1. Extended Day Enrichment Program
Program Evaluation follow-up
During our last meeting we highlighted the quality of our EDEP program. We discussed the staffing challenges and the need for afterschool care, in general, for working parents. We also discussed that our program does not provide access to our economically disadvantaged families. Additionally, we began questioning if the county or the school board should allocate monies to this self-funded program.

2. Focus for 17-18
Solve the position vacancy challenge by increasing compensation.
Solve the uncertainty of daily participation by prioritizing full-time participants and by requiring part-time participants to provide advance notice.
Increase participation by lowering the priority of pre-school student participants and by relief from DSS participant/staff ratios.
The first challenge that we must solve is to fill open positions. We will do this by increasing pay for our most hard to fill positions. We will focus on strategies to fill these openings with qualified teachers. Currently there are 10 vacant positions (up from 7 in December) that are being actively recruited. Kelvin is projecting 15 openings at the end of this year to include teachers and site facilitators. We need to address administrative aspects of the program that make it more difficult for us when we are short-staffed. We would like more students to participate in the program even if no staffing changes occur.

3. EDEP Position Vacancies and turnover rate
Staff as of 8/2016
Staff Termed since 8/2016
Turnover Rate through 3/2017
EDEP Assistant 13 4
30.8%
EDEP Special Needs Assistant 6 2
33.3%
EDEP Teacher/EDEP Specialty Teacher 26
23.1%
EDEP Site Facilitator I 7 1
14.3%
EDEP Site Facilitator II 12
0.0%
Community Education Registrar
EDEP Supervisor
Office Associate II
Total EDEP Staff (All Positions) 67
19.4%
The EDEP has had 8-10 vacancies the entire year. There is high turnover in several positions. We want to decrease turnover of EDEP positions and fill open vacancies of EDEP, especially Specialty Teacher positions using strategies that follow ACPS policies and processes in regards to compensation, recruitment, and retention. For the above positions, assistants also have a high turnover rate, but they are easier to fill due to the qualifications for the job. The teacher positions have a high turnover and they are hard to fill.

4. Increase compensation
Human Resources will conduct a classification review of the EDEP Specialty Teacher position. Review will determine appropriate paygrade placement for the position.
A 1- year Pilot of a retention bonus: Offer a 1-year retention bonus of $5,000 to all EDEP Specialty Teacher current employees and new hires. Specific criteria for retention bonus: Turnover rate of more than 20% and vacant for more than 6 months of the school year.
A 1 – year Pilot of shift differential for all EDEP employees who work the 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. shift.
We are seeking to raise the pay of the position by requiring a teaching degree, implementing a shift differential, and offering a hiring bonus. These pay changes could result in an increase in pay for EDEP Specialty teachers that amounts to over $7/hour (from $17-18 to $24-25 per hour). This focus keeps quality in the program and justifies the pay increase.

5. Impact of retention bonus and shift differential
The cost is projected to be about $80,000 next year if all of the open positions are filled with Specialty Teacher positions. This cost is = to 40 additional full time students. Increased participation will fund this increase in pay and we should see that through pre-school kids leaving several schools, through an alleviation of the DSS standards, and through restructuring.
The idea would be to give the retention bonus after every complete year that they stayed with the EDEP. All employees who work the later shift would receive the shift differential, not just the teachers.

6. Registration and participation
Moving to full-time and part-time option (2 options) with full-time registrants having priority at registration, followed by part-time and then pre-school
For part-time participants, have set weekly schedule
Premium days: require parents to purchase a minimum block of 5 days and require 72 hours notice for use
Rate Increase is 20-Day Rate $ Day Rate $ Day Rate $ Day Rate $ Day Rate $   (up $20 each)
Administrative changes are being made to solve the uncertainty of daily participation and to fund this self-sustaining program. Full-time program participants will improve planning for daily requirements, rather than trying to staff to an ADM that fluctuates from month to month.
Preschool students will likely be phased out at many schools with waitlists and should still be able to participate at smaller schools with no waitlists. With no preschool students at some schools, those schools should enroll more students even if staff does not change. Setting weekly schedules and requiring notification simply makes planning easier for staffing.

7. Impact of legislation change-increased participation
Senate Bill NO language:
“The following child day programs shall not be required to be licensed….a program offered by a local school division, operated for no more than four hours per day, staffed by local school division employees, and attended by school-age children who are enrolled in public school within such school division” (SB1239S3, lines ).
With these changes and current staff, EDEP should be able to provide after school care for students which is well above the highest ADM (800).
This legislative change should will allow us to provide service to a number of additional students. If we are able to recruit additional teachers, we will be able to serve larger programs at many schools. The negative impact for parents is that pre-school age children will no longer be accepted into the program. The bill was recently passed by the Senate and then failed in the House.
In terms of process, the Governor now has 30 days to either sign the version of the bill that both the House and Senate passed originally, or to let it die.
Currently, we are working with Del. Toscano, Sen. Hanger, and Sen. Deeds’ offices to encourage the Governor to sign the bill as it was presented to him originally.

8. Next steps for the 2018-19 school year
Measure turnover to determine effectiveness of compensation changes.
Measure progress of pilot programs and improvement in service by tracking the number of students served by EDEP and through parent and staff surveys.
Continue to explore partnership with the Boys and Girls Club (conducting site visits, mapping curriculum).
See results of changes to then work on potentially constructing a fee schedule that allows broader tuition ranges or additional subsidies for students.
Pilot the use of student interns at Cale and Brownsville to see how they can best be utilized.
After EDEP assesses the impact of staffing and legislative changes, we will pursue ideas to provide equity of access to our economically disadvantaged students. The need for after school care is not going to go away; in fact, we will probably always have a waitlist because of need and because of the quality and convenience of our program. We will continue to seek ways to improve access to an after school program for all of our students.