Questions about school hazards and how you can mitigate them?
This 30-minute lunch an learn webinar will give you an overview of some of the hazards you should be aware of and looking for in your schools. We will also review some of the vast resources PACE provides to our members to help further raise awareness and mitigate loss exposures related to these hazards. Risk consultants will stay on until 1 p.m. to answer any questions after the presentation.
PACE is proud to announce the top six 2018-19 STOP (“Students Taking on Predators”) student-made videos. Oregon high school students were encouraged to create videos on the topic of identifying, reporting, and eliminating sexual harassment in schools.
“Our goal was to generate awareness about the issue and create learning tools for schools to stop boundary invasion of students,” said Dave Harvey, PACE Administrator. “These videos are especially powerful because they represent students’ perspectives.”
The videos also contain a link to the statewide Safe Oregon tipline, which allows for anonymous tips to law enforcement. Each winning video is awarded a $5,000 college scholarship. Winners were chosen based on quality of information on preventing boundary invasion and harassment of students. Students were encouraged to keep the videos short and focus on production quality and emotional appeal. Watch each of the winning videos below.
Taylor Friederichs is a senior at Culver High School. This Fall, she plans to attend Eastern Oregon University, where she plans to pursue a degree in nursing.
Tanner Barth is a senior at Junction City High School. This fall he plans to attend Lane Community College, where he expects to study programming and game design. He enjoys video production and sports. Tanner is an Eagle Scout and has competed at the state level in soccer, track and field, and speech and debate.
Tanner says, “My whole life my Dad and I have made videos together, and when I got into high school and got my driver’s license, I started to make them by myself with friends…I am very excited for the future and to see what I can accomplish.”
Karis Lee is attending George Fox University in Fall 2019. Karis submitted background information on her video: “Sexual assault can sometimes be ignored, or not talked about, creating a barrier for those who are getting harmed. It’s important for everyone to be educated on the topic, as well as know safe places they can turn to get help.”
Jacob Finzer is a junior at Clackamas High School and has been a part of the Sabin-Schellenberg Center’s Broadcasting and Social Media Program for the last two years. He plans to pursue a career as a producer or director, creating TV shows and films. Jacob looks up to Ryan Murphy, creator of American Horror Story and American Crime Story. He, too, wants to create award-winning productions that entertain and make the audience think. Jacob said, “I am ecstatic that my video was chosen and my friend’s story is able to be shared and help spread awareness of what is happening in our schools.”
Grant Didway is a junior and the ASB media director at Oregon City High School. He is involved in OCH’s student council, national honors, soccer, snowboarding team and tennis. Outside of school, he enjoys climbing, and he wants to study Computer Science or Mechanical Engineering in college.
Diana Dominguez is a sophomore at Ridgeview High School in Redmond. She is an active tennis player and participates in Juntos and Avanza, college readiness programs for Latinos. After graduation, she hopes to attend the University of Oregon to major in business administration and minor in mathematics.
Kyra Galloway is a sophomore at Ridgeview High School in Redmond. She plans to attend Central Oregon Community College, then transfer to Oregon State University to major in veterinary sciences. Outside of school, she stays busy with 4H. She is also on the high school soccer team.
Kayleen Pena is a sophomore at Ridgeview High School in Redmond. She plans to attend Portland State University to become a pediatric dentist. Kayleen said, “When looking at the other winning videos, I found myself amazed at the quality.”
Recent large claims and high reinsurance rates have resulted in an average 15% increase in renewal rates.
PACE was formed by intergovernmental agreement to jointly self-insure to protect members from liability and property claims. PACE is not an insurance company; it is a trust governed by a board of PACE members. Oregon law, under ORS 30.282, specifies that self-insured local government programs such as PACE must annually set their rates based on proper actuarial calculations and must purchase reinsurance to protect against catastrophic loss. PACE worked hard to lower this increase as much as possible; the rate increase would have been closer to 23%, but thanks to the interest earnings from our claim reserves, PACE was able to lower it to 15%.
PACE has created this informational sheet to explain the reasons for the average 15% increase.
In addition to sexual abuse and molestation claims, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly harder to insure as schools become prime targets for cyber attacks. To help with this, PACE contracted with Eide Bailly to analyze and mitigate any potential safety or claims risks. Frank Stratton, the Executive Director of SDAO, gave a thorough explanation about the rate increase and cybersecurity in the PACE Day 2021 Business Update. You can watch the 10 minute video below.
Remember, PACE is always here to help you mitigate and prevent risk and claims. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any issues or concerns.
PACE is committed to providing high quality service and resources to our members. In an effort for transparency and communication, we have created the PACE Mid-Year Update, which we will publish one to two times per year to let you know what each department is doing and what is going on.
Read the letter from our Administrator, Dave Harvey and review what each department has been doing the last six months: what challenges they are facing and what successes they have achieved, and how they are available to help your needs.
PACE is here to help with a safe and successful school year – don’t hesitate to reach out! Do you have any questions? Email [email protected] and we can direct you to the appropriate team member.
Remember, PACE is always here to help you mitigate and prevent risk and claims. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any issues or concerns.
School safety teams participate in reunification training
Education, law enforcement and emergency management personnel from the central and southern parts of Oregon attended a Standard Reunification Method (SRM) training Aug. 15-16 in Bend. More than eight school districts, ESDs and charter schools were represented. PACE sponsored the two-day training, hosted by the High Desert ESD and Bend-La Pine School District.
The SRM provides school and district safety teams with proven methods for planning, practicing and achieving accountable reunification of students with their parents or guardians after a school crisis or emergency. John-Michael Keyes, executive director of the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, led participants through an overview of SRM theory and information on Monday.
Steve Johnson, Klamath County School District risk management/safety officer, said the training was beneficial.
“In KCSD, we had discussed our need for a reunification system and now feel confident that we could replicate the reunification plan presented by the ‘I Love U Guys’ Foundation within our buildings,” said Johnson. “We can build on this model to ensure a smooth and sensitive reunification process for students, parents, and families during a potentially traumatic event.”
Tuesday’s training consisted of a series of simulations where each attendee played the role of parent, student and administrator in hands-on reunification practice. Facilitators led participants in a debrief after each exercise to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
Misty Groom, High Desert ESD threat assessment coordinator, said the best part of the training was taking the SRM information and putting it into practice through the school reunification exercises. “The SRM went from something huge and unattainable to manageable, where implementation is not overwhelming,” she said.
Watch a recording of a previous training and gain access to additional SRP/SRM resources on the PACE website.
Reach out to [email protected] to inquire about potential PACE-sponsored training opportunities.
The MVP (most valuable person) in your district – your key contact
Every PACE member designates a staff person to be your organization’s key contact. All PACE communications go to this contact, including claims, risk management issues and general information. We consider this contact your MVP because we rely on them to distribute essential information to appropriate staff within your school, district, educational service district or community college. Examples of essential information include insurance renewals, grant opportunities, upcoming trainings, key legislative issues, other events and opportunities and severe weather events.
The key contact’s role is to determine where information needs to go within your organization to avoid losing it in cyberspace. Therefore, choosing the proper key contact is crucial. Some members from small organizations choose the administrative assistant as their key contact. This is acceptable if they regularly check their email and forward or respond to the information. If this is not the case, opportunities or important decisions may be missed or delayed, which can monetarily impact your organization.
We have developed a webinar that discusses the key contact’s role and available resources at PACE.
You can find these resources on the About PACE page, under the “Are you a Key Contact?” header.
If you do not know your key contact, or think a change needs to be made, please reach out to [email protected] or risk management at [email protected].
Keeping students and staff safe is central to PACE’s mission. Despite our best efforts, challenges arise daily for Oregon’s school districts, education service districts and community colleges. PACE is here to help by providing risk management resources, including a team of experts to provide customized help and services. In that vein, PACE would like to introduce two new staff on the Risk Management team: Brad Eastman and Meghan Howk.
Brad Eastman is no stranger to managing risk.
As a charter captain on the Great Lakes for 11 years, Eastman says, he dealt with risk mitigation and client safety daily. His experience as a teacher for more than 20 years has also provided him with insight into the risks staff and educators face in school buildings. “As a teacher, you always have to be on your A game,” he said.
Eastman most recently taught middle school math at the Silver Falls School District east of Salem. He wants to offer a bridge between what a teacher does, thinks and expects with the requirements administrators need to enforce. It is about doing the best thing for students, Eastman says.
Eastman is focused on learning the intricacies of the law and meeting with members in person. He is excited to be back in schools in a new capacity, as a PACE risk management consultant. In this role, he will be on the road providing staff trainings on student supervision, playground safety, building inspections and more.
Meghan Howk is joining the PACE team as a risk management consultant, focused on community college members. Howk is experienced as a health care risk manager and certified health education specialist. She has served on various safety, emergency preparedness and risk management committees and has conducted tabletop drills.
She is passionate about finding efficient ways to use risk management for quality improvement and process engineering. She thinks she can use her skills to help members get back to the basics by providing the tools and resources they need to manage risks specific to community colleges.
Howk says she is most excited about the opportunity to build relationships with community college members. “I see my role as developing a collaborative partnership,” Howk said. “I want to learn about community college needs and then see how we can meet those needs.” She is looking forward to meeting contacts from each college and says she wants members to feel comfortable talking with her.
In the weeks to come, Howk will schedule meet-and-greet visits with members.
Howk will also work closely with McKenzie Nix, PACE sexual abuse and molestation prevention specialist, to bring training and resources to community colleges.
Resources to address uptick in fentanyl-related overdoses
Safety is PACE’s top priority, and we believe it is critically important to share information about fentanyl’s dangers with our members, students and families.
The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics names fentanyl as the world’s deadliest opioid. It is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and up to 300 times more potent than morphine. It accounts for more than half of all overdose deaths in the United States (source: https://drugabusestatistics.org/fentanyl-abuse-statistics/).
Recently, we have seen an increase in people in our communities purchasing what they think are OxyContin, Percocet or Xanax pills via social media but getting fake pills containing the cheaper, stronger and more deadly synthetic drug called fentanyl.
Students and families can report confidential concerns about substances circulating in the community by going to http://www.safeoregon.com.
In December 2020, Jennifer and Jon Epstein lost their son, Cal, to fentanyl poisoning. Just six months earlier, Cal had graduated from Sunset High School in the Beaverton School District. He bought what he thought was OxyContin from a drug dealer on Snapchat. Instead, he got a fake pill made from cheap, potent and deadly fentanyl. Watch this video to hear their story.
Free Speech Rights of Staff – 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Update
At the end of 2022, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided the case of Dodge v. Evergreen School District, No, 21-35400 (Dec. 29, 2022). The case involved Eric Dodge, a teacher who had worked for Evergreen School District for 17 years, and who had been assigned to a new middle school for the first time during the 2019-2020 school year. The week before school began, Dodge attended a cultural sensitivity and racial bias training held at his assigned school. He wore a Make America Great Again – MAGA – hat to the school’s front doors and placed it on the table next to him or on top of his backpack during the training.
District staff and the professor leading the training both complained to the school’s principal, who was also Dodge’s new assigned supervisor. District teachers reported to the principal that they felt threatened and upset by the hat’s presence, and the professor leading the training said she felt intimidated.
The principal spoke to Dodge about the MAGA hat after the end of the first day of training. Dodge said he wore the hat to protect his head and that he liked the hat’s message that everyone should be the best they can be at what they do. The principal explained that some people viewed the MAGA slogan as a symbol of hate and bigotry. The principal asked Dodge to exercise better judgment in the future.
Dodge attended another teacher training the following day at a different school. He again wore the MAGA hat outside and set it next to him during the training. Dodge’s supervising principal met with him again and told him that if he wore the MAGA hat again, they would need to discuss it at a meeting where he had his union representative present with him.
Dodge filed a harassment, intimidation, and bullying complaint against the principal and requested to be transferred to a different school. The HR officer who had counseled the principal on responding to the MAGA hat complaints from teachers initiated an investigation into Dodge’s complaint per district policy. The district hired a third-party investigator, who found that Dodge was denied his freedom of expression and that he had not violated any district policy by wearing the MAGA hat. The investigator also found that the principal’s reference to bringing union representation at a subsequent meeting if Dodge wore the hat again could be perceived as a threat of discipline but did not rise to harassment, intimidation, or bullying. The district HR officer asked the third-party investigator to make some changes to the preliminary findings before issuing a final report.
The district determined that the principal had not violated the harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy and would take no further action. However, the district did transfer Dodge pursuant to his request and would provide training to its employees about allowing employees to engage in political discourse without violating constitutional rights. Dodge appealed the dismissal of his harassment, intimidation, and bullying complaint to the school board. The school board affirmed the dismissal of the complaint. The principal resigned at the end of the 2019-2020 school year due to additional concerns reported by parents.
Dodge sued the school district, the principal, and the HR officer. He alleged that the principal and HR officer violated his First Amendment right to free speech when they retaliated against him for bringing his MAGA hat to the teacher trainings. He alleged that the school board ratified the unconstitutional actions of the principal and HR officer when it affirmed the denial of his harassment, intimidation and bullying complaint against the principal.
The U.S. District court of Washington granted summary judgment against Dodge on all of his claims and concluded that the principal and HR officer were immune from the lawsuit because their actions did not clearly violate Dodge’s constitutional rights, and that the school board did not ratify any constitutional actions by the principal or HR officer when it affirmed the denial of Dodge’s complaint.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the district court and found that Dodge has the right to prove at trial whether the principal violated Dodge’s constitutional rights because there was no evidence of “actual or tangible disruption to school operations” as a result of Dodge wearing the MAGA hat, and there is a clearly established First Amendment right of employees to engage in controversial political speech even when others find the speech objectionable.
Takeaways:
Employees can be prohibited from engaging in political speech altogether in a way that does not favor or disfavor any particular point of view. Evergreen School District did not, at the time Dodge wore his MAGA hat to these trainings, have a policy that prohibited all political messaging. The issue in this case was that the principal targeted Dodge’s MAGA hat because of its message. See the Oregon Secretary of State’s Restrictions on Political Advocacy by Public Employees guidance document for more information about Oregon public employee political speech.
Controversial speech inherently causes some disruption to workplace harmony because others disagree with the message; however, a district wanting to avoid the unpleasantness that follows an employee’s expression of an unpopular viewpoint is not enough to justify a district’s decision to prohibit controversial speech—even if district staff report that the controversial speech makes them feel intimidated or threatened.
This case likely does not apply to a situation where a teacher wears a controversial political message in front of parents or students. Dodge wore his MAGA hat to a teacher-only training event led by a hired trainer, and told the principal he would not wear the hat during class or around parents. If he had, the district may have been concerned that Dodge was taking advantage of his position to promote the MAGA message, or that it would have been viewed as officially promoted by the district.
District officials can be liable for violating an employee’s right to free speech even if the district does not discipline an employee because of something the employee said/wore/displayed. If a district official says something to an employee that insinuates or threatens future discipline, this can violate an employee’s First Amendment rights because it may deter them from continuing to exercise their right to free speech.
Remember that sometimes even the “preliminary” reports of third-party investigators may be used as evidence in a lawsuit. The 9th Circuit quoted several parts of the third-party investigator’s report even though those parts were removed from the final report at the request of the district’s HR officer.
Consult with your school’s general counsel or PACE legal at [email protected] before taking any adverse action against a staff member for their speech.
As part of an insurance risk pool, you’ve heard us emphasize many times the importance of working together to reduce risks and keep our rates as low as possible, so more dollars end up in the classroom. You’re doing your part, and we cannot thank you enough for that.
Catastrophic events around the world, like hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and tornados, are driving up rates dramatically and creating turmoil in reinsurance markets. Reinsurance, as you may recall, provides that vital top layer of coverage into the tens of millions of dollars for catastrophes.
As we look toward fiscal 2023-24 and renewals coming up in June, we are projecting average PACE premium increases of as much as 15 to 20%. Please note that these are averages and each member’s rate will differ based on claims and other factors. We know that you are entering budget season and we want to provide you ample time to plan.
Premium increases are projected based on an average 8% rate increase, coupled with the need to significantly raise the insured values of the more than $25 billion in property that PACE covers. Why increase property valuations? Construction costs are soaring, and if a member experiences a loss we will need to make sure the property valuations are accurately assessed to replace damaged structures.
While premium increases are never welcome, it’s important to note that in this high-inflation environment worldwide PACE continues to provide significant savings to members. We are not an insurance company and have no profit motive whatsoever. We are simply about keeping students safe, reducing risks and conserving member resources.
As always, we welcome and encourage you to contact your agent of record or our Underwriting Department if you have questions or suggestions. We remain committed to keeping PACE fiscally responsible and providing the coverage you need should disaster strike.
