GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay Area Public School District officials get their first look at recent community feedback Monday night.
School Board Member Ed Dorff explains what has happened with the comments provided at Thursday’s session, which sought suggestions to bolster community support for the district.
“The folks from CESA, Jeff Dickert and his staff, will be transcribing word-for-word what people had written. He’s also going to follow that up with providing us a report that shows the themes he has seen looking at it as a neutral third party.”
In addition to Thursday’s gathering, the district has also held sessions to gather feedback from parents and staffers, which Dorff believes yielded more than 700 comments.
This all follows former Washington Middle School teacher Kerstin Westcott making allegations of an unsafe environment for students and staff, when she publicly submitted her resignation in June.
While the school board plans to begin reviewing the public input on Monday, Dorff says it will likely take multiple weeks to go through all of the suggestions.
Although he says there is no set timeline to implement any of the community feedback, Dorff says some changes will be in place by the first day of classes, September 5.
“The additional staff that is going into Washington, some of the things that they’re looking at with conducting class-level meetings immediately to talk to the students about expectations and reinforcement of expectations.”
Dorff says district officials want to take a proactive approach to the upcoming school year.
“The principals, and not just at Washington but principals across the district, are going to be reviewing their behavioral data with their supervisors on a monthly basis.”
While he has not yet seen all the feedback, Dorff says he’s noted some positive signs in recent weeks.
“This has been a very, very healthy process in terms of asking for people’s input and setting up opportunities for people to provide that. I’m hoping that it will continue in some manner.”
Dorff notes no further community-input sessions are on the calendar at this time.
The school board meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm in the district office, 200 S. Broadway, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Room #331.
