By George Slaughter
Lance Nauman (Katy ISD photo)
Katy Independent School District Risk Management Director Lance Nauman has been selected as a recipient of the 2021 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Risk Management Fund Excellence Award.
Nauman is being recognized for implementing innovative solutions to ever-evolving risk management challenges at the district. For the past two academic years, many school districts, including Katy, have faced challenges related to COVID-19. When the district decided that in-person learning would continue for the 2021-22 school year, the district’s risk management department committed resources to support that mission.
To define the value of this effort, the district’s emergency operations management team made the following resolutions:
- Katy ISD students must continue to learn despite the obstacles.
- Protecting the health and safety of students and staff was paramount.
- Cost savings could be realized through the utilization of urgent care centers and stand-alone and hospital emergency rooms. Virtual medicine provided by RediMD, for example, reduced staff exposure in waiting rooms, as well as minimized additional community spread.
- Quickly evaluating and clearing staff who were COVID-19 negative was essential to keeping substitute personnel costs at manageable levels.
“The driving force behind this program was to mitigate COVID-19 and provide medical care that was effective,” Nauman said. “The most gratifying aspect of this effort was that lives were saved through this process.”
Up to 10 TASB members are being recognized with a $1,000 honorarium to be used by school departments toward their continued efforts. Entries were evaluated on the following criteria:
- Effectiveness – The solution directly improves the risk management practices, functions or processes
- Efficiency – The solution made good use of resources, including money and staff time.
- Impact – The solution addressed a critical or pressing need for your organization, demonstrated by specific and documented savings or reduced injuries.
- Innovation – The solution was creative and represented out-of-the-box thinking or a creative adaptation of an established idea.