Sun Prairie reports compliance with 26 of 27 personnel measures; support-staff evaluations fall short

The Sun Prairie Area School District presented its Operational Expectation 4 report on personnel administration to the School Board, saying 26 of 27 compliance measures for the 2023–24 school year were met and one measure — the evaluation cycle for hourly support staff — was not completed at 100%.

Chris Sadler, who is in charge of human resources, told the board, "26 out of 27 measures were compliant." He said the single noncompliant item related to support-staff evaluations: of 237 support-staff evaluations scheduled, 234 were completed, which he summarized as "98.7% of support personnel were evaluated on cycle."

The report is part of the district's regular compliance review against Operational Expectation 4, the board policy that sets requirements for recruiting, hiring, staff development, evaluation and compensation. Chris Sadler said the district currently lists 34 measures under OE‑4, with seven additional measures in development for 2024–25; the district reported compliance on 26 of the 27 OE‑4 measures that applied to the 2023–24 year.

District staff described several follow-up steps and context for the shortfall. Sadler said three evaluations were not completed and "didn't really have a plan," and he attributed part of the problem to newly hired staff being added to evaluation lists after initial circulation and to some evaluators being new to the supervisor role. To address gaps, the district plans to: integrate evaluation tracking into its Frontline HR management system so records are visible and progress can be tracked in real time; provide targeted support and training for new evaluators and supervisors; and adjust timelines so supervisor evaluations are due later (by the end of July) to allow HR time to reconcile missing evaluations.

The presentation also summarized non-evaluation highlights from 2023–24: targeted job fairs and postings to align staff and student demographics; alignment of professional development with district strategic goals (work credited in the presentation to Nicole Teffert of the professional learning department); a completed market study for professional educators used in the district's referendum work; consistent use of employee work groups to update handbooks and calendars; and expansion of onboarding practices including a "kick start" onboarding for hourly employees and a "rise and shine" follow-up around 90–100 days after hire.

Sadler described ongoing technology and program changes the district is pursuing: moving staffing models and vacancy tracking into the Frontline HRMS so principals and supervisors see live vacancy status; expanding the "grow your own" teacher pipeline to include employees without bachelor's degrees and increasing administrator involvement in recommending candidates for certification; and developing measures to implement two OE‑4 policy statements added in March 2024 (OE‑4.9 on feedback from students, parents/caregivers, peers and supervisors; OE‑4.10 on providing feedback to administrators using consistent leadership and management principles). Sadler noted those two items were added after the 2023–24 year and therefore are not reported in the current compliance results.

Superintendent Brad Saron introduced the presentation and framed OE‑4 as the board's expectation that the superintendent be compliant in how the district recruits, employs, develops, evaluates and compensates staff. He thanked staff, the community and the board for support and said the Human Resources Department's mission is grounded in "every employee every day" to attract and support staff.

No formal board vote or motion was recorded in the transcript excerpt provided; staff presented the report and described planned next steps and policy measures to be developed for the next reporting cycle.