Pam's Pages
May 8 - 12
Astros Tuesday
The Teacher of the Year will be announced on Tuesday evening, May 9th, at the Astros game.
Benefits Open Enrollment for 2017-2018
The 2017-2018 benefits open enrollment dates for SBISD will be Monday, July 17, 2017 through Friday, August 18, 2017.
This is a mandatory open enrollment.
Employees must complete the open enrollment process even if they do not want to make any changes and even if they want to decline all elections. There are some changes to benefits coverage and providers, so it is important for employees to be able to see all their benefit options. Current benefit elections will end on August 31, 2017. Employees need to complete open enrollment to identify what benefit elections they want for the 2017-2018 plan year (September 1, 2017 to August 31, 2018).
- This enrollment timeframe provides an open enrollment period of 5 weeks, which gives all employees plenty of time to enroll for benefits.
- This timeframe also allows us to end open enrollment after everyone has returned to duty (in-service days), but before the start of school on Monday, August 21. It allows us to help our people complete their enrollment elections prior to the first week of class.
- This timeframe will allow time to finalize enrollments and answer any remaining employee questions prior to the official September 1, 2017 plan year start date.
- This timeframe will also allow us to provide better customer support for our employees since the office will be open with full benefits staff available for the last few days of open enrollment, when so many are finishing elections and have questions.
- TRS has just announced an open enrollment end date of Tuesday, August 22, 2017.
- Employees who miss the SBISD open enrollment deadline of August 18th will be allowed to make elections through August 22nd, but those elections must be made in person at the administration building because the online enrollment portal will close at midnight on August 18th.
- No elections may be made once the TRS deadline has passed.
Supplemental Payment in May
This is a reminder that the second of two supplemental payments approved by the Board for 2016-2017 will be paid on the May 16, 2017 paycheck for employees who meet the following conditions:
1. Were employed by SBISD by February 1, 2017 and are continuously employed until May 1, 2017,
2. Are in good standing,
3. Serve full-time in their position, and
4. Are not employed as a Temporary or Substitute employee.
The payment will be based on the employee’s base pay in effect on February 1, 2017. The supplemental pay will be included on the employee’s regular May 16, 2017 paycheck, but will be listed as a separate line item on their payroll advice.
The supplemental pay will not be considered by TRS as creditable compensation, so the TRS employee contribution of 7.7% will not be deducted from this amount. The only deductions from the supplemental pay will be Federal taxes and Medicare.
Employees will see the normal Federal tax deduction unless the supplemental pay bumps the employee into a higher tax bracket.
This payment represents 1% of base pay with a minimum of $250.
J. Landon Short Mini-Grant
The 2017 J. Landon Short Mini-Grant for Educators application is now available online until Monday, June 19. This program allows all SBISD educators to apply for individual classroom grants of up to $500, or team grants of up to $750. Grant applications are reviewed over the summer by a panel of community members and program sponsors. Winners are notified and receive their funds for the 2017- 18 school year in late August / early September.
The program seeks to reward applicants whose projects demonstrate innovative, thoughtful and T-2-4 aligned opportunities for our students. The application is available online. (click on link below).
Please let Abby Walker (abigail.walker@springbranchisd.com, 713-251-2289) know if you have any questions.