Inglewood USD

 

Welcome to the Personnel Commission website.  The following are frequently asked questions related to Personnel Commissions.

What is a merit system?
A personnel system which outlines rules and regulations related to hiring, retaining, promoting and disciplining classified employees based on “merit and fitness”.  What exactly does “merit and fitness” mean?  Merit means deserving through successful participation in a job related examination and fitness means capable and able to do the duties required of the job.

Why do merit systems exist?
Civil service systems began at the federal government level in an effort to limit political patronage which is primarily obtaining employment because of the political party in which one may belong.  Taxpayers at the time did not believe it was in the best interest of society and communities to use taxpayer dollars to pay salaries for employees who were given positions for not what they knew but who they knew.  As a result, civil service systems spread to states, cities and local governments and are the personnel systems in most local government offices.

However, it did not spread to school districts until an incident occurred at Los Angeles Unified School District.  Approximately 700 classified employees were terminated and nearly 2, 000 people reported to the district office to assume jobs which they had been promised.  This incident resulted in legislation to prevent similar situations from occurring in school districts.   Article 6 of the California Education Code came into existence granting classified employees, board members or community members the right to implement a merit system in their local school district.

What is a Personnel Commission?
A Personnel Commission is a neutral body which is given the responsibility to ensure merit system principles are followed.  It is comprised of three Personnel Commissioners; one appointed by the Board of Education, the other nominated by the exclusive representative which represents the largest number of classified employees within the district and appointed by the Board of Education.  The third Personnel Commissioner is selected by the previously appointed Commissioners who then appoint a third Commissioner.

Status of the Personnel Commission:
Although the Merit System was adopted in October of 2007 there were several challenges to overcome.  However, now the Personnel Commission has a full body of Personnel Commissioners, a budget, office space, rules and regulations and two of the three permanent staff members.  We are currently working on:

• Meeting with subject matter experts including administrators who oversee classified positions and employees who currently hold classified positions
• Creating accurate and essential job descriptions for over 100 classifications
• Developing job families and a hierarchical structure
• Creating examinations for each job description in order to test an applicants’ knowledge, skills and abilities
• Recruiting to fill current vacancies
• Administering examinations
• Developing eligibility lists
• Reviewing the adopted rules and regulations to ensure they meet the needs of Inglewood Unified School District and are not in conflict with the collective bargaining agreement
• Hearing applicant appeals for disqualification
• Implementing policies and procedures to ensure merit system principles are maintained
• Evaluating seniority lists to ensure accuracy
• Establish reemployment lists
• Developing training for general skill development to assist employees with application/examination processes

 

Each of these areas include a number of steps to complete, is time sensitive and is very technical in nature.  However, the benefits of a merit system far outweigh the time commitment and costs associated with implementation of a merit system.

Some benefits of a Personnel Commission:

• Capable and able employees are hired permanently
• Permanent employees have a vested interest in the school district
• Employees know the duties they will perform
• Administrators can effectively evaluate the ability of the employee to perform the clearly outlined duties
• Clear personnel practices and procedures are in place eliminating guesswork
• Consistency is evident in matters related to personnel practices
• Employees are compensated with the idea of “similar pay for similar work”
• Neutrality in decisions related to hiring, retaining, promoting and discipline matters
• Provides defensible arguments for employment practices and decisions
• Reduces litigation costs associated with employee discipline because the adopted discipline procedures must be followed

 

Separation of Duties:

There are often questions related to authority of the Board of Education and authority of the Personnel Commission.  There are some areas in which the Board of Education has sole authority, some areas where the Personnel Commission has sole authority and yet other areas where authority is shared.  The following chart outlines the major areas and respective authority between the Board of Education and the Personnel Commission:

Subject	Board of Education	Personnel Commission
Salaries	Sets salaries	Recommends salaries for new positions but has sole authority to allocate positions to a particular classification and determines salary range
Negotiating employment contracts	Sole authority but cannot negotiate away provisions in the California Education Code as it relates to merit systems
Layoffs	Determines the need and makes the decision to layoff classified employees	Oversees the layoff process according to California Education Code, employee contract and rules and regulations; maintain reemployment lists to ensure employees are rehired based upon  seniority; employees receive rights to which they are entitled
Discipline	Determines the need to discipline	Hears employee appeals related to discipline and makes a decision to uphold, reject or modify the District’s decision regarding discipline
Recruitment	Determines the need to hire and number of positions to fill	Conducts the recruitment, determines which applicants meet the minimum qualifications; administers examinations; provides names of eligible candidates to the hiring supervisor