GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s school board voted Monday night to not spend $216,000 on another year of outside help for Washington Middle School.
The decision comes after the district paid American Institute of Research, or AIR, $394,000 to be the school’s ‘turnaround partner.’
“It is a lot of money, I’m not dismissing that, but it’s a lot of money to continue to pursue the strategy that we tried for years that didn’t work,” said John Magas, Associate Superintendent of Continuous Improvement for the district.
The previous strategy Magas is referring to is spending money on extra staff at the school.
Magas says AIR’s work in training teachers led to academic and behavior improvements at Washington last year.
“We are seeing a turnaround, a flattening of the downward progress and a beginning of an upturn at Washington.”
In November, the school board set nine measures of success, or goals, for AIR at Washington.
District leaders report only 3 of the 9 goals were met in AIR’s first year. However, two of those goals were considered aspiration goals, where 100 percent of students would have needed to improve.
That’s concerning to school board member Rhonda Sitnikau
“Right now, the results of this are not impressive. They fall flat, for the investment that is on the table.”
After nearly four hours of debate, on a 4 to 3 vote, the school board decided to not spend any more money on AIR’s services.
“When I look at the success we’ve had at Washington, I can’t definitively say that it was because of AIR,” said Eric Vanden Heuvel, a school board member.
“I can pretty definitively say it’s because of the talented and amazing people that we have in our district.”
Magas tells FOX 11 the school is moving in the right direction.
“It wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but I think the continued progress of Washington with the strength of the principal and the staff there will definitely continue.”.
District officials say the money that would have been spent on AIR will likely be spent on a combination of schools, including Washington.
The district is planning to train other principals in the district on some of the turnaround ideas that AIR presented at Washington.
