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. Comments are closed.
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