Referendum:  We have begun meeting on the referendum last Friday, December 3rd.  We have organized a Project Oversight Committee, which includes board members.  We also have Design Committee members selected and have met.  This is approximately 3-5 staff members per building/department.  In late January or early February once general plans are decided, we will involve the User Group Committee.  This committee is about 12-15 members per building/department who will provide ideas and ideally see all the various potential pros and cons of each decision.  We will be using our website to provide updates once construction begins.

Staffing:  We are still short on substitutes, although we have seen a slight increase in some areas.  We are hoping increased advertisements and rates will help.  We are also looking at other potential options to limit the number of substitutes needed as we enter areas that typically require greater subs.

COVID-19:  COVID numbers continue to be high throughout the region according to Sherburne County Public Health.  Becker's numbers include 76 (2.2% of population) cases in September, 84 (2.4% of pop.) cases in October, 59 (1.6% of pop.) in November (27 in the last week of Nov.).  We continue to receive updates weekly from Sherburne County Public Health

MSBA Conference:  MSBA Conference will take place on Thursday, January 13, and Friday, January 14, 2022, at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  Everyone is registered unless you have notified Angel about not attending.

January Meeting:  We will be posting the January meeting date as January 3rd beginning at 6:30 pm.  This meeting will be the First Monday in January Organizational Meeting.

I recommend approving the personnel items as presented.

I recommend updating the non-union contract increases due to the raise in substitute rates in these areas.

The Resolution Establishing Combined Polling Places must be approved annually.

M.S. 120B.11 requires the school board to adopt the prior year World's Best Workforce Report Summary.  I, along with Asst. Supt. Minda Anderson, recommend adopting the 2020-2021 World's Best Workforce Report Summary.

Kevin Januszewski and I recommend approving the FY21 financial audit as presented.  The June 30, 2021 unassigned fund balance is 9.68%.  This is a second year of increase following last year which saw an increase from 0.6% (2019) to 2.1% (2020).  District Policy 714 Fund Balances states that the district will strive to maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of 8%.  According to information obtained from MDE web report Fiscal Year 2008-2021 General Fund Unreserved Balance, The total fund balance of 11.5% is the highest amount since 2009 when it was 11.8%.  This is also the first year since 2009 to meet the policy requirement.   (KDV Powerpoint Attached).

Truth in Taxation information will be presented by Kevin Januszewski, Director of Business Services.  I recommend approving the payable 2022 levy in the amount of $11,442,066.80.  This represents a 5.11% ($556,634.31) increase compared to the 2021 levy.

Policy 706, Acceptance of Gifts, permits the school board to accept donations or gifts under the terms of the policy.  I recommend accepting the gifts as presented.

The calendar committee met on Wednesday, November 17th. The committee consists of 18 people including staff from each building (including union representation), parent representatives from each building, students, administration, and a board member.  The calendar meets all requirements contractually and statutorily.  I, along with the calendar committee, recommend approval of the 2022-2023 School Calendar.

I am recommending the addition of a Human Resource Position.  

I would like to begin this position before the end of the year.  I have attached an August 2015 study on Administrative Capacity.  While this study took place in 2015, the need is even greater now with increased regulations, COVID, ETS, etc.  The recommendation from the study begins on page 16.

Some findings or notable information to highlight in the study include:
The staff level at the District Office is similar to what it was 20 years ago.
Everybody and nobody does the HR Function here.
Taking vacation time in the District Office requires extra time (and coordination) with others.
The average comparison district was supported by a half time HR Director and about a quarter time HR secretary.  Becker had neither.
Five of the 14 like-sized districts had a full time HR Director.  Five more had a half time and only four, including Becker did not have a Director.
If I had my way, I'd have an HR Director.  
One respondent noted that the HR function is 'poorly' executed in the district because there is no HR person.

Conclusions:
Some question exists about the appropriateness of the level of time devoted to the HR function, to building-level support staff, and, perhaps, to licensed support for Principals, where in comparison to like-sized organizations that presumable have like missions, the Becker Public School does not support the same levels of administrative staffing as was revealed in both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
The District appears to be running a relatively lean administrative team, especially regarding the HR function.
The one specific area this researcher believes that some restructuring needs to take place involves the important area of Human Resources management.
If the district whishes to both reduce its liability in the Human Resources area and to improve its effectiveness in the deployment of that job function, then it should increase its investment in personnel in HR.
At a minimum additional support staff time should be added into the central office mix; job tasks should be aligned with this new position and/or further integrated with other existing positions/job functions.  Ideally, some management-level capacity in addition to or instead of the support staff time should be secured.
The data show that, especially at the site level with administrative support staff and at the district level in the HR function, the district might be short on staff.

 

I recommend a first reading of policy 410:  Family and Medical Leave.  The changes in the policy reflect changes made to align to recent settlements in collective bargaining.  

I received no additional input on the following policies and recommend adoption with the following revisions.  
Policy 534-Radiological Emergency Plan REP for Schools Potassium Iodide Distribution be renumbered to Policy 599.
Policy 534-School Meals be noted as a new policy with the recommended policy from MSBA.