Oconto Falls to survey community, school staff

The Oconto Falls School District plans to survey the community in late May and early June about how to proceed toward a new middle school and other building needs.

Voters last month rejected a $49.9 million referendum that included a middle school estimated at $31 million, as well as more secure entrances and other improvements at the district’s three other school buildings.

During the school board’s May 9 meeting, Superintendent Dean Hess reported that questions are being developed with the help of consulting firm School Perceptions.

“The intent is that we get enough feedback so that we get a flavor of an understanding of why people voted the way they did, what they would prioritize for the future, and ultimately asking for their feedback on what they want you to know as a school board of how to potentially move forward with next steps,” Hess said.

The main focus of the referendum was to Washington Middle School near downtown Oconto Falls, which has sections built in 1917, 1957, 1983 and 1995.

Hess said the survey would ask respondents to prioritize the various components of the plan the district presented in April.

“The needs that caused us to go to referendum in the first place still exist,” he said. “So those needs are still there. We just need to understand what is the community focused on and how they want us to potentially meet these needs or not. And if it’s yes, then in what manner and what kind of time frame.”

The district is considering going back to the voters in the next general election on Nov. 8. The plan is to review the community feedback at the board’s July meeting. Under state law, the board must make a decision by early August to place a question on the November ballot, Hess said.

The district is also moving forward with a workplace feedback survey of teachers and other staff with the help of School Perceptions. The survey was due to be placed online May 10 and is expected to be available through May 25.

Administrators were planning to conduct the survey in October, but board members asked in April that it be done before the end of the school year. The workplace environment emerged as an issue after former board member Sharon Stodola-Eslien resigned in December, alleging that Hess and other administrators engaged in “a pattern of mistreatment” that had staff members “walking on eggshells.”

Stodola-Eslien helped wage a social media campaign urging voters to reject referendums until the district’s culture improves.

Hess said the School Perceptions survey walks respondents through “specifics of their work environment, things that are going well and also things that we can improve upon, and then it goes into the level of support they feel that they’re receiving, whether it’s support for accomplishing their role, whether it’s support for professional improvement and the training that they receive, to more specific the level of support from administration and the board.”

Board president Clint Gardebrecht thanked Hess for moving the survey forward to this spring. School Perceptions plans to report the results by mid-June, and Hess said administrators would start working on an action plan for the board to review in July.