DISTRICT LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATION
AND MANAGEMENT
This chapter reviews the district leadership, organization and management of the Llano Independent School District (LISD) in the following sections:
- A. Governance
- B. District Management
- C. Planning and Evaluation
- D. Personnel
- Part 1
- Part 2
- E. Community Involvement
D. PERSONNEL (PART 1)
Management of personnel is of critical importance to school districts. Most Texas districts spend 70 to 80 percent of their budgets on salaries and personnel-related costs. An effective personnel operation enables a district to recruit and retain quality employees at all levels; provides a comprehensive compensation and benefits program which balances employer and employee needs; ensures districtwide compliance with various state, federal and local laws which govern the employer-employee business relationship; and provides clear performance standards and direction to all district employees.
Like most employers, LISD must comply with a variety of state and federal laws that govern personnel programs, services and activities. These laws include the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which governs wage and hour payments; the Americans with Disabilities Act, (ADA) which requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to any employee or applicant for a position who is otherwise qualified to perform the job and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which prevents employers from making employment and/or personnel decisions based on an individual's age, race, religion, gender and/or other non-legitimate and discriminatory factors. In addition to the body of federal laws that directly affect a district's human resources practices, there are also various state laws governing personnel matters in all Texas school districts.
LISD is considered a property wealthy school district under Texas law and as such must send monies to other districts with less property wealth per student. This method of funding is commonly known as "the Robin Hood plan." The process of a wealthier district paying a poor district is termed recapture. LISD allocated almost 54.25 percent of its 2002-03 budget for payroll costs. Excluding the recapture dollars because of LISD's wealth, the district's payroll is more than $12 million, or 75.3 percent of its total budget.
LISD employs 327 employees. Exhibit 1-15 shows the district's employee counts by job groupings.
Exhibit 1-15 Source: TEA, PEIMS,2002-03.
LISD Staff Counts by Category
Staff 2002-03 Percent Teachers 173 52.9% Professional Support 25 7.6% Campus Administration 8 2.5% Central Administration 5 1.5% Educational Aides 35 10.7% Auxiliary Staff 81 24.8% Total Full Time Equivalent Employees 327 100.0% FINDING
The district has an extensive benefits program including compensation and other benefits. District benefits are competitive and include medical and other health-related insurances, including cancer and heart supplements, unlike many basic employer health plans. The sick leave plan allows employee absences beyond the state's five-day and local benefit at a reduced daily salary. The district signed up for the state insurance plan at the beginning the 2002-03. The district also offers a supplement to the state health insurance plan at the employees' expense. All employees may also opt to purchase a variety of insurance programs at their own expense that is deducted from the employee's paycheck, pre-tax through the district's cafeteria plan. By paying for benefits contributions before social security and federal income taxes are withheld, employees' taxable income is reduced, the employee pays less in taxes and increases take-home pay.
The district offers state-provided personal leave and local sick leave. State law requires that all employees receive up to five days of paid personal leave a year. Personal leave is advanced to the employee at the beginning of each school year. There is no limit on the accumulation of state personal leave. The leave is also transferable with the employee, if applicable, to other Texas school districts and is generally transferable to the Regional Education Service Centers (ESC). Each employee earns state personal leave in equivalent workdays, at the rate of one-half a workday for each 18 workdays of employment, up to the statutory maximum of five workdays annually.
The district has limits on the amount of personal leave that can be taken by an employee. Personal leave may not be taken for more than five consecutive workdays except in extenuating circumstances as determined by the superintendent. Personal leave cannot be taken the day before or after a school holiday; days scheduled for end-of-semester or end-of-year exams; days scheduled for TAKS tests; or professional or staff development days.
All employees earn two workdays of local sick leave with no loss of pay. Three additional local personal days may be taken. After this, the district docks the employee $45 per day. Local sick leave may not be accumulated nor transferred to other school districts.
Sick leave may be used for the employee's illness; and illness in the employee's immediate family; family emergency (natural disaster or life-threatening situations); and death in the immediate family.
The district also offers a sick leave pool. When an employee has exhausted all sick leave benefits and still needs additional sick days, the payroll clerk emails all employees asking for donations of sick leave for the employee who may be in need of extra sick leave. Once the payroll clerk has received the "needed" number of days, employee donations are no longer accepted. There is no bank of days because the contributions are collected on an individual basis as needed.
The district makes available many other benefit plans at employees' expense:
- extended sick leave- first 10 days docked at $45 per day; second 10 days docked at $67.50;
- locally managed sick leave pool;
- retirement cash out for accrued sick leave at $45 per day for certified employees and $22.50 for paraprofessionals;
- cafeteria plan which offers the employee benefits at pretax dollars;
- prescription drug card;
- dental insurance;
- accidental income protection;
- disability short term insurance;
- heart plan;
- cancer insurance supplement to regular insurance;
- universal and term life insurance;
- vision coverage policy;
- medical and childcare reimbursement; and
- annuity deduction.
In addition, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) allows employees to remain on the district health insurance up to 18 months after leaving the district, or longer in some instances, contingent on qualifying circumstances.
COMMENDATION
LISD offers a comprehensive benefit program to its employees.
FINDING
LISD's personnel activities are fragmented and not functionally aligned. The superintendent, assistant superintendent, payroll secretary, superintendent's secretary, secretary for Human Resources, (HR) director of Business/Finance, and LISD principals perform personnel responsibilities at LISD, which makes the personnel function decentralized. All of the individuals assigned to perform personnel responsibilities for the district also perform other non-personnel related duties within the district. As part of administering personnel for the district, LISD's superintendent prepares recommendations to the board, identifies any positions needed and availability of funding for the positions and recommends qualified hires. The assistant superintendent conducts criminal history checks online and maintains the criminal background records. Exhibit 1-16 shows LISD's organization of its personnel functions.
Exhibit 1-16 Source: TSPR interviews, April 2003, with superintendent, assistant superintendent and Central Office clerical staff responsible for performing various personnel duties.
LISD Organization of Personnel Responsibilities
2002-03The payroll secretary inputs all employee data as required to create and maintain district payroll records. Although the payroll clerk position reports directly to the superintendent, the payroll clerk said that the payroll position works more closely with the director of Business/Finance than with the superintendent. Employee data entered by the payroll clerk includes the employee's degree, if applicable; years of experience, benefits elections, social security number, stipends and other monetary supplements. The payroll secretary also maintains sick leave records for each employee.
In the personnel role, the superintendent's secretary administers certification of employees by verifying appropriate certification for job placement. Certification of employees is verified through the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC) by virtual certificates. The superintendent's secretary also applies for emergency permits for employees who are working on completing certification requirements.
In addition, the secretary for HR also reports to the superintendent completes paperwork after the district hires a new individual. The human resources secretary also handles benefits administration duties, including registering all new employees by their initial insurance benefits elections. The human resources secretary provides claim forms and directs employees to contact appropriate insurance customer service representatives as required to resolve benefits issues and assists with their questions.
The director of Business/Finance prepares revenue estimates that determine monies available for payroll. The director of Business/Finance also enters all salary information initially provided by the payroll clerk to determine payroll expenditures. Principals perform other personnel and human resources functions such as identifying staff needs, posting vacant positions on the district's Web site and interviewing, selecting and recommending qualified applicants for hire.
The district's fragmentation of its human resources function results in the lack of a strategic plan and/or direction for LISD human resources, including staffing and workforce planning. Many districts and other employers group their human resources positions and related services functionally and increasingly integrate the HR functions into districtwide strategic planning, goals and objectives.
Recommendation 10:
Centralize and functionally align the district's personnel responsibilities to create a strategic focus and direction.
By consolidating all human resources management and personnel activities under the assistant superintendent, the district will achieve a consistently focused human resources strategy and eliminate fragmentation of this vital function.
Exhibit 1-17 shows the new organization structure recommended by the review team to functionally align the district's human resources services.
Exhibit 1-17 Source: TSPR, 2003.
Recommended Human Resources Organization
2003Under the recommended structure, the assistant superintendent will perform personnel responsibilities currently performed by the superintendent relative to recommending qualified hires and may delegate the responsibility to perform criminal background checks to one of the subordinate positions. The human resources secretary and payroll secretary will continue to perform their existing duties and also serve as backup to each other, automatically creating continuity of service for the district in absence of one incumbent or the other. The assistant superintendent will work collaboratively with the superintendent on all human resources business, ensuring that the superintendent is informed and has senior administrative oversight of the district's human resources programs, services and activities. The human resources certification duties currently performed by the secretary to the superintendent should be reassigned to the human resources secretary.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The superintendent, assistant superintendent and board members discuss and adopt the functional realignment of LISD's human resources responsibilities and revise the job description of the superintendent's secretary to eliminate human resources duties, other than as a temporary backup. October 2003 2. The superintendent reassigns all human resources operations to the assistant superintendent and directs the assistant superintendent to develop and revise job descriptions for the payroll clerk and the human resources secretary as well as a district organizational chart for HR. November 2003 3. The superintendent disseminates and explains the district's organizational realignment of district Human Resources to all staff directly performing HR duties. November 2003 4. The assistant superintendent meets with the payroll clerk and human resources secretary to discuss their revised job duties, job descriptions and district administration's expectations for HR programs and services. November 2003 5. The superintendent announces the organizational realignment districtwide, informing all employees of newly assigned roles and responsibilities; designating specific points-of-contact for LISD employees in need of various human resources services and designating the assistant superintendent as the chief HR administrator for the district. December 2003 FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented with existing resources.
FINDING
LISD does not provide annual written performance evaluations based on job standards. Each functional area in the district, including transportation, maintenance and food services administers its own employee evaluations, in effect a decentralized system of performance management. Each principal evaluates teachers, aides, custodians and other employees at their assigned schools. The district has specialized evaluation instruments that correspond to specific job descriptions. For example, there is a specific evaluation tool for food services staff. The teacher appraisal process is a locally developed system that complies with state laws governing the evaluation of teachers. Principals provided up-to-date evaluations on all teachers.
Most LISD positions have job descriptions. However, some of the job descriptions for non-instructional positions are generic and lack specificity. For example, the job description for the assistant superintendent does not include the essential function of performing criminal history checks. In addition, titles as shown on the job descriptions do not match the position titles used by district administrators for various positions. The job description for the "secretary for Human Resources" shows a title of, "Human Resources benefits coordinator." Typically, a job description for a benefits coordinator is more specialized than that of a secretary for Human Resources. LISD's secretary for Human Resources' duties in HR are broader than benefits administration.
The preparation, development and revision of job descriptions are not assigned to any one position; rather, LISD job descriptions are written by individual supervisors as positions are created and/or needed. Job descriptions establish objective and measurable job standards, inform employees exactly what is expected of them and make hiring and selection simpler by identifying the job requirements. Well-written job descriptions ultimately become the foundation for identifying and setting performance evaluation standards and feedback.
According to supervisors who were interviewed, LISD performance evaluation practices vary. The maintenance supervisor said that he verbally evaluates his staff. On the other hand, the director of Business/Finance has never evaluated the Business Office staff. The food service director conducts all food service evaluations, but each school manager completes the evaluations for the staff at each school. No bus driver evaluations were available for review.
The Texas Education Code (TEC) regulates annual performance evaluations of professional staff. TEC Section 21.352 and 21.354 addresses the criteria and process about teachers and administrators being evaluated annually. LISD board policy DN (Local) requires all employees to be evaluated in writing annually. Performance evaluations serve many purposes. They provide regular feedback to employees. They document an employer's good faith efforts to assist lower performing employees to meet performance standards. Performance evaluations also give employees an opportunity to discuss career goals and receive supervisory guidance toward achieving those goals. A district's failure to evaluate performance consistently and on schedule creates a perception that performance and productivity are not important to district administration and can be a disincentive to higher levels of performance and achievement.
Many districts require performance evaluations to be routed and/or reviewed by a designated HR representative. Upon receipt and review an HR staff person timely files the performance evaluations in the employees' personnel files.
Recommendation 11:
Develop specific job descriptions that include measurable and objective standards of performance and provide annual written evaluations for all non-instructional staff based on the standards.
The completed evaluations should be forwarded to the human resources secretary upon completion and issuance to the employee. This method of centralizing the performance evaluations will create a check-and-balance system for district evaluations.
The TASB generic job descriptions used in LISD are intended to be guides for districts and should be supplemented with actual job duties, especially key areas of responsibility and/or essential job duties.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The superintendent directs all department managers to update all non-instructional staff job descriptions to include specific and objectively measurable standards of performance in a pre-determined format to be used by all department managers and supervisors. October 2003 2. Each department supervisor works collaboratively with individual employees to develop accurate job descriptions for all non-instructional positions districtwide. October - November 2003 3. Each department manager prepares a final draft of all non-instructional job descriptions by department and submits all final drafts to the assistant superintendent for review. November 2003 4. The superintendent and the assistant superintendent meet with all supervisory staff responsible for evaluating personnel to review and update the district's performance evaluation instruments using the revised job description standards. October - December 2003 5. The assistant superintendent establishes an annual districtwide evaluation calendar for non-professional positions and obtains the superintendent's approval. December 2003 6. The human resources secretary coordinates performance management training through Regional Education Service Center Region 13 for all supervisory and management personnel. December 2003 7. All supervisors prepare and issue written evaluations of subordinate staff using the revised job standards and new performance evaluation instrument. December 2003 - March 2004 8. The human resources secretary files all completed evaluations after checking against a master list of employee names, ensuring supervisory and employee signatures appear on each evaluation, dates and that the performance evaluation standards correspond to the revised job description and nature of the job. March 2004 and Ongoing 9. The human resources secretary notifies the superintendent of any delayed or overdue employee evaluations. March 2004 and Ongoing 10. The superintendent meets with any department manager with overdue performance evaluations to discuss the district's expectation of timely performance evaluations to all staff. Ongoing 11. The assistant superintendent revises the district's performance evaluation policy and procedure for superintendent and board approval. March 2004 12. The superintendent communicates and disseminates the district's revised policy and procedure to all LISD employees. April 2004 FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented with existing resources.
FINDING
The district does not use staffing allocation formulas as a guide before filling positions or determining positions to eliminate. A staffing allocation formula serves as a guide for school districts for determining the number of staff positions needed and is commonly linked to student enrollment. Staffing formulas also assist districts in planning, recruiting, hiring and budgeting.
TEC Section 25.111 specifies that "Except as provided by Section 25.112, each school district must employ a sufficient number of teachers certified under Subchapter B, Chapter 21 to maintain an average ratio of not less than one teacher for each 20 students in average daily attendance." Section 25.112 states that "Except as otherwise authorized by this section, a school district may not enroll more than 22 students in a kindergarten, first, second, third or fourth grade class." Exhibit 1-18 shows LISD enrollment and the student-teacher ratio for LISD and its peer districts. In 2002-03, LISD has the lowest student-to-teacher ratio compared to its peers.
Exhibit 1-18 Source: TEA, AEIS, 1999-2000 through 2001-02 and PEIMS, 2002-03.
Enrollment and Teacher-to-Student Ratio
LISD and Peer Districts
1999-2000 through 2002-03
District 1999-2000
Enrollment1999-2000
Teacher-to-Student
Ratio2000-01
Enrollment2000-01
Teacher-to-Student
Ratio2001-02
Enrollment2001-02
Teacher-to-Student
Ratio2002-03
Enrollment2002-03
Teacher-to-Student
RatioLISD 1,651 1:12.6 1,682 1:11.8 1,817 1:11.1 1,890 1:10.9 Glen Rose 2,569 1:10.4 2,693 1:10 2,790 1:10.5 1,678 1:12.0 Wimberley 1,596 1:14.2 1,614 1:14.7 1,652 1:13.9 1,812 1:13.3 Barbers Hill 1,625 1:14.4 1,663 1:14.3 1,732 1:14 2,945 1:14.5 Ingram 1,516 1:12.2 1,463 1:11.8 1,497 1:11.8 1,510 1:12.0 In April 2003, the district declared financial exigency and the interim superintendent recommended eliminating 36 positions for a total savings of $1,478,698 beginning in 2003-04. Thirty-five teaching positions and one nurse position were eliminated. After the reduction-in-force, LISD will have a total of 145 teachers districtwide, excluding special education and federally-funded teaching positions. If enrollment stays at or near the 1,890 for 2002-03 in 2003-04, the teacher-to-student ratio will rise to 1:13, still below the state averages of 1:14.7.
Exhibit 1-19 shows the staffing inconsistencies at Packsaddle and Llano Elementary for pre-K through grade 4 enrollment for 2002-03 compared to the district's projected enrollment of pre-K through grade 5 in 2003-04. The grade 2 class has 73 students and four teachers resulting in an 18:1 teacher-to-student ratio, while Llano Elementary has 67 students in grade 2 and five teachers for a 13:1 ratio.
Exhibit 1-19 Source: District enrollment reports, 2002-03 and principal interviews.
Packsaddle Elementary and Llano Elementary
Pre-K Through Grade 5
2002-03
2002-03 Packsaddle
Elementary
StudentsPacksaddle
Elementary
TeachersTeacher-
to-Student
RatioLlano
Elementary
StudentsLlano
Elementary
TeachersTeacher-
to-Student
RatioPre-K 32 1 1:32 30 1 1:30 K 81 4 1: 20.3 74 4 1: 18.5 1 86 5 1:17.2 91 5 1:18.2 2 73 4 1:18.3 67 5 1:13.4 3 60 3 1:20 84 5 1:16.8 4 69 4 1:17.3 75 5 1:15 Total 401 21 1:19.1 421 25 1:16.8 Personnel - Part 2
