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West Bend School District reports higher staff satisfaction in annual engagement survey
Summary
District assessment coordinator Tina Van Roo presented 2024–25 employee engagement survey results showing highest overall job-satisfaction ratings since the district began surveying in 2018; participation was 66% this year and select subgroups had lower response rates.
Tina Van Roo, the district assessment and data coordinator for West Bend Joint School District No. 1, told the school board Monday that 66% of employees completed the district'wide employee engagement survey for the 2024'25 year and that most question areas had at least 75% of respondents agree or strongly agree with positive statements about culture and supervision.
The survey, administered annually since 2018'19, showed growth from last year in most measures. Van Roo said overall job satisfaction was 84%, the highest rating the district has recorded across the survey'series, and that supervisor'employee relationship questions ranged from 81% to 89% agreement. Net promoter'style items (ratings of 7'10) found 75% of staff likely to recommend West Bend as a place to work and 76% likely to recommend their building.
Van Roo said the district retained the same core questions used in prior years to allow trend comparisons and noted one small decrease (1 percentage point) in staff reporting they have opportunities to participate in workplace decisions. She told the board the survey uses only linear-scale items (no open-ended responses) and that the district supplements the annual instrument with other outreach such as rotating HR office hours at buildings and site-level leadership team work.
Board members asked about response-rate variation. Van Roo said the rate this year (66%) was lower than the prior high of 83.9% and that one employee group had lower participation that pulled down the overall rate. She said the district examines response rates by job category and tenure bands (less than 3 years, 3'15 years, 15+ years) and will target outreach to underrepresented groups next year. Van Roo added that a separate certified'staff survey conducted with the University of Wisconsin'Milwaukee provides benchmarking for certified staff only; the district'wide instrument does not include outside benchmarking data after the district stopped using a commercial provider several years ago.
Van Roo and board members discussed next steps: leadership analysis in August, building leadership teams joining planning in mid'August, and sharing school improvement plans with staff in the fall. Supt. Wimmer and Van Roo said final retention data will be reported in the fall after summer staffing changes settle.
The presentation and the board'member questions emphasized that the survey is one of several tools used to measure engagement and that the district is continuing targeted outreach to improve participation and follow-up actions.
