Superintendent Mark Bazata shares, “In the Kewaskum School District we work hard to be an exceptional place to work and learn, and that drives everything that we do.” PRIORITIZING STAFF FOR STUDENT BENEFIT With teacher shortages on the rise, Kewaskum is setting itself apart through exceptional staff engagement. “There’s been national teacher shortages, and Wisconsin is no different,” Bazata acknowledges. “So, we’ve been focused on making sure that our staff feel like they are part of the school district. Right now, we’re very proud to say that we’re about twice the national average on staff engagement according to the Gallup Q12 survey.” Efforts are made to ensure employees feel heard and supported, involving them in decision making, providing materials to do their jobs well, and offering continuous opportunities to learn and grow. “ We want them to be able to develop in our district, and we try to make sure that they feel like they’re being engaged in the work that they do,” he adds. “We have a variety of different levels of support for our staff, from our mentoring program, to hiring and having instructional coaches that work with them in different aspects of literacy and math.” FROM GAPS TO GROWTH The post COVID era has brought new challenges to learning, including a sharp rise in chronic absenteeism.“Those are students who’ve missed 10 or more percent of the school year,” Bazata outlines. To address this, Kewaskum School District has hired a family liaison to work with those who have barriers in getting their children to school on a daily basis. Making sure that every student has a connection to at least one adult in the school is another part of the effort. “This way, they’ve got one trusted adult at school who has their back. We feel like those connections help kids feel more comfortable, maybe even reduce the anxiety some students experience coming to school,” he explains. “As a result, we ended up dropping our chronic absenteeism almost in half.” Literacy has also been an area of concentration. 281 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 08 KEWASKUM SCHOOL DISTRICT
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