Organizational Analysis

Assignment 1:
Organizational Analysis
Student: Elza Gabriel
Human Resource Management
BUS 310025 VA 016-1148-001
Instructor: ALEAKHUE YEKPABO
Monday, November 10, 2014

The School District of Palm Beach County is the public school system for all of Palm Beach County Florida. The District was established in 1909 and formally was known as the Palm Beach County Board of Public Instruction until the mid-1980's. The district administrative office is located in the Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center, 3300 Forest Hill Boulevard West Palm Beach, FL 33406. The district is the 11th largest district in the continental US and the 5th largest in the state of Florida. The district has improved graduation rates to 79.8% and has closed the gap between white and minority students in both graduation rates and academic performance. The school grades for the district are among the highest in the state with 86 schools earning A’s, 28 earning B’s, 24 earning C’s, 10 earning D’s and 3 are incomplete. (Excluding Alternative Schools, Charter Schools and High Schools). The School District of Palm Beach County has earned an "A" rating from the Florida Department of Education for eight consecutive years based on student performance on the FCAT. The District is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. They serve around 176, 724 students in grades K to 12. These students speak up to 150 Languages/dialects.
The district is the largest employer in Palm Beach County. The district has a total budget of $2.37 billion while serving 20,810 employees. The district has 12,480 teachers, 1075 School and district administrators, 7108 non-instructional personnel. Florida's Palm Beach County School District has a total of 185 schools. The have 23 high schools of which five high schools that have received gold, silver or bronze medals in the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. The district has 33 middle schools, 107 elementary schools, 15 alternative schools, 2 adult- community schools, 2 ESE and one intermediate school. The School District of Palm Beach County is a team of highly qualified professionals, consisting of instructional and non-instructional personnel, who shape children’s future one day at a time.
Approximately 1,200 business partners provide between $3 million and $4 million per year in cash and other resources to support increased student achievement. As the school district grows more diverse, the task of providing effective learning experiences for every child in every classroom becomes increasingly more challenging. The School District of Palm Beach County recognizes this challenge and is determined to identify and eliminate obstacles that may exist within the structure of the schools and the school system.
SDPBC Mission Statement:
The School District of Palm Beach County is committed to providing a world-class education with excellence and equity to empower each student to reach his or her highest potential with the most effective staff to foster the knowledge, skills, and ethics required for responsible citizenship and productive careers.
SDPBC Vision Statement:
The School District of Palm Beach County envisions a dynamic collaborative multicultural community where education and lifelong learning is valued and supported, and all learners reach their highest potential and succeed in the global economy.
The School District of Palm Beach County also offers a Career Education Choice school program for its students. Students participating in Career Education Choice programs in the School District of Palm Beach County will graduate with career training in high wage, high demand occupations as well as a set of strong workplace competencies that today’s workforce demands from its employees. Career Education provides a solid foundation to help build futures for students by integrating academic, critical thinking, technical and organizational skills that are relevant to the real world. Students will leave Career Education programs with the proper skills to make informed decisions for a future career.
Students participating in any of the four International Baccalaureate (IB) programs develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn, and work in a rapidly globalizing world. IB graduates are accepted into universities throughout the world and are prepared for success in any of their chosen careers. Critical and creative thinking are developed through student-centered learning experiences in all academic disciplines and the arts. IB students study an additional world language. All of the four IB programs are offered in the School District of Palm Beach County. IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC) program designed for high school students who wish to participate in the IB Diploma Programme while also completing a Career Education pathway.
Career Education Choice Schools, Our Mission
This department is committed to empowering and supporting students and their families in making informed, educational decisions leading to post-secondary education and career options in order to compete in today’s technology-driven, global society.
Career Education Choice Schools, Our Vision
Our vision is to graduate students prepared for the demands of the 21st century.
The School District Human Resources Division supports school district operations through people, process and technology. The focus is on the recruitment and retention of talent, processing efficiency, and exemplary customer service. The vision of the human resources division is recognized as a valued strategic partner, focusing on improving academic excellence, organizational performance, and individual excellence. Through the human resources division you can apply for positions, obtain employment-related information, and navigate the web pages to various department sites and resource links.
The human resource division oversees the following departments within the school district, Certification, Vacancies, Compensation, Employee Relations, Performance Standards and Substitutes.
The certification office oversees and enforces the district’s compliance with the local, state and federal regulations governing the employment, qualification, licensure and/or certification of administrators and teachers. The Certification Office also provides general certification information, counseling, and guidance.
The department of recruitment and retention handles the filling of all vacancies within the district. All jobs are advertised online, and no paper applications are available. Palm Beach County offers a variety of full and part time opportunities, including teaching, food service, transportation, custodial, office support staff, and many more.
The department of compensation handles salary information, payroll, job descriptions, leaves of absences and retirement. The department of employee relations handles professional standards. The Office of Professional Standards is committed to the mission and goals of the Palm Beach County School Board. Whether it's investigating a complaint of employee misconduct or assisting teachers in obtaining and maintaining a Florida Educator's Certificate, our goal is to exemplify the level of ethical professionalism that we expect from our employees.
The Performance Standards department works collaboratively with all district personnel to ensure due process in the competency process. The staff also trains supervisors and administrators on laws, policies, procedures, and the documentation process regarding competency of all bargaining unit employees, provides support and assistance with evaluation, probationary procedures and non-reappointments.
The human resource division has a customer care center that is staffed with customer service representatives to assist with all human resource-related questions with one-call resolution. If they cannot answer questions, they will put you in touch with someone who can. The customer care center may be reached by phone or email with any question or concerns with the following topics:
Advanced Degrees
Certification
Teaching Experience
Salary and Compensation
Incentive Awards
Leaves of Absence
Resignations
Retirement
Personnel Files
BENCOR/FICA Information
HR Policies and Procedures

The following are featured services handled by the human resource customer care center:
Application Assistance
Employment Verification
Retirement Appointments
Self-Service Assistance ◦Address changes
◦Incentive Award
◦Name changes
Records Requests
Loan Forgiveness

The human resources customer care center regular hours are Monday through Friday from
7:30 am - 5:00 pm *Thursdays: 10:00 am - 5:00pm.

The mission statement of the district:
The School District of Palm Beach County is committed to providing a world-class education with excellence and equity to empower each student to reach his or her highest potential with the most effective staff to foster the knowledge, skills, and ethics required for responsible citizenship and productive careers.
To be able to provide a world-class education with the most effective staff puts the human resources department right at the forefront of fulfilling the mission statement. The human resource department is empowered with the recruitment of vacancies and retention of quality professionals to meet the mission statement. This job of recruitment is essential in building a talented work force to fulfill the mission statement. And once the talent has been assembled the retention of these professional individuals is another task of the human resource department.
The challenges facing the human resources department of a school district like Palm Beach County are many and large. The recruitment and retention of talent would seem the biggest and most challenging for the district. Finding and convincing talented individual to work in the school districts of Florida can be difficult because the pay is low compared to other parts of the country. In addition the recent overtaxing burden of testing as a measure for compensation contributes as well. The lack of faith and commitment from state law and budget makers, and then district spending seems at times to push talented and experienced professionals out of the school districts. Talented staff can find positions in regular business organizations that pay as much or more with as good or better benefits. Competition among other states as well as other school districts put much pressure on the human resources teams to find the best possible candidates for vacancies.
The first recommendation I would make for recruitment of staff would be advertising in northern states where the weather is harsh and cold compared to Palm Beach County. I would use the favorable weather to entice quality candidates to the district. South Florida’s cities are some of the most livable in the world with beautiful weather, stunning beaches and thriving urban cores.
The second recommendation I would make is to increase pay to at least be competitive with surrounding county school boards. If the district truly wants to attract top quality staff they are going to have to pay for it. If I know I will make more here than somewhere else then of course I would want to work here. To go along with better wages would be cost of living, if you can show that the cost of living and wages combined are a better fit here you have a very good recruitment tool to use to your advantage against your competition.
I believe that the enticement of the beautiful weather and scenery of south Florida along with a competitive pay scale would truly make the School District of Palm Beach County a very easy sale to recruits looking for positions in a school district. All of the attractions and benefits of the south Florida life style along with competitive wages should make the district competitive in the market place for the vacancies that they have.

About Us SDPBC, (N.D.) retrieved from http://www.palmbeachschools.org/Community/AboutUs.asp
David Clarke, (N.D.) View: 9 reasons why South Florida is the best place to work for digital professionals retrieved from http://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2012/09/view-9-reasons-why-south-florida-is-the-best-place-to-work-for-digital-professionals.html
Public Affairs. (2013, November 20) District Facts at a Glance retrieved from http://www.palmbeachschools.org/Community/PDFs/District_Facts_At_A_Glance_Index_Card.pdf The Division of Human Resources, (N.D.) retrieved from http://www.palmbeachschools.org/hr/
The School District of Palm Beach County, (N.D.) Index, retrieved from http://www.palmbeachschools.org/ U.S. News & World Report (N.D.) Palm Beach County School District. retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/florida/districts/palm-beach-county-school-district West Palm Beach Schools. (N.D,) Great Schools. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/florida/west-palm-beach/