To: Michael Green
From: Vicky Barnes
Date: February 22, 2024
Subject: Human Resources and Safety Report
Human Resources Summary
It has been a few months since the last board report, so this report reflects Human Resources since November. I joined an Education Advisory Committee out of Lower Columbia College (LCC), which allows our district to have a voice in both the paraeducator and teaching decisions being made at LCC since we have employees who attend classes through the apprenticeship program as well as some who are applying for the teaching program.
I also attended a subposium on WEA’s Emergency Substitute Teacher Support project with Asha Riley, which gave us the opportunity to share with our emergency substitutes professional development opportunities through a partnership grant with OSPI. Emergency substitutes are an important part of our substitute pool because they typically have not gone to school to be a teacher but have a passion for students and so are not looking to get hired as a teacher but only want to work as a substitute. We require a Bachelor’s degree unless they are currently enrolled in a teaching program. Once they have interviewed, had a reference check, been fingerprinted, and completed paperwork through OSPI to get an emergency substitute certificate, they meet with me to go over paperwork and frequently asked questions and then meet with Asha to get classroom management tips and to set up an appointment for them to work with our coach Malinda Huddleston for a day. We also have paraeducators who have their emergency certificate, so if a principal has an unfilled position, they can decide to move a classified person over and fill their position for the day. We currently have ninety-seven certificated substitutes, thirty-five of those are emergency substitute teachers and four of them are classified employees who have their emergency certificate.
Since the beginning of the school year, forty-nine substitutes have been processed with both classified and certificated skills. For the month of January, the fill rate was 80%, so continually adding more substitutes will increase this percentage.
I spoke at Washington State University in February to new educators who will graduate in June about how to get a job and shared interview tips with them. With the levy failure, we are not attending career fairs, so connections like these are important if we do have any openings, we are still on the radar of new graduates.
Safety Summary
In the first semester Shelby Mathison, Michael Green and I met with each of the building administrators to go over any concerns they may have with safety in their building and to update information for their emergency operation plan. With the recent safety changes that have been made at the building level, these check-ins ensure we stay up to date in our processes and procedures.
On February 1, 2024, we held our quarterly safety meeting. Employees who attend this meeting represent various buildings and employee types. Accident reports are reviewed to ensure a pattern isn’t being overlooked. The topic this month was hazard assessments and doing them at the building level to take a closer look at slip, trip, and fall hazards. Employees asked for other resources that would allow them to focus on other areas of the building, so these were sent out. The report for this meeting can be found at this LINK. It was wonderful to have Sarah Stuart join us.