<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0J4q7Z_1Gytcatp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0J4q7Z_1Gytcatp00" width="1140" height="1150" ><figcaption>PLAN IMPLEMENTATION – St. Martin Parish School Supervisor Frederick Wiltz discusses the school system’s vacancy governance framework, which guides how staff vacancies are filled and empty . (Chris Landry)</figcaption></figure>Breaux Bridge – St. Martin Parish School Superintendent Frederick Wiltz explained the school system’s new framework for eliminating vacant job positions to help combat the school district’s budget deficit during this past week’s monthly School Board meeting.“As you are aware, we have been working with LEAN Frog in making some changes to how positions are dissolved, eliminated or disseminated, if you will,” Wiltz told the board. “That’s part of what you’re going to see at the December meeting when we talk about that financial aspect of how we eliminate that $500,000 (in salaries and benefits).”The school system does not have a concrete policy in place to deal with how it decides whether to eliminate a vacant position, Wiltz said, so the central office staff worked on a vacancy governance framework that the administration will use.“This is a plan that the administration has been working on the past several months and over the next few months that we want to begin using,” he said. “This came out of the organizational review that was done by LEAN Frog as well as the work session that we had in October.”Under the plan, there will be one process for deciding every covered vacancy. The administration is working to establish a long-term fiscal model that takes into account enrollment, staffing and revenue scenarios to be used in planning to help eliminate the budget deficit, Wiltz said.VacanciesWorkflow improvements have been made and others are underway to help streamline work, Wiltz said.Departments are holding strategy work sessions this month and departments are drafting measures to present to the incoming school board in January.The superintendent highlighted workflow improvements that are already in place, while others are still being made.The vacancy governance program reviews the work each position does, the demand behind that work, and what each option would cost, ending in one of four outcomes — replacing the employee, absorbing the work into other positions, redesigning the position or eliminating the position.Jobs that fall under the program are all noncertified positions, all central office positions, school administrator and school support positions and any new positions.Teacher, librarian and counselor vacancies stay under the court-ordered process.Each vacancy would move through the process in the same way.• When a job becomes open, the hiring supervisor documents the work, the workload and three years of data within three working days.• The superintendent, Human Resources and Finance work five stages in about 10 working days, with urgent roles done in one day.• The superintendent then decides from the written recommendation whether to fill the vacancy, shift the work to other employees, redesign the position or eliminate the position.• The Chief Financial Officer then logs the decision and the plan to carry it out.“That’s a big, big shift from what we’ve had in the past,” Wiltz said. Rather than advertising about an open position when someone retires, the position is evaluated. “The data is going to drive whether or not we keep the position. The data is going to rive the decision.”For roles that deal with student safety or other issues that are time critical, the process would be speeded up if possible.“It’s only the vacancy process that’s going to be sped through,” Wiltz said. “It’s not that we’re going to post the job. As you’ll see, the review adds no time to hire. A posting and interview cycle takes longer than the review is going to take. So even before we get to the point where we’re advertising for a position, we’re going through the vacancy process.”If other roles take on the work, the cost is factored into the decision whether to merge the work into other positions, Wiltz said.“Absorbing work should never be treated as free,” he said. “Added pay and extended hours are counted before we choose to absorb.”The four possible outcomes are:• Replace — the work is essential, demand is steady or rising and no other role has capacity; the job is posted and filled.• Absorb — much of the work is low value or duplicated and other roles have verified capacity; the duties are reassigned in writing.• Redesign — the work is essential but the role is built poorly; the role is split, merged, moved or reclassified before posting.• Eliminate — the work is largely legacy and can be discontinued without harm; the district’s legal counsel reviews the decision before the district acts.Wiltz said the board will receive a quarterly summary of every decision, including the position, the outcome, the date and the salary effect.A written record of the full review behind any decision is available to the board upon request.The board keeps authority on any decision it has by board policy.Wiltz also noted that during the hiring freeze, every vacancy still goes through the review process. Positions recommended for filling are held with their record until the board lifts the hiring freeze.The board attorney will review the process before it is put into use, Wiltz said.The review team will run the process on positions that are currently on hold during a trial run.Progress on the plan and the financial model will be updated at the Dec. 2 board meeting.In January, the strategic plan measures and orientation for incoming board members will be heldConsent agendaThe board approved requests for waivers of sales tax penalties in eight cases.Board member Wanda Vital noted that a lot of money was being lost if the board did not assess the penalties. But other board members including Richard Potier noted that businesses have moved out of the parish if they are forced to pay such penalties and that the school board could not afford to lose the tax base in the case of some of those big employers.Chief Financial Officer Casey Broussard also noted that the companies had all cooperated in paying the taxes and interest, and only penalties were being waived.Vital voted not to waive the penalties but the rest of the board voted in favor of waiving penalties.The consent agenda also included appointing of Angelle Bertrand David to the St. Martin Parish Economic and Industrial Development District Board of Directors to replace Jimmy Bulliard, who resigned for health reasons.</div></body>

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Breaux Bridge – St. Martin Parish School Superintendent Frederick Wiltz explained the school system’s new framework for eliminating vacant job positions to help combat the school district’s budget deficit during this past week’s monthly School Board meeting. “As you are aware, we have been working with...

School Board hears plan for dealing with job vacancies

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Breaux Bridge – St. Martin Parish School Superintendent Frederick Wiltz explained the school system’s new framework for eliminating vacant job positions to

School Board hears plan for dealing with job vacancies

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