1. PPS Leave Audit Update Human Resources February 27, 2017

2. Background
June 2012 Leave audit was conducted by the District Performance Auditor (Dick Tracy)
Audit recommendations
Recommendation updates

3. Recommendation 1:Finalize and issue General Guidelines for Employees’ Use of Common Leave Categories
2012 Human Resources developed clear guidelines for leave usage for all employees.
Guidelines have been distributed to all employees (and updated) multiple times a year since August of 2012.
2015 Human Resources started providing training for all building administrators in August around leave guidance; contract requirements; reporting protocols and sub survey data.
Protocols and procedures are shared with administrators for staff to request absences; including the strategies that HR and central were implementing and the pilot plans we were considering with PAT.
HR distributes the PPS Employee leave guidance via AllPPS at least two times a year; it is in the staff handbook that building administrators review each year when staff return and it is provided to new hires.

4. Recommendation 2: Prepare and issue regular reports on employee leave and teacher absences
2012 Human Resources created monthly leave reports for building administrators that pulls leave data from the Substitute System for Professional Educators; Special Education Para-Educators and Secretaries.
Substitute office sends building administrator’s and senior director’s monthly absence reports for them to review and monitor.
Quarterly and annual summary reports also created that are distributed to building administrators and senior leadership.
Note: slight decline in the average number of days professional educators were absent since 2012 to 2014 but we have had an increase in the number of days since and in the percentage of unfilled teacher jobs. Some attributing factors for the increase in where that we added additional FTE for Teachers and our absences in the areas of professional leave, teacher vacancies and additional school support increased.

5. Recommendation 3: Specifically assign responsibility for monitoring and managing teacher absences to school building principals
2012 Responsibility for monitoring and managing teacher absences was given to Building administrators
HR provides support to Building Administrators (through reports and performance management) in managing teacher absences

6. Recommendation 4: Principals should develop methods to monitor, review, and control teacher absences
2015 Human Resources in collaboration with Senior Directors created protocols for employees and building administrators to use:
Short leave request form for tracking and approving leave days/ trainings regarding the various contractual requirements for requesting leave
Monthly, quarterly and annual reports for Building Administrators review
Differentiated leave codes to make that are easier to understand/create consistency in reporting across PPS (e.g., Personal/Emergency leaves are now broken out as two separate leave reason codes)
In-service is broken out as In-Service-District vs. In-Service-School
Cap sub system number of Professional Development Leave days per school year for own teacher PD to align with the PPS/PAT Contract (maximum of 4)
SY created master PD calendar across function team of central office administrations to approve and monitor the number of PD trainings across PPS on any given day

7. Recommendation 5: Review existing union contracts to determine feasibility of negotiating changes in certain leave provisions, ensuring contract supports student achievement:
Last PAT contract negotiated up to 3 days of Professional Development for priority and focus schools to occur outside of the school year to reduce the time professional educators are out of their classrooms for In-service (Successful)
Contract negotiations with PAT through Interest-based Bargaining Process (IBB) to review paid leave provisions
Contract negotiations with PAT Sub-teacher contract through traditional bargaining (proposed contract changes on the table)

8. Recommendation 5: Consider establishing a pilot program to test the efficacy of an incentive program to encourage teachers to reduce absences
2012 established pilot program - PPS Wellness Works Collaborative: program funded by a grant from the Oregon Education Association (OEA) that focuses on employee health to reduce absenteeism
Partnership between PPS and the Portland Association of Teachers. Initially this program was offered to 11 schools; it was expanded to all schools in The initiatives include health awareness, diet and lifestyle changes, and exercise/active lifestyle changes to support reduced absenteeism related to illnesses
SY - decline in teacher substitutes willing to take substitute jobs; continue to increase the number of substitutes hired

9. strategies improving the substitute teacher fill rates
2015 – MOU with PAT- Pilot: Hire (7) Site Support Instructors (SSI) at our priority/focus schools which had some of the highest unfilled rates.
SY - new MOU to continue and increase SSI positions from 7 to 15
Identify and train subs willing to work at priority/focus schools (paid training; and opportunity to meet school staff)
Pay incentive for teacher substitutes to work in highest unfilled rate schools; includes paying subs to meet with the admin teams of the schools to learn about the school and their programs.
Ability for substitute teachers to purchase Jobulator (an app that notifies subs of jobs on their cell phones, immediately when job is available)