MEMBERS PRESENT: Nina Barrett, David Blackburn, Jack Blake, Tanya Bobo, Jill Chapman, Sonja Cantrell, , Betty Cook, Judy Damron, Douglas Franklin, Charles Harless, Martha Pierson , Ken Reffeitt, Lu Ann South, , Cora Westmoreland, Janis Winkfield, Joe Wortham

EXECUSED ABSENT: Marilyn Armentrout, , Rena Napier, Lisa Beckett, Muhammad Chaudhry, Brian Coutras, , David Cremeans, Elizabeth Graybeal, Charlene Hawkins

MEMBERS ABSENT: Lahoma Weekley, Verlin Hughes, Jr, Jill Burcham, Leah Tollivery

GUESTS: Jim Stephens, Director of Human Resource and Margaret Leach, Legislator

The meeting was called to order by President Nina Barrett at 1:00 p.m.

The minutes of the July meeting were discussed. A motion was made to accept the minutes and seconded. Minutes were approved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Barrett announced a special Staff Council meeting will be held on August 29, 12:30 p.m. with Senator Bob Plymale.

President Barrett stated that it is time that Council got a new salary schedule. The one we have is out-of-date. We need a new schedule that reflects current market value. We must work hard to see this issue accomplished.

President Barrett turned the floor over to our first guest, Mr. Jim Stephens.

Mr. Stephens expressed appreciation for having him. He hopes that we are in a trust building process and that Staff Council is comfortable about our Human Resource office. He wants to do whatever he can to help us have a successful employment experience.

First was a continued discussion of the Classified Staff Handbook:

Jim Stephens

There have been a few changes to the Classified Staff Handbook. The last paper edition is becoming obselete, therefore, the most correct version has been published on the web with a complete list of changes made at the end. This copy will be available to anyone who needs one. One can request a copy from the Department of Human Resources or print one off the web. Mr. Stephens stated, as far as he knows, Council sanctioned all of these changes. There is a link on the policies top page to connect to the Classified Staff Handbook. Any suggestions for revision or improvement to the Handbook from the Council or constituents are welcome.

Another issue of discussion related to medical leave of absence which ordinarily is asked for with a letter from the beneficiary. The Board of Trustees Policy 35 says, "A full-time employee, upon application in writing and upon written approval by the Institutional President, may be granted a continuous leave of absence without pay for a period of time not to exceed one year, provided, if granted because of illness, all sick and annual accumulated leave have been used." "The President, at his discretion, may require written approval of the supervisor before accepting the written application of an employee for a leave of absence without pay." Our Classified Handbook says, "Any employee requesting a medical leave of absence without pay must provide his/her supervisor with medical evidence that he/she is unable to work. The doctor’s statement should include a diagnosis, prognosis and expected date that the employee can return to work." In the section, Leave of Absence, under Personal Leave (page 53) it says, "Upon application in writing and subsequent approval by the institution’s president or his/her designee an employee may be granted a continuous leave of absence without pay for a period of time not to exceed 12 consecutive months or 260 consecutive work days." The problem is the part about having to ask for medical leave of absence in writing is not exclusively captured in this paragraph on medical leave. The Board policy says that you have to ask in writing for a medical leave of absence. Mr. Stephens proposes to revise the medical paragraph to read as follows: "An employee applying in writing for medical leave of absence without pay must provide his/her supervisor with medical evidence that he/she is unable to work. The doctor’s statement should include a diagnosis, prognosis and expected date that the employee can return to work. Upon subsequent approval by the President or his/her designee, an employee may be granted continuous leave of absence without pay for a period of time not to exceed 12 consecutive months or 260 consecutive workdays. Added language: If the employee is unable due to medical conditions to apply in writing himself/herself for medical leave of absence, the institution will accept a written application on behalf of the employee prepared and submitted by a member of the employee’s family or other person authorized to make such request."

Mr. Stephen asked Council to review these proposed changes in the Classified Staff Handbook and requested approval to let him edit the Handbook accordingly.

Mr. Stephens brought the Council an update on the issue of mandatory safety training. He stated David Cremeans, Jeff Ellis and others had provided him with a large amount of reference material that he was working his way through. They have been trying to research what safety and health related training is required in the Federal statutes like OSHA or EPA regulations and other agencies that have oversight responsibilities for us. This policy material is very obscure and it is hard to find our way around in it. What we are working on right now is the issue of whether training is required or whether compliance is required that would be facilitated by training. There appears to be some things in the statute that would require training and there appears to be other things where the institution has a compliance responsibility. What I want to do for you is to bring you a listing of what is actually required. HR has zero budgeted dollars for staff development and anything that we pay to provide a course comes out of our operating budget. There is no line item that supports training. All the training that we have provided has been at the courtesy of the presenters who would present without a fee. We have also had a responsibility to try to bring those units of training to all of our locations. We do not want to be just confined to the Huntington campus. We want to come in with a request to satisfy our training requirements, but we do not want to do this at the expense of the rest of our staff development program. So, what we would like to do is fold it into an overall proposal for staff development that would have some pieces in it. Mr. Stephens continued to discuss this issue in detail.

Questions were raised in regard to medical disability, appointment letters, grant funding and electronic PARs. Mr. Stephens responded to all questions in detail. 

Parliamentarian Jill Chapman introduced Delegate Margaret Leach.

Margaret Leach:

Ms. Leach discussed at length several issues of concern for classified staff including the Community College, Senate Bill 653, Advisory Council and the salary schedule. She felt the best thing she could do today is listen to staff council’s concerns about what we thought about the bill. She thinks that everyone knows that it is going to take years to get it implemented. She is not sure if this came across loud and clear but there will be compacts (contracts) with each institution and the State. And if we do not give you the money to achieve what is required in your contract your not going to be required to do it. So the whole thing is predicated on the State coming up with enough money to implement the bill. Right now she has not heard of any discussion about where they intend to get the extra money.

Funding under SB653

One of the things that is going to help Marshall is the new kind of funding they are going to do. They use to go by how many students Marshall has and we got so much money per student. What that created in some schools is that they quit looking at the quality of education and just looked at the numbers. That is going to be changed. The first change that is going to benefit Marshall is peer group quality. The problem before was we were never in our correct peer group. We were always placed in an inferior group. The peer groups that we have now been compared with will move us up. When the funds are available we will get a bigger increase than the other schools because some of them come more nearly to meeting the standards where they should be with the right peer group. In other words, WVU is already in the right peer group so they are not going to get a great huge increase. This also means that they (WVU) are going to fight this system all the way.

Part of the funding is through independently accredited Community and Technical College development. One of the purposes of this bill is to create better Community Colleges. While we do not intend to take them away from schools; we intend to free them up from the four year programs so that the bigger programs do not use all of the finances and resources from the smaller two year programs. The Community College will be funded as they gain independent accreditation even if we keep it here at Marshall as a component school. They will get extra funds for being independently accredited.

Another account that is going to be established is called Sustained Quality and Support. Delegate Leach thinks as far as funding is concern when it all boils down Marshall is far better under SB653 than under any of the other previous bills that went out July 1 this year.

Advisory Council of Classified Employees

Margaret explained how the Advisory Council of Classified Staff is supposed to work under SB653. President Barrett mentioned that she felt this group has been weakened considerably. Why? Under the old system the ACCE President was an actual voting member on the Board of Trustees. Now instead of being a voting member on the Policy Commission all they do is report to the Chancellor who reports to the Policy Commission. The Chancellor is supposed to take our interest to the Policy Commission. So the groups' power is greatly diluted. The intent of the bill is to take away some of the hands on management of local institutions by the State and let the colleges and universities have more hands on management through their own Governing Boards. They changed the Advisory Boards that we have always had. There will be changes this year in the Governing Board and we do have a vote on this Board. President Barrett said that there has been some concern among some of the colleges and universities about what is the point to send someone to the Advisory Council when they seem to be powerless. Ms. Leach replied that while it is true that we lost one vote, the Chancellor is supposed to act as our voice.

Community Colleges

The way the bill was originally drafted it would take away Marshall’s Community College and create a Community College somewhere in the Kanawha Valley and be called Kanawha Valley Community College. She stated they were able to fight off that battle. She thinks the way the bill is written now; and with the kind of person we have at the helm here who knows a lot about Community Colleges, that ours will be independently accredited and will still be here on the campus. Ms. Leach feels that it can have its own programs and its own president who would be appointed by the President of the University. They will be different than our four-year programs. We did get to protect the Community College at Marshall.

Council talked about our salaries not being in code. Ms. Leach is not sure if the salary schedule needs to be in code, but feels there should be policies concerning salaries.

1. Council’s number one concern is the salary schedule. A new salary schedule was not included in SB653.
2. House bill 4317 – (retirees cost of living increase) did not include some of the retirees with less than 20 years of employment with the State.
3. Bills need to be written that specifically include the language "higher education" instead of "State Employees" because without that clarification it excludes higher education employees.
4. PEIA Cost Containment. Ms. Leach explained that the sick days used to purchase insurance once we retire is the main issue. Ms. Leach said that the thing that is breaking PEIA is not how much care we get, but it is how much insurance we can buy with our sick leave upon our retirement. This is a big problem with the system. What they were going to do is not offer this benefit to new employees, but only to the people who are still in the system. When we are ready to retire, we would get some days but they would have an actuary value as to what insurance is going to buy. In other words, sick leave would not pay for as many months but would purchase health insurance coverage at its cost per month. She continued to discuss this issue at length.
5. Prescription costs.
6. It states in the insurance handbook that if state employees change from PEIA insurance to a POS or HMO than your accrued sick leave will only account for 50% of your insurance coverage at the time of retirement. Ms. Leach will check into this.

Ms. Leach discussed and answered all questions at length.

GRADUATE SCHOOL REPORT: Martha reported that they are very concerned about the ACCE Group because under SB653 they are powerless and they only meet informally. President Barrett explained at length the changes that are in place since Senate Bill 653 has been implemented.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT: Janis Winkfield reported there are two tuition waivers available now and a possibility of a third waiver. She mentioned that in the past we would carry over the waivers to the spring and summer terms. There are two people who would like to use these waivers but they submitted their applications late. She asked for a motion to provide these waivers to the two individuals that applied past the deadline. She feels we should use the waivers we have before we go to the President and ask for more money for waivers. Douglas Franklin made a motion seconded by Jack Blake that council accepts the two individual applications that filed late for the two tuition waivers turned down providing they meet the criteria. Council unanimously agreed.

INSTITUTIONAL BOARD: Tanya Bobo reported that they had been sworn in their office on the Governing Board. She announced that this is a transitional year for the Boards. She also mentioned that she would be loaned out for the United Way campaign at President Angel's request.

OLD BUSINESS: Douglas Franklin is to make an appointment with Mr. Jim Stephens to discuss concerns about procedures of physical plant and will report back to council.

NEW BUSINESS: President Barrett said that council would vote on new additions to the Classified Handbook at the Special Council Meeting on August 29^th.

With there being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:10 p.m.