Oshkosh board reviews Gallup staff engagement results and plans to address teacher workload and retention

The Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education on Feb. 11 reviewed staff engagement data and district efforts to retain teachers and other employees.

In a workshop presentation, staff said the fall Gallup survey — administered through CESA 6 since 2021 — showed the district’s engaged percentage at 49%, above the K–12 national figure of 43% and well above Gallup’s overall national rate of 31%. Participation in the survey was reported at 79% districtwide. "Our engaged percentage was 49%," Mrs. Johnson said during the presentation.

Why it matters: Board members pressed staff on how the district interprets those numbers and whether small year‑to‑year changes reflect meaningful improvement. A recurring issue was the weighting of the first two Gallup questions and the value of the metric for board‑level KPIs versus building‑level action planning.

Principals described local responses. Susan Martin, principal at Oakwood Elementary, said her school uses celebration teams, "shout‑out slips" and a staff survey about recognition preferences to address low scores on recognition. Amanda Pazza, principal at Bell Phillips, said her staff developed collective agreements — greeting students at the door and consistent responses to cell phones — and created transparent instructional checklists to align expectations across classrooms.

Board members also discussed concrete retention drivers beyond survey scores: classroom size and space, access to materials, and differences in prep time between secondary and elementary teachers. One board member warned against relying on arbitrary cut‑score changes: "We can't go changing our cut scores and saying, 'Oh, gee, we got a higher star rating on this,'" the member said, urging the district to preserve metric reliability.

District staff described ongoing steps: enhanced onboarding, exit interviews, HR open forums at schools, a benefits education timeline, and a labor‑management work group convened in January to analyze elementary workload and recommend nonbudgetary and budgetary solutions. Mrs. Johnson said the district plans a targeted summer‑school proposal to focus supports on students who need the most help before fourth grade: "We do have a proposal for summer school to really, hone in on the students that we know need the most support," she said.

Next steps: Board members requested a future KPI conversation to clarify which engagement measures the board will use for oversight and how to compare the district to peer districts for talent recruitment. Staff said they will continue building‑level action planning and report back on the work group's recommendations.

The board did not take formal action on engagement or retention at the meeting.