A “climate audit” of teachers’ issues and morale is being conducted at Warsaw Community Schools. During its organizational meeting Monday, the board heard about the climate audit being taken of the school corporation’s certified staff. A climate audit is a survey of employees to better identify problem areas and morale issues, and suggest possible solutions. Board Vice President Matt Dick started the conversation Monday when he asked Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz about the climate audit that was sent out at the end of December. The results of the survey will come through the discussion team process at the end of the month, Hintz said, and then to the board members. After new board member Curt Hermann asked for more of an explanation, Hintz said it’s been the intent of the Warsaw Community Education Association and the corporation’s administration to take a “dipstick” of how things are going with teachers and staff. Hintz said there have been numerous changes teachers have had to deal with, some mandated by the corporation and some by the state. Some are out of the control of the school corporation, like teacher evaluations, IREAD-3 and other initiatives. While Warsaw feels it’s stayed ahead of the changes, Hintz said, it also feels like it owes it to its teachers to gather honest feedback about how things are going. Terry Sims, president of WCEA, the teachers’ union, said there was a significant response to the climate audit. Of 430 certified staff, more than 350 teachers responded. “That’s enough to have valid data,” Sims said. Board member Dan Metzger questioned why only certified staff were surveyed. He said everyone has a valid opinion. Sims said questions had to be tailored to teachers’ specific conditions. If they surveyed everyone who works for the school corporations, questions would have to be altered and formulated to each group of employees conditions. Sims also stated the survey was multiple choice, on paper, using Scantron forms, but there also were questions teachers could comment on. There were approximately 270 responses to the questions. David Hoffert, WCS chief academics officer, said the team used formulated questions to make sure they had an “accurate pulse.” Scantron was used because it allows anonymous answers, and they wanted to make sure teachers were open and honest with their responses. Hoffert said it was the first step. All the comments were transcribed from paper to print, Sims said. He also strongly suggested the school corporation do a climate audit at least every two years. That way, he said, no one feels threatened or intimidated if it’s done on a regular basis. “It only ensures accuracy as it continues,” Sims said. “This is a starting point,” he later commented. “We just wanted to initiate it to get it started. I also want to publicly thank the group we’re working with as well as Jon Lippe. ... This is not the best way, but it’s a beginning.” During his election campaign in 2012, Randy Polston promised that if elected, he would see that a climate audit of WCS would get done. “I can’t remember the last time we did one as a whole school corporation,” Polston said Monday. “It will be very important for us as a board once we receive this information to address information we collect.” Sims said, “We will have statistical information of the certified staff’s views by school building and as a corporation.”
