West Bend Superintendent clarifies spending on Galileo testing and teacher evaluations

Jan. 20, 2017 – West Bend, WI – From the Desk of Erik Olson, Superintendent of Schools

The West Bend School District (WBSD) is committed to providing a quality education for all of our students, an efficient use of taxpayer funds, and an outstanding work environment for our employees.  To assure that all of these commitments are realized, the WBSD develops and implements plans to support its mission of Preparing All Students for College Readiness and Career Success. Building and maintaining a talented workforce is critical to this mission.

To support high performance work, the WBSD utilizes an annual evaluation process with teachers that factors into overall compensation.  The process articulates performance standards, provides employees with timely and descriptive feedback, and fosters employee reflection, goal setting, and professional growth plans. Recently, the West Bend Education Association (WBEA), the local teacher union, released an article that presented inaccurate information about how the WBSD uses taxpayer dollars to assess and develop our professional staff. The WBEA article erroneously cited costs without providing any supported documentation. Therefore, as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, the WBSD is providing actual costs which are supported by the WBSD budget to clarify any misinformation.

The design of the WBSD Teacher Compensation Plan which focuses on student achievement (results) and the cause (professional practice) is not unique. The Wisconsin Center for Education Research out of the University of Wisconsin recently published Teacher Compensation in Wisconsin which reveals many school districts in the state have developed similar compensation structures. Hanover Research of 2014 and 2015 continues to support the work of well-designed alternative compensation structures and their impact on a District’s mission and vision for students

The District is committed to reviewing the plan annually.  Included in the Listen and Learn Community Update, Superintendent of Schools, Erik Olson indicated “Compensation Plans” as an area to explore to ensure alignment to and support of our the WBSD values and vision of Excellence for All.  The WBSD Board of Education and administration are expected to perform a comprehensive review of compensation plans second semester.