W-MU sets goals for district, superintendent

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? If you don?t know where you?re going, any road will get you there.

Harry Heiligenthal, leadership development director with the Iowa Association of School Boards, shared that warning with the Winfield-Mt. Union Board of Education when they met Wednesday evening.

Despite having only been less than 24 hours since the polls closed on Tuesday?s school board election, W-MU school board planned to meet in special session to discuss board goals as well as the superintendent evaluation process with Heiligenthal.

W-MU?s new superintendent Jeff Maeder said he had met Heilighthal at a conference and thought he might be a good resource to help the board clarify its expectations for Maeder, so Maeder, the board and the district all knew what they were wanting to see and where they were wanting to go in the future.

Heilighthal said defining goals for the board, the superintendent and the district would help the board set certain objectives they would like Maeder to meet and that could be measured when it came to evaluation time.

Board President Klay Edwards said he was glad the board was taking the time to iron this out because the evaluation of goals was ?something we haven?t done a great job of the last two or three years.?

The session lasted about an hour and a half, and allowed the board to pick key areas they would like to focus in, like open communication between all stakeholders within the district; holding the administration, faculty and staff accountable; and boosting morale.

Heilighthal added that by laying out goals for the superintendent, the board would be able to make a roadmap for where they would like to see the district in the next three to four years.

Heilighthal also suggested the board sit down for a brief evaluation with Maeder more than just at the end of the year. During these meetings, which could be done quarterly or just bi-annually, the board could ask about the key goals, how Maeder felt he and the district were progressing, areas he felt improvement could be made or what additional support he needed.

Hielighthal said this would also encourage that open and honest communication the board was looking for as well as give the board checkpoints to see how far their goals were progressing. Hielighthal suggested using a small questionnaire during those meetings to pinpoint how or if the goal was being reached, which could then be used as a reference during the end-of-the-year evaluation.

?You can slip that into his (Maeder) file and just see how far he and the district have gone,? he said.

Hielighthal said he would have an action plan of sorts completed for the board within the next two weeks.