Category: Evergreen Solutions

Evergreen was engaged with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to conduct a Pay Plan Study. Evergreen reviewed pay plans, recommend best practices, and presented teacher pay scale options to eliminate compression in the existing teacher scale, particularly in the beginning area of the scale, while maintaining a maximum of 30 steps. Evergreen also recommended a unified pay scale that included all certified personnel including, administrators and professional personnel such as occupational physical therapist and assistance, speech language pathologist, and interpreters and recommend a unified pay scale that included all classified personnel to include administrative assistance, custodians, bus drivers, maintenance personnel, instructional assistants (aides), cafeteria personnel.

Evergreen was engaged with Nash County Board of Commissioners to conduct a Performance Audit to study and evaluate the extent to which Nash-Rocky Mount Schools (NRMS) was staffed and how it functioned within the system’s budget constraints in order to perform effectively and efficiently. The study resulted in recommendations on ways to improve the utilization of resources and, therefore, improve efficiency in NRMS.

To accomplish this, Evergreen’s consultants compared the NRMS organizational structure to comparably-sized, high-performing, selected districts for benchmarking with a three-year history; compared NRMS to other selected school districts with regard to performance for students by gender and by ethnicity; evaluated the NRMS organizational structure (all positions other than classroom teachers as defined by DPI) in light of its cost efficiency and effectiveness in its delivery of services; and evaluated the NRMS administrative and School Board travel and training expenses for efficiency, effectiveness and benefit to the school system. In addition, they identified redundancies, including those related to “contracted services” and “workshops”, and ways to streamline the organization, effect savings and to assure effective operations and support to schools; evaluated all local dollars appropriated comparing budget presented to county commissioners versus actual expenditures for the past fiscal year; compared how many local classroom teachers were being allocated versus five, ten, etc, years ago versus how much local money was being used for administrators now versus years ago; and provided information on laws or polices related to the process for budget transfers.

Evergreen conducted a Review of the Technology Department for Rock Hill Schools (RHS)—specifically the organizational structure, staffing, processes and procedures. As part of the review, Evergreen determined whether the district was adequately staffed and equipped to handle and properly support implementation of the district’s 1:1 computing initiative, which includes deployment of 5,300 devices at three high schools. The review will include development of a detailed profile of the RHS Technology Department, as well as a peer benchmarking and best practices review process to determine areas for improvement in operations.

During the review, Evergreen assessed the Organization and Management of the RHS Technology Department; Technology Planning and Budgeting; Technology Policies and Procedures; Inventory and Control; Technology Acquisition Practices; System Infrastructure and Integration; Technology Support; and Technology Staff Development. The final deliverable included a report detailing strategies for improving the Rock Hill Schools Technology Department, including whether RHS was adequately staffed and equipped to handle the additional devices and services needed to properly support the 1:1 program.

Evergreen Solutions was retained by Salem City Schools to conduct a Pay Plan Study by reviewing and providing recommendations regarding the division’s teacher pay scales, coaching supplements, extracurricular and misc salary supplements, and classified pay scale.

Evergreen’s consultants conducted focus group meetings with a sample of teachers, administrators, and classified staff to receive ideas on pay plan enhancements and provided original ideas for improving the existing employee compensation models for the included pay scales. Evergreen provided recommended pay scales that will be sustainable for a number of years and costed out all recommendations, including options of phasing in any proposed scale changes over several years.

Evergreen was engaged with Stafford County Public School to conduct an efficiency review of the school division. To accomplish this, Evergreen’s consultants reviewed: administrative and operational support systems to assure maximization of financial resources; long-term fiscal planning, budgeting, and related areas; long-term planning and facility needs to accommodate student population and programs; availability, organization, and delivery of instructional services and support systems for students, including scope of program and course offerings; technology planning, systems, and utilization present and projected as needed for instructional and administrative support; human resource components, such as recruitment, training, professional development, salary and benefits, and systemic leadership and collegial participatory opportunities; operational areas such as food services, transportation, and facilities management; and organization for central administrative services; school organization issues, including grade configuration; and utilization effectiveness.

In the end, Evergreen provided recommendations on ways to improve the utilization of resources and, therefore, improve efficiency of the school division.

Evergreen Solutions was retained by Florida Virtual School (FLVS) to conduct a Comprehensive Compensation Study that included a detailed market analysis and internal equity review to improve the fairness in the current compensation and classification system of FLVS. Evergreen’s consultants evaluated current pay grades for each classification to ensure they aligned with the appropriate market data obtained from local public school districts and private employers, and provided recommendations as to whether the pay grades were appropriate for the classifications, both internally and externally. Evergreen’s recommendations took into consideration the current professional compensation strategies, compensation philosophy, pay practices and research, as well as applicable laws, statutes and regulations governing FLVS. Evergreen developed alternative recommendations demonstrating the methodology the FLVS should use to implement the compensation recommendations and the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of each alternative.

Evergreen was selected by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) to conduct the 2014 Data Access Research Taskforce (DART) Survey. Evergreen understands that the overarching goal of the survey was to inform decisions within OPI’s IT Division to better meet the needs of schools and districts related to data collection systems. The purpose of this project was to: 1) review, revise, and finalize the DART Survey instrument used in Fall 2012 using input from various OPI staff; 2) administer the revised DART Survey in Fall 2014 to all schools and districts served by the Montana OPI using Evergreen’s survey instrument; 3) analyze and report survey results once the survey is complete to establish a baseline for further improvement and measurement; and 4) present results back to OPI in a way that can also be distilled for schools and districts.

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with the Caddo Parish School Board (CPSB) to develop a Districtwide Strategic Plan. Evergreen worked with CPSB to develop five-year plan that was innovative and addressed the various components that contributed to the success of the district’s students, including, but not limited to, Instructional Leadership, Personnel Development and Effectiveness, Secure Learning Environment, Fiscal Management, Facilities Management and Capacity Utilization, Curriculum and Technology integration, Parental & Community Involvement, and Branding of CPSB.

Evergreen was engaged with Akron Public Schools (APS) to conduct a Human Resources Department Review/Audit and an Administrative Salary Study. Evergreen’s consultants conducted the following tasks: reviewed Human Resources Department staff and processes to determine appropriate staffing levels and provide recommendations and strategies for the development of new and/or revised processes, programs and practices; recommended elimination and/or outsourcing of processes, programs or practices as deemed appropriate; and reviewed Principal and Central Office Administrator Salary Schedules and provided recommendations as to whether revisions needed to be made to the salary schedule and/or whether another type of salary system should be developed, i.e., merit pay system.

Evergreen Solutions is a subcontractor to the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct a five-year evaluation of the Common Core Technology Project for the Los Angeles Unified School District. The purpose of this evaluation is to describe the organizational structure and lines of communication and decision making among participating committees and departments, and how that structure supports planning, implementation, and continuous improvement. Evergreen’s primary responsibility will be to conduct focus groups and interviews district administrators and central office staff responsible for leading and/or supporting CCTP implementation and representatives of major vendors and stakeholder groups. Evergreen will also interview members of CCTP planning committees who are not district-level staff.

During each stage of the initiative, Evergreen will collect key documents describing the organizational structure of district leadership. This will include organizational charts, memos, notes from public and private meetings of key committees, and external communications that are provided to schools and to the broader public, particularly those documents that outline the goals of the initiative and the expectations for piloting and implementation. In the later stages of the evaluation, evergreen will work with the evaluation team will determine whether the documents have been revised or updated. AIR and Evergreen will collaborate on identifying what to collect and on developing a coding framework. Evergreen will collect, review and code the documents, then summarize findings and integrate with findings from interviews.

Evergreen will work with AIR each year to develop Interim and Formative Evaluation Reports as well as the Annual Report at the conclusion of year of the evaluation which will involve a review of previous findings to depict how the project has changed over the course of the various stages of the evaluation.