Thompson School District

Thompson School District

Vision 2020 Strategic Plan

Project Definition Document

Focus Area: Responsible Stewardship

Project Leads: Mike Jones and Steve Towne

Primary Lead: Mike Jones

Revision History

The following revisions have been made to this document:

Date

/

Name

/

Version

/

Revisions Made

2/18/11 / Mike Jones, Steve Towne, Annette Overton, Stuart Thomas / 1.0 / Created original plan
2/18/11 / Mike Jones, Annette Overton / 1.1 / Updated original plan
3/4/11 / Mike Jones, Annette Overton, Stuart Thomas / 1.2 / Updated original plan
4/5/11 / Mike Jones, Annette Overton, Stuart Thomas / 1.3 / Continued to add project definition

Background

·  Vision 2020 was developed in 2011.

·  Responsible Stewardship is an important focus area because the district has a number of limited resources (financial, human, material) that must be optimized and aligned if we are to achieve the goals that are outlined in our strategic plan.

·  Previous strategic plans may not have recognized Responsible Stewardship as an important focus area.

Objectives / Strategies

1.  Exemplary talent and leadership development / Develop our greatest asset – people.

2.  Fiscal responsibility / Resource alignment, optimization and transparency

3.  Civic responsibility / Sustainability

Scope

The scope of this project includes:

1.  Exemplary talent and leadership development - All categories of staff

2.  Fiscal responsibility – Staff and all departments, BOE

3.  Civic responsibility – Students and staff

4.  Sustainability – Students and staff

Not included in this phase (but maybe later)

1.  Exemplary talent and leadership development - School instructional curriculum

Benefits

Benefits that may result from this and subsequent phases projects include:

·  From a Vision 2020 focus area perspective

Linkages/interfaces with other projects:

·  Responsible Stewardship supports every other focus area as well as all operations

Assumptions

·  Staff will incorporate their involvement with these activities in their annual plans / goals

· 

Approach

This project will be performed in phases. At this time, phases include:

The following activities will be performed to complete the project and produce the deliverables identified later in this document. They include:

I.  Develop Our Greatest Asset - People

1. Culture (Vision 2020 reference 4)
2. Create a culture of belonging to increase overall job satisfaction and employee retention.
3. Background

o Premise - If people feel empowered in their jobs, they feel valued and tend to stay with current employment. If I feel valued and remain here, we perpetuate a culture of belonging.

o Current retention rate at is 12-15%/year for all employee groups (verify with Vicki)

o Current ‘sense of belonging scores’ on Culture and Climate survey is ______

o Who we hire can support our sense of belonging (and creates issues for recruits who don’t feel a sense of belonging).

o There may be other factors for sense of belonging (e.g., smooth processes and clearly defined roles and responsibilities)

1. Objectives

o Increase sense of belonging and job satisfaction for staff

o Increase desired retention / Decrease hiring costs

o Increase consistency of services delivered

o Increase stakeholder satisfaction

1. Scope

o District-wide staff

o Prospective recruits and new hires

o Support for culture diversity that reflects the local community

1. Approach/Activities

o Organize project (on each cycle – determine tools and approaches to use)

o Perform best practice research on other exemplar districts with a culture of belonging

o Understand current ‘sense of belonging’ through interviews and/or surveys. Collect descriptors of current culture as-well-as quantitative stats on current demographics.

o Develop target culture (qualitative and quantitative) using a cross-functional and vertical set or participants.

o Identify gaps and develop plans to close the gap

o Develop rollout plans and rollout throughout district

o Measure new sense of belonging and repeat cycle

1. Milestones

o Start each round of each cycle in August

o Complete each cycle in May of each year

1. Assumptions

o This is envisioned to be an annual cycle

o It is assumed that one large group can develop the target culture. However, all district personnel may participate in a survey.

1. Deliverables

o Target culture definition / descriptions – this includes target qualitative behaviors and quantitative demographic characteristics (e.g., #/% of Hispanic teachers)

o District-wide measures of ‘sense of belonging’ by demographic group and other HR results (e.g., retention rates)

o PDCA process to increase sense of belonging

1. Staffing

o Lead – HR will lead this activity

o Participants – 15-30 cross-functional participants horizontally and vertically throughout the organization.

o All district staff – participate in a ½ hour survey

1. Cost and Benefits

It is anticipated that benefits will outweigh the costs for this project.

o Costs

1. Soft costs for personnel to collect data and participate in surveys and or focus groups
2. Possible costs to implement action plans (TBD)

o Benefits

1. See objectives
2. Lower recruiting and onboarding costs.

1. Recruiting (Vision 2020 reference 1, 2)
2. Recruit candidates to more closely mirror the demographics within our student and community populations.

1. Through an unbiased, equitable and professional applicant screening and interview process, select the best-qualified candidate for the position.

1. Background

o We are striving for our employee group to reflect the demographics of our student population

o We desire to hire staff who understand and support developing and teaching 21st century needs in both the classroom and in all other areas of the district (e.g., HVAC technology)

o A 1st pass on an improved recruiting process was started in 2009 (Ray’s systems alignment team). Improvements that were made as a result this effort included shifting the timing of recruiting activities, adding the online application module, better using the staffing models for licensed and classified personnel.

o In the past, HR was performing a significant amount of the hiring decision making for other departments

o In the past, the district took a passive approach to recruiting target demographics

o Applicant Online – an online application for candidates was implemented in 2009.

o An improved AppliTrack module was implemented in January of 2011

o Retention rates are believed to be on par with other nearby districts (e.g., 12% for licensed / year)

o It is believed that we can hire higher quality people through an improved hiring process

1. Objectives

o Improve the quality of hires in terms of skills, professionalism, mutual interests, etc.

o Increase diversity of TSD employee group

o Increase desired retention rate

o Increase student achievement

1. Scope

o All employee groups

o This process begins with having clearly defined position descriptions and staffing models. It includes design and development of an updated recruiting process as well as marketing and promotional programs.

o Relationships with target universities

o

1. Linkages

o Forecasting and budgeting

o On-boarding and orientation

o Community offerings for candidates

o Vision 2020 teams –

1. Robust Learning,
2. Equity in Access,
3. Culture of Excellence -
4. Healthy Constituent Relationships - community support for recruits
5. Assumptions

o We will develop a high level design for this area and then design and implement modules over a period of time

o HR will lead this effort from a project management and administrative owner perspective.

o HR will look to other departments (e.g., Learning Services, Custodians, etc) as ‘customers’ of the process. This means understanding the departments’ needs for the process, enabling departments to make hiring decisions on their own.

o We will be proactive in recruiting candidates who match district demographics

1. Approach/Activities

o Develop detail project plan and assemble project team

o Understand current system and issue areas. Understand competitive landscape in terms of compensation, sources of target candidates, community offerings

o Understand requirements of each department

o Design and develop recruiting process and tools

o Design and develop marketing and advertising program

o Update current job descriptions and compensation levels. Include higher expectations (e.g., 21st century skills) as well as improved alignment of activities. (underway spring 2011)

o Train users, pilot and/or rollout system

o PDCA

1. Deliverables

o Target demographics (process?)

o Recruiting and hiring process

o Marketing and advertising program

o Improved recruiting and hiring process

o Updated and ongoing recruiting and hiring measures

1. Cost and Benefits

o Costs

1. Online applicant system $10k / year
2. Recruiting costs for candidates of target demographics (e.g., travel and/or advertising)

o Benefits

1. Improved relationships between employees and students resulting in higher academic motivation and results
2. We will be more intentional around the recruiting process
3. Higher ability to be selective / hire the ‘right’ candidates for the district
4. Higher retention rate saving $___ per year for training and startup
5. Cost of opportunities that current workers must incur to cover to perform activities that new personnel cannot do
6. Higher quality of employees (fewer missed candidates too)
7. Higher quality of candidate pool
8. We are being more intentional in our recruiting efforts

o Summary – Net $___ savings or costs

1. Milestones

o AppliTrack – in place for all employee groups – Spring 2011

o Job description review – performed as each posting occurs

o Design of improved processes and tools, and marketing and advertising programs – Summer 2011

o Interim module delivery – Fall 2011 through Spring 2012

o Complete implementation – Spring 2012 (target)

o PDCA mode – annually starting Fall 2013

1. Professional Development (Vision 2020 reference 6, 7, 8)
2. Key Actions

o Create a professional development system that encourages lifelong learning opportunities, job skills enhancement, and leadership training for all employees.

o Increase inclusive (topics) leadership classes, trainings, and opportunities for staff, students, parents, and community members in building leadership capacity, confidence, abilities, and attributes.

o Develop a process that allows for vertical job progression (i.e., career ladder) opportunities for all employees.

1. Background

o PD System

1. TSD had a PD Department from ~1999 until 2009. This department had a director and several staff (classified, TOSA, several clerical). The scope focused on licensed employees. When consolidated, it was included with curriculum staff in Learning Services which increased focus on licensed staff. While there were anecdotal comments about results, measured results are not known.
2. A vast number of classified staff (e.g., nutritional services, custodial, transportation) is required to take ongoing classes for legal and safety reasons. This training is conducted by either the departments (in isolation) and/or by HR. The method of delivery is inconsistent. Also, inefficiencies exist as each department conducts its own training even with several departments could use the same training.
3. Courseware is being used to track PD for employees who take courses offered through the Curriculum and Instruction Department. This systems appears to be comprehensive and the system for the foreseeable future.
4. The non-instructional APT personnel do not feel they have the opportunity to continue learning.
5. Tracking of PD expenditures is very difficult as training is embedded in each department’s budget. In the last two years, PD budgets have been cut by over $1MM.
6. In the 2009/10 school year, a PD team to focus on non-instructional staff was started as a systems alignment project. The first year, an overall design of a PD system was created. Some progress on Phase II was made this year, but an overall PD system design has not been completed. The major issue with this team was that overall alignment of PD efforts was not yet in place (e.g., licensed and ESS were still in Learning Services). Also, budgets to support PD are not in place.

o Career Ladder

1. Prior to recent years, developing a career ladder for any employee group was not viewed as a priority for the district
2. Career progression is a higher priority for multiple reasons – morale, retention, recognition.
3. A career progress program for custodians was piloted this year (2010/11). Components included identifying career options and providing training for people interested in progressing.
4. Student interns were used in Transportation, HR and Facilities departments. This supports the broader career progression concepts.
5. Objectives

o Enable modeling of 21st Century skills by District personnel

o Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of workforce

o Consolidate to a common PD process and system. Keep PD activities distributed in the departments

1. Scope

o Groups – Licensed, APT, Classified + (students, parents and community members – see topics below)

o Processes – PD and Career Planning

o Topics – Leadership classes for civic responsibility for students (and parents and community members?)

o Topics – focus on core competencies for the district (leave specific topic PD remain in the departments. However, use the common system for tracking of classes)

o Technology – Courseware

o Phases - Induction and orientation through ongoing PD. See schematic below.

1. Approach/Activities

o PD

1. Major phases
2. Phase I - Develop / confirm overall PD policies and philosophy (in process – August 2011)

b.  Phase II – Start developing core competencies, curriculum, processes, etc. to meet compliance regulations (2011/12)

1. Phase III - Design common system / PD infrastructure, processes and tools (start 2013)
2. Phase IV - Build common system that can be used for all groups (2014/2015)
3. Phase V - Rollout for classified and APT (TBD)
4. for core competencies
5. for specific/unique departmental skills
6. Phase VI - Rollout for licensed staff (TBD)

o Career Ladder

1. Perform PDCA for facilities group and determine if the model will be used for other groups (2011/12)
2. Update rollout plans (2012)
3. …..
4. Assumptions

o PD

1. Work completed by the prior PD teams is used as input
2. Overall ownership of the common system will be clarified and consolidated under one department (e.g., HR)

o Career Ladder

1. Milestones

o See approach section

1. Deliverables (over the next 10 years)

o PD

1. Leadership
2. A target culture to support new PD practices.
3. Leadership across the District for PD across all employee groups
4. Process and Standards
5. Policies for PD for APT and Classified groups
6. Definitions of competencies for in-scope employee groups
7. Detailed PD process to support all employee groups.
8. Supporting PD curriculum for in-scope employee groups
9. Tools to implement Professional Development Plans (PDP)
10. Linkages established with major external sources of PD (e.g., universities)
11. Technology
12. A centralized and shared catalogue of internal instruction available
13. Scheduling, delivery and tracking software
14. Other
15. Suggested PD budgets for APT and Classified personnel
16. District-wide system for tracking PD expenditures

o Career Ladder