Columbia Board of Education discusses workplace conditions report, school safety Thursday
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Board of Education met on Thursday to discuss multiple items, including workplace conditions for teachers.
A presentation was given that went over a report about specific constructs of teacher working conditions at Columbia Public Schools.
CPS was the second school district to do this study which will look at baseline working conditions across Missouri. This was funded by a three-year NEA Great Public Schools Funding Grant that the Missouri National Education Association received in 2024.
"We decided that with the leadership of CPS leaving in December, that early in January would be a great time to find out what teacher perceptions were and educator perceptions were about the working conditions here, to kind of give a foundation, a framework for the new superintendent to have moving forward," CMNEA president Noelle Gilzow told ABC 17 News.
There were 13 areas of construct, including retention, community support & involvement, equity and district leadership.
The construct with the highest average was teacher leadership and the lowest was district leadership.
The report included four recommendations, including prioritize adjustments in response to the lowest scoring construct.
"As seen across both quantitative and qualitative data, most teachers do not trust district leadership," the report states. "They feel like district decisions are making their working conditions worse and although teachers try to share these concerns, they do not feel like they are taken seriously."
It included the recommendation that leadership nd school board "take advantage" of the change in leadership and make actionable steps to rebuild trust.
The full report is 44 pages long.
The board also discussed looking into a strategic approach to address student meal debt. A presentation discussed the impact of unpaid meal balances, the importance of a layered debt recovery approach, and how these factors contribute to financial sustainability while supporting its dedication to students' well-being.
The presentation states that the current student meal debt is over $125,000 so far in the 2024-2025 school year. The board will be looking into a debt collection service providers and receive community support.
The board discussed safety and security goals from this year and how to improve the district's practices and procedures related to weapons detection systems in CPS high schools.
The board went over the strengths of this year's first-time use weapons detection system, such as students going through efficiently and effectively and an increase in peace of mind for students, staff and parents. They will also be going over weaknesses that were found, such as before school activities needing new protocols to get students through before school starts for the day.
A review of discipline statistics from across the district and a workplace conditions survey will also be items of discussion at the meeting, according to the agenda.
The district also said the weapon detection systems will be used a graduations this Spring.
