January 28, 2014 at 9:00 AM - SEA Monthly Meeting

Rationale:  1.  January Budget Report:  With the first 6 months behind us, the budget seems to be on track with both revenue and expenditures.  Receipts are lagging a bit but are between the previous two school years.  Spending is more controlled at this point and on track to help us recoup a percentage of our budget shortfall.  See attached report.

2.  Deferred Salary and Extra Pay:  We have several staff members on a deferred salary payroll system.  This allows regular hours accumulated throughout the month, to have a deferred payment which extends payment over the summer months and/or balances months with varied workdays.  All staff are reminded to manage their leave times and report their leave and substitute pay requests in a timely manner.

We had a question on extra-pay if an employee is assigned to cover for other support staff members.  Support staff are paid on an hourly basis and it is up to the building supervisor to assign staff. There is no extra pay for support staff, however, if they need additional time to complete their assigned workload, they must have it approved by their building administrator.

We also had a question about certificated staff members asked to cover for staff who are unexpectedly called away or are absent for 1-2 periods.  It is in our negotiated agreement that staff who give up their planning time are compensated for loss of planning time.  According to the contract, principals are responsible for making sure all programs are covered. 

3.  Certificated Staff Salaries/Contracts:  The board of education completed contract negotiations with Certificated staff in December.  Thank you to the teachers who served on the negotiations team.  They did an excellent job of representing your interests.  The board is currently working on administrators and program coordinators salaries.  The process is much like the comparison study done with teachers' salaries.  The board will consider support staff salaries, contracts, etc... in March-May.

All teacher contracts are automatically renewed under the Nebraska Continuing Contract Law on April 15th.  
Teacher contracts will go to the board of education on April 14th and distributed to teachers on the 15th.  According to your Master Agreement, teachers will also need to indicate their intent to move horizontally (education) at this time.  Please review your agreement and bring questions you may have to one of your association members, Marlene, or Dr. Hoesing.   

4.  Support Staff Health Benefits:  The board of education will begin studying the impact of the Affordable Care Act on Support Staff employees for the 2014-15 school year.  We hope to get more clarity from our legal council and from Blue Cross/Blue Shield on options our district has in making the necessary changes to bring us into compliance with the law. 

5.  2014-15 School Calendar:  The board will begin work on the 2014-15 School calendar.  The building principals will gather input from their staff and present it to the board's planning committee.  Our goal is to have the final calendar recommendations for board adoption in March. 

6.  2013 W-2:  Marlene has all of the 2013 W-2's completed.  If you have any questions, need to change with holding for 2014, etc... please see Marlene.

7. 2014 Legislative Bills:   There are 460 Bills submitted for the 60 Day Session.  I am sure not all 460 will be heard and the majority may be held over for consideration in next year's 90 Day Session.  Attached are Bills that directly or indirectly relate to education issues.  See Attached.

8.  Parent Input:  We met with a number of parents at Cargill last week.  We are working on coordinating their responses to put them in an order for them to prioritize.  We hope to get this completed in time for the board of education to move forward on developing their strategic plan in February/March.

9.  Early Retirement:  I met with teachers eligible for early retirement to discuss the board of education's interest in possibly changing the policy.  The negotiations team requested in November that the board consider committing to funding the plan for the next school year at an earlier date.  While this policy is not negotiated, the board did agree to respond to their request.  In January, a motion was made not to fund the plan for the 2014-15 school year.  The motion failed on a 3-3 vote and the board requested a committee meet to discuss possible changes and bring these back to the board for action at a later time.  The board negotiations committee will meet on Wednesday evening to review the financial impact of the plan and make a recommendation to the policy committee for their review.  It is my goal to have this resolved and a recommendation made in the February Meeting for adoption along with any other new policies this summer.