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Dear Colleagues,
As always, thank you to those of you who joined me on Team KDE this week. We discussed updates to the telecommuting policy and internal controls. If you could not attend, I encourage you to watch the meeting recording on our Team KDE SharePoint site.
I have done my best to be transparent about my thoughts on the telecommuting policy and how I feel about it. As I have mentioned before, since I have been here, I have been working alongside leadership to ensure I am looking at this policy from all angles.
Although I had reservations when I first started here, I have seen the great work and the opportunities telecommuting allows for our agency. With that being said, I want to make sure we are serving our districts the best way possible and continuing to support a positive public perception by providing excellent service and responsiveness for both telework and office work.
I want you to know that you have not given me any reason thus far to not trust this process, but it is important for each of you to take time and revisit those expectations. I am relying on the different offices to make sure that you are aware of the expectations within each of your groups, so expect to have those conversations within your offices in the near future.
Internal Controls
There are a lot of great things that are going on across this agency, and we want to continue that great work. The internal controls process allows us an opportunity to get your input and your viewpoint on what's going on within each of our offices and divisions.
Internal controls are systems and processes designed to provide reasonable assurance that the goals and objectives of an organization will be met. With that said, these systems are extremely important to our department and help us stay on track with our vision and mission.
You all should be receiving a survey shortly on risk and assessment that I highly encourage you to participate in so we can get a better understanding of where we are and areas that may need support or improvement.
I encourage you to look at this as an opportunity to improve our organization not only with service to our school leaders, but also with how we serve each other within this agency and support one another in the work we are doing.
I encourage you to find out who your point of contact is and use the resources shared in our meeting to report potential risks or share suggestions and recommendations aimed at enhancing the quality and integrity of our agency.
Also, as a reminder, our office will be closed on Tuesday, Nov. 5, for the election.
Have a great weekend and thank you for being …
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
Douglas F. Bates Distinguished Service Award
 Todd G. Allen, Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) deputy commissioner and general counsel, was selected as the recipient of the Douglas F. Bates Distinguished Service Award from the National Council of State Education Attorneys.
Douglas F. Bates was a respected education attorney and the director of school law and legislation for the State Office of Education in Utah.
Bates was a former police officer in Provo, Utah, who once oversaw education of youth in custody. He was devoted to helping at-risk youth and pushed legislation to promote this cause. His life and work was dedicated to education and students.
Bates passed away in 2000 following a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
Previous Kentucky winners of the Douglas F. Bates Distinguished Service Award:
- Kevin Brown, who served in various roles with KDE, including interim commissioner of education and general counsel, earned the award in 2018; and
- Kevin Noland, who served as KDE’s deputy commissioner and general counsel, and as interim commissioner on four occasions, earned the award in 2000.
Customer Pulse Check
Starting Friday, Nov. 1, a footer will be added to emails sent by every Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff member. The footer will include a link to a very short survey for our customers. This is called a pulse check.
The pulse check asks about two things:
- How satisfied are you with the support you received from KDE today? The scale ranges from very satisfied to very dissatisfied.
- Whether the KDE staff member was courteous and professional. The scale ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
This type of pulse check has been conducted in the past, as it gives us some point-of-service feedback. This footer will stay on emails through January. There is nothing you need to do, as the footer will be added to everyone’s email by the Office of Education Technology and removed by them at the end of the survey period.
You are simply asked to continue to provide the best and most courteous service to our customers, as always.
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