New Employee Information
Congratulations on your new position with St. Vrain Valley Schools! As the 7th largest district in the State of Colorado, boasting over 5000 employees, we are committed to providing our students with the highest quality education. Your addition to the team of talented and energetic professionals is a testament to our ongoing mission of academic excellence by design. We’re excited to have you on board! To align you with some of our practices and procedures, we’ve highlighted some key areas of focus for you to explore.
Pay Schedule
St Vrain Valley Schools employees are paid once a month, on the last working day of the month. Employees who are hired and begin working after the 15th of the month will be paid the following month.
Benefits
Benefits will begin on the first of the month following 31 days after your first date of employment. For example, if you begin working August 9th, your benefits will begin October 1st.
You are eligible for the District provided Basic Life Insurance if you have a regular FTE position and are scheduled to work 10 or more hours per week. If you work 17.5 hours or more per week in a regular FTE position, you are eligible for all District benefits. Please refer to the New Hire Benefits Guide for detailed information. Supplemental positions are not eligible for benefits, such as guest teachers, coaches or seasonal workers.
The month prior to your benefits effective date, you will receive a welcome email to your svvsd.org address. This will include benefits enrollment information and instructions for accessing the Infinite Visions Employee Portal.
Infinite Visions Employee Portal
Every employee has access to the Infinite Visions Employee Portal where you can accept your employment contract, view your leave balance, view and print your pay stubs and W2s, and sign up for your Employee Benefits.
Certified Annual Leave
For new Certified Employees, forty‐nine hours of annual leave will be granted during each year of the first three years of employment. At the beginning of the fourth year of continuous employment with the District, employees will receive a one‐time allocation of forty‐two hours of accrued leave and will be granted seventy‐seven hours of annual leave during each continuing year of employment. Hours will be pro‐rated for part‐time employees. All hours can be used at the professional discretion of the employee. At the end of the academic year, all remaining Annual Leave hours will be added to the employee’s Accrued Sick Leave hours. Additional information about Annual Leave can be found in Article 21 of the SVVEA—SVVSD Agreement.
Evaluations
The purpose of Evaluations is to promote the growth and development of employees. This process serves as a basis for continued improvement. Certified Employees will receive a yearly evaluation. Employees and supervisors should engage in discussions regarding goals and professional practices during a mid‐year review and a final end‐of‐year review. Evaluation information can be found at hr.svvsd.org > Evaluations.
Certified Lateral Salary Moves
Certified employees that meet the requirements can qualify for lateral salary movement on the Certified Salary Schedule. Employees can use St. Vrain Valley Schools Professional Development credits or graduate level university credits that are relevant to their teaching area for lateral salary moves. These moves are available to Certified Employees twice a year. Deadlines are October 15th, with courses being completed by September 1st, and February 15th, with courses being completed by January 1st. The pay difference will be made retroactive to the beginning of the contract year and to the beginning of the new calendar year respectively. Information and forms can be found by going to hr.svvsd.org > Forms.
Professional Development
St. Vrain Valley Schools provides ongoing educational support for certified, administrative and classified personnel, offering over 40 low cost continuing education classes each semester. For more information regarding Professional Development visit opd.svvsd.org.
Pay Schedule
Employees get paid once a month on the last working day of the month. Most Certified Employees are paid August through July in twelve equal payments.
Fingerprints
In addition to fingerprints required for Colorado Department of Education (CDE) licensing, St. Vrain Valley Schools requires an additional set of fingerprints on file. Employees do not receive reimbursement for this.
Requesting Time Off and Obtaining a Guest Teacher
The licensed employees in SVVS are required to register their own time off into the Absence Management system – Red Rover. An employee is only charged the time used (minimum amount 1 hour) but guest teachers are paid for a ½ day or full day work. A ½ day = any 3.5 hours or less in the day. The times listed in Red Rover are school bell times and guest teachers will arrive 30 minutes before the time listed in the system to prepare for your student’s day. If you have bus duty, please arrange for another employee to perform this duty so the guest teacher can properly prepare. Do not change the bell times in Red Rover unless the guest teacher is to report later. Please create clear plans for your Guest Teacher – it would be helpful if you could phonetically spell names for attendance purposes. Also create your classroom information page in Red Rover.
Teacher Extra Pay – Fill-In and Class Coverage
Licensed employees can be paid extra duty pay for coving classrooms when a guest teacher can not be obtained. Fill-In pay and class coverage is the district’s preferred method to use for when an employee is off for just a short period, such as a doctor’s appointment. Remember, guest teachers are paid for a half day even if they only work one hour. Fill in pay is when a licensed employee uses their plan time and/or lunch period to cover an unfilled classroom. Class coverage is when students are added to other classroom(s) for either a ½ day or full day and this pay is divided among all classroom teachers used. The office starts the process and the extra time will be added to the Red Rover system for payment.
Why do I use a “Requesting a Guest Teacher Form”?
Use the “Requesting a Guest Teacher Form” when requesting a guest teacher for any reason besides annual / sick leave, civic leave or bereavement leave. Employees need to complete the form, send the form to the person providing the budget code and then the form comes to the sub office to add the job to Red Rover. All forms must be in the sub office at least 48 hours before the time off to ensure coverage. If you are attending an outside training, seminar or CDE instruction, please complete the form and furnish contact payee information at the bottom: name, phone number, email or mailing address and the Finance Department will send the invoice for payment. Under no circumstance should anyone take the invoice form to the training or try to invoice the source directly at the school level. Find the form here.
Leave of Absence and Obtaining a Long-Term Guest Teacher
The school administration and the licensed employee requesting the leave are responsible for choosing a guest teacher. Employees can contact the substitute office for a list of guest teachers in their subject area. Guest teachers working in a long-term assignment must hold an active Colorado Teaching License or a 3-yr or 5-yr. substitute authorization. Employees inform the substitute office of the selected guest teacher. The leave office will notify the sub office of an approved leave and the sub office will enter the leave into Red Rover.
Common Queries:
- Anytime the licensed employee is out of the building the time should be recorded in Red Rover.
- When creating the absence, un-click the substitute box in Red Rover to not order a sub.
- A .5 FTE teacher who also wants to be a guest teacher on their other .5 should contact the substitute office: [email protected].
Welcome to PERA
St. Vrain Valley Schools is one of more than 400 employers throughout Colorado that are part of PERA. PERA stands for Public Employees’ Retirement Association which provides retirement benefits for those working in Colorado’s public sector. Because of your new job with the District, you’re now a PERA member.
PERA has two types of retirement plans: A defined benefit (also called a pension) plan where PERA invests funds on your behalf and then provides a lifetime monthly benefit in retirement, and a defined contribution plan where you choose your investments and then draw from your account balance in retirement.
Please refer to the PERA Overview for New Members Booklet for more information.