| 1. | 2/5/2008 1:56:00 AM | I think we have been very fortunate with the number of great qualified applicants we have had in the elementary. I am concerned that we keep these great teachers when other districts pay more. |
| 2. | 2/5/2008 3:48:00 AM | Inservicing cannot make up for under qualified staff. |
| 3. | 2/5/2008 2:08:00 PM | Have vision and teamwork going in - collaboration and teamwork are our modern emphases, let's use them in recruitment too. |
| 4. | 2/5/2008 3:30:00 PM | New hirees under the PI34 need to have certified PI 34 mentors. The salary schedule also needs to be revised to accommodate to this licensure so we retain these teachers. Districts around us have revised theirs to fit this. If we don't do this, we could lose educators to the districts which have done so.
I also think new hires need to be truly evaluated after there probationary period is over to ensure they are a good fit. |
| 5. | 2/5/2008 3:36:00 PM | I understand that ultimately, hiring teachers is not up to the other teachers on the hiring committee, but up to the principal. What if it were implemented that each team member had an actual vote? |
| 6. | 2/5/2008 4:58:00 PM | I think we are already doing this. |
| 7. | 2/5/2008 6:53:00 PM | Of course we would want to do this |
| 8. | 2/5/2008 9:28:00 PM | This is extremely important for the success of our district. Please make sure that all new staff have mentors before the beginning of the school year. Those mentors should be experienced staff who WANT and are WILLING to work with these new teachers and who themselves have been appropriately trained to mentor. This has not always been the case and I believe some great teachers are being left behind because there is not someone to guide them. |
| 9. | 2/6/2008 3:05:00 AM | Yes! Great teachers inspire each other. Administrators must rely on teacher input to help made decisions, especially for teachers. We know the curriculum the best, as well as knowing what type of person we can work with and will work with effectively. Collegiality is important and crucial for good teaching to take place! |
| 10. | 2/6/2008 3:07:00 AM | I am honored to work in this district and would expect future hires to feel the same way.
As a new educator falling under PI-34, I would like to see some sort of compensation on the district's end for my work in developing and implementing a Professional Development Plan (PDP). Currently, in order to move up on our pay scale, I have to continue my PDP work every 5 years as well as complete 6 credits. What is our district going to do, as far as pay goes, to keep our younger educators within our district? |
| 11. | 2/14/2008 9:52:00 PM | Teachers are the meat and potatoes of this district. We all need to work as a team to achieve greatness. |
| 12. | 3/4/2008 3:01:00 PM | We have done a nice job of "going to get" teachers regardless of having to pay them more for experience. That isn't the same situation in all districts. |
| 13. | 3/5/2008 4:13:00 PM | Ensure that you retain good, dedicated employees by giving them the opportunity to grow professionally when they desire a different position within the district. |
| 14. | 3/5/2008 7:40:00 PM | As I mentioned below, could we try to expand the horizons of where our hires graduate from. We are very heavy with Wisconsin graduates. Same is true of administrators. |
| 15. | 3/6/2008 4:52:00 PM | I agree that this is important. I think we do have high quality teachers in Fort Atkinson. If this is the case, why will you not trust the elementary teachers enough to put a default 3 on the report cards? From what I have heard, we are getting MORE lines on the report card for Health and Social Studies and yet nothing is ever taken away, only added. This is a disservice to the teachers which will result in the quality of teaching going down. If you really think that a teacher will not go into the report card to change numbers, there is a bigger issue at hand. This is insulting to teachers!! |
| 16. | 3/6/2008 6:38:00 PM | Need to keep the present great staff we have! |
| 17. | 3/6/2008 6:40:00 PM | I think it is a terrible decision to hire a teacher without having had the other teachers at that grade level and school in on the hiring process. It has happened in this district where we take the word from a cooperating teacher that a student teacher is wonderful, and that person gets hired without ever having had the other teachers of that grade where that person will work included on the process. That is not right. It may very well be that the person is wonderful, but it isn't right for someone to choose who someone else is expected to work with as a team day in and day out. |
| 18. | 3/6/2008 7:26:00 PM | This should always be the case yet may be a different priority by school due to their own unique situation. |
| 19. | 3/6/2008 10:51:00 PM | ABSOLUTELY. And ALSO finding ways to 'push' the current teachers in our district who aren't doing their jobs. Administrators need to be in the classrooms more 'randomly'.. call it 'checking up on us' if you want to, but I guarantee you the quality of teaching would improve if administrators stopped in more often unexpectedly. With higher quality of teaching, you have higher student achievement - plain and simple. Read "Results Now" by Michael Schmoker -eliminate the 'buffer' that exists that "everyone is professional" - we have staff that aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing because it is assumed they are doing what they are supposed to and administrators don't check in frequently. It probably seems absurd that I'm even typing for you to 'check up on us more'.. but if you want 'outstanding educators' let's first start by making sure our CURRENT teachers are being as 'outstanding' as they assumed to be. |
| 20. | 3/17/2008 9:19:00 PM | Figure out what they are looking for in a district/community. Figure out why are some leaving after a few years? What could keep them? |
| 21. | 3/17/2008 9:42:00 PM | In order to not only recruit, but also to retain, you must be competitive in pay. Therefore even people who are getting toward the end of the pay schedule need to be given competitive pay raises. |
| 22. | 3/18/2008 11:53:00 AM | How? What are you going to do differently? I hope this is considered during negotiations. |
| 23. | 3/18/2008 2:10:00 PM | This on is important, but at present salary levels in an economy where a family of four with a teacher as head of the household can qualify for reduced lunches and other income related programs, I think your jobs are going to become ever more difficult. |
| 24. | 3/18/2008 2:48:00 PM | Same comment as #7 |
| 25. | 3/18/2008 4:44:00 PM | respect their time and experience. Get people that also realize that the best part of teaching IS NOT JUNE, JULY, and AUG. |
| 26. | 3/19/2008 1:50:00 PM | This should be a given although I imagine it comes down to money more than it should. |
| 27. | 3/19/2008 5:01:00 PM | I believe the pay scale should be raised on the medium to long-term end in order to keep people. Beginning teacher pay seems to be more motivating than long-term scale. |
| 28. | 3/19/2008 5:02:00 PM | I understand the restrictions placed upon us by funding shortfalls and public perception, but additional FTE is still needed in the middle school art department. Class sizes have grown to the point that safety and quality of instruction have become serious concerns. Class size is important in any area, but lab classes in particular are effected by it - for example, when there are 28 6th graders all trying to clean up their paint mess with only 2 sinks. Even with 25 kids, in a 43 minute period allowing 10 minutes for set up and clean up (although it is generally more) each student gets less than one minute of one on one instruction! That is not doing the best we can for our kids! |
| 29. | 3/19/2008 5:41:00 PM | And let them know about all the things they will be required to do within 42 minutes of prep time each day. |
| 30. | 3/19/2008 7:20:00 PM | A laudable goal. I see Janesville teachers just received a 3.1% per cell salary increase for this year with a 3.5% increase per cell for next year. My salary has lagged behind inflation significantly over the past dozen years. Is it right for experienced master educators in their mid-thirites to mid-forties to earn less each year for the rest of their careers in Fort Atkinson? How can we justify this and still include number 8 above as a goal in our strategic plan? |
| 31. | 4/7/2008 9:44:00 PM | Same as #8. |
| 32. | 4/7/2008 9:56:00 PM | Hire good people for the right reasons...minorities when they are the best, or an in-house person when they are the best. |
| 33. | 4/7/2008 9:21:00 PM | We should also be very concerned to maintain the good employees we have. We should not be cutting staff by attrition and we need to make staffing a priority in the budget if we are to do what is best for the students. In addition, high class sizes will not attract students to our district. |
| 34. | 4/7/2008 9:22:00 PM | The same comments from question 7 would also apply for hiring educators. |
| 35. | 4/7/2008 10:46:00 PM | We need teachers that want to be a part of this school district and community outside of their 7:30 am-3:30 pm contract. |
| 36. | 4/8/2008 1:15:00 PM | Better adjust the salary schedule if you want to attract the best.... |
| 37. | 4/8/2008 1:36:00 PM | This should be a given and not necessarily a goal. |
| 38. | 4/8/2008 1:03:00 PM | If the obvious needs to be stated then of course do so :) |
| 39. | 4/8/2008 12:10:00 PM | I believe this is something that should be implied and therefore should not be considered a district objective. |
| 40. | 4/8/2008 2:44:00 PM | Difficult to do with current pay scale. |
| 41. | 4/8/2008 3:02:00 PM | low priority only because I believe the district is committed to this without it having to be stated. great ideas, of course! I have confidence this will happen. However, wouldn't an increased salary ensure holding the best personnel? |
| 42. | 4/8/2008 5:41:00 PM | These are givens |
| 43. | 4/8/2008 5:08:00 PM | this should always be a high priority! |
| 44. | 4/8/2008 5:18:00 PM | Please see comments for number 7. |
| 45. | 4/8/2008 4:59:00 PM | Implied |
| 46. | 4/8/2008 8:52:00 PM | I think we need to have more immediacy in preparing for hiring or filling vacancies. Often, we are behind other districts in their postings and therefore lose worthy candidates. |
| 47. | 4/8/2008 7:58:00 PM | You're going to have to look at financial incentives and non-financial incentives...like more job flexibility and more individual acknowledgements for jobs well done. |
| 48. | 4/8/2008 10:03:00 PM | You can not continue to "squeeze" more out of the staff (higher class sizes and requiring 6 classes)and expect to attract quality staff. You can not continue to reduce the material and technology resources that are available to staff and expect that you can attract and retain outstanding educators. They can stay in Palmyra, Delavan, Beloit or Jefferson if they want that type of working environment. |
| 49. | 4/8/2008 10:05:00 PM | Add diverse after outstanding--then we can immediately move past the "Well, we'll only take a "good one." Which, by the way, diverse means diverse; not just black or hispanic.
Drop the word recruit. Apparently we're just selecting and inducting from the applicants. If we aren't going to spend the time and $ to "recruit" then drop the word. |
| 50. | 4/9/2008 4:10:00 PM | Same concern with the recruiting concept. |
| 51. | 4/9/2008 4:57:00 PM | The above statement reads to me like something that should be assumed regardless of whatever initiatives are pursued by the district. |
| 52. | 4/9/2008 5:14:00 PM | A top goal. There are many factors invovled in getting the best teachers to work here. Working environment, comunity support, school quality, and most importantly $$. Are we going to back this up with the dollars necessary to make it happen? Is the board willing to go well beyond the QEO in salary and benefits, which is what it is going to take to get us where we should be to make this goal a reality. |
| 53. | 4/9/2008 8:10:00 PM | I think that evaluation of newly hired staff and older staff is not done well enough. Teachers need to be assessed more (informally and formally). It doesn't seem that teachers are monitored as closely as they could be. Once they're hired, they're here until THEY choose to leave. |
| 54. | 4/10/2008 1:16:00 PM | I don't know that this ever needs to be stated by a district as a goal. Just food for thought: if you need to clarify that we are working to recruit and retain quality teachers and administrators, doesn't that suggest the previously you did not hire and retain quality teachers and administrators. I think these two goals should be unwritten methods of conducting business always in any school district. If they are not already, then maybe they have a place on this list, but there has got to be some negative PR in putting these two objectives on the list. |
| 55. | 4/10/2008 6:13:00 PM | Again, a given, not a goal. |
| 56. | 4/10/2008 7:09:00 PM | That would include allowing them some professionalism when it come to personal days and reimbursable days |