August 6, 2009 Consultation Meeting

August 6, 2009 Consultation Meeting

District items

SPM 4302.1 Consultation Meetings; Guidelines and Procedures Regarding Employee

This is the change in the consultation process HFT has been seeking. It outlines the purpose and structure of consultation meetings but more importantly; the SPM requires HISD to respond in writing to employee items and provides an appeal process if the if the employee group is not satisfied or disagrees with the administrative answer.

SPM 3462.7B Emergency Closing of Schools, Facilities, and the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center; Guidelines for Employees Regarding Storm Related

This SPM clears up some of the confusion regarding who is required to work during emergency closures and at what rate they will be paid.

EIA (Local) Academic Achievement Grading /Progress Reports to Parents

This is the much-anticipated district grading policy. The changes in current policy are minimal. The changes in their entirety are as follows:

The district grading policy includes the following provisions:

(1) A classroom teacher shall be required to assign a grade that reflects the student’s relative mastery of an assignment.
(2) A classroom teacher shall not be required to assign a minimum grade for an assignment without regard to the student’s quality of work; and
(3) A student shall be allowed a reasonable opportunity to make up or redo a class assignment or examination for which the student received a failing grade.

That’s it. That’s the entire policy. Anything you have heard about mandatory assignment weights or minimum grades are simply not true.

BOARD ITEM E-1 Approval of the Amended Aspire Award Model for Teachers and Campus Based Staff for 2008-2009 School Year.

The cost of this bonus program is projected to be $38.2 million. The changes are as follows:

· Moving High School Registrars from Category I (Operational Support) to Category G (Instructional Support)
· Clarifying the eligibility requirement on attendance to specify a latest-possible hiring date for first-year employees and that time missed as a result of school closures due to Hurricane Ike and swine flu will not count as absences
· Using TAKS reading for the value-added analysis for both Reading and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers in grades 7 and 8, same as is done in high school, instead of using the Stanford for the ELA teachers; this will result in four subjects rather than five on which Strand II of the award is based for these teachers
· Reducing the minimum number of students per subject per grade on which value-added reports for teachers are generated from 10 to 7
· Providing an additional bonus from the state D.A.T.E. grant supplemental funds equally distributed to all award winners that are classroom teachers

BOARD ITEM E-2 Approval of Revised Compensation Manual for School Year 2009-2010

The Compensation Manual is available on the Employee Portal but I will mention a couple of changes.

Compensation Philosophy

· Compensation position: For non-teacher central/regional administration and business support positions, HISD targets compensation and benefits at market competitive levels for which HISD competes for talent. Compensation for teachers is targeted at the top quartile for large urban Region IV school districts.
· Labor markets: Primary labor market is the greater Houston metropolitan area with an emphasis on education. HISD will consider general industry pay practices for administrative and business operations.
· Employees identified as high performers using value-added data should be rewarded. The District must establish levels of compensation and differentiated salaries driven by performance, value added data, and accountability for all employees.

The district will organize all jobs into nineteen job families. The district will establish and define the role and responsibilities of a Compensation Committee.

Salary Changes to the following employee classifications:

· Employees paid on the Master Salary Schedule (1.5%)
· Bus Drivers (1.5%)
· Food Service Employees (1.5%)
· All hourly employees (1.5%)

BOARD ITEM G-6 - Approval of the Revised 2009-2010 Teacher Salary Schedules and Amendment of the 2009-2010 Adopted Budget.

The district will comply with the state law regarding the salary schedule.

BOARD ITEM G-7 - Authority To Negotiate and Execute Contracts and Contract Amendments with Service Providers regarding Pharmacy and Wellness Program

There are several changes to the pharmacy program through CVS-Caremark:

· The program will cover only generic medications when there is a generic alternative for a specific medication. An employee can elect the brand drug, but will be required to pay the difference in cost.
· Prior authorization will be required for ADHS/Narcolepsy medication and oral antifungal medications.
· There will be a managed drug limitation for antiemetic, migraine products, proton pump inhibitors, and sedative/hypnotic medications and will require prior authorization for therapy that exceeds the recommended coverage limit.
· Custom care retail and custom care mail programs will be replaced by CVS/Caremark’s newer programs called enhanced retrospective safety review and drug savings review.
· HISD will expand the $0 co-pay program to include generic Antihyperlipidemic medication.
· The program changes in total are expected to save the four medical programs $784,000, and will be made effective January 1, 2010.

It was also recommended that HISD modify the wellness incentive program from the current model of $120 per year incentive that provides a rate reduction of $10 per month for the first six months for completing a health risk assessment and $10 per month for the last six months for participation in either a disease management program or a on-line health improvement program, to a new points reward program managed by WebMD. The new program will award points based on various activities by employees enrolled in one of the four Aetna medical plans. Upon completion of certain point levels, employees will receive a direct incentive payment as a part of their payroll check, up to $129 per year. The new program is designed to encourage members to utilize the new wellness vendor services to improve their health and control future medical costs.