D91 Employee News:

We’ve got some exciting news to share about reading!

Each September, December, and May, D91’s kindergarten through third grade students take the Idaho Reading Indicator assessment. This test measures how well our early readers are learning the skills needed to read and understand text.

Each school year, D91 sets goals to continue to grow the number of students who are reading at or above grade level. Based on the results of the December Idaho Reading Indicator Results, I am thrilled to share that our kindergarten through third grade students have surpassed our reading goals from last year. Even more exciting, some of our grade levels have already met the goals set for this year. Wow! That means more students are better prepared to read and succeed at school.

Results like this don’t happen by accident. Our students are mastering early reading skills sooner and better because of our incredible teachers. Armed with a new reading curriculum and a passion to serve our students, our teachers are using powerful strategies to help each child learn to read. This takes a depth of knowledge about how to teach reading and a determination to make a difference for each student. Our teachers are impressive! So, today I’m giving a big shout out to our students and teachers for their hard work and effort in reading. I couldn’t be more proud of them!

Since my email with the budget update, there has been a lot of information circulating. Some of it is spot on while other information is more myth than fact. We are starting a new section of the D91 Employee Newsletter to tackle rumors. Today I’ll be addressing a rumor I’m hearing about the current budget shortfall.

Myth: Salaries will be cut.

No decisions have been made to reduce salaries or change benefits. In fact, the district signed a five year contract with the State Insurance fund. D91 is in year two of the contract. No changes can be made to our benefits until the contract expires in 2026.

Myth: Teachers will lose their teaching position.

There are no plans to cut our current teaching staff. District 91 has always employed more teachers than we have been reimbursed for by the state. We will use attrition to naturally adjust staffing when appropriate. We will also be analyzing student enrollments to look at the best way to meet our students' instructional needs.

Hearing things that you’re not sure are a myth or fact? In future editions of the newsletter, we will include a link you can use to submit ideas or information you’re hearing. In the meantime, email me at laorkarl@sd91.org. I want to make sure we are answering your questions, addressing your needs and hearing your ideas!

As we continue our focus on increasing student achievement in Idaho Falls School District 91, we are very excited about the two-day New Art and Science of Teaching conference set for Jan. 15-16.

All D91's certified staff will take part in this training, which will feature individual Marzano presenters working with different groups of teachers at various locations throughout the district. The goal is that everyone will get training on the NASOT model and will return to their classrooms and roles with additional skills to help our students succeed.

The New Art and Science of Teaching is an important part of the district's efforts to ensure we have effective teaching in every classroom, which is the bedrock of our Level 2 High Reliability Schools work.

Sessions on both days will take place from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Participants will have lunch on their own from 11:30 am to 1 pm. Here's a LINK with details on specific assignments. If you don’t see your name on the spreadsheet please contact D91's Executive Director of Instruction & Learning Shelly Smede. Make sure to bring your Handbook for the New Art and Science of Teaching to the trainings each day.

• Conference 1: PK-1st Grade, EL Spec Ed | Dora Erickson cafeteria (77 participants)
• Conference 2: 2nd, EL SpecEd, and Counselors | Ethel Boyes cafeteria (70 participants)
• Conference 3: 3rd-5th Grade | Edgemont Gardens cafeteria (99 participants)
• Conference 4: 6th Grade + 7/8th math and ELA | Longfellow cafeteria (80 participants)
• Conference 5: 7/8th SS, Sci, Elect, Compass, and CTEC | Compass cafeteria (94 participants)
• Conference 6: IFHS teachers & counselors | IFHS media center (76 participants)
• Conference 7: Skyline & Emerson teachers/counselors | Skyline media center (87 participants)
• Conference 8: Principals, admin, coordinators, deans | Compass Rm. 305 (46 participants)

Questions? Check with your building principal or reach out to Shelly Smede.

The "Hunting, Not Fishing" series of professional development continues with classes focused on deliberate teaching – hunting for productive engagement, rather than fishing for random answers. These classes focus on “Conducting Direct Instruction Lessons" and elements 6, 7 and 8 of the New Art and Science of Teaching model. Credit is available for purchase through Northwest Nazarene University after 16 hours of instruction. Sessions are planned on Jan. 17 from 3:30 to 5:50 pm in the Erickson Library and Jan. 24 from 4:15 to 6:15 pm in Room 204 at Compass Academy. Pick a class and sign up with this Google form.

• Oct. 10-Feb. 23: ISAT interim Assessments, Optional Benchmark Assessments (To learn more, contact Thomas Kennedy, D91's Director of Intervention & Support. You can reach him at kennthom@sd91.org)
• Jan. 15: Martin Luther King Day
• Jan. 15: Deadline for Voluntary Transfer Requests
• Jan. 15: Deadline for Early Notice Stipends
• Jan 15 & Jan. 16: Staff Development/No School For Students
• Jan. 19: At-Home/Intervention Day For SHS & IFHS (Regular school day with normal shuttle service for Compass, Emerson & CTEC students)
• Jan. 23: Board Work Session, 4 pm, District Office
• Jan. 29-Feb. 23: WIDA Access Testing Window
• Jan. 30: D91 Career Exploration Fair for Juniors & Seniors, Mountain America Center

A huge shoutout to our payroll, HR and business department staff who are toiling behind the scenes to make the transition from our Skyward business/HR system to the new Tyler ERP Pro system!

Over the last few months, they have spent hundreds of hours in trainings, and have also worked long hours reviewing and checking the data that has been moved over to the new system. We wanted to share some numbers just to give you a sense of the magnitude of the task.

• D91 has 1,800 employees and all their salaries, contact information, direct deposit information, benefit and deduction information had to be moved and reviewed
• All new hires since September -- dozens and dozens of people -- have had to be entered into both Skyward and Tyler ERP Pro
• About 30,000 GL Codes had to be moved and changed
• For the last few months, 50,000 rows of data transaction have had to be moved each month
• 177 open PO's had to be hand entered into Tyler ERP Pro
• More than 220 fund balances had to be moved and reviewed
• About 5,000 vendors and codes had to be double entered into Skyward and Tyler ERP Pro

It's a huge change, but eventually it will be worth it. Tyler ERP Pro is a better and more modern system that will better meet the district's needs, and will provide employees more customer-friendly features like an employee dashboard with updates on pay, benefits, time off, etc.

After lots of hard work making the conversion from Skyward to Tyler ERP Pro, we will be running our first payroll in Tyler next week. (Again, a big shoutout to our HR and payroll staff for making this happen!)

After payroll is run next week, employees will be able to log in to Tyler ERP Pro using D91's Single Sign On. When they log in, they will be able to check out the new user friendly dashboard and review their information.

• Employees will be able to access their paychecks. Contracted employees will be able to review their annualized pay. Hourly staff will see what they make for their position. If an employee notices any issues with their pay -- an employee is being paid too much or too little or deductions seem wrong -- they will submit a Laserfiche process to alert HR and payroll to the issue. Staff will address the problem as quickly as they can. (Using a Laserfiche form will make it easier for staff to track and correct problems quickly and efficiently rather than trying to log phone calls and emails.)
  
• Copies of past paychecks will probably not be available in Tyler in January. They haven't been transferred into Tyler yet, but employees can still access that information by logging into Skyward.
• Vacation, sick time and personal leave probably won't be available in Tyler either. That information will be moved over when we move over to our new Time Clock Plus timecard system in March. For now, employees will continue to request vacation/sick time using Skyward.
• Employees will be able to edit some of their contact information, which is a cool new feature of the Tyler system. Staff can update their address, phone number and emergency contacts. Once those changes have been submitted, PR or HR will approve them.

Please be patient and kind to our HR and payroll staff as we work through this huge transition. We'll provide more information and updates as we go.

The D91 Board of Trustees held its annual reorganization during this week's regular business meeting. They also said goodbye to a school board member, and welcomed a new board member.

Hillary Radcliffe was elected board chair. Larry Wilson was elected as vice chair. D91 staffers Lanell Farmer and Jessica Cushman were elected as board treasurer and board clerk respectively.

Shay Ricks was sworn in and welcomed to the board. He beat Elizabeth Cogiati by just one vote in the November election for Zone 4, which includes areas around Erickson, Linden Park and part of Hawthorne Elementary schools. Jeremey Westwood, Zone 3, and Hillary Radcliffe, Zone 5, were also sworn in after being reelected in November.

D91 and the board thanked Elizabeth Cogliati on Wednesday night for her dedication and years of service to the district's students, families, teachers and staff.

As we start planning for the upcoming school year, certified staff should take note of Jan. 15, 2024, which is the deadline for voluntary transfer requests and early notice stipends. In-building staffing change notices are due Feb. 1.

Staff interested in transferring to a different school for the coming school year must submit transfer requests by 11:59 pm on Monday, Jan. 15, as per Section 7-1-2-1 of the Negotiated Master contract.

• All certified employees who meet the Jan.15 deadline will be interviewed by either the superintendent or his/her designee prior to placement interviews of any out‐of‐district applicants. Individuals who request a transfer after the deadline may or may not receive an interview depending on staffing considerations at individual schools and across the district.
• All certified employees who meet the Jan. 15 deadline will be contacted within one week after the interview. Certificated employees chosen for a transfer will have three contract days to accept or decline the transfer.
• To request a transfer, please submit a Certified Employee Transfer Request form in laserfiche at. https://lficheweb1.d91.k12.id.us/Forms/CertifiedTransferRequest. (Please note: To complete and submit the form, you must first be logged into Laserfiche Forms using the Single Sign On, which will allow your name to be prepopulated in the form and allow you to submit the form when completed.)

Recruiting high quality teachers is more competitive than ever. In an effort to hire the very best teachers early in the recruiting season, D91 is again offering a $500 early notification stipend to certified staff who are not planning to return for the 2024-2025 school year.

• To qualify for the $500 stipend, certified staff must notify Kelly Coughenour in writing by 11:59 pm on Jan. 15 of their intent to resign or retire.
• The stipend is not available to staff with Category 1 or retiree contracts.
• Those who have already notified the district that they are not planning to return will also receive the stipend, which will be paid in the February paycheck.

In January, principals will ask certified staff for information regarding next year’s teaching assignments. Teachers will be asked to rank their preferences in grade and/or subject for the upcoming school year, and they must complete that form by Feb. 1. Those rankings and teacher input will be a factor in final decisions about 2024-25 teaching assignments.

All D91's juniors and seniors will have the chance to Dream BIG and think about what they want to do after high school at D91's Career Exploration Fair on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Mountain America Center.

The district's college and career advisors are organizing the fair, which will includes dozens of local employers in a wide variety of fields. Students will get to learn about Idaho's top jobs, meet experts in popular career fields and find out what they will need to do to land those jobs.

High school teachers will help students prepare for the fair by sharing lessons on what to expect at a Career Fair, what kinds of questions to ask business reps and more.

We appreciate all the work our advisors are doing to set up the fair, and also all the local employers who are helping to inspire our students to be successful after high school.

You still have a chance to win the Skoolie! Students at D91's Career & Technical Education Center converted an old school bus into an RV, and since they didn't get any bids for the vehicle, they are now selling raffle tickets.

More than 100 students enrolled in CTEC's welding, industrial mechanics and construction programs spent 11 months converting the old bus. The finished RV has a bedroom, full kitchen with propane fridge, a stove/range, storage, a dining area that can be converted into an additional sleeping area, solar panels, a climbing wall and lots of storage.

Raffle tickets are $50 apiece. They are available from any CTEC student. They also can be purchased at the Career & Technical Education Center at 450 E St., and will be available at special D91 events like the upcoming Tiger-Grizz Wrestling tournament. If you have questions or if you'd like to see the Skoolie, call CTEC Administrator Bev Hott at (208) 525-7549.