Board Report - October 13

Board Reports

Board Approves Designations for Teacher Empowerment Program

Board members approved a designation system for Union’s Teacher Empowerment Program, affecting about 100 teachers.

The Oklahoma Teacher Empowerment Program (OTEP) enables exceptional educators to enhance their professional development without transitioning into an administrative role, explained Associate Superintendent Sandi Calvin.

The Teacher Empowerment Revolving Fund is supported and provided through the Oklahoma Lottery Commission. About $58 million is available for districts to designate as funds for highly qualified teachers during the 2025-2026 school year. These funds allow districts to identify and designate up to 10 percent of their excellent teachers as advanced, lead, or master teachers, Calvin explained in a Board memo. “This is approximately 100 teachers for Union Public Schools.”

Depending on the designation level, teachers will receive a stipend ranging from $3,000 for Advanced to $10,000 for Master Level. Teachers employed at a school with economically disadvantaged students (40 percent or more) will receive an additional one-time award of $1,500 to $5,000, depending on their designation. All Union schools are above the 40 percent threshold for economically disadvantaged students.

Under the process for Union, teachers will need to apply to be considered for the program. Applications will be submitted electronically, and documentation will be required to support the application. Teachers also must meet the minimum criteria for each designation and then, in addition, they must meet the minimum rubric score to qualify.

The work assignments for the extra contract days may be respective to the role and responsibilities and/or capacity of the individual awarded. Such assignments may include but are not limited to:

• Preparing for and leading professional development
• Serving in a leadership role for summer school
• Serving on a site-based leadership planning team
• Curriculum development; or
• High-intensity tutoring.

The specific assignment and dates for the extra days shall be determined and approved by the principal and/or supervising director. The OSDE may provide up to six hours of additional leadership professional development to the designated teachers.

In other action, the Board approved revisions to three Board policies: one for medications – see changes – and discrimination and harassment for teachers and students which specifically adds verbiage to prohibit discrimination based on antisemitism – see changes for staff and for students.

In a separate matter, the Board renewed its agreement with CareATC to provide site clinic services to eligible employees for 2026, with a 3 percent rate increase. Employees and their dependents who are on the PPO plan can visit any of the CareATC clinics nationwide. The co-pay to visit CareATC clinics will be $0, and employees will be able to continue to receive no-cost generic prescription medications.

By using CareATC, Union employees are getting treatment at reduced rates, not only saving the employee out-of-pocket costs, but also resulting in savings to the Union's Self-Insured Plan.

Union’s Custodial Practices Rated ‘Excellent’

Core America, a custodial consulting company, was hired by Union to assess the quality of its janitorial services and was rated a 91.5 percent across all the district’s buildings, which is in the “excellent” range.

In his report to the Board of Education, Director of Operations Dr. Josh Robinson said Core America was hired to inspect and evaluate the work of Union’s custodial team once the school year started. “Core America has a great reputation and has inspected over 80,000 buildings and 3 billion square feet of property nationally,” said Robinson. “They evaluate college campuses, K-12 school districts and hospitals.”

Over two weeks, they inspected Union’s 23 buildings and 352 rooms using APPA cleaning standards and assigned ratings. “Core America’s baseline score combined across all district buildings was 91.5 percent (APPA 2.25), which is considered ‘excellent,’” said Robinson.

While the overall assessment was good, some improvements need to be made in boys’ restrooms and gymnasiums. Comparisons are made with districts of similar size and scope. “We performed at the second-highest level of our peer group,” said Robinson.

A preliminary analysis suggests our secondary school sites are not staffed adequately given the large square footage and event spaces. (The district’s elementary schools generally have higher scores).

Robinson said they will use photos taken during the inspection as part of a “punch list,” so corrective action can be taken.

“I want to commend our custodial staff who work so hard to keep our spaces in good shape. They work at night, so they don’t get as much interaction with our staff as our teachers and other faculty members, so I really want to make sure that thankless job gets a proper thank you. I’d also like to thank Cindy Alexander, our custodial coordinator for 25 years, for her leadership.”  

Board Approves Installation Project at Union 6^th/7^th Grade Centers

The Board of Education approved the purchase and installation of BAS Controls at the Union 6^th/7^th Grade Centers from Harrison Energy Partners for $332,987.

This project will provide for building HVAC automation controls for Phase V of the 6th/7th Grade Center construction project now underway and funded by monies approved by voters. This work includes advanced digital temperature spare control and will be linked to the district wide supervisor.

In other action, the Board:

• Approved the purchase of 1,200 student laptops and accessories from Trafera for $730,900 for students at the Union 8^th Grade Center.
• Approved a resolution calling for a Board member election for District 1 on April 7, 2026. The district is currently represented by Joey Reyes, the current Board president.
• Approved payment of $268,977 to the Tulsa County Assessor or annual visual inspection fees.

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