Personnel Services Cooperative Fee Schedule 1999-

Average Daily Attendance (ADA) Membership Fee Maintenance Fee Less than 500 $1,500 $1,500 501 1,000 $2,500 $2,500 1,001 1,500 $3,000 $3,000 1,501 2,000 $4,000 $5,000 2,001 3,000 $5,000 $6,500 3,001 4,000 $6,000 $7,500 4,001 7,000 $7,500 $10,000 7,001 12,000 $10,000 $12,500 12,001 30,000 $12,500 $15,000 30,001+ $0.40/ADA $1.00/ADA

Source: Region 13 Personnel Services Cooperative director.

The member districts receive a number of brochures each spring to take with them on teacher recruiting trips. The brochure describes how the cooperative works, details how to apply and provides one page of

information on each member district, such as location, number of schools and accountability ratings, awards/distinctions and salary ranges.

Member districts distribute the brochures at each college or university recruiting trip or at each job fair they attend. Member districts may also distribute additional information about their district.

Interested applicants complete a resume in a prescribed format, which they submit to the cooperative. Guidelines for completing the resume are provided in the cooperative's brochure. In completing the resume, applicants are encouraged to be as specific as possible about the types of

positions in which they are interested. As of May 2000, the cooperative had received 4,500 applications, compared to 3,000 in 1999.

Once a resume is received and scanned into the system, the system generates a letter to the candidate. The letter thanks the applicant for their interest in the cooperative and provides the name of each member district and an identification number. The applicant is instructed to call an 800 number and participate in a 25 minute automated telephone interview. The questions in the interview were prepared by the human resource staff of the member districts based upon criteria they felt was most important. Interactive voice recognition (IVR) software is used to ask the questions, score each response, and assign a point total to the candidate. At the conclusion of the interview, the applicant is asked to select, using the identification number provided in the thank you they received, to which districts he/she wants their information to be available. According to the director, one-third of the applicants selects all cooperative members. When the telephone call is completed, the applicant's portfolio is complete.

Each member district completes a written requisition form that identifies vacancies in the district with qualifications for each position. The form is updated regularly. The cooperative uses Resumix software to match words in the requisition with like words in the resumes of applicants. From that match, a district can select all the applicants who qualify for a vacant position in a selected district, or the district can select only those with a given point total on the IVR interview.

According to the director of the cooperative, 4,516 resumes were received through April 30, 2000 for applicants looking for teaching positions for the 2000-01 school year. Of that total, 21 percent of the applicants were from outside Texas, locations that cooperative members would seldom, if ever, visit on recruiting trips. This percentage is more than double that received from out-of-state applicants the prior year. According to the director, this increase is due to two factors: the cooperative is recruiting in more locations outside of Texas, and it is using an electronic resume builder on its Web site.

COMMENDATION

EISD uses the Region 13 Personnel Services Cooperative to expand the availability of teacher applicants.

Teacher turnover in EISD is high. From 1995-96 through 1998-99, turnover averaged 17.3 percent per year and reached its highest level, 23 percent in 1998-99. During this same period, the average teacher turnover in districts in Region 13 and statewide was 13.5 percent.

Eighty-two percent of the teachers responding to the TSPR written survey disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, "Teacher turnover is low." Fifty-one percent of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, "Highly qualified teachers fill job openings."

Teachers identified three key areas are contributing to recent turnover: (1) politics by the board and superintendent, (2) the management style of the superintendent, and (3) overall communication in the district, especially lack of input from teachers and other campus staff. Teacher and

community comments are detailed in Appendix B.

Organizations that have low turnover among key personnel usually have a board and superintendent who work together, continuous communication between the central office and campuses, effective site-based decision- making committees, and a leadership style that broadens and encourages input from all levels in the district. Among the examples of successful strategies employed by other organizations:

• In Spring ISD, a former superintendent who served as

superintendent for 16 years in the district spent about half his time in schools talking with principals and teachers to encourage their input and help identify any issues, concerns or problems.

• In Pearland ISD, the board president continually monitors the activities of other board members as part of the role of president to ensure the lack of micromanagement by board members.

• The Harris County Department of Education provides a service to area districts through its governance section in which board members and senior district staff are interviewed individually about concerns and working relationships. The results of the interviews are arrayed and sessions are facilitated with both groups to address key items.

• In Bastrop ISD, the superintendent and assistant superintendents meet with principals each week to allow them to raise issues and provide input.

• In Galveston ISD, principals representing all grade levels

participate as active members in weekly meetings of the district's administrative team.

• In Clear Creek ISD, the central administration conducts an annual evaluation of the organizational health of each campus to

the principal and teachers, and to identify any issues that need to be addressed through staff development or other means.

• At the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, which employs more than 1,200 people, the executive director meets in group meetings with managers and personnel at all organization levels each week to ans wer questions or respond to concerns.

Other districts use regular communication tools, such as district newsletters, to keep employees informed and to seek input. The Texas Association of School Boards developed a series of self-policing policies for school boards to use to avoid political and micromanagement

intrusion.

Recommendation 15:

Evaluate the efforts of other districts to foster communication and involvement at all organizational levels, and develop an approach that involves the board, superintendent and district staff, especially

teachers.

Tools that work elsewhere can be a starting point for EISD. They should be modified to fit the culture of EISD.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE