Public commenter questions HR consulting payments and cites VLI pass-rate change

During audience participation, a speaker identified as Miss Coral asked the board why the district continued paying an HR consultant after the district had staffed its HR office. Coral summarized a timeline: the district’s HR function grew from a single administrative assistant in 1997 to adding an HR director in 2019 and additional HR specialists by 2021; the commenter said the district then hired two HR specialists last winter and nonetheless has continued to contract with the same consultant.

Coral said that "since February 12, the district has paid that very same consultant $15,770 as a contracted HR personnel" and that the district has a fully staffed HR department consisting of a director, two specialists and an administrative assistant for an organization that she said employs about 450 people. Coral told the board the district’s check register was not on that evening’s agenda, so she could not confirm whether a check had been issued in the past month.

Coral also addressed the VLI program, saying, "In 2023, the VLI teachers were HPS teachers in the 76 percent pass rate. And this past year, they were Pearson teachers with a 72 percent pass rate." She presented those numbers as context for the board’s discussion of the VLI purchase earlier in the meeting.

The meeting’s public-comment instructions, read aloud by the presiding officer, stated that the board would listen and take comments under advisement and would not respond during the audience-participation period. The transcript records Coral’s statements but does not show a board response or follow-up motion during that meeting.

Coral suggested the amount paid to the consultant could instead be used for small capital needs — she gave the example of planting grass in front of Dickinson West — and she asked the board to provide documentation when possible.