Champa says surveys will provide valuable information

I know that we’re always looking to improve and be better, and I think this is just one of those tools that we’ll be able to look at for our community, for our students, for our teachers and administration to see if there are any cultural changes that we need to provide job satisfaction, to provide student success and satisfaction with their experience in our schools.”

Dr. Tammy Champa, Hastings School District Superintendent

With an election filling four school board seats and a technology levy seeking $2 million in additional funding annually, Nov. 7 will be a big day for the school district.

The Hastings School Board at its meeting Wednesday, Sept. 27 approved a maximum preliminary tax levy for 2024 that is actually down slightly from last year.

The proposed levy is $19,086,836, down 0.1 percent from last year’s levy of $19,103,676.

District residents will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions on the levy and school budget at the Truth in Taxation Hearing, which will be held as part of the Dec. 20 school board meeting. The board will finalize the levy after that hearing.

Seubert said that while the district “tax capacity” increased 7.9 percent which means the tax rate on property tax statements this year will be lower. She said a residential homestead property valued at $275,000 paid $986 last year on the school district portion of the tax bill. That would be $924 in the proposed scenario.

“It’s a decrease of $62, and I just have to note that this is assuming there’s no change on the homeowner’s valuations,” Seubert said.

Taxes on an acre of agricultural property valued at $8,000 will drop from $3.45 last year to $2.99 in 2024.

Board Director Mark Zuzek said, “The tax capacity of the district can fall, meaning the property value of the district as a whole has increased and so each parcel’s responsibility goes down. When that happens, I think that’s a key thing for our voters to know.”

Surveys

Staff, parents and students will be surveyed on their opinions of the district and its schools during the 2023-24 school year. The school board unanimously approved contracting with Wisconsin-based School Perceptions to conduct the surveys.

According to the School Perceptions proposal, the staff survey will collect data in communications, satisfaction, academics, engagement, support and experience.

“Staff survey information can be used to quantify staff engagement and satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. Our research finds that engaged employees are more committed, have better job satisfaction and ‘go the extra mile’ for their employer. They will also act as an ambassador on your behalf,” the proposal states.

Parents will be surveyed in areas of communications, sense of community, culture of educational excellence, safety and support and experience.

“Parent survey information can be used to gauge overall satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. According to the US Department of Education, the act of conducting a survey is itself a parent-friendly message to parents that a school cares what they think,” according to the proposal.
Student surveys will collect data on connection, learning, environment and experience.

“Student survey information can be used to target interventions with individual students as well as various subgroups. If used annually, the data will quantify growth throughout the students’ careers,” the proposal states.

Students in grades 4-12 will be surveyed this school year.
Cost for conducting the surveys will be $10,850.

Champa said the surveys will provide valuable information to the district.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what this can provide. I know that we’re always looking to improve and be better, and I think this is just one of those tools that we’ll be able to look at for our community, for our students, for our teachers and administration to see if there are any cultural changes that we need to provide job satisfaction, to provide student success and satisfaction with their experience in our schools,” Champa said. “I’m really looking forward to see what that initial survey looks like and then also the subsequent ones to see that trend.”

Election judges

With an election filling four school board seats and a technology levy seeking $2 million in additional funding annually, Nov. 7 will be a big day for the school district.

The board unanimously approved election judges to help at voting sites in the district.

The motion by Zuzek was to “make a recommendation to approve appointing of the election judges with significant gratitude for the work that they do.”