| 0:01:51 | Citizen: no raises for SAU staff | David Putnam, citing his years as "board chair of both the board and the school board", says budget increases should follow a superintendent evaluation that includes the superintendent's evaluation of his staff (0:02:32), and that in the community's view "raises for SC staff is not warranted because of the deficiencies which are outlined in this report" (0:03:16), meaning the consultants' organizational study presented on November 16. | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:50 | Budget review opens | Chair: "You all received a budget. I still can't open it a day or so ago and we should go through it." She is "having trouble opening Excel at the moment". The public copy reached the packet folder at 12:57 p.m. that day. The chair reminds members that "the budget I had asked for last meeting included the HR position, and that's what we were sent" (0:04:30). [Total $2,046,679.61 against $1,795,945.22 budgeted for FY23, up $250,734.39 or 13.96%; Claremont's share 90.20% ($1,846,089), Unity's 9.80% ($200,591).] | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:28 | Seaman's overview | "The only major change on staffing number of staff is that position" [the HR director]; replacement staff came in at different salaries; the cost-of-living increase "has been set at 6.5% as a starting point for discussion" (0:05:56). | |
| 0:06:24 | Line 1: information management salaries | Chair: "it shows an 11.7 or 11.8% increase over the fi 23 budget". Seaman: part cost of living, "part of it is a replacement employee" hired at a higher salary (0:07:04). [$128,338.00 to $143,442.46.] The minutes record this as "the eleven percent increase". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:00 | Stipends or reimbursement | Chair: "the reimbursement would be a tax deductible to the say, you, whereas the stipend is taxable because it's income to the individuals". Sprague says stipends carry retirement costs; Seaman: "These are considered stipends and therefore not a part of the retirement reporting." (0:10:38); Sprague: "they are part of the income of the person, the total income" (0:10:46). Sprague: "I can get a brand new Apple iPhone 14" at "about $50 a month with service" (0:11:19). Horsky: "I'm honestly completely against it" (0:12:43). [Cell phone stipend lines total $5,500 and mileage stipend lines $10,500 in FY24; each shows $0 in the FY23 budget column and the same amount in the FY22 actual column.] | |
| 0:14:00 | Mileage basis | Chair asks how the mileage figures were set and who is covered. Tempesta: "all I did was roll over the existing contract that I had" (0:14:43). Sprague: superintendent mileage plus travel: "That's $8,500 for travel mileage." (0:15:22). Tempesta offers a breakdown (0:16:02). | |
| 0:16:38 | SAU telephone | Seaman: the SAU landline cost has been "picked up in the Stevens High School invoice" and should be allocated out (0:17:11). [$2,500 budgeted; $0 actual in FY22.] | |
| 0:17:44 | HR director and HR coordinator | Chair: the staffing page shows "the director and the coordinator salaries are very similar". Tempesta: the director pay is low; two earlier industry candidates were "well into six figures" (0:19:08). Sprague: "let's just hire another person and pay them 120,000 a year" is not a process (0:21:16); "this needs to be a thoughtful process" (0:21:56). Chair: the study recommended job descriptions for every SAU position (0:22:33). [Human Resources department new in FY24: $200,890.07 with benefits; salaries $130,332.25.] | OBSERVATION |
| 0:23:39 | Why HR, per the administration | Tempesta: leaves, certifications and qualifications are "standard HR functions"; "we also have one of the highest, turnover rates" (0:24:08); "exit interviews have been hit or miss" (0:24:37). Koski: "other people are picking up pieces that we can't run out of one office right now" (0:25:42). | |
| 0:26:24 | Health insurance | Petrin: "It looks like an increase of about 90,000 in that ballpark." Seaman: the projected rate increase "was close to 12%." (0:27:05). Horsky: "it's almost 60% increase from line to line" (0:27:32). Seaman: plan changes from single to family coverage drive the lines and he will lay them out by person (0:29:16, 0:38:00). Sprague: "What percentage of health insurance employees pay?" Seaman: Zero. (0:30:01, 0:30:07); "Is it typical in industry. No." (0:30:19). | |
| 0:30:56 | Custodial supplies | Skillen on the $500 line: "I personally spend more than $500 in a year on toilet paper" (0:31:29). The line covers only the SAU building, the Dow (0:31:19); cleaning supplies come from the supply line (0:31:47). | |
| 0:32:33 | Electricity and fuel oil | Horsky: going from the FY22 actual to the FY24 figure "seems like it's a little light in my in my judgment" (0:33:24). Seaman: the tanks were filled at last year's prices, and "whatever we're using in November and December will be a better idea" (0:34:14). [Electricity $6,031.79 actual in FY22, $2,200 budgeted for FY23, $6,200 proposed; fuel oil $7,626.87, $1,500 and $7,800.] | |
| 0:35:17 | Business office contracted services | Seaman: this year's contractor helped with "working our way through some of the audit work and trying to get the audits caught up going forward" (0:35:28); nothing is identified for next year, but "we're not searching for projects, but inevitably we end up with one" (0:36:20). [$15,000 budgeted for FY23 and proposed for FY24.] | |
| 0:38:37 | Seaman's HR role | Sprague: "So Richard I'm looking at your title assistant superintendent finance ops and HR. So what is your role in HR." Seaman: "Managing HR overseeing HR." (0:38:46). Tempesta on whether those duties continue once a director is hired: "Yeah I think they wouldn't continue." (0:39:08). | |
| 0:39:56 | Data systems specialist raise | "About a $9,300 race" [raise] (0:40:02). Seaman: "we are significantly under paying that position" compared with similar posts (0:40:14). Skillen asks whether one person is both data specialist and food service manager (0:42:42); Tempesta: yes (0:42:56). Heather Whitney: the concern is "a precedent that we were trying to avoid, which was just generating jobs to fit people" (0:46:22) and "creeping job descriptions" (0:46:29). Koski: "we're not a big enough district to have a data analyst" (0:47:19). | |
| 0:47:58 | Receptionist hours | Horsky asks why the receptionist rises from half time. Seaman: "30 hours a week?" (0:48:57) and "0.5 just wasn't quite enough" (0:49:10). | |
| 0:49:49 | Claremont staff serving both districts | Petrin asks about two positions in Claremont's budget that serve the whole SAU. Seaman: the out-of-district coordinator and the Medicaid clerk, the latter in a bargaining unit (0:50:24). Horsky: "Have we been back billing unity for services?" Seaman: "We have not." with no time sheets kept (0:51:49). A Unity member: "We did start back billing for both Medicaid and the out of district coordinator in 1920." [2019-20] (0:52:13). Horsky: "Clear answer on that?" (0:52:41). Seaman: "Those are two separate questions." (0:52:52). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:52:56 | What HR should do, and at what pay | Chair: "I'm thinking that 70,000 is low for a salary." (0:53:53). Tempesta: 400 to 450 district employees (0:54:36). Sprague presses on what the HR office does in hiring (0:57:00). Horsky: "I definitely can't justify it being a $100,000 a year position" (1:01:42). Chair: a clear position description "before any hiring would be done would be incredibly important" (1:02:52). Skillen: "people do make six figures in these professions in the real world" (1:03:20). Petrin: "HR is not just hiring" (1:04:45). Chair: "it doesn't sound like we have a job description that demands a six figure salary" (1:05:37). Horsky on total compensation: "I haven't ever had an employer pay 100% of my medical." (1:09:38). | |
| 1:10:07 | Fund it now or wait a year | An unidentified member: "We do need to have a budget, Richard, I guess by the end of December for the say yes." [SAU] and job descriptions will not be ready by then. "I'd say put it off for a year." (1:11:27). Chair: "I don't think we can put it off for a year." (1:11:33). Sprague: the need is to avoid "that logjam over the summertime" (1:12:04). Petrin: "We wouldn't have the onboarding problem if we don't have the turnover problem." (1:12:58). Horsky: "there should be a policy before adding any position in this district that we have a properly vetted job description before it ever hits the board" (1:13:39); "it's putting the cart before the horse" (1:14:09). | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 1:14:21 | Citizen on the HR debate | The chair asks "Does anybody have a concern with that?" before recognizing David Putnam. He cites "your assistant superintendent, Mr. coffee" [Koski] (1:14:44) on HR work landing on administrators' desks: "So learn all your job descriptions" (1:15:51). Chair: the subcommittee's goals are meant to address "many of the issues that have come up tonight" (1:16:23). | POSITIVE |
| 1:17:12 | Raises and the HR line | Sprague wants "the raises reduced to 3% instead of 6.5". Seaman: "Each percent is about 12,000." (1:17:39). Sprague: "I would suggest leaving the HR line saying." [same] with a competitive salary for the lead (1:17:57). Skillen: the director "should be making, at least six figures in their annual salary" (1:18:45). Seaman: "we don't have any pure administrators in the, in the school district" (1:19:12). Horsky: with the line near $200,000, "the total dollar amounts are fine" (1:21:29). | |
| 1:22:04 | Contracted services, cell phones, mileage | Sprague: "Contracted services like to change that from 15,000 down to 5000." On the superintendent's $2,500 phone stipend: "I don't know how you spend that much on a cell phone" (1:22:39); "I feel comfortable cutting this budget by about 50." (1:22:56). Horsky: "I think the cell phone stipend needs to go away" (1:23:35). Skillen: "So let's pay $50 a month per person for the cell phones." (1:24:45). Sprague on mileage: "Everybody else has to do it in the district." Seaman: "Except for a certain number of the senior employees of the essay." [SAU] (1:27:38, 1:27:51). Chair: "I think there should be a policy in place" (1:28:15). | |
| 1:28:47 | Employee share of health premiums | Ruggeri: "If we moved everyone to a 10% co-pay" [premium share] "that would equal 33,000 based on the fiscal year 24 proposed budget" and raises could stay (1:30:03), with "10% of that increase is paid with the employees as well as the district" in later years (1:30:35). Horsky: "you can't mess with the contracted value amount" (1:31:00); Seaman: "Everyone is a year to year. No one's in a negotiated entity." (1:31:31); chair: "No, Mike is the only contract we don't see." (1:31:58). Horsky: "it'll be tougher to fill positions" (1:33:33). Tempesta: other bargaining units are at 93% to 97% employer share (1:34:05); Seaman: Vermont schools "are contractually required to be at 80, 20" (1:34:20). Tempesta: "It would be good to see the scenarios of the insurance." (1:35:02). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:55 | Line 3 and the 6.5% comparison | Chair on "the the like 151% increase" in line 3 [information management health, $23,496.00 to $59,194.80]. Seaman: "The budget for this year is based on last year's actual staff." (1:36:15). Petrin: "We have almost $40,000 in contracted services." (1:36:43); "The increases for teachers or, you know, maintenance or secretaries are not 6.5%." (1:37:09). Seaman: a teacher moving a step "would see a 6.5% increase because there's an increase in the base plus an increase that comes from the step" (1:37:28); SAU posts "are basically market value positions" (1:38:27). | |
| 1:38:47 | Action items read back | Chair: "We want to see, the budget with a reduction of the raises to 3%. We want to leave the HR line the same, remove business or reduce business office contracted services by ten K from 15 to 5." (1:38:57); cell phone stipend still to be defined (1:39:18); "Looking at mileage done as a reimbursable expense." (1:39:30); insurance share "try 95% and then several different raises" and a contracted-services breakdown (1:39:36). Seaman adds a health breakdown, "A utilities analysis to be sure we have enough in there on utilities" (1:40:02), the data specialist "salary analysis because of the increase recommended for that" (1:40:23), and whether to move the two Claremont positions into the SAU (1:40:59). Job descriptions for the "HR director and data specialist." (1:44:00). | POSITIVE |
| 1:41:33 | Payroll taxes on stipends | Sprague asks whether the Social Security lines include stipend withholding. Seaman: they should; "Now the question is whether my model included it that way." (1:42:02). | |
| 1:42:15 | Job descriptions as a budget condition | An unidentified member: "I'll be reticent to approve a budget that doesn't have that." (1:42:36), and of the data specialist, "how would we justify that almost $50,000 salary?" (1:42:59). | |
| 1:44:10 | Next meeting | The 15th, two weeks out (1:44:12). Chair: "We have clear action items that will go into the minutes hopefully." and "Send out action items." (1:44:16); "I will not be at the next meeting. My daughter is getting married to." (1:44:48). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:45:09 | Superintendent evaluation | Chair: "we have not had an evaluation process in quite a number of years"; the subcommittee is folding the study's recommendations into "a multi-year superintendent set of goals" (1:45:39); the handout in the packet is not the latest version. Goals include HR procedures for onboarding, evaluations and exit interviews (1:47:23). Retreat proposed "on the 12th, which is a Thursday" (1:48:53), aiming to "complete a successful evaluation process by June" (1:50:06); "another possibility is January 26th" (1:50:46). | |
| 1:51:41 | Citizen: outside facilitator | David Putnam suggests "having a consultant from the Hampshire school Boards of help guide you" [New Hampshire School Boards Association] (1:51:50): "Marjorie, I think you should be separate from being the leadership for that type of process and have a consultant leader." (1:52:15). Tempesta: Will [Phillips] has offered; "He's offered to help our policy committee review virtually." (1:52:31). Chair: "We could see if Will's available." (1:52:43). | POSITIVE |
| 1:53:50 | Adjournment | "I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting." Voice vote; chair: "I think this was good discussion." (1:53:57). | |