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Janesville school employees register satisfaction

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Karen Schulte

JANESVILLE — Can’t get no satisfaction?

Janesville schools Superintendent Karen Schulte believes it’s possible.

The district this week released the results of its latest staff satisfaction survey. The results show room for improvement, but overall, workers are more satisfied than in the last survey.

Schulte said she is more than satisfied.

“I was very pleased,” Schulte said. “I think that across the board, we’re doing really good work.”

Staff satisfaction is one of three key areas district leaders are trying to improve, Schulte said. The other two are student achievement, as measured by state test scores, and parent satisfaction.

The theory is that happier employees and parents will help boost test scores. Janesville’s test performance has hovered around the state average for many years, and Schulte has set a goal of showing improvement by spring of 2011, although she’s hoping for a bump up when test scores from last fall are released this spring.

Meanwhile, Schulte is claiming victory for her principals and other administrators.

“Principals have worked really hard to connect with their staffs and to listen and to follow through on the needs of their staffs, and I think the results bear that out,” Schulte said.

“The end results of all this work is we have staff—teachers, social workers, everyone—that are satisfied with their jobs,” Schulte said, “… and we are connecting them to why they went into teaching: purpose, worthwhile work and make a difference in students’ lives.”

Those three things are the mantra of Studer Group, the health-care consulting company that is lending its expertise, personnel and money in Janesville to see if the Studer methods will work in schools as well as hospitals.

The survey, administered in December, asked workers to react to 39 statements, such as “I work in a safe environment” and “I have the materials and supplies needed to do my job.”

Workers ranked their responses on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most favorable.

The highest rankings districtwide were for a safe work environment, a positive workplace climate and diversity efforts, all scoring 4.2 or higher.

The lowest rankings included how administrators run their staff meetings, the district’s required staff-development courses and bosses providing feedback on worker performance.

Staff satisfaction improved over the two previous surveys, May 2008 and February 2009.

The district changed superintendents around the time of the last survey, and the latest survey shows improvement in the scores for Schulte over her predecessor, Tom Evert.

Still, the ratings related to the superintendent are among the lowest in the survey, and Schulte said she has much work to do in the area of communicating with staff.

The highest-performing elementary schools in staff satisfaction are Adams, Kennedy, Van Buren and Roosevelt, all with overall scores above 4.1.

The lowest performing elementaries were Wilson, 3.69; Harrison, 3.79, and Jackson, 3.8. However, all three schools’ overall scores have improved over the three surveys.

A score of 3 is considered OK, while anything over a 4 is exceptional.

“A score of a 3 is a passing grade, but the School District of Janesville wants to be better than that,” Schulte said.

Schulte said parents should not rush to move their children to the school with the most satisfied staff. Satisfaction is important, but so are test scores, she said.

When asked about schools that scored on the low end, Schulte said some principals are better at connecting with their staffs than others, and staff satisfaction is not the only measure of a principal.

“Skill sets need be learned,” Schulte acknowledged, adding that she believes scores will improve as principals continue to strive to improve.

The lowest performing middle school was Marshall. The lowest high school was Parker. Both scored a 3.78.

Schulte said she had doubts that the high schools, being so much larger than other schools, would be able to improve much, but both Craig and Parker improved significantly over the last survey, and Schulte said she is “delighted” with both schools.

Schulte cited one of Washington Elementary’s scores as an example of hard work paying off.

Washington went from a 2.91 to a 4.24 on school cleanliness, comfort and maintenance.

“That is huge,” Schulte said. “That tells me they really worked and (Principal Scott) Garner probably worked with custodial staff to have a clean building, and apparently the staff really noticed.”

Survey says: Contract issues problematic

Some of the weakest areas revealed in the Janesville School District’s staff satisfaction survey relate to teacher contract issues.

The three lowest-scoring responses districtwide are:

-- The superintendent is clear and effective in teacher negotiations—3.34.

-- The salary and benefits package meets my needs—3.48.

-- District-led staff development meetings are timely and productive—3.65.

Staff development has been a point of disagreement between the district and teachers in recent years, not only in the most recent negotiations. Superintendent Karen Schulte on Tuesday acknowledged that staff development should be more focused on district goals and teachers’ needs. She vowed improvement.

The teacher contract expired more than seven months ago, and teachers are working under the terms of the old contract. The two sides have not met since Oct. 19. No meetings are scheduled.

Low satisfaction for salary and benefits is consistent with employee surveys around the country, according to an assessment of the results by the district’s guide in this process, Studer Group President and CEO Quint Studer.

And it might be expected that these ratings would be low at a time that a new teachers contract is on hold.

“I completely agree, but it is what it is,” said Dave Parr, president of the Janesville Education Association. “The survey is telling you what everybody is thinking. … Now what are you going to do about it?”

Schulte said she’ll keep working to get a settlement.

“I hope that employees do see that both sides are working very hard to come up with something,” Schulte said. “I’m going to continue to work hard, and I know the JEA will as well.”