Update on Study of School-Site Administrative and Clerical Workload

Transcription

1 Update on Study of School-Site Administrative and Clerical Workload Los Angeles Unified School District Personnel Commission January 9, 2002 Anita M. Ford, Personnel Director Virginia Austin, Senior Personnel Analyst Carla Chatman, Associate Personnel Analyst

2 BACKGROUND In August of 2001, Superintendent Romer requested that the Personnel Commission conduct a study of the noninstructional administrative and clerical workloads at regular elementary and secondary schools. The purpose of the study is to identify ways of reducing and managing work that is not directly related to the instructional program to enable principals and other certificated administrators to more fully concentrate on the instructional program and to alleviate the workload of the clerical staff. Two Personnel Commission staff members have been assigned responsibility for conducting the study under the general supervision of the Personnel Director. Both staff members hold graduate degrees in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the project lead has over ten years of experience within the District, including human resources work that involved school administrators and school administrative assistants. (Incidentally, it is recognized that this is an ambitious study for two analysts.) An Oversight Committee was formed for several purposes. One reason is to provide the study with additional resources. A second reason is to focus the attention of central office representatives who are involved in non-instructional work performed at school sites on the need to alleviate demands placed on schools. Also, such central offices will most likely be needed to implement changes. Their input affords valuable information regarding the feasibility and implementation of District-wide changes as well as relevant District history. In addition, these and other central office staff were selected for their pertinent knowledge and expertise. A local district superintendent was also included to provide that organizational perspective. Unions were asked to participate in the Oversight Committee to afford increased communication and address relevant concerns and suggestions expressed to them by their members. Likewise, school-based employees were selected in order to provide direct input from the most impacted employees. School-based members were nominated by a variety of sources including unions, staff, and members of the Business Services Division Principals Ad Hoc Committee. See Appendix A for a table detailing the composition of the Oversight Committee. Additional District staff serve as consultants and resources. These include the Director, Personnel Research and Assessments; a Coordinator, Program Evaluation and Research; the Assistant Superintendent, Planning, Assessment, and Research; the Administrator, Administrative Training and Support Section of the Information Technology Division (ITD); and the Classified Training Services Coordinator. STUDY COMPONENTS The study entails several methods of data gathering, including: Collecting and reviewing relevant background information from the Personnel Commission, Certificated Human Resources, and other relevant central offices. Focus group with school-site staff. Focus group sessions were held with Senior Office Assistants from secondary counseling and attendance offices, and six groups of school- 1/18/2002 Page 1 of 6

3 site staff, broken down by school type (elementary, middle, and high school) and job type (Principal and School Administrative Assistant). Individual participants for all focus groups were solicited from all eleven local district offices. In addition, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) provided one third of the names of principals to participate. Focus group sessions with the Classified School Office Procedures Trainers. Site visits at approximately 10 % of regular K-12 schools selected by stratified random sampling. Sampling criteria include the management challenge composite factor (which contains factors such as number of certificated and classified and employees, school calendar, Title I designation, number of special education classrooms, number of English Language Learners, student activities, and single administrator at large elementary schools close to the norm cut-off for receiving an Assistant Principal), school calendar (year-round versus traditional), enrollment size, and number of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). (These criteria were selected based on information gathered from the focus group sessions attended by school-site staff.) Appendix B shows the proposed stratified random sample. A site interview and observation guide is being developed to assist in gathering information that is comprehensive and consistent in nature. This document will contain specific questions that will be asked of each person being interviewed. This guide is based on information gathered from the focus groups and other sources, such as meetings with ITD training staff and School Fiscal Services Managers. It will be made available to the Human Resource Committee after it is finalized. As much background data as possible on the selected sites are being obtained from centralized sources prior to meeting with principals, school administrative assistants, senior office assistants, and office assistants. Site visits serve the purposes of quantitative data gathering for analysis and development of a written survey. Administration of a written survey that can be quantitatively analyzed. This survey is to be mailed to all regular elementary and secondary schools. It is to be developed from information gathered from the focus groups and site visits. Please refer to Appendix C for a study timeline that includes steps completed to date and estimated completion dates for project milestones. After all data are analyzed, a draft report of findings and recommendations will be provided to the Oversight Committee and be made available to all interested parties for input. In light of current budget constraints, to the extent possible, those recommendations that have a minimal financial impact will receive priority for immediate implementation. A final report will be provided to the Superintendent. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, ACTIONS A number of common themes and suggestions were identified by the focus groups, some of which had potential for immediate, low cost implementation. Where feasible, Oversight Committee members and other staff have been involved in pursuing positive changes as the study continues so that schools may benefit from these actions as quickly as possible. 1/18/2002 Page 2 of 6

4 Information obtained from the focus groups and follow-up discussions with the Oversight Committee and other knowledgeable staff have yielded the following preliminary findings. Administrators and clerical staff report being overwhelmed with work that cannot be completed within assigned work hours. Principals typically work an extra two to four hours on week days and come in on Saturday or Sunday to complete paperwork. (These hours do not reflect the time that high school principals spend attending athletic and other student events.) Many School Administrative Assistants and Senior Office Assistants work extra hours in an effort to meet the overwhelming demands that are continuously made of them. This is further aggravated during peak workload periods, such as the beginning of the school year and during track changes at year round schools. There is a belief that more workload items have been added to the schools over recent years without eliminating other tasks or providing adequate resources needed to meet the new demands. Three such examples are the increase in the number of special education students and the legal compliance reporting required, intersession, and the new bar-code textbook inventory system. Also, it is believed the nature of the typical student has changed to one that requires more attention and services. A large number of programs and services have been added before and after school hours. It is acknowledged that although this is often advantageous for students, it creates more work and responsibilities for school staff in addition to the programs staff. Furthermore, schools with year-round calendars experience more complexities and challenges from having several tracks of students and teachers and having no down time between the closing and opening of the school year. A number of suggestions were offered by focus group participants regarding staffing. Specific detailed information is needed and will be collected during the study. Suggestions concerned the number of positions, the type of positions or job classifications, and the knowledge and skills of the individuals to fill the positions. For example, who should do the accounting required for the school budgets at the elementary level and at the secondary level, and what knowledge and skills do they need to do it? Additionally, a suggestion was made to explore the feasibility of utilizing available discretionary funds for the purpose of purchasing additional positions. Following are some of the preliminary issues and avenues for improvement that are currently being pursued by District staff as a result of the study and the Oversight Committee s work, as well as recommendations which will require further research and work. 1) Issue: Revisions of District bulletins often do not clearly specify the content or section that has changed. This causes staff to waste time figuring out what has changed. Action: The Superintendent s office will be more diligent in checking and ensuring that revisions clearly pinpoint the changed content or section. 2) Issue: Oversight committee members also noted that inter-office memos are sometimes used incorrectly, in place of a pink memo, such as to request data from a large number of schools. Action: It was suggested that a bulletin be issued that explains District policy and clearance procedures regarding bulletins and memos. 1/18/2002 Page 3 of 6

5 3) Issue: Old cumulative records are taking up valuable space in school offices and rooms because the District s central Microfilm Unit has not picked them up for years. Action: ITD is reviewing document imaging systems that can more efficiently archive paper records before they are destroyed. The Oversight Committee requested that the Information Technology Division (ITD) arrange for off-school site storage space for the cumulative records as soon as possible to alleviate this problem at schools while waiting for the new system to be implemented. ITD has indicated that a Request for Proposals has gone out for a document imaging system and proper paper storage for the back logged records at schools. Unfortunately, funding for its implementation has been cut from this year s budget. 4) Issue: Central and local district offices often request data that would seem to be available on District-wide computer systems, such as attendance data on the Secondary Student Information System (SIS). (The Elementary SIS does not have an attendance tracking feature.) Action: It was found that an interface/communication is lacking between the Secondary SIS and the system that the central office uses to generate the reports sent to the State. The central office hand enters the data from the Statistical Reports submitted by all the schools and submits the principals authorization signatures to the State with the Districtwide report. Adequate funding for appropriate computer systems that can address such issues seems to have been the primary obstacle. If and when the computer system interface issue is addressed, the State would need to approve an electronic signature process in order to eliminate any paper to be submitted by schools. Please note that the Oversight Committee has been informed that adoption of an Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) is under consideration, with implementation several years away. The Oversight Committee has requested that the Chief Information Officer share her technology plan with them. This has been placed on February s meeting agenda. ITD has also indicated that it is working on ways for information from existing databases to be accessed and integrated for analyses as the new web-based Decision Support System does for instructional related data. 5) Issue: School-level users of District computer programs, such as School Administrative Assistants and Senior Office Assistants, believe that programs are not set up as effectively and user friendly for them as possible and that they are not involved in the initial developmental stage of new and revised programs in order to maximize their effectiveness, efficiency, and user friendliness. Action: ITD has expressed agreement with such an approach; it was utilized in creating the new Decision Support System. (Central, intermediate, and end/school users were all involved with its development.) Other departments which are responsible for new and revised computer systems also need to be informed of this issue. 1/18/2002 Page 4 of 6

6 6) Issue: Many or most school offices lack internet connections, and therefore, cannot access District forms and other resources offered via the internet. Focus groups also report that many schools seem to lack sufficient up-to-date computers. Action: ITD has started implementation of a plan to follow up E-Rate connections to classrooms with appropriate incidental administrative connections to offices. This plan is currently being updated. 7) Issue: Some forms, such as teacher evaluations (STULLs), still must be completed on a typewriter. Action: The Human Resources Division agreed to assume responsibility for the computerization of teacher evaluation forms so that they will be available to schools on either floppy disk or CDs, as well as on the Human Resources Division website. A comprehensive approach to District forms and their electronic availability will be considered later. 8) Issue: Schools are required to create and submit a variety of site plans regarding instruction, student safety, etc. These various plans are time consuming, and much of the content is basically the same across schools at the same level because of District-wide initiatives, etc. Action: The Professional Development and Elementary Education Division is working on a project that will address this issue. Together, with the Categorical Programs Office, they will create a template regarding instructional programs and plans, which will include plans on using categorical money. This template will be available in both electronic and notebook formats. It is anticipated that the School Safety Plan will be reviewed in a similar manner. 9) Issue: Office Assistants and Senior Office Assistants who are new to school based assignments frequently start the job with insufficient knowledge regarding the functions and responsibilities of school office(s); and School Administrative Assistants lack the time to properly train them. Action: Organizational Excellence (OE), the Personnel Commission s classified training program, will work with ITD s Administrative Training and Support Section to create and provide such training. OE has developed an outline of training topics based on data gathered from 20% of the District s School Administrative Assistants. It is anticipated that the training will be made available in four to six months. It was also recommended that the paid training be provided off-site prior to an office assistant or senior office assistant s first day at a school. 10) Issue: At schools with categorical funding, principals and their staff spend a lot of time organizing, coordinating, attending, and documenting meetings for several community involved committees, such as Title I, Bilingual, and School Improvement, in addition to the local school leadership council. Potential Recommendation: Use a nesting approach to consolidate the number of committee meetings as much as possible. More research is needed to determine what is permissible under current state and federal laws and what is desirable and appropriate according to a community s point of view. 1/18/2002 Page 5 of 6

7 11) Issue: A school s operating effectiveness is especially challenged when a staff member such as a School Administrative Assistant leaves and is replaced, because there is no overlap time allowed for the former employee to orient the new employee to the site/office. Potential Recommendation: Provide for one or more days of overlap time when an employee is replaced. A feasible way to do this, including any costs involved, needs to be researched. 12) Issue: Communication and coordination between/among the District/central offices and local district offices sometimes seems lacking and causes confusion and conflicting directives for school site staff. For instance, an instructional related program office may issue budget related information directly to schools without consulting with the central Budget Services office and without sending a copy to the local districts Fiscal Services Managers whose Specialists serve as the schools resource persons for questions. After the schools have received this information and probably have started working on it, the Budget Services office issues a revision or correction to the instructions. Potential Recommendation: Increase communication and coordination among central and local district offices, including determining and delineating effective pathways for authority and approval. It may be helpful for staff members of functionally related central and local district offices to meet regarding this and get the input of their schoolbased and other customers. Further work is needed to determine the best way to implement these ideas. 13) Issue: In addition to this written communication issue, the Oversight Committee also expressed a strong concern over the quality of telephone communications that schools experience when interacting with central and local district offices. They reported such difficulties as not being able to reach live bodies during working hours and not having calls returned in a timely manner. Potential Recommendation: It was suggested that a telephone and voice mail policy is needed that includes required standards to ensure that school staff members receive responsive service over the phone. For instance, there should be a requirement that all outgoing voice mail messages present the caller with an option to reach a live body. CONCLUSION It is anticipated that this study will assist schools toward improving student achievement. Additional updates will be provided, as desired, to the Human Resources Committee of the Board of Education. 1/18/2002 Page 6 of 6