urban/inner city job fairs in an attempt to hire minority teachers. This approach resulted last year in the successful hiring of three minority teachers and perhaps more importantly, forged collaborative teacher recruiting partnerships with several urban colleges. They are optimistic that these relationships will help in their on-going quest to increase the diversity of teaching staff.
BRIDGING THE GAP Though most programs seeking to recruit teachers of color are in their infancy, there is much optimism that employing the strategies of partnering, advertising in minority based publications, attending appropriate conferences and job fairs and developing Grow Your Own programs will help. All of these efforts to recruit, hire and retain minority teachers can lead to increased opportunities for teachers of color and ultimately benefit the students of the district.
FOOTNOTES: 1. Brian Lehrere Show. “Education Reform, Secretary Arne Duncan Weighs In.” (2010). 2. Boser, U. (2011, November). Teacher Diversity Matters: A State-by-State Analysis of Teachers of Color. Center for American Progress. 3. United Negro College Fund. “Promising Practices for Building an African American Teaching Force.” (2008). 4. Dee, T.S. “Teachers, Race and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment”, The Review of Economics and Statistics 86 (1) (2004) 195-210. 5. Lodaya, H. (2013, May 22). The Paradox of Minority Teacher Recruitment. Stemwire. http://stemwire.org/2013/05/22/the-paradox-of-minority-teacher-recruitment/ 6. Burnett, R., Reed, K., Tack, D. Teacher Recruitment: Identifying Quality Teacher Candidates to Meet the Needs of Partner Districts. Network for Excellence in Teaching. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www. bushfoundation.org/sites/default/files/2012%20AACTE%20NExT%20Session%20Presentations.pdf 7. Asendorf, A. (2012, April 24). Madison schools seek more diverse workforce to match student population. Madison Commons. http://www.madisoncommons.org
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RESOURCES A basic human need and powerful motivator If you were asked to make a “top ten” list of traits or skills that any school business leader must possess – what would be on your list? Maybe your list would include communication skills, integrity, vision and technical expertise. Although it may not have made your top ten, Judith Umlas will tell you that, “the ability to deliver true, heartfelt, profound and generous acknowledgement is a critical leadership competency.” In Grateful Leadership, Judith argues that acknowledgement is the greatest human need next to survival. She believes that learning to practice true
and heartfelt acknowledgement will not only help leaders make more positive and meaningful connections with staff, but will also enhance productivity, reputation and performance. It starts with going deeper A culture of gratitude is more than a stated mission and goals others can support and endorse. The tone of each staff member’s work experience comes from daily expressions of gratitude they receive for their contributions. Cultivating this culture begins with a deep feeling of gratitude within yourself for the role you carry as a leader and the responsibility you bear for others’ lives and challenges. This gratitude increases your own sense of personal well-being, which overflows onto deserving recipients (your staff). It brings out the best According to Umlas, true acknowledgement does not focus on results, but rather the inner qualities of the person being praised. When leaders learn to practice this, it has a profound impact on staff: • They won’t want to leave — A Gallup poll tells that when workers are not recognized they are three times more likely to quit in the next year.
“The ability to deliver true, heartfelt, profound and generous acknowledgement is a critical leadership competency.”
On My List Grateful Leadership: Using the Power of Acknowledgement to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results By Judith W. Umlas
Overview: You have the ability to make your staff stand a few inches taller and form a deeper connection to what they do. This ability comes through the power of acknowledgement — heartfelt and authentic communication of their value and importance. In Grateful Leadership, thought leader Judith Umlas will walk you through seven guiding principles of acknowledgement. Discover how concepts that have worked for Coca-Cola, Whole Foods and the NYPD, can also change your organization for the better.
• They can reach their potential — When staff feel valued, they light up! This change in motivation and work attitude will bring out the best. It is a daily decision One you have a new consciousness of the gratitude you feel, it comes down to a choice — whether you will express your feelings of gratitude or keep them inside. It will take courage, communication and commitment, but “grateful leaders” from around the world will tell you that it is well worth the effort. www.iasbo.org
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Navigate the Latest Shifts in HR Recruitment, Hiring, Evaluation & Benefits
Conducting Your Search
See article, In Search of a Superintendent, by Thomas Leahy on pg. 34.
Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) Executive Searches IASB can help you facilitate a search for candidates for superintendent or other administrative positions and work with your board throughout the process. Find it: http://iasb.com/executive/
Illinois Education Job Bank This more comprehensive education jobs site hosted by the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) allows you to post a position as well as search for candidates who meet all your qualifications. You can even narrow your search by county! Find it: www.illinoiseducationjobbank.org
Illinois Association of School Business Officials Job Bank Illinois ASBO updates their job listings on a regular basis and is a go-to resource for business officials and administrators who are in the job market. Find it: www.iasbo.org under Resources.
Good Reads on Teachers Recruitment
See article, Balancing a Diverse Equation by David H. Hill and Bradley L. Shortridge on pg. 40. The Paradox of Minority Teacher Recruitment By Hetali Lodaya, Stemwire, May 2013
Learn how the disparity between minority teachers and minority students is likely affecting student achievement; find barriers to recruitment and strategies to change classrooms.
Teacher Recruitment: Identifying Quality Teacher Candidates to Meet the Needs of Partner Districts Presentation by Robbie Burnett, Kris Reed and David Tack, Network for Excellence in Teaching
Learn from 14 colleges and universities working together to transform how teachers are recruited, prepared, placed and supported, using data to drive continuous improvement.
Madison schools seek more diverse workforce to match student population By Anya Asendorf, Madison Commons, April 2012
In the Madison Metropolitan School District, students of color make up about 55 percent of total enrollment. Employees of color comprise only 15 percent of the workforce. Learn about this district’s plan to close the achievement gap.
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RESOURCES
Get Guidance and Stay Compliant Go to Resources to Meet Federal and State HR Requirements.
PENSIONS Get the History Learn about the evolution of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois Benefit Structure as of October 2013.
Navigate Senate Bill 1 Senate Bill 1 may impact current TRS participants and annuitants. Read a complete summary of the details of this legislation.
Find it: http://trs.illinois.gov/pubs/history.pdf
Find it: http://trs.illinois.gov/press/reform/sb1.htm
FMLA AND WORKERS COMP
See article, Connecting the Dots, by Tamara L. Mitchell on pg. 38. Handbook on Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Disease Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission
This go-to guide covers everything from filing and reporting, to disability benefits to resolving disputes. Find it: http://www.iwcc.il.gov/handbook.htm
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Learn about FMLA requirements, wages, government contracts and much more on this comprehensive web resource. Find it: http://www.dol.gov/whd
HEALTH CARE REFORM
See article, Shifting Gears, by Susan Relland on pg. 24. Health Care Reform Site from American Fidelity A resource to help you focus on the steps you need to take today learn about hot topics, and plan for additional changes. DOWNLOAD THIS: Timeline of Effective Dates for Key Health Care Reform Provisions Impacting Plan Sponsors
EDUCATION REFORM
See article, Facing the Aftershock, by Therese L. Hodges on pg. 30. Carnegie Commons Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Archive Find a collection of articles covering everything from the connection between evaluation and improvement, implementation strategies and more.
TRY THIS: Carnegie Cost Calculator This tool will help you understand the different components of designing a district’s teacher evaluation system, and what is will cost you.
FIND ALL THESE AND MORE
Members can access any of the resources listed on this page: simply log in to the peer2peer Network, visit the Resources page and click on UPDATE Resources. www.iasbo.org
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THE FINAL WORD Speaking Up About Human Resources Beth A. Reich Business Manager Grant CHSD 124 breich@grantbulldogs.org
Human resource professionals have a varied and vital role… We hire, fire, remediate, educate, troubleshoot and more. Since districts are in the business of educating and developing students, we are only as successful as the staff we employ. Once the best person for each position is hired, HR maintains the success of the district by providing continual, timely and applicable professional growth to further their development. HR also must make tough decisions regarding retention when an employee is unable to meet district expectations.
Some major items that will impact HR management in the next 5-10 years… While I believe changes in the teacher evaluation process are necessary, negotiating various components of the plan with unions is challenging. The Affordable Care Act is going to burden districts and cost money by requiring insurance for employees who may have not been eligible in the past. The biggest challenge in my eyes is the ability to attract and retain good teachers with the changes to the pension system. I don’t know a lot of young people who want to work until they are 67 in order to receive a full pension. I am also concerned about the effectiveness of an aging population with very active young students. It will depend on the individual and most importantly HR to identify and retain those that can be successful. As far as administrators go, their creditable earnings for pension will be capped, they have to work longer and the laws continue to change and create more work. Finding creative ways to attract and retain great employees will need to be addressed immediately or we will all be watching them exit to the private industry where they can make more money, sooner.
A practice that districts can adopt now to improve their HR…
JIM WOMACK / NIU
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Is a consistent annual review process of all staff, including non-certified, along with job descriptions that set clear expectations and are reviewed annually with employees. When employees have a clear understanding of district expectations and receive honest feedback, both the employees and the district will be successful.
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2014 Annual
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