Meeting Notes

INTRODUCTIONS

• Beverly Brooks – Transportation, & assistant for Technology Department
• AJ Rodgers – after hours facility reservations, & assistant for Operations Department
• Pat Weaver – websites, district photographer, graphics, & new calendar activities
• SPECIAL GUEST!  Tim Brown – technology updates

 

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES

• ParentSquare (PS) is immediately School Messenger.
  1. Social media app for schools & WGSD to keep in contact with parents, staff, students, & community.
  2. PS will sync once daily at midnight to email, and some information from SIS so staff won’t have to check multiple places when parents send info.
  3. Parents of HS students will be given the option to add their kids’ cell phone number to PS for emergency alerts.
     1. If HS goes on lock down when students are out of the building, they will be instructed to NOT come back until lockdown has been lifted.
• Infinite Campus (IC) will replace Tyler SIS for the 2024/2025 school year.
  1. When agreement is completely drawn up, TLC will begin migrating data.
  2. Majority of St Louis schools already use IC or are in the process of switching so we are able to learn about issues before it’s our turn.
     1. We expect there will be issues for a few years
     2. PDF docs aren’t syncing properly, something to do with naming convention
        1. Tim advises to always include 1^st initial & last name when uploading new docs moving forward (don’t worry about past docs)
  3. HX & HS students change classes so much during first few weeks that Tim manually updates class schedules every hour. Very time consuming.
  4. Hopefully TLC will enlist a panel of regular users to test out the new system before rolling it out to everyone.
• Equipment
  1. Touch-screen laptops for K, 1, 2;
  2. All HX & HS students will get new Chromebooks to check out & take home
  3. Hotspots
     1. Available for students to use at home if they can’t get hi-speed access
     2. Not meant for students to take on vacation or out of town, advise teachers to print out packets of work for them instead
     3. Not usable out of the country, not international data plan on them
  4. Interactive whiteboards that look like tvs.
     1. HS = received 10 mounted on walls.
     2. HX = received leftovers on rolling carts.
     3. GI = received a few but they may not be up yet since GI isn’t finished yet.
• Q&A

Q:  When new teachers are added, how long until they can view their students?

A: Should be done already, please email Daphney if not.

Q:  What if I forgot how to do something or can’t remember a link for something?

A: Check out the new info site created just for Assistants and Secretaries.

 

 

BUILDING UPDATES

• Four buildings don’t have HVAC yet.
  4. CL & ER are finalizing HVAC work. (8/11 update)
• Many buildings are still having flooring updated.
• Moss Field & parking lot renovations will be under construction through August 2024.
• District painters are finishing up buildings but only have time for priority areas.

ATTENDANCE

• When students leave in middle of the day and come back, class times have to be calculated manually for minutes per class missed. Very time consuming and confusing.

Q:  Do doctor’s notes need to be saved, or can they be tossed?

• AAs are given conflicting instructions, all schools calculate differently.
• Some AAs must call to check on every child who doesn’t show up for late start on time
  5. Principals say kids signed up so the school is responsible for their whereabouts.
• Confusion regarding actual start time for “late” elementary school students, whether it’s 1 minute late or 21 minutes late.

Q:  Should late time be calculated from school’s official “start” time or “late” time?

• Incorrect attendance calculations may be losing the district money, but no one is sure what the correct calculations should be.

 

REGISTRATION & ENROLLMENT

• New student registrations submitted in summer don’t get looked at until AAs come back right before school starts. Registrations often go missing or don’t come through.
  5. Causes massive delays if registration varies from norm (special needs, etc).
  6. Parents begin panicking when they don’t receive status updates.
  7. Central Office used to cover registrations during summer, very helpful!
• When 5^th graders move up to middle school, most elementary AAs have to haul multiple heavy boxes of records to HX on their own (feel bad bothering Tim T. or other staff).
• Parents of new students are often forwarded to random AAs from incorrect buildings in an attempt to have their questions answered correctly.

 

NEEDED:  A district Registrar person to handle all Elementary registrations and transfers, especially at end of year and during summer.

NEEDED:  A list of how long specific documents should be kept and in what format (hard copies, vs online vs toss vs shred).

PURCHASE ORDERS

• Too many accounts, can’t keep track of what should be used for what.
  8. Codes sometimes change in the middle of the year with no notice, even after they had just received instructions from CO re: those specific codes.
  9. POs are created at end of year for purchases needed by end of summer, then AAs return in August to find they are still sitting there. Then they have to start all over because prices have drastically changed. This causes massive delays in back-to-school preparation.
  10. POs will just sit there waiting for approval. Eventually someone checks and realizes there is a “Note” in there, usually about a bid or an incorrect account.
      2. Most have never used “Notes” section before and don’t have time to go in and check every PO for possible notes about why they haven’t been approved yet.
      3. Unsure what exactly needs bids, let alone where they will come up with the time to procure bids.

 

NEEDED:  Purchase Orders to be approved by accounting within a guaranteed time frame, OR a direct notification regarding why it will not be approved.

 

TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT, & MENTAL HEALTH

• Formal training needed in:  SISfin, SIS, admissions, purchase orders, PTO responsibilities, etc
  11. Should be at beginning of every year, prior to school starting
• Principals don’t all agree with CO rules/policies and give alternate instructions. AAs are caught in the middle and forced to either choose one, or according to most, do both, creating extra work & stress.
  6. Many feel overlooked and wish DLT would check in regularly, ask “are you ok”
• Learning so much from each other, but this is the first time they’ve ever been in the same room together for an extended length of time.
• Often feel guilty requesting time off because they are too busy to leave their desks.
  1. Never able to take lunch breaks
  2. AAs are rarely given time for PD
  3. No one to cover their desk who knows how to use the software, create POs, take attendance, etc. Need official floaters.
  4. Some left meeting early or weren’t even able to attend because their Principals gave them unexpected additional projects at the last minute.
• HX students will be “assistants” and help Nikita do things like deliver packages, run errands in the building, etc.
  1. Sometimes it’s like babysitting, have to plan when they will be most effective and which kids are capable, but can often be helpful with those types of tasks.

Q: Could an intern type program be created, giving select HS students the opportunity to assist the busier Elementary schools?

• 205 contract days has been in place since before online registration. Now some have SO much free time, while others are completely slammed.
  12. AAs at smaller Elementary schools offered assistance to AAs at bigger Elementary schools, especially at beginning of the school year.

 

NEEDED:  Formal training for SISfin etc at least once per year.  

 

NEEDED:  Help. Proactive support and encouragement from Leadership for Assistants and Secretaries to step away from their desk without feeling guilty. Opportunities to interact with each other, share problems and concerns, discuss ideas and brainstorm solutions. 

OTHER TOPICS

• Pigeon things sit there all summer long, someone should plan for Pigeon from the first day everyone is back in August.
• Recent staff hires: Always listed in the Board Docs.
• PTO Assistance: Some AAs attend all PTO board meetings and handle funds for them.
• Field trips:
  5. HU cuts off field trip requests by Christmas, some require all field trips at beginning of year, others allow requests through end of year.
  6. Bussing rate has gone up:  $58.03 per hour (minimum 2 hrs).
     1. Pickup no earlier than 8:40am.
     2. Drop off no later than 2:20pm.
• Paper price has gone up:
  2. $39.68 per box
  3. Bev will send email with pricing for color paper
• Staffing discrepancy found while discussing quantity of students per building:
  1. Elementary schools only have 1 AA, no matter how many students attend.
  2. HX and HS have at least 1 AA/secretary per 200 students.