In Brief: Novi Maintenance Staff Takes Concessions, Full-time AD to Be Hired

The maintenance employees have agreed to wage and benefits concessions, which were approved by the Novi Board of Education Thursday night.

The union agreed to the concessions Monday after the district investigated outsourcing the services and found that it would result in up to a $130,000 cost savings this school year, which the board discussed at its Sept. 15 meeting. The district promised to allow the union to counter-offer, and their concessions will save as much as privatization would have.

"We pay our groundsmen more money than some of these private companies do, but our groundsmen do a lot more than just cutting grass. I'd say all these guys do more than what they're positions say. They're multi-faceted," said Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Steve Barr.

The concessions include the following:

• Wage concessions for 2011-2012
  
  • HVAC, Electrician, Carpenter $21.86-$24.45/hour (currently $23.09-$25.68/hour)
  • Grounds/General Trades $20.86-$23.45/hour (currently $23.09-$25.68/hour)
  • General Trades $19.90-$22.52/hour (currently $21.13-$23.75/hour)
• Elimination of longevity, in which employees currently get 3-9 percent for years of experience in the job
• Medical insurance plan changes, including significant changes in deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance
• Implementation of hard cap for insurance premium sharing, resulting in a 25 percent reduction
• Wage and benefits freeze for 2012-2013
• Morning and afternoon breaks eliminated from contract
• Not filling a vacant plumber position and having the other employees do the work

Several members of the board expressed their thanks to the maintenance staff of seven employees for agreeing to take cuts.

"The fact that you all were ready to step up to the plate and say 'We're going to be part of the solution' was huge, and obviously you've proven that that was a very sincere effort on your part. And I'm sure it wasn't easy, and we do really appreciate it" said trustee Bobbie Murphy.

Novi looking to hire full-time athletic director

After exploring different options, Novi has decided that hiring another full-time athletic director would be best for the district.

After Curt Ellis in September, Superintendent Dr. Steve Matthews decided that it would be an opportune time to examine the position and see if any changes could be made to save money or resources.

Matthews discovered that Novi's extensive and popular athletics program required another full-time employee. In preparation for this possible decision, the district has already begun interviewing applicants and will now continue the interviewing and hiring process. Matthews said he hopes to fill the position by the end of the calendar year. An has been filling in for the past month.

Novi has approximately 900 students who participate in high school athletics, or 44 percent of the student body.

Matthews spoke with central office employees and conducted forums with staff, students and parents to gather feedback on what would be best for the district.

One option the district looked into was sharing an athletic director with Northville High School, but Northville representatives did not think it was feasible to share at this time.

Another option investigated was to share services with the City of Novi's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department. This option was nixed because the needs of the schools and city are greatly different. Also, the schools need an employee affiliated with the district to hire and evaluate coaches who are also school employees. Plus, teams must be affiliated with a school district to compete in the MHSAA.

A third option looked at was giving the athletic director responsibilities to one of the current high school administrators, but this was deemed not practical with the administrators needing to focus on instructional practice and spending more time evaluating teachers.

Two administrative positions to be added

Matthews outlined in his that the district should create two administration positions in the Office of Academics.

The Student Growth and Accountability position will be responsible for collecting and sharing assessment data from teachers across the district and evaluating teachers and administrators. The Title I/Title III and ESL Coordinator/Facilitator will work with teachers to improve instructional practice with Novi's growing population of economically disadvantaged and ESL students.

The employees are to help with the district's goals of ensuring that each student make no less than one year's growth in one year's time and that all students will achieve at a high level.

The Student Growth and Accountability position will be posted, but the Title I/Title III and ESL Coordinator/Facilitator position may be filled by having the employee who currently does some of these tasks take on the extra responsibilities.

"I would argue that these positions are needed in the district if the district is going to have the information that it needs on students, the data that it needs, that it would have somebody who would be able to have conversations with teachers and administrators on what that data means, and also we would have a person who has the expertise in ESL instruction to improve our instructional practice," Matthews said.

The employees will be paid using the existing budget for the Office of Academics. Barr said that $1,038,000 was budgeted for the office this year and that it can be reduced to $735,000 by not having to buy textbooks and teaching supplies every year.

In the 2010-2011 school year, $1,068,000 was budgeted, but the office only spent $751,000.

Personnel changes and new program added

Lindsey Cristiano was hired as a first grade teacher at . Two new bus drivers, an early childhood education paraprofessional and an ESL paraprofessional for were also hired.

The board also approved the implementation of the WAY Oakland program in Novi. WAY is an alternative high school program where students can earn their diploma by taking credits online.