District won’t go it alone when charting its future

Port Washington-Saukville school administrators are plotting a future course for the district, but they are not about to go it alone.

An online survey that began recently — described by school officials as a key first step in what will be a months-long and, in fact, ongoing process — invites all district residents to weigh-in on topics that range from how well the district prepares students for their futures to the condition of facilities and how well the administrators communicate with the public. 

“This process was really inspired by a first few months of hearing from the community, ‘How can we have a voice in moving forward?’” Supt. Dave Watkins, who took over as the district’s top administrator in July, said. 

The survey is being conducted by School Perceptions, a Slinger firm that specializes in educational surveys and handled the one done by the district ahead of its 2015 referendum. Cards with log-in information were mailed to all district residents late last month and hard copies are available at the district office. The deadline for responses is Nov. 15.

The survey, however, is just the beginning of the process. 

Results are to be presented to the School Board in December, and the district plans to spend the early months of next year meeting with groups that include everyone from parents and students to senior citizens and other district residents to “dive deeper” into the themes identified by the survey, Watkins said. 

  From there, goals will be established and reviewed as part of an ongoing process that will rely on additional feedback from the public, Watkins said. 

“We plan to re-engage the community as this process continues,” he said. 

Jeff Carron, principal of Saukville Elementary School and one of the administrators managing the visioning process, said the premise of the survey isn’t that the district has problems but that it can improve even in areas where it excels.

“We already do a lot of very good things,” he said. “This is about getting us to great.”

The process is also designed to give administrators a clear indication of what district residents expect from their school system.

“We as administrators talk about what we think people want,” Carron said. “Now we’ll be able to say we know this is what people want.”

Ultimately, the process is intended to foster “transparency and inclusion,” administrators said, things the district has in the past been accused of not promoting.

Halfway through last school year at a time when most students were in classrooms two days a week and learning online from home the rest of the time because of the pandemic, parents mobilized and during a School Board meeting attended by more than 100 people called on the board to return students to school full time. 

The board did as parents asked, but during the course of the debate parents criticized the board for not communicating effectively or involving them in decisions involving the education of their children.

Now, the planning process is intended to involve not only parents in charting the course of the district but all residents of the district, Watkins said. 

“We want to create a vision for the district, and we want it to be based on feedback from all of our stakeholders,” he said.