Sun Prairie reports progress on recruitment and engagement; support-staff retention misses 90% goal

At a presentation to the Sun Prairie Area School District Board of Education, Superintendent Brad Saron and Dr. Chris Sadler said the district met reasonable progress on nine of 10 measures in Operational Result Policy 4, the district’s human-resources results policy for the 2023–24 school year.

The presentation said the district improved recruitment, hiring and engagement metrics but missed its retention goal for support staff. "We are presenting this to the Board of Education and the community. There are 10 specific measures that the Board monitors in the monitoring report for Operational Result Policy 4. We are presenting that we have made reasonable progress in 9 of those measures," Superintendent Brad Saron said.

Dr. Chris Sadler, presenting the monitoring data, reported that "98.63% of our positions were filled by the 1st day of school," and that first-year, benefit-eligible staff had a 90.6% retention rate. He said overall workplace satisfaction, measured by agreement with the survey statement "all things considered the district is a good place to work," rose to 86.8% from 85.3% the prior year. Participation in the voluntary employee engagement survey increased to 65.1% from 63.7%.

One measure did not meet its target: support-staff retention was 88%, below the district goal of 90%. Sadler described that as the single exception among the 10 measures and outlined strategies the district will emphasize in 2024–25 to address the shortfall. "We did miss the mark on our support staff by 2%. It did not meet the 90% retention rate," Sadler said.

Proposed and continuing strategies include extending onboarding beyond the first weeks (the presentation referenced a "Rise and Shine" follow-up day), expanding a building "buddy" system that pairs new support staff with experienced colleagues, aligning feedback and evaluations to district core behaviors and values, launching a recognition-and-feedback playbook, maintaining referral bonuses and targeted recruitment at job fairs, using wellness committee representatives to promote clinic utilization, and growing affinity spaces in collaboration with the director of equity and inclusion. The presentation described these as staff strategies to improve retention and engagement rather than Board actions.

The Human Resources presentation also noted clinic utilization rose from 53% to 61% and that the district’s goal for many measures is 80% over the long term. The presenters said the district will continue the measures and strategies into 2024–25 to sustain progress and address the support-staff retention gap.

No formal Board vote or policy change was recorded in the presentation; the session was a monitoring report delivered to the Board and community.