With the first day of school arriving sooner rather than later, the Wright City R-II School Board of Education reflected on the past school year and focused on how to improve for the 2024-25 school year.
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With the first day of school arriving sooner rather than later, the Wright City R-II School Board of Education reflected on the past school year and focused on how to improve for the 2024-25 school year.
After the district’s food service gave their evaluation of the 2023-24 school year, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recommended increasing school meal prices by 10 cents.
However, after discussion from the board and administrative review, it was approved to only raise prices by five cents. This decision was made during the July 18 meeting.
DESE recommended that prices should not remain the same for more than one year. The district did not raise prices last year, which ultimately led them to increase the prices for this upcoming year.
Assistant Superintendent of HR, Facilities and Transportation Dr. Jeremy Way presented the board with the facilities and grounds program evaluation report.
Way noted that the board had met many of their goals including adding more LED lighting to different school buildings and adding more safety measures.
Way did add that due to the immense amount of rain the county has seen, some of their ground projects were pushed back. Some of these projects include additional playground equipment and additional bathrooms to the Early Childhood Center.
The board also discussed the 2023-24 exit survey, which had 22 district staff respondents accumulating to about 88% of staff who left the district at the end of the school year.
The biggest reason at 31.82% as to why staff left the district was due to resignation. Last year, the majority answered that they received a better job opportunity.
Way noted that recognition had improved compared to last year. Communication increased by nearly 30% with respondents answering with “not an issue,” but had a little over 10% of people answering with “major issue.”
Way noted that many comments said communication was good, which made it hard for the district to pinpoint what the issue might be.
Fifty percent of respondents answered working conditions with “somewhat of an issue.” Way pointed out that the board has discussed in the last six or eight months what they can do to help and take things off the staff’s plates.
This led to the board adding two non-contact days for teachers for this upcoming school year, which left Way curious as if this survey question might look different next year.
There were two things that did not have 50% or more of respondents answering with a positive review. One was working conditions with 45% answering that it was not an issue with the rest saying it was somewhat an issue or a major issue.
The second question that had less than 50% was answering yes to “would you recommend the Wright City R-II School District to someone seeking employment?”
Roughly 36% answered with maybe and 22.73% answered with no.
