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December 21, 2009

JISD support services receive a net positive TASBO review

By Nathan Straus

nstraus@jacksonvilleprogress.com



Texas Associate of School Business Officials representatives graded Jacksonville Independent School District’s maintenance, grounds, custodial and warehouse departments this year on their services and competency levels.

The review, received by the district in August, was declared by school officials to be mostly positive.

Olen Morton, JISD maintenance director, agreed the report was good overall.

“They looked and took into account the age of our buildings, looked at policies and suggested job descriptions for each discipline,” Morton said.

He said the review was a voluntary affair so no punches were pulled in its making.

“If you do this, you do it because you want to get better,” Morton said.

Lindy Finley, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, said the report was made by three men working just more than a week for TASBO. It cost around $10,515.

“I feel like we got affirmation on some things we were doing right,” Finley said. “Jacksonville has a lot of good things going on, but there are some areas we could use some work on.”

Finley said employees of the district need job descriptions, but added the buildings are all kept quite clean. She also said she viewed the report as an overall positive message.

Morton said the need for job descriptions, which he said have now been written, was because the district didn’t have accurate ones on file for certain support services positions.

“Everyone knew what was expected of them,” he said.

Another point for improvement made in the report regarded the chain of command. Morton said partly because of the size of the school district, a chain of command had not been written in detail. However, a chain of command was prepared after TASBO representatives suggested it.

An example of the chain of command for the school’s maintenance department would begin with maintenance employees before climbing to Morton, then to Finley, then to Dr. Joe Wardell, the school’s superintendent.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Morton said of the report’s commendations. “I knew there would be good things there.”

He said he could understand the suggestions and saw the benefits of putting them in effect.

Though other departments, such as the transportation and food services departments, have had reviews done in the past, Morton said this was the first maintenance review in his memory.

“It helps to develop a long-term plan,” he said.

The most helpful thing he gained out of the report, Morton said, was a series of actual definitions of what he expects from each employee to use as evaluation tools.

“If we go to yearly personnel evaluations, there’s no subjectiveness any more,” Morton said.

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