Despite pandemic, school district continues to strengthen workforce success
The Lee County School Board received a crash course on the various departments that keep the workforce running successfully at its workshop meeting earlier this week.
The presentation highlighted seven departments within the Human Resources Leadership Team, as well as the many objectives and goals, which relate to EnVision 2030.
Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Angela Pruitt said she was very excited for the opportunity to talk to the board Monday about workforce success.
“This is a timely presentation because quite frankly what my team accomplished in the midst of COVID is extraordinary,” she said. “We are looking really to recruit, retain and do all of those things to allow our primary work, which is student achievement. There are key work processes. Things we do each and every day to keep the district running relative to the workforce.”
Pruitt said they have projects and action plans to improve the workforce. This year, everything was layered with COVID, which included many things going electronic to address the needs of employees.
“We know the No. 1 factor related to student achievement is teachers in the classroom,” Pruitt said.
The district began a School Climate Report to better understand why teachers were leaving the district. The survey allows the district to engage information to assist administrators in doing a better job of interacting and working with staff.
This year the survey was conducted in the fall. Pruitt said they were really excited to go from a 58.8 percent response rate in fiscal year 2020 to 74.8 percent.
“For surveys that is pretty incredible,” Pruitt said.
When digging deeper into the survey it showed that 81 percent of teachers who filled out the survey would recommend a friend to work at their school location, which is up from 75.1 percent from the previous year. That percentage showed that in spite of all the challenges with COVID they are still proud of where they work, she said.
The survey also had teachers give a primary reason for considering leaving the district this year, or in one to two years. The No. 1 reason was retirement, followed by inadequate salary/performance pay and general working conditions.
The district also does an exit interview to gauge the influence of an individual leaving. The top three reasons were family or health, relocation of self and other job opportunities. The decision to transfer to another school in the district were promotion, opportunity for professional growth and pay increase.
Unemployment claims 2020
Staffing and Talent Management Director Heather Leonard said unemployment rates soared last year. There were 630 total claims from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020, compared to 45 total claims during the same time frame the year prior. From July 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2020 there were 463 total claims compared to 60 the year prior.
“When the state unemployment system crashed the response is we will pay out anyone that asks,” Pruitt said, adding that they have to pay 50 percent of the bill. If the state is able to get the money back from the places that were not supposed to give it, they will receive more.
Leonard said they typically have the opportunity to protest claims before those claims are paid.
“The district had to pay half of the claims that came in,” she said.
The actual charges for April through June was $678,234.78 and from July through September it was $990,460.12.
Leonard said a lot of the claims are active employees. She said they gave notices to all of the active employees to make them aware that a claim was filed in their name in case of fraud. A lot of responses that came back stated they were fraud. Leonard said.
Job classifications and compensation
The Director of Compensation and Labor Relations, Will Rothenberg, also contributed to the presentation by sharing that his department has been working to improve job classification management, as some have not been touched since the 1970s. He said some were current, and others had fallen by the wayside.
There was also focus on increasing efficiency through alignment and standardization and legal compliance and communication with key stakeholders.
Two main areas of concern and interest revolved around minimum qualifications and knowledge, skills and abilities.
“We focused on making sure minimum qualifications have some standardized language,” Rothenberg said.
As far as providing competitive compensation, he said they have to constantly look at information, such as where the district stands and projection of where they will be in terms of bargaining and pay schedules.
The total compensation for a classroom teacher includes a minimum starting salary of $47,300, board provided flex credits of $8,104.80, FRS contribution of $4,006.31 and Social Security contributions of $3,618.45. Rothenberg said they want to show people that pay is more than what they see in their direct deposit.
Recruitment
Recruitment Assistant Director Suzette Rivera said for the fiscal year 2020 recruitment season they have had 1,030 connections made at various events. Out of those 334 were talent reservations extended to potential teachers, or contingency contracts. From that, 238 converted from talent reservations to hire.
“Despite the pandemic, they actually came on board to join the School District of Lee County,” Rivera said.
She also highlighted Suncoast Grow Your Own Scholarship, and Legislative Grow Your Own Scholarship, which are given to high school students, paraprofessionals and students enrolled in local universities.
Rivera said in total there were 25 new teachers, and nine teachers retained in Lee County.
In addition, the recruitment impact included 114 career changers completing applications from district workshops with 22 hired as teachers. There are 295 potential guest teachers who received steps to continue the process.
All of the teachers are supported by Professional Development, which Assistant Director Dr. Helen Martin highlighted.
For new teachers, that support is given through two teaching academies, new teacher orientation and APPLES Program and SimpLee Great Beginnings.
For Career Changers the support is provided through FTCE Assistance and Alternative Lee Certified. Those who are experienced teachers receive career ladder opportunities and reading endorsement.
The support continues for teacher leads with teacher career bridge, clinical educator training and APPLES mentors. School Leaders receive support through Virtual HRS Trainings, Assistant Principal Development Plan and Principal Lead training. Support staff receives support through mandatory learning, virtual PD/remote work options and virtual guest teacher training.
There are currently 128 members in the Teacher Career Bridge, 197 members in the Assistant Principal Pool and 65 members in the Principal Pool.
The district has impacted 131,804 instructional participants, 8,873 administrator participants and 60,366 for support participants. Some of the participants are repeat customers.
Benefits update
The Insurance and Benefits Director Bonnie McFarland shared that they have 13 different benefit programs with multiple options within giving employees an option to mix and match to make their own individualized plan.
She also highlighted the Wellness Program, which was created more than a decade ago.
The district improved wellness visits from 18 1/2 percent to 27 percent of employees having wellness visits on an annual basis. McFarland said there was also a reduction in diabetes among their employees, which has dropped from 14 percent when the program began to 7.5 percent. With that reduction, approximately $4.2 million was saved by eliminating those employees needing that extra care and supplies.
In addition, she said they also saw a reduction in hypertension from 44 percent to 15 percent, saving $3.2 million annually.
There was also a downward trend for Mod Rate for Workers Compensation Insurance, which saved between $1.3 to $3.4 million over the last five years.Despite pandemic, school district continues to strengthen workforce success.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com