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Sun Prairie Area School District reports 26 of 27 personnel-administration measures met for 2023–24
Summary
District human-resources leaders told the School Board and community that 26 of 27 compliance measures tied to Operational Expectation 4 (personnel administration) were met for 2023–24; one noncompliant measure involved support-staff evaluations, and staff outlined steps to address it.
Brad Saron, superintendent of the Sun Prairie Area School District, and Dr. Chris Sadler, who is in charge of human resources for the district, presented the district’s Operational Expectation 4 (personnel administration) compliance report for the 2023–24 school year to the School Board and community.
The report shows that 26 of 27 OE‑4 compliance measures were met for 2023–24. "26 out of 27 measures were compliant," Dr. Chris Sadler said, and he identified the single noncompliant measure as the completion of evaluations for hourly support staff.
Why it matters: OE‑4 is the district policy that sets expectations for recruiting, employing, developing, evaluating and compensating staff. The district told the board the results inform operational practice, recruitment and onboarding efforts, and future performance measures.
District staff described adjustments to how some measures are organized and tracked. In March 2024 the School Board approved updates that moved three items—retention/attrition rates, demographic measures focused on job applicants, and a staff-survey statement about the district being a good place to work—out of OE‑4 and into a new Operational Results policy (OR‑4). Two new OE‑4 statements added in February will be reported next year: OE‑4.9, requiring the superintendent to ensure employees receive feedback from students, parents/caregivers, peers and supervisors as feasible; and OE‑4.1, requiring the superintendent to provide feedback to administrators and administrative support using a consistent leadership and management philosophy. Measures for those new statements are still in development.
Staff provided additional compliance context. The current OE‑4 contains 34 measures; seven additional measures are being developed for 2024–25. On evaluation timing, Sadler said the district changed evaluation deadlines so supervisors’ evaluations are due later in the cycle (in July) to allow HR time to identify missing evaluations and communicate outstanding items to managers. That schedule change is intended to reduce missed evaluations and to allow supervisors to have evaluation content that reflects completed staff reviews.
On the noncompliant measure, Sadler said three evaluations were not completed and lacked a follow-up plan; nevertheless, "98.7 percent of support personnel were evaluated on cycle," he said. District staff described causes as gaps in communication when employees are added to evaluation lists after initial distribution, and noted that newer evaluators sometimes need extra support to track and complete assigned evaluations.
To address the shortfall and improve overall HR operations the district said it will: continue integrating its Frontline HRMS system for real-time staffing and evaluation tracking; expand and standardize onboarding practices (including the Kickstart onboarding program for hourly staff and extended 90‑to‑100‑day follow-up sessions); and grow its Grow Your Own staffing pathway to include applicants without bachelor’s degrees and increase hiring-committee diversity. The report also noted a recent market study for professional educators that informed the district’s recent referendum work and compensation discussions.
No formal board action on OE‑4 itself was recorded during this presentation; staff provided the report and described planned next steps for improving evaluation completion and operational tracking. The March 2024 School Board action to update OE‑4 and move measures to OR‑4 was referenced in the presentation.
