Remember the room in movies where the battles are planned, equipped with maps, figures, computers, and typically a bunch of male key figureheads strategize about the war they are planning and/or their next move? Well, this is exactly what I envisioned I’d create in my first year as a director. Quick side note here – I’m a big Tom Clancy movie fan. We had a small office space that wasn’t going to be used and I needed a way to visualize the hundreds of employees who served students with IEPs and seemed to come and go weekly within our district. Being able to account for over 300 paraeducators alone was daunting. So there I was creating my personnel room (war room mentioned above). I printed, cut, and laminated each name of the over 600 employees adhering velcro to the back of each name tag. I had sections with each school on the wall (over 40 schools) and, within each school, space for the FTEs dedicated to that site. It was beautifully laid out. I felt accomplished and informed.
That feeling didn’t last long . . . within a month it became too much to maintain. My “war room” plan was too much to maintain. New hires required more printing and laminating. Staff leaves, new students, emergency support, etc. required changing the board. Maintaining the beauty and function of it would have been a full-time job. In contrast to the “war room” approach, I needed to think of something that would outlast the battle and maintain its functionality over time.
The answer was an Excel (or Google Sheets) spreadsheet. What really mattered was not the format,(computer-based, master paper copy, a wall) it was the process to maintain the list that was lacking. I couldn’t do this alone. I needed my human resources staff: secretary, program specialists, administrators, etc. Collectively, we needed to understand what we were trying to accomplish and why. We needed to address the goal weekly in order to keep up with the demands and to consistently measure our effectiveness.
So, as you and your team are planning how to keep track of your FTEs, (which is critical for a multitude of reasons) here are some things to consider:
- Establishing your current reality is important. Don’t just take the words of others. Disperse your staff to do true head counts in the classrooms/sites. This is especially important at school sites where there are numerous special education staff. People make a lot of assumptions as to who people are. Ask specifically for each person’s name.
- While you’re out there – ask each staff member for their schedule, specifically which hours they work. Don’t be surprised at the variability you will find.
- Know your contract. Double check hours, breaks, duty free, etc.
- Create a spreadsheet (Certificated and Classified) with your newfound(realtime?) collected data. Consider the following as column headings:
- Name
- Site
- Job Title
- Program (M/M, Autism, M/S, etc.)
- Total Hours
- PR # (what is this?)
- Notes (e.g. 1:1 for Student A)
- Teacher
- FTE
- Seniority date (this is important)
- Funding structure using the standardized account code structure (SACS) – this allows you to examine staffing assignments and costs in detail.
- Establish meeting dates/times at regular intervals and review each location for staff changes, new hires, leaves, etc. Involve your entire department staff in these meetings. Program specialists and/or department admins may hear things in the field that you will not. They don’t need to see confidential personnel information but definitely involve them as a part of the discussion to ensure site coverage and support to students.
This was a big learning for me and it took some time to adopt and maintain with fidelity. All that being said, after my new personnel management system was up and running, it worked well. As department level staff, we knew our business and had a plan in place to account for our staff and the money we spent. More importantly, we had a process in place that allowed us to focus on other needs – like filling vacancies!