Oregon, Eau Claire Show Positive Relationships Help Build Great Schools

As Great Schools progresses, local associations, school districts and communities are re-discovering one of the key elements to the program’s success: positive relationships.

The initiative is generally moving farther and faster in districts where teachers, support staff, administrators, school boards, parents, community leaders and citizens have already created a foundation.

This billboard, which promotes both National Education Week and the Great Schools initiative, appeared in the Eau Claire area last fall. It was developed and funded by the Eau Claire Association of Educators.

In Oregon, teachers and administrators have been working for years to develop relationships, going back to participation in the Village Partnership in the mid-1990s. Now, on the heels of a major successful school referendum, the Great Schools initiative is making great strides.

“We couldn’t have done it without those relationships,” said Oregon Education Association President Sandy Owens. “I think Great Schools would have caught on, but not as fast or as deep.”

Likewise, Eau Claire Association of Educators President Tom Blount and Eau Claire Great Schools organizer Jo Ellen Burke say ongoing efforts to develop relationships with the administration and community – especially a major Education Partnership program – have made implementation of Great Schools much smoother.

Jo Ellen Burke

Bill Klaus

“This is part of a very broad movement in Eau Claire,” said Burke, a middle school teacher.

The Education Partnership, which was formed in January, includes representatives of teachers, support staff, administration, parents, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a community youth coalition and the community’s Family Resource Center. It focuses on a common desire to engage the community, families and schools in enhancing public education. The program includes plans in June for a Community Conversation, which mirrors the School-Community Visions phase of the Great Schools process.

“We’re using some of the tools of Great Schools to get to a larger audience,” said Superintendent Bill Klaus, who has been very supportive of incorporating the Great Schools initiative into the Education Partnership’s efforts. “It’s everybody together,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ECAE has conducted one-to-one interviews and surveys of staff. Each school followed up by analyzing survey results and developing action plans.

“We wanted to build consensus and support with our members before reaching out to the community,” Burke said.

In Oregon, likewise, Owens and Great Schools UniServ coordinator Jim Kusch said the association has completed its one-to-one interviews of staff and has shared the results at staff meetings in every building.

“It’s generated an incredible response,” Kusch said.

Kusch and Owens said the three biggest issues on the minds of staff are communication, class size and special education. The surveys and the staff meetings already have gone a long way toward addressing the communication issues, they said, and Owens said she has improved association communications in other ways too.

The administration has been very supportive and involved, Owens said. The principals and District Administrator Linda K. Barrows have attended the school-level meetings. The School-Community Visions meeting is tentatively planned for May.

“I think Great Schools has helped us re-establish where we are going and look at what our vision is,” Owens said.

Great Schools UniServ coordinator Jim Kusch and Oregon Education Association President Sandy Owens review results of the one-to-one interviews and surveys with staff at Prairie View Elementary School. Such meetings took place at each of the district’s schools. A School-Community Visions meeting is planned for May.

Posted April 28, 2000