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Board approves two-year contract for business manager after removing vacation payout clause
Summary
After debate about workload and whether to hire temporary HR help, the Bird Island'Olivia'Lake Lillian school board amended and approved a two-year contract for business manager Amy Schmidt, striking a provision that would allow payout of up to seven unused vacation days.
The Bird Island'Olivia'Lake Lillian school board approved a two-year employment contract for business manager Amy Schmidt on July 22, 2024, after removing a clause that would have allowed the district to pay out up to seven unused vacation days at fiscal year end.
Board members debated whether the business manager's workload and bundled HR duties warranted hiring additional temporary help or leaving the HR responsibilities within the business manager role. Member Benson moved to table consideration of the contract; that motion failed. During discussion members expressed concern about the workload tied to an ongoing construction project and the potential cost and training time of bringing in temporary staff from the cooperative service.
Amy Schmidt, the business manager, said hiring Nancy earlier this year and shifting payroll duties reduced her workload. She described instances when urgent tasks required work while she was on leave, including preparing a state grant and overseeing construction-related finance, and said the small-district staffing model sometimes requires staff to handle multiple duties.
The board voted to amend the proposed contract by striking the sentence allowing payment of up to seven unused vacation days at the end of the fiscal year; the amendment carried. With that change and a correction to the contract year dates (202425 and 202526), the board then approved the contract as amended.
The board held two votes on the item: an unsuccessful motion to table the contract and, after debate and amendment, approval of the two-year contract. The motion to amend the vacation-payout language was carried by the board; the subsequent approval of the contract was also carried as presented.
The contract change was presented as a procedural measure to give the board annual oversight of any discretionary vacation payout rather than embedding it in the contract.
Next steps: the contract will be executed with the amended language and corrected dates; the board and administration indicated they will monitor workload and consider co-op support or temporary help if needed.
