ASP
Will Cobb County add an e-mail address (for parents to be reached) to the ASP registration form?
I think adding an email address to the form is an excellent idea.
This form is available as a multi-part printed paper form and on the form bank. We can revise the form on the form bank very quickly. The new form will be used the next time we go to print the multi-part forms. We do have many preprinted forms on hand that I would prefer to use rather than throw away. Perhaps the instructions to parents could include that an email address should be provided under their signature.
Benefits
Why are Head Custodians I and II the only ones eligible for Teacher Retirement? Seems if you have been with the county for 15 – 20 years you should be eligible.
The State Legislature established TRS and defined which employees were eligible to be members. Covered positions include teachers, administrators, supervisors, clerks, teacher aides, secretaries, paraprofessionals, nurses and campus police officers.
Public school personnel who are not eligible for membership in TRS are maintenance and custodial employees, school bus drivers, and cafeteria workers. State law does provide for public school personnel to be members in TRS if they are either managers or supervisors.
Any changes with the eligible positions under TRS would need to be approved by the State Legislature.
If you are already vested and have been with the county for 20 years or more and move into a position where you are now eligible for Teacher’s Retirement, why do you have to work an additional 10 years to be vested in Teacher’s Retirement?
An employee must meet the TRS membership eligibility requirement. Once the employee meets the eligibility requirement, the employee must stay in a TRS eligibility position for 10 years. If the employee was member of the Public School Employee Retirement System (PSERS), and the employee is now a member of TRS, the employee may establish their PSERS service with TRS. To establish prior service, the employee will need to submit a completed Certification of Georgia Service form. The cost to purchase PSERS service will be the total amount of the employee and employer contributions that would have been contributed had the employee been a TRS member, plus accrued interest, based on the salary the employee earned during their PSERS covered employment. Employees may call TRS directly for the form and additional information on the cost.
What happens to your sick days if you take an Educational Leave of Absence? What is your status when you return?
If you return to the District within one school year, your sick leave is reinstated. A school year is considered August - May.
Are you able to keep the years you have worked for retirement?
The employee's account with TRS remains active provided the employee contributed at least one year out of any five consecutive years. Therefore, the employee can have a break in their covered employment of up to four years and retain their active account. If the employee is out of service for more than four consecutive years, their TRS account becomes inactive. If the employee's account is in inactive status and the employee does not withdraw their contributions and the employee returns to a TRS covered position, the service in the inactive account will be credited to the current (active) account after the employee has established at least one year of membership service.
I would like to know how CCSD employees can be offered more choices in the number of Tax Deferred Saving (403b and 457b) vendors available. I am particularly interested in low-cost plans that are not variable annuities or a variable annuity plan sponsored by TIAA-CREF or Vanguard. These companies have particularly low cost variable annuities that are reputed throughout the retirement investment community for both their investment success and their diligence in keeping costs well under industry averages. Furthermore, TIAA-CREF does not impose surrender charges.
CCSD has currently retained the services of a consultant to review our current 403b and 457b pool of vendor offerings. The purpose of the review is to determine whether or not the District needs to increase the number of vendors or restructure the plan offerings so that the total plan is meeting the additional retirement needs of the CCSD employee population. We expect the review to conclude within the next 30 days.
Dedicated employees who are never out should be allowed to use their short term hours for days off and holidays. If you have so many hours you should be able to sell them back but maintain so many on the books or able to use towards your retirement.
State law governs the use of short term leave; it is earned for qualified personal and family illness. State regulations which govern PSERS do not permit the use of accumulated short term leave toward retirement service credit.
Compensation
Why can’t you transfer from one school to another with the same pay if the position you are applying for is not what you are making at the present. If you are a custodian II and wanted to change to another school and it is posted as a custodian I, you would have to take a decrease in pay because you no longer offer the custodian II position at that school.
There are times when it may be determined that an existing position is no longer required for valid reasons. An employee cannot apply for a position which no longer exists. If an employee chooses to apply for a lower paid position, then the employee chooses to accept the salary of the new position.
I would like to know why bus drivers get two bonuses a year if they don’t miss any days of work. Why is this not offered to the kitchen/custodial maintenance department?
It is an internal program, developed and budgeted by Transportation to encourage frugal use of short-term leave.
Why can’t the pay scale for parapros represent performance? Not all parapros are equal and many have duties and work ethic that is on level with certified teachers.
The pay scale for paraprofessionals, like all other District pay scales, is based upon the duties and responsibilities of the position. Position on the salary schedule is generally based years of experience and education.
Will the salary structure for parapros be re-evaluated any time soon?
Paraprofessionals are now considered an intricate partner in the school system working along side the teachers. Would Cobb County consider a pay increase to a living wage?
The District values the contributions of its paraprofessionals. The salary structure for Paraprofessionals was reviewed in 2006 and was found to be comparable to paraprofessionals’ salaries in other metropolitan school districts. The Board approved a 2.5% pay increase to the Paraprofessional’s salary structure for SY 2007-2008.
When will Schoolmax Clerks (SM Coordinators) be fairly compensated in pay for their level of responsibility?
Schoolmax Clerks are compensated based on duties and responsibilities of the position and comparisons to comparable positions.
When can nurses expect to start receiving step increases?
We recently made adjustments in nurse salaries and supplements. Any future increase, to include instituting a step salary system, would have to successfully compete for limited funding against other district priorities.
At the Summer Paraprofessional Institute there was a class called Paras – Staying out of Hot Water. The instructor emphasized that paras are only to work 7.5 hours a day and should leave when their work day is over which is 2:40. If we choose to stay that would be voluntary. We are required to stay for at least the beginning of the faculty meetings and at times required to stay longer, up to an hour. We are also on Design Teams that meet after school. We are not given any type of compensation for this extra time. Paras that work with Special Ed are sometimes attending IEPs after school and meeting with their Special Education Team. Are all administrators aware that we are not required to stay the extra 2.5 hours a week that applies to certified staff?
Paraprofessionals are classified as a non-exempt employee by the Fair Labor Standards Act; as a result, Paraprofessionals must be compensated for all hours worked. To facilitate this, all hours worked must be accurately recorded and reported on your time sheet.
Administrators may require employees to work more than 7.5 hours per day; however, paraprofessionals who hours exceed 40 hours in a workweek will receive overtime pay equal to 1 and ½ times their regular pay rate or 1 and ½ hours of compensatory time off for each hour worked over 40 hours. If you are not being compensated for hours worked, please discuss with your supervisor or contact the Compensation office in Human Resources.
Who comes up with the proper job descriptions?
Supervisors partner with Human Resources in the creation of job descriptions. All new or revised job descriptions are submitted to the office of Compensation for review and grade recommendations prior to implementation.
Why don’t parapros receive the longevity incentive that teachers receive?
When the Board of Education approved the Priority School Longevity Incentive in March 2001, certified teachers were designated as eligible recipients. The purpose of the Incentive was to encourage teachers to continue teaching in our designated Priority Schools. Citing concerns regarding the ineffectiveness of the Longevity Incentive, the CCSD Board of Education approved the phase-out of the Priority School Longevity Incentive on June 28, 2007.
Why don’t food service assistants get paid on holidays? This is really stressful for some
people who have children.
All Cobb County School District employees who work 240 days or less are compensated based on the number of days they are assigned to work. None of these employees get paid for any holidays. Food Service Assistants work and are compensated for 182 days per year.
What would be the chances of an employee with a percentage of days built up being able to use some of those days when we are out for holidays instead of getting no pay?
Employees are paid for scheduled work days for which they are either at work or on an approved leave of absence; holidays are not scheduled work days. Leave cannot be used on non-work days, and per Georgia law, short term (sick) leave is earned for qualified personal/family illness.
Evaluations
Why was the category for exceeds standards removed from the evaluation form for parapros? There should be something that reflects a parapro doing a job that is above and beyond their normal duties.
The design of the new instrument was developed by a collaborative task force and based upon research and metro benchmarking. Human Resources agrees that there should be an opportunity to commend exceptional performance, and the form is designed to support that exact opportunity with evaluator's written commendations.
Can a principal give a classified employee a 3 and that individual missed 3 days (sick and personal combined) and give another employee a 2 on attendance, when neither employee is ever late, and the only difference is the person? Both employees received 3s in all other areas. What constitutes a 1, 2, or 3 for attendance? Our principal says if you use less than 3 days, either sick or personal, you receive a 3. If you use more than 3, but less than 5, you get a 2. If you use more that 5 you receive a 1. This is even if you are hospitalized or there has been a death in the family. This is very frustrating since the county gives us sick leave to use and personal leave to use and a principal can use his/her own personal opinion to give a rating. This is being used as a threat/weapon toward the employees at our school.
The District does not have a numerical guide for absences to determine attendance ratings. The principal has the discretion to use the rating guide as you described to assign ratings.
Financial Services
Will Cobb County start taking credit cards for ASP payment?
Will Cobb County get set up for on-line credit card/check payment for ASP and other school related fees?
The possibility of accepting credit card payments for the After School Program is currently being investigated. The preliminary findings indicate that an on-line payment system would be the most cost beneficial option. Ideally, the goal would be to implement a system that will initially accommodate on-line payments for ASP and ultimately accommodate other school related fees, as well. The preliminary cost analysis of this type of system indicates that the charge or fee for these transactions would be more than the $2.00 transaction fee currently charged with the MealPay system for school lunch payments.
Are we reimbursed for gas mileage for every mandatory meeting we go to such as Schoolmax training, insurance open enrollment meeting or even classified committee meetings?
Employees directed to attend a half-day or full day CCSD in-service/meeting are reimbursed for miles traveled to the in-service/meeting site from the employee's school/department or vice-versa. If initial point of departure and/or return is the employee's residence, the employee may be reimbursed for the distance between the meeting and the residence less the normal one-way commuting miles (see procedures and examples on page 4.1). The person conducting the in-service/meeting should provide the in-service form used to claim mileage reimbursement. Employees must sign this form at the in-service site and list miles traveled between work sites, less the normal one-way commuting miles, if applicable.