Jordan Pina, Chief of Staff, shared the 2021 Panorama Staff Survey that was administered in Fall 2021. Pina shared that Panorama Education is a Boston-based non-profit organization whose mission is to help schools to collect the data need to achieve the best student outcomes possible. 

Pina shared the numerous topics that are included in the operation staff survey, which included, but were not limited to, evaluation, the hiring process, school leadership and compensation. Pina also shared the topics that were surveyed for teaching staff, which included, but were not limited to, peer culture, observation and feedback cycles, and academic environment.

Pina highlighted general trends for both surveys. In general, the Operations/Administrative staff were more satisfied across all topics, with the highest scored topic being evaluation.  Pina shared that for the Teacher survey, there was a much larger range and variation in response with the highest scored topic also being evaluation. Both surveys (Operations/Admin. staff and teaching staff) both scored the workload section the lowest with sustainable workloads and ability to complete work during normal hours as a main concern.

Pina shared that the survey responses are all reviewed in depth at the leadership level to build necessary action plans, shared out with faculty and staff, and shared with the Board of Trustees. The Committee asked management what supports the Board can provide in order assist the COAH team in retaining and supporting teachers. 

Pina shared that she will be sharing details about teacher retention and recommitment in depth in the next agenda section. Pina shared that the recommitment process at City on a Hill is already well underway with mid-year review conversations happening with managers and direct reports right now. In these conversations, managers and direct reports walk through alignment and misalignment towards goals and discuss plans for the following school year. The Committee agreed that these conversations sound like great levers to encourage teacher retention and goal setting.

Pina then broke the survey results down by topic, highlighting trends for both the Admin and Operations Climate survey as well as the Teacher Climate survey, providing context for each topic and sharing any leadership team action plans that have been put into place after reviewing this data. 

The Committee asked that if when this data is shared with staff if the COAH Leadership Team is asking for specific feedback for topics such as workload. Pina shared that she plans to attend an upcoming faulty meeting to present this data, allow for teachers to break into groups to provide feedback in small groups to be reviewed by the COAH Leadership Team.

Jordan Pina, Chief of Staff, shared an overview of the recommitment process with the Committee. 

Pina shared that mid-year evaluations with staff are happening right now and that all reviews are due by mid-February. Following staff conversations, all supervisors share their recommended renewal offers (unconditional offer, conditional offer, non-renewal) based on the mid-year review with the HR department at COAH by the end of February. 

Following the recommendations, the Finance and HR department review the recommendations of supervisors to ensure they align with budgetary restrictions, personnel policies and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) requirements. Pina shared that HR then sends finalized letters for all Unconditional and Conditional offers and letters expressing CoaH's gratitude for their service for staff who will not be renewed. Following, all staff will be required to accept or reject their offer and HR will post for all roles where staff either rejected or did not sign their offer in Mid-March.

Pina shared that the Senior Leadership Team at COAH is in discussion of whether the budget will allow for retention bonuses. Pina shared that the FY23 draft budget will be completed by AAF, COAH's finance contractors, in order to continue those discussion by the end of the week. 

Pina shared that the COAH team has already started discussion to plan for more intentional recruitment, including refreshing job descriptions, visiting recruitment fairs, and re-launching the Associate Teacher Program at COAH, which COAH's Director of Compliance and Teacher Development, Michael McGean, has worked to relaunch the COAH Associate Teacher Program (ATP) for SY23. 

This program will allow for new teachers to work towards a Massachusetts teacher certification while working at City on a Hill in a teaching role. This purpose for re-launching the ATP is to cast a wider net of applicants and incentivize a diverse pipeline of new teachers to be trained and stay at COAH to educate the school's students. This model closely aligns with programs that other charter peers are running as well. Pina shared that the ATP application was launched in the last few weeks and that there are already applicants for the program.