It’s hard to believe that spring sports have begun and spring break is on the horizon. Thank you for continuing to make Fort Osage a special place! You are making a positive difference each and every day! Keep up the good work! Receiving staff feedback continues to be a priority for me. Several years ago Team Fort Osage was created in order to receive feedback regarding important topics impacting the district. Two years ago I began receiving additional input from staff with the creation of the Superintendent Advisory Committee. This has proven to be valuable not only to share information but more importantly listen to areas of improvement provided by each committee. Next year I will continue both Team Fort Osage and the Superintendent Advisory Committees. More information will be provided on each committee later this spring. The salary proposals that I emailed about last week will be voted on by the Board at the March 12 meeting. Certificated contracts will be sent after spring break. Classified letters of assurance, with the new salary and placement information, will be sent in May. Separately, I will be proposing the FY 25 budget in it's entirety to the Board of Education at the June meeting. Beyond salaries the budget includes health insurance, Career Ladder, and other expenditures of the District. If you have any questions you may contact the human resources department at 816-650-7004 or email Debbie Peterson at [email protected]. The legislative session began in Jefferson City on January 4th and will end on May 10th. There are over 300 education bills that have been filed. Below are a few bills to which I’m paying special attention. HB 1989: Open Enrollment - Passed the House and now has moved to the Senate. HB 1911: Voucher Tax Credits - It would likely reduce revenue for public schools. SB 784: 5 Day School Week - Provides financial incentives to school districts who operate school five days a week. It passed out of the Senate Select Committee. SB 1392: Voucher Tax Credits - It would expand voucher programs and charter school expansion in St. Charles and St. Louis Counties as well as the City of Columbia. This bill could be expanded on the Senate floor to include Jackson and Clay Counties. HJR 21: County Assessor - Currently, Jackson County is exempt from the Missouri Constitutional provision requiring county assessors to be elected. Upon voter approval, this resolution would repeal that exemption and the county assessor would be an elected position. SB 799: Personal Property Tax - It would depreciate someone’s personal property at a faster rate which would reduce revenue. HB 2430: Personal Property Tax - Lowers the percentage assessors place on personal property from 33 ⅓% to 31%. This would cut personal property revenue by 7.4%. HB 1486: Early Childhood Expansion - It would allow districts to receive the same funding for 3 and 4 year olds as students K-12. For those of you interested, a $25.00 gift card to A Little BBQ Joint, located on 24 highway in Independence, will be given away to one lucky winner. To enter, send an email to [email protected] with "BBQ” in the subject line. Entries will be accepted until 8:00 a.m. on March 11. Giveaway prizes are not purchased with District funds. Only Fort Osage employees are eligible to enter the drawing. I’m grateful for each staff member making contributions toward student success. Thank you for the countless things you do to make our District successful. You help make Fort Osage a special place to educate students. You are truly making a difference each day! Team Fort Osage met for the third time this year on February 6th. Topics of discussion included the budget, health insurance, Career Ladder, salary studies, teacher and classified salary schedules, 2024-2025 classified work calendars, the parent teacher conference trade day, inclement weather days, Fort Connect, and legislation (information provided below on each). Budget I continue to prepare for the fiscal year 2025 budget that begins July 1, 2024. The Governor’s budget proposal includes full funding of transportation as well as the funding of Career Ladder. In recent years DESE has allowed districts to use their 2020 enrollment for state funding which has had a positive impact on revenue. That provision has ended which will decrease our revenue for the upcoming year. I must also be mindful of the state tax cut that went into effect on January 1st which will reduce state revenues by an estimated $1 billion. To end on a positive note, the levy transfer of 2021 continues to have a positive impact on our revenues for the upcoming year. Taking all things into consideration, I’m working to create a balanced budget while also making enhancements to the salary schedules. Health Insurance Fort Osage’s health insurance plan year runs from January 1 through December 31. The insurance claims that ended December 31, 2023 had an annual claims loss of 96%. In other words, for every $1.00 Fort Osage paid into the insurance fund, the provider, Cigna, was paid $0.96. This amounted to a $300,000 savings for the district. Below is the participation for each health insurance plan which began January 1, 2024 Plan 1 ($4,000 HD Local Plus) 126 people (21%) Plan 2 ($4,000 HD) 363 people (60%) Plan 3 ($3,200 HD) 50 people (8%) Plan 4 ($2,000 PPO) 67 people (11%) 606 people Career Ladder Career Ladder continues to have a positive impact on our school district. There are additional student clubs, tutoring opportunities, and more support for beginning teachers than ever before. A survey will be conducted this Spring to receive feedback to determine what has gone well and what we can improve with Career Ladder. Career Ladder Liaisons will meet to share input as well. Salary Studies It’s important that Fort Osage remains competitive with salaries for all staff. In order to achieve that goal, the district has performed various salary studies. Below is a brief history of Fort Osage’s salary studies. 2016-2017- Teacher Salary Study 2017-2018- Classified Salary Study 2022-2023- Teacher and Classified Staff Salary Studies 2023-2024- Extra Duty, Substitute Pay Rates and Administrator Salary Studies – All of these studies are close to completion My goal is to present my salary proposals to the board at the March meeting. Before the meeting we will send the proposed teacher and classified schedules to all staff as well as host a few meetings to review the changes to the extra duty schedule. As part of the substitute pay rate study, we also looked at how districts compensate for unfilled substitute teacher positions which will also be part of the March Board proposal. My goal for the administrator salaries will be to get all employees to “on market”, per the study, as we’ve done with other employees in years past. Teacher and Classified Salary Schedules As most of you may recall, probationary teachers receive a contract from the district prior to May 15 with the current year’s salary. It has been our practice to then recommend any enhancement to the schedule at the June board meeting. This year however, we plan to bring the enhanced teacher salary schedule to the Board for approval in March. The contracts that will be issued to probationary teachers following the March Board meeting will reflect the enhanced 2024-2025 teacher salary schedule. Parent Teacher Conference Trade Day The current student calendar for this year lists secondary parent teacher conferences the week of February 12th - February 15th. Elementary parent teacher conferences are the week of March 11th - March 15th. For certified teaching staff that work the additional 8 evening hours during the designated parent teacher conference week, the trade day for that time will be on March 29th. This was the best solution for the various calendar hurdles this year. For building secretaries, please consult with your administrator on managing your working hours during conference week. Inclement Weather Days DESE requires every school district to attend 1,044 hours in a school year. Fort Osage’s calendar starts with 1,104 hours (60 hours above DESE’s minimum requirement). The first five inclement weather days are AMI and are counted as hours in attendance. After the AMI days have been utilized the hours missed begin to be subtracted from our original calendar. Based on DESE's formula, we will meet the requirement of 1,044 hours because once a certain threshold of inclement weather hours are missed, hours over that threshold are forgiven. *Note DESE defines inclement weather as ice, snow, extreme cold, excessive heat, flooding, or a tornado.* 2024-2025 Classified Work Calendars The work calendars for next year will go to the board for approval on February 13. These calendars are created from the recently Board approved student calendar. The number of scheduled days for all staff remains consistent with this year’s working calendar. Based on input from the calendar survey and Classified Directors, two changes will be made to the calendars for approval. The first change increased the number of holidays for 11 and 12 month employees (from ten to eleven) and the second change adjusted the AMI make-up plan for 144 and 177 day employees in order to provide compensation for the five potential AMI days. Calendars will be distributed to buildings after Board approval and will contain additional information. Please reach out to your supervisor with any additional questions. Fort Connect Nearly 300 people attended the ribbon cutting ceremony at Fort Connect on January 16 at the new Eastgate Commerce Center along Little Blue Parkway. It was a historic day for Fort Osage as students began using the 13,500 square foot space to engage in client based projects. I couldn’t be more excited about the partnership created between Fort Osage and North Point, the owners of the building. North Point invested $1.5 million to construct the space for our students and staff to utilize. Further, the district signed a 20 year lease which costs $10 per year. The most exciting thing about this entire project is the student engagement that is occurring each day in the new program. Legislation The legislative session began in Jefferson City on January 4th and will end on May 10th. There are over 300 education bills that have been filed. Below are a few bills that I’m paying special attention to. HB 1989- Open Enrollment- Recently passed the House and now has moved to the Senate SB 727- Voucher Tax Credits- It would likely reduce revenue for public schools SB 799- Personal Property- It would depreciate someone’s personal property at a faster rate (by 99.9% over 12 Years) which would reduce revenue. HB 1486- Early Childhood Expansion- It would allow districts to receive the same funding for 3 and 4 year olds as students K-12. For those of you interested, a $20.00 gift card to QT will be given away to one lucky winner. To enter, send an email to [email protected] with "QT” in the subject line. Entries will be accepted until 8:00 a.m. on February 12. Giveaway prizes are not purchased with District funds. Only Fort Osage employees are eligible to enter the drawing. I can’t believe 2023 is nearing its end. I’m proud of the many accomplishments the District’s students and staff have had the past year. There is certainly much to celebrate as we enter 2024. Thank you for your continued work to make Fort Osage a special place to educate students. Enjoy your much deserved break! Team Fort Osage met for the second time this year on December 6. It was a productive meeting with exceptional feedback provided by the committee. There was discussion about the budget, Career Ladder, health insurance, salary and benefits summary, salary studies, school calendar, and superintendent advisory committees (information provided below on each). The next Team Fort Osage meeting is scheduled for February 1. Budget The state is fully funding the foundation formula and transportation, however, the year to date state revenues are down as compared to this time last year. I’ve continued to monitor the court case involving two Jackson County business owners vs. Jackson County regarding assessed valuations. A hearing was held on December 13 in front of the Missouri Supreme Court to determine whether to dismiss the case or move it to trial. On December 19 the Supreme Court dismissed the case, keeping the assessments at the 2023 values. Career Ladder Beyond providing additional income for certificated staff, there have been tremendous opportunities for students created by Career Ladder. This year 40% of the school districts in Missouri participated in Career Ladder. The state is funding 60% of the cost which left Fort Osage budgeting $750,000 to fund its portion of Career Ladder. Health Insurance The insurance will renew on January 1, 2024. Fort Osage will remain with the SipGKC consortium with Blue Springs, Grain Valley, and Smithville School Districts. The health insurance provider will remain with Cigna. The Consiglio Wellness Center continues to be a strong point for the district’s membership of the consortium. If you have any health insurance questions please contact Laura Ford, Benefits Coordinator, at [email protected]. Salary and Benefits Summary The team provided positive feedback about receiving the salary and benefits summary in the mail this fall. The information is helpful to know all the benefits provided by the district. Salary Studies After completing the teacher and classified salary studies last year, the district is performing additional studies this year including the extra duty assignments, administrator/director salaries and substitute teacher pay rates. Once the information is received by the company performing the study, the data is reviewed, and next year’s budget is prepared, I will make recommendations to the board along with all other salary enhancements. 2023-2024 school calendar Feedback was provided on the two 2023-2024 calendar options. The staff survey closed Monday, December 18th and input is being reviewed. The final draft of the student calendar will be recommended to the board in January. Superintendent Advisory Committees I have continued to meet with each superintendent advisory committee this year. The committees have provided an opportunity to disseminate information, celebrate accomplishments, and discuss areas of improvement. |
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