A group of approximately 30 district staff members across all employee classifications, buildings and departments came together on November 3 with the goal of kicking off a new committee, the Staff Collaboration Committee.
Spearheaded by Chief Business Officer Brett Ridgway with assistance from Director of Human Resources Misty Manchester, the goal of the committee is to explore the business side of education by increasing overall fluency and transparency of the complicated subject matter. The Business Office desires collaboration on several key topics, including budget development, pay schedule designs and changes, benefit program rates, and other relevant issues.
“We want this group to represent D38 as an organization and help be informed about the decisions at hand,” Ridgway said. “To understand the big picture, we plan to give you some needed context for micro discussions. As a whole, we want to make informed decisions, guided by informed opinions.”
On Nov. 3, committee members had a chance to get to know one another before taking time to share information, concerns about the current state of operations in the district, as well as opportunities to improve.
Each meeting will reserve time to collect this key feedback, and between each meeting, Ridgway said he and other district leaders would look to find ways to address as much of the feedback as possible.
Ridgway said that given the outcome of the November 8 election, the Staff Collaboration Committee will meet to discuss options and opportunities for the district to compensate and reward its staff in December.