The Whitewater Unified School District is searching for a permanent district administrator, and a consulting firm (Hazard, Young, Attea) solicited survey answers on respondents’ opinions and preferences.
The summary of the survey results appears below, as a .pdf file. (A link to a separate leadership profile from the consultants also appears at the end of this post.) Parts of the survey asked respondents what they thought of the district (Appendix I), while others asked what they wanted in a new district administrator (Appendix II).
A few remarks:
Respondents to the Survey. From the Executive Summary:
The Whitewater Unified School District’s District Administrator Search Survey was completed by 517 stakeholders. The largest stakeholder group surveyed were students. Students represented 35.0 percent of all respondents. Almost a third of respondents were parents of students attending school. They made up the second most populous stakeholder group at 30.6 percent of all respondents. The third largest participant group were employees at 27.1 percent of all respondents.
That’s a good number of (admittedly self-selected) responses, especially so among parents and students.
Parents and Students Rate the District Significantly Lower than Employees or Other Community Members Do.
Unfortunately, parents and students rate the district far less favorably than others on key measures of (1) overall quality, (2) compelling vision, (3) heading in the right direction, (4) high standards, (5) data-based decision-making, (6) closing the achievement gap, (7) providing a well-rounded educational experience, (8) personalizing educational strategies, (9) school safety, (10) addressing students’ social and emotional needs, and (11) college or career readiness. (See Appendix I of the survey.)
Honest to goodness: parents and students are the fundamental constituency of any school district. Others might have a secondary political importance, but students and their parents have a primary educational importance.
This district will need an administrator who will make these parents’ and students’ concerns his or her main focus.
Reparable. These are unfortunate – but not surprising – survey results from hundreds of respondents. They can, however, be significantly improved if all leaders in the district (rather than only a few good ones as now) commit to direct engagement over public relations.
Self-protective leaders – whether elected officials or appointed administrators – are failed leaders; failed leaders mean failed students and parents.
There is no reason whatever to settle. There is no reason whatever to relent.
Whitewater deserves better.
[embeddoc url=”https://freewhitewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/HYA-Survey-Report-Whitewater-USD.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”]See also Leadership Profile Report.
I took the survey. There are good points and bad points about the district. If you child is lucky you can get a good teacher or coach that makes the year better. I definitely agree that there are big misses for our schools. (They are like my answers.) There is alot of talk about kids but it is a one size fits all program. You are not supposed to ask for anything it’s whatever they give you. If you dig around enough your kids can get a good class. Otherwise it’s like a chow line in MASH where every one gets corned beef.
Leadership does matter. There could be something else, too. I wonder if the school district has a development like the campus where there are fewer local ties over time. For us, more faculty and administrators live outside the immediate area than ever before. It’s nothing like 20 years ago. Town and gown has never seen a bigger gap. Does that change how people feel about students/parents/residents? What happens when neighbors become nothing more than customers?