PW-S District targets trust issues with plan, report

This is what people had to say about the Port Washington-Saukville School District in 2023:

“I have severe concerns over the lack of vision, mission and goals for this district,” one parent told the School Board, referring specifically to the lack of a strategic plan to guide the district. “How does this staff function and have direction with no plan in place?”

Another parent said, “I hope you understand parents are looking on and thinking this looks like a disaster.”

Among the people who took note of those comments was Michael McMahon, who at the time was the director of teaching and learning for the Grafton School District, and when he took over as superintendent of the Port Washington-Saukville School District a year later, he knew that drafting a strategic plan had to be a priority.

“I had read the Ozaukee Press when I was in a district (Grafton) that had a strategic plan with a vision,” McMahon said during an interview last week. “Moving into this role, I knew a strategic plan had to come quickly. When we talk about clarity and accountability, those are the things that help set a vision and a mission.”

The district now has such a plan, one that not only guides the school system but holds it accountable using 26 key performance indicators (KPIs) — benchmarks that school officials believe the district should achieve if it is to be an exemplary school system and that are rated with scores that range from fails to meets expectations to significantly exceeds expectations.

And for the first time, the district is sharing its KPI progress with the public in the form of a 16-page Guiding the Way Forward 2025-26 Annual Report inserted in this week’s Ozaukee Press, which in addition to providing a fact-based assessment of the district’s strengths and weaknesses includes an anecdotal assessment of education in the district in the form of stories about its students and alumni.

“I needed a strategic plan to be held accountable, and now that accountability comes from the School Board, it comes from our teachers, it comes from our families and, with this (the annual report), it comes from our community,” McMahon said. “I don’t think any successful organization can celebrate or key in on failures if it doesn’t have something to measure them by.”

Of the district’s 26 KPIs, it considers 14 of them successes.

What McMahon calls the district’s “greatest celebration” is the fact that 91% of its third-graders meet state literacy expectations in accordance with Act 20, which requires public and private choice schools to use science-based early literacy instruction and regular reading assessments for students in 4-year-old kindergarten through third grade.

“This is celebration No. 1, but we’re still not at 100%, so what do we need to do to support those 9% who didn’t get there?” he asked.

The district, according to its annual report, also made significant progress in the areas of business, finance and facilities, which received a boost from a $59.4 million referendum approved last year that will pay for a new Saukville Elementary School currently under construction and financed improvements to its four other schools earlier this summer.

“The last two years we have worked very hard to have a balanced budget and to do right by our taxpayers, so of these 14 KPI successes, we have a larger number in the business and finances areas,” McMahon said. “We now have a five-year plan for technology and a more concrete, long-term plan for facilities, which comes from the passing of the referendum.”

But balancing budgets by eliminating teaching positions as the district’s student enrollment continues to decline has taken a toll reflected in surveys that measure staff retention, engagement and morale.

“I will say we’re excited about the financial future of our district and the work we’ve done to have really difficult conversations with staff and about right-sizing and class sizes,” McMahon said. “But when we look at that core area of business and finance being a success for us, we know that takes a toll on staff engagement and staff morale and staff retention.”

To address what McMahon admits is the staff’s lack of trust in the administration, he has formed the Superintendent Advisory Group.

“These are 11 teachers from across the district that got access to all the staff survey data to see what it is we need to do,” he said. “The overarching theme of that group is that we need to get better at building a relationship as one district, so our theme this school year is One Port Washington-Saukville School District.

“The team was pretty adamant that we need to build more trust between this office and staff, and I think that’s completely reflective of the fact we were successful in our KPIs for budget and finance.”

Among the other KPIs that showed progress were school safety, family engagement and, of particular importance to the district, student engagement, the last two of which are measured using surveys.

“The KPI that I think our district should be overwhelmingly proud of is that our students are saying they have connections at school, that 99% of our students have a connection with either a staff member or a student — a friend or a teacher they can trust,” McMahon said. “And then 97% of our kids in second through 12th grade said they have both a student and staff member they can connect with. When you talk about attendance and why you come to school, those are big, and if you don’t have that or you’re being bullied, those would be red flags for me.”

But open enrollment continues to be a challenge for the district, which since the pandemic, when it used a mix of in-person and online teaching while other area districts held regular classes, has resulted in a net loss of students.

“We’ve closed the gap, but we still have work to do,” McMahon said.

Parents choose schools for their students based on a variety of factors, from academic achievement and music and sports programs to proximity to their workplaces, but facilities also matter, he said. 

“Easily, in my mind, we have the best looking high school in Ozaukee County,” McMahon said. “And I believe the new Saukville Elementary School will be a really great recruiting tool for us.”

Marketing what the district has to offer is also important, McMahon said, and the annual report is a part of that effort, one that has already proven effective.

A resident of Slinger, where the report was printed, saw it and said, “Wow, this is awesome. I want to send my kids there,” he said. 

McMahon, who lives in Saukville with his wife Julia, a Port Washington High School graduate, noted that their three children, two of whom were previously enrolled in Grafton schools, now attend the Port-Saukville School District. 

When asked if it’s important to him to have his children attend schools in the district he leads, McMahon said, “Without question.”

It is, perhaps, a sign of his faith in the district’s strategic plan and direction.

“The decisions we’re making as a district, they are going to impact my kids,” he said. “So 13 years from now my daughter will graduate from Port Washington High School, and the systems and these KPIs hopefully will help her be successful.