Board committee weighs hiring an outside agency for substitutes and targets low employee-survey score

West Allis The school board's employee engagement and culture committee summarized Aug. 14 committee work and recommended further study of hiring an outside agency to recruit substitutes and of targeted strategies to raise a low employee-survey score. At the committee meeting, Director Dee Garcia reported that an outside agency the district considered increased substitute numbers for other districts by about 20% on average. Committee members said they are weighing the cost of contracting an agency against current in-house costs the district already pays when principals or other staff cover classrooms. The committee also discussed continuing incentives for substitutes, such as bonuses and paid time off, and said it will collect additional data from neighboring districts before proposing a final plan to the whole board. Survey focus and strategic plan tie Committee members identified one low-performing item on the recent employee engagement survey: agreement with the statement "I would recommend parents select my organization to serve their child." Members noted confusion in past surveys between school-level and district-level questions; staff said the district switched survey vendors to School Perceptions to reduce that conflation. Committee members said improving that metric will be a focus of the district's upcoming strategic plan. Next steps The committee said it will continue gathering comparative data on substitute staffing models and incentives and will return to the board with a recommendation when staff feel confident about costs and outcomes. The committee also said it will pursue strategies tied to the strategic plan to address the low survey rating.