To: Michael Green
From: Vicky Barnes
Date: September 28, 2023
Subject: Human Resources and Safety Report
Human Resources Summary
The district welcomed 14 new certificated hires this school year and during the summer, they completed paperwork and met with me for processing. Since we needed to adjust our New Educator training due to the levy failure, they were invited to attend an optional New Educator onboarding day on August 10th. At the meeting, our local businesses went out of their way to welcome these new hires to the community with gifts and raffle items (Woodland True Value, Fibre Federal Credit Union, Umqua Bank, Red Canoe Credit Union, Luckman’s Coffee, Dutch Bros, Red Leaf Organic Coffee, Woodland Eye & Vision, Lewis River Dental, Burgerville, Antony’s Pizzeria, Safeway, Starbucks and Daddy D’s BBQ). Nicole Galloway reached out to IQ Credit Union, who graciously offered to pay for breakfast and lunch as well as goodies to give away. The new hires then spent two days with their administrators in their buildings, getting their rooms ready.
Throughout summer and the start of the school year, I am working to interview and process substitutes to ensure coverage when employees are gone. We have brought on 20 new substitutes so far and have 12 more who are waiting for fingerprints to clear or to complete paperwork. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 345 absences that required a substitute, and 61 of those were not filled.
I have also sat in on the bargaining meetings for KWRL, which started in May. Understanding how the Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed upon helps me to apply it in the future when there are questions.
Safety Summary
In August, I attended a Safety Summit along with other administrators and Shelby Mathisen, the safety secretary. This last year a lot of work was done, such as getting grab-and-go bags in each classroom as well as a Standard Response Protocol package by each door. Emergency Operation notebooks were updated in each school, and processes were set in place to make sure these are updated each year. Attending conferences like the Safety Summit gives a great check-in of what is being done correctly and what needs more attention. With school beginning, Shelby and I have been able to go to most of the schools and give a short safety presentation to go over expectations, like always wearing a badge when on campus, as well as recent improvements, like all external doors being locked and one point entry.
I have set the 2023-2024 meetings for the safety teams for each quarter. These meetings allow us to check in with someone from each school or department about any safety concerns in the building.