Living Sky pursues PTR of 14.5

In a report to the board of Living Sky School Division last week, human resources superintendent Brenda Vickers said she sees the role of the department as putting an HR lens on shared goals.

HR, she said, is part of a diverse strategic team (curriculum, technology, student services) working together to offer multiple perspectives on how to achieve the desired outcomes.

"HR sometimes gets set aside as a stand alone department," said Vickers, "but not here, and I'm really grateful for that."

She described the HR department as a strategic partner at Living Sky.

"When we're discussing goals, there's always that HR lens. It's really important and I think it's the best way to do things," she said.

The HR budget works with funding that's more than just the instructional unit allowance. They also work with funding provided for staff and resources that support instruction. At a meeting Oct. 23, Vickers indicated how HR is using that funding and the instructional unit allowance to align with the board of education's overall vision.

Higher literacy and achievement is one of the board's goals, with assessment a key piece of the goal. To help meet that objective, said Vickers, HR has earmarked three FTE positions to work alongside teachers as assessment coaches.

Staffing guidelines are also in place for student support services, including educational assistants, based partly on needs as identified in student inclusion and intervention plans (IIPs).

"The higher the need, the higher the staffing," said Vickers.

Part of the reason for targeting a PTR of 14.25, which is relatively low, said, Vickers, is that lower numbers are related to better behaviours.

"Lots of our students who have behaviour issues are on IIPs, which is considered in staffing levels."

Board members asked if there was a good understanding at the administration level of how staffing decisions are made.

"Are you getting request on overstaffing, or are administrators working with the formula?" asked Kim Gartner, board member from the Macklin area.

"Most people want to know there's a reason we make the decisions we do and that still stands," said Vickers.

However, she noted she gets far fewer requests than she used to.

"I do get requests and sometimes there is a reason for a manual adjustment, but usually we send the superintendent that works with that school out to look at it," she explained.

Gartner also asked if some schools might see a higher PTR at another school as their having subsidized that difference.

"Some probably still do," said Vickers.

If there are miscommunications or misunderstandings out there, her goal in any way is to make the information clear, said Vickers. There may be a place for her at a teachers' day to explain the staffing guidelines "so they get that it's coming from a place of equity."

Unity board member Ronna Pethick added making the guidelines clear will also make the process more transparent.

Vickers said, in the fall HR looks at enrolments and does its forecasts.

"This is the first year since I arrived we didn't have to move someone in the fall," she said. "That's great, it's hard to do that."

Explaining the formula, she pointed out there are times when the PTR will be slightly off within an individual school, perhaps to allow for student population fluctuations, or because the physical staffing situation can't accommodate something like a quarter position change.

"If we staffed exactly accordant to the guidelines, and took every .25 where we should take it and put in every .25 where we should put it in, we would have a PTR system-wide of 14.29, which is slightly higher than our target, but pretty close," she said.

As of Sept. 30, the PTR was 14.4, however there are still some adjustments to be made, she said

"Kerrobert needs one, Cut Knife High School is getting .5, and the Comp [North Battleford Comprehensive High School] is getting some more student services."

Vicker's report also pointed out how HR supports student achievement by funding professional development for EAs, who are often working with students on IIPs. For example, a session with Bryan Post, a leading American child behaviour expert, was on the schedule for EAs.

"We can keep adding humans to buildings, but we also need to train those humans to know what the best way to deescalate problem behaviour is. So we're supporting that [in the HR budget]," said Vickers.

In another section of her report, Vickers said meeting changing needs is challenging.

"We don't have an unlimited budget and can't increase our PTR very much."

One of the things being done in the Battlefords, she said, is the creation of a POD system that can "jetset" paraprofessional support for emergent issues into whichever school requires it while student services determines what if any further support is required. It makes more sense than moving EAs from one school to another, disrupting the culture of each school, or hiring repeatedly on a temporary basis. POD has come to be known as Paraprofessionals on Demand, she said.

In answer to a question by North Battleford board member Richard Hiebert, Vickers said the province is no longer restrictive regarding the use of paraprofessionals.

Hiebert said, "Personally, I think EAs are worth their weight in gold, and they are very cheap compared to teachers. I think maybe a few years ago the government had the ideology that they don't want paraprofessionals, they want professionals, like psychologists and the sort. Are we still under that restriction?"

"We are not," she said, also pointing out the difference between a teacher's job and an EAs is significant and that there are guidelines in place for EA staffing levels.

"There's a base for every school," said Vickers, "and then we look at IIPs, knowing that our EAs work largely with students who have IIPs. We look at it monthly and as things emerge. I think we're well staffed."

Government funding for "instructional units" is based on a sliding scale with a PTR of 14 at the lowest end, and on school by school enrolment. However, it is the division that makes the decisions on actual staffing levels in each school, and how those staff are assigned is determined primarily at the school level.

The Ministry of Education funding manuals says the base instruction formula is not intended to prescribe the level of staffing that a board of education should allocate for each of their schools.

"Boards of education continue to have autonomy in making decisions regarding staffing levels," it states.

Enrolment figures for Living Sky School Division are up 1.97 per cent this year, above the provincial average of 1.27.

Last year's K-12 enrolment at Living Sky's 31 schools on Sept. 30 was 5,482. This year, an additional 108 enrolments brings the total up to 5,590.

Enrolments around the province's 28 school divisions are reflecting increases of up to 7.78 per cent, such as Englefeld Protestant Separate School Division, and decreases of as much as 4.22, such as that seen by the Light of Christ Catholic School Division. Light of Christ, whose schools are primarily located in the Battlefords, enrolled 85 fewer students than last year, 1,930 down from 2,015 in 2012, with a higher percentage reflective of its smaller population. Similarly, the small school division of Englefeld, which went from 90 to 97, got top spot due to its small head count.

The Sept. 30 enrolment is the figure the provincial government uses to determine any funding based on enrolment, although enrolments do fluctuate throughout the year. Government policy states school divisions that do not experience enrolment growth at the division level will be capped at Sept. 30, 2012 enrolment levels for 2013-14.