New Employment Policies Made At School Board Meeting

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

 

RANDOLPH, Utah.  School Board Meeting, May 15. 2013.  Senate Bill 64 requires all schools to have an evaluation system.  The state has created an evaluation plan that schools can be used or they can create their own.  All schools must submit their evaluation system soon and will need to actually do a summative evaluation every three years.   

Superintendent Dale Lamborn noted that the District will get a formative evaluation using existing standards.  Vernal has an iPad evaluation template that looks quite good.  They will allow Rich School District to use that software which will save both time and money.  It would be good to collect data throughout the school year to make sure all state standards are met. 

Superintendent Lamborn is going to attend a meeting next Thursday of the School Boards Association, Superintendents Association, and Senator Osmond.  They hope to come up with some additional ideas on how to create and work with the evaluation mandate.  Superintendent Lamborn asked for consensus of the Board to move forward with the evaluation draft and programs.  Permission was granted. 

The middle school charges fees of $25 per student to the 7^th and 8^th grades.  Even though in Rich District the 6^th grade is considered part of the middle school, they have not paid fees but were funded by the District at $45 per student because they need more materials in the language arts area.  The last legislature, however, has granted permission to now charge fees for 6^th graders.  If the Board adopts the same fees for all middle school students, there will be less money available than in the past.  The Board decided to charge the 6^th graders a fee and will make up the difference so that needed texts will be available for all students. 

The Board made and passed a motion to change the current policy to allow the District to place the monthly newsletter on the web site instead of mailing it out.  All calendars, schedules, and so forth will be available there.  If an individual does not have access to the internet, they can contact the District Office and asked to have a copy mailed to them. 

The current policy concerning affordable health care needs to be changed.  This policy deals with partial payments.  No employees in the district are involved in partial payments so no one will be hurt by this change.  Partial payments become a benefit if an employee works more than 30 hours.  The District only needs to change the wording on the policy to become compliant with federal law.  

Section 600 of the Policies covers all certified and professional staff members.  When a substitute teacher teaches for more than eight days, that individual is paid according to the lowest level on the pay schedule because they assume much more of the teaching load.  The motion was made to rewrite Section 700 of the policies that deals with classified employees giving them this same type of benefit that the professional staff already receives.  The motion passed.  

In the past, if an employee worked over 20 hours a week, they would qualify for state retirement. 

The hours have been increased to 40 hours to qualify for the retirement benefit.  Also, an individual that is given any other benefit becomes qualified for a retirement benefit. 

Currently, the District offers leave to all employees.  If employees go to the 30 hours threshold, the District will have to do away with the leave benefit.  This will allow employees who desire more hours to work up to the 30 hour limit.  Some of the part time workers would prefer to keep the leave benefit.  However, that immediately would qualify them for retirement which the District cannot afford to do.  Thus, the leave policy will have to be dropped.  Those who currently have the leave benefit will be grand-fathered in, but all new employees will not receive this benefit. 

It was noted that 19 employees have this recurring leave benefit.  Thirteen employees do not qualify for this benefit.  Anyone hired after July 1, 2013 will not qualify for this benefit. 

The policy changes will take affect at the end of this fiscal year.  Those who have accumulated certain benefits up to the end of this year will be reimbursed.  All workers who submit time cards must turn them in on a weekly basis. 

The motion was made by the Board to get these policies changed and bring them in line with State and Federal requirements.  The Board also went ahead and approved the new policies. 

According to the changes in state law, the measurement period will be from August 13, 2013 through July, 2014.  The administration period is a one month period of time.  The renewal period will be September 1.  Hours are averaged every month. 

Superintendent Lamborn will have the new wording for all of the above policy changes for the next Board meeting.