The School Perceptions Podcast
A place to share the inside scoop on the successful things schools are doing to confront their most pressing challenges.
Episodes
Today we dive back into strategic planning, with Janell Bullard from Paynesville Area Schools (Minnesota) and Zack Fugate of Unity School District (Wisconsin).
You’ll hear how strategic planning can help districts:
• Gather meaningful community feedback before making major decisions
• Engage staff, parents, students, and community members in planning conversations
• Turn survey results into actionable priorities
• Build trus...
VP of Research Dr. Rob DeMeuse joins Derek to talk about trends in the staff, student, and parent survey data we collected during the first semester of this school year.
Spoiler: lots of items are trending in the right direction!
Grand Meadow (MN) District Administrators Paul Besel and Phil Strong sit down with SP's Daren Sievers and Agile Ideas Leadership's Shannon Helgeson and Ross Herdina to talk about their experience using rich data and external facilitators to guide continuous improvement.
See this handout for more on the Grand Meadow story.
You can find Shannon and Ross at Agile Ideas Leadership.
In this episode, Kit Dailey from EUA, Erika Freeman from Findorff, and Megan Prestebak from Miron discuss the facilities challenges that Wisconsin school districts are facing, the solutions that communities are considering, and the processes of communicating, planning, and executing school building projects.
We brought our recording equipment to our booth, and we asked board members, superintendents, other vendors, and parents to sit down with us and share what's going on in their districts. Lots of exciting stuff happening around the state -- take a listen!
Next week, school leaders will flock to the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee to share what's working for them and learn from one another. We've put together a preview of nine sessions we're particularly looking forward to. The whole program is available here.
In this episode:
- 1:57-8:30--Emily DeBaker and Debbie Brewster on School Finance Storytelling
- 8:55-16:10--Andrea Gribble on Building Trust through Social Media
- 16:44-23:27-...
Alyssa Burrage and Luke Pinion join Derek to talk about their districts' experiences with designing and rolling out personal communications devices policies over the last several years. What gave rise to the need, how did it all go, what have been the effects so far, and what advice might they have for others?
In this episode, Derek reviews the research literature on the effects of implementing a personal-devices policy in schools; and then Rob joins the conversation to talk the things that staff, students, and parents want a phone ban to achieve -- and they're not the same!
If you're interested in surveying your stakeholders, reach out!
Below is a brief bibliography of the studies references in the episode.
- Abrahamsson, S. (202...
Tammy Champa sits down with Derek to talk about her experience with transforming school climate in Hastings, Minnesota.
Here we revisit the impact of Wisconsin's landmark Act 10 legislation, which gave Wisconsin district leaders unprecedented flexibility to experiment with teacher compensation. Dr. Steve Kimball, from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, talks about WCER's recent follow-up study, tracking what districts have done with that flexibility. And our own Daren Sievers recounts his process of developing a new compensation sy...
Superintendent Liz Freeman joins us from the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District to talk about using survey data to build trust, engage the community, and drive improvement.
Visit our website to see the various survey tools available for you to use!
Dr. Stephen Plum, superintendent of the Kettle Moraine School District, joins us to talk about the task of triangulating staff, student, and parent survey information -- and putting it all together with attendance and achievement data -- in order to improve parent engagement, staff compensation, and student experiences.
For more information about our staff, student, and parent surveys, visit our website!
Roy de la Garza, veteran school leader with experience in the Houston Independent School District and Carlsbad Municipal Schools, joins us to share what he's learned about how to improve student behavior, staff buy-in, and school climate all at once.
For our suite of tools to help district and school leaders do their work well, visit our website!
Steve Schroeder, of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and Kelly Thompson, of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, join Derek to talk about what makes for great board/superintendent relationships and how those can go awry.
Use our leadership tools to help get or to help keep your administration and your school board aligned!
Elise Murn and Kevin Mullen, of Baird’s Wisconsin School Financing team, join us to share their experiences and advice when it comes to informing concerned citizens about districts' financial situations. Hear about:
- Topics, questions, and responses that can derail community conversations
- The nuts and bolts of estimating tax impacts
- How property reassessments interact with school referendums.
- How to educate the public on the fun...
In which Anne tells us all about what's new and different in Wisconsin's new biennial budget, what it means for schools and taxpayers, and what kinds of topics of conversation we can expect to hear popping up in communities around the state. For more on WASBO, where Anne is the Research Director, see their website. You can also see our own data on the history of Wisconsin school referendums here.
Wendell Quesinberry, Administrator of Tomahawk School District, sits down with Derek to talk details about how Tomahawk improved staff and student perceptions of school discipline policies over the past few years. It involves strategic planning, cascading leadership, and of course lots and lots of listening.
To keep up with the patterns we're seeing as we survey schools and districts around the country, visit our resource center...
Wade McKittrick, of Montevideo Public Schools and BetterU Solutions, shares how his Minnesota district flipped the script on school improvement. From student-led healthcare pathways and a thriving welding academy to community mental health initiatives that changed lives, Wade walks us through how authentic listening and small-town collaboration can lead to big-league innovation.
Visit our website to see our suite of Iistening tools,...
McFarland’s Aaron Tarnutzer joins us to discuss how, why, and with whom to take the summer months to analyze and plan for the future.
Find more of our, well, findings at our Resource Center, and see our website for more information on the survey tools we offer.
Our VP of Research joins us once again, this time to talk about what we've learned from analyzing ALL of the staff, student, and parent surveys we conducted over the 2024-2025 academic year. There's good news, there's a little bad news, and there's some weird news, too.
Subscribe to our Resource Center to stay on top of future analyses, visit our website to see all of our survey tools, and use our contact form to reach out with any ...
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