Look out a few years (the next three to five, let’s say), and the Whitewater Unified School District has difficult prospects. Beyond that conditions may get better, but getting better may simply mean recapturing lost ground rather than net gains from today’s circumstances.
The district faces perpetual, structural deficits, made somewhat less difficult only through perpetual revenue-cap-exceeding referenda.
Immediate solutions involve preserving programming (but at the cost of hollowing the district’s labor force). If the WUSD isn’t yet an uncompetitive option for talented new employees, it soon will be.
As state and national policy favors testing and measurement at almost every turn, district achievement will be measured against nearby districts and the state. A dispirited workforce and uncompetitive employment offerings will assure that scores will fall below peer districts. See, Kidney-Selling as a Threat to the City’s Future and Whitewater YES is Right, for Now.
Attempting to spin poor scores as good ones will persuade no one. It’s a mug’s game. (I’m not a supporter of frequent testing – I think it’s a mediocre person’s idea of what it looks like to be exceptional – but at least people can see the difference between reliable data and sketchy presentations.)
The same insiders who have flacked scores will find that Whitewater will seem behind nearby districts.
There are few in Central Office – that is, among the full-time administrative staff – who show significant evidence of having the political skills to move to long-term solutions. The last few years will prove easy compared with the next few. There are very sharp politicians in this town; I don’t know if anyone at Central Office seems suited this way.
What to do?
1. Forget touting scores.
2. Prepare for programming and capital cuts on a meaningful scale.
3. Promote labor over capital.
4. Forget leading with the budget; lead with the curriculum. Presenting the district’s budget manager (described with Whitewater’s customary title inflation as the budget director) as though he were an Asst. District Administrator will prove politically disadvantageous in the years ahead.
The over-reliance on a budget director, citizens’ budget team, etc., will only exacerbate tensions when deeper cuts, and comparisons with other districts’ scores, take their political toll.
Outside of a few people, no one in the city will focus on team this, or team that – the buck will rest with the board and district administrator, no one else. It would be easier to hide behind someone’s apron than to use a citizens’ team or budget director as a shield.
That the district has skated by this way does not mean that the ice isn’t getting thinner, and will be unable to support the weight of these efforts.
5. The district needs to take, into its own hands, promotion of its accomplishments.
6. The district needs to present errors and limitations honestly. This administrative team has about as much of Old Whitewater’s penchant for small-town puffery as any team in town.
If I were cynical – and I’m not – I’d say that exaggerations are easily pilloried and are advantageous for blogging.
Because I see Whitewater through clear eyes, and have confidence in her long-term prospects, I know that the only consequence of pretending all is well is that these administrators will find themselves unable to succeed in the more difficult times ahead. That’s a huge loss for Whitewater, and so a loss for all of us in the city.
The sooner these administrators make a break, the better off Whitewater will be. If they don’t, they’ll find that although Whitewater’s long-term outlook will still be positive, that eventual success will belong to another team.
Needless to say, the district’s success or failure isn’t about administrators; it’s about a generation of students. It’s merely the case that administrative corrections now will help both students and officials. Failure to correct will hurt both groups.
What these administrators and board members choose to do, in the near future, I cannot say.
The consequences of their actions, whichever course they choose, are much easier to predict.
Unable to disagree with your reflections. The challenges may seem overbearing, but it is a must to embrace continuous improvement in an effort to move through good, better, great. Money will always be an issue, but agree that it should not be the leading story. Assessment and scores are the common currency of evaluation, a reality, but the “how” and “what” (curriculum) and the success of students beyond assessment is key to the district’s future success.
Thanks much for reading, and commenting. Some of the fiscal circumstances that we face have come upon us (and other districts) recently and unexpectedly. If the latest Marquette Poll is sound (and they’ve been mostly accurate these last few years), then the overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites would not have cut statewide funding to K-12 education. Still, there are many sharp people in Whitewater, and I’m hopeful we’ll find a way through these conditions to better, more stable times.