{"id":2442622,"date":"2019-04-06T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-07T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=303659"},"modified":"2019-04-09T08:34:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T14:34:20","slug":"with-culture-survey-complete-aspen-school-district-eyes-next-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/with-culture-survey-complete-aspen-school-district-eyes-next-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"With culture survey complete, Aspen School District eyes next steps"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The real work begins now for leadership at the Aspen School District after an examination into the faculty and staff\u2019s sentiment regarding workplace climate and culture, a result of a stormy fall semester at the campus\u2019 administrative offices.<\/p>\n

With Denver firm Wilson Foxen\u2019s study complete, the five-member Board of Education is tasked with deciphering mounds of data the survey yielded, some of which was presented to the public last week at Aspen High School.<\/p>\n

As is the case with data \u2014 consider the phrase Mark Twain popularized: \u201cThere are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics\u201d \u2014 it can be open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the community is going to have to digest what got said before jumping to any conclusions,\u201d said parent John Galambos, who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

The Wilson Foxen study included input from an advisory committee, one-on-one meetings with district employees, focus-group discussions and a survey sent to staff and faculty before a chunk of its findings were unveiled at a public meeting Tuesday. Some aspects of the survey were kept confidential to protect the identity of employees who made comments in the survey; however, they were discussed last week among board members and Superintendent John Maloy in executive session.<\/p>\n

Results of the survey were mined from the answers given by employees at the Aspen elementary, middle and high schools. The Aspen Community School in Woody Creek, which is part of the school district, did not participate.<\/p>\n

The survey had a 69.9 percent participation rate, with 211 out of the district\u2019s 306 employees offering responses, while 58 percent (176 staffers) answered all of the survey\u2019s questions. Those participation and response rates, the study noted, put the margin of error at 5 percent.<\/p>\n

Leading the study was Liz Wilson, a partner with Wilson Foxen. In an interview Saturday, Wilson said one of her chief takeaways is that Aspen is a community of highly driven, competitive people who often are at odds about what\u2019s best for the community, which is not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what the many sides people could be on,\u201d she said, \u201cthere really is a passion in this community around children and around excellence, and you don\u2019t find that everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The survey\u2019s results offered a mixed bag. For the most part, employees said they felt supported by their direct supervisors and receive encouragement for their career development.<\/p>\n

Other findings, however, showed 55.2 percent of the responses either disagreed or strongly disagreed that \u201csenior leadership can be relied upon to do the right thing even when it\u2019s challenging or difficult.\u201d (More answers are available with a fact box that accompanies this report on A7.)<\/p>\n

Said Wilson: \u201cThe fact that I did this project is indicative that there is an opportunity for improvement, and bringing in someone from the outside is often a really good way to get to the next layer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson led last week\u2019s 70-minute public presentation of the findings at Aspen High School. She and board members revealed them to staff members and others earlier in the week before the public meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly there is a lot of additional work that\u2019s going to be rolling forward with us, and it will take some time for us to digest,\u201d board President Dwayne Romero told the roughly 30 people in attendance. \u201cThis is not something to absorb in one sitting, frankly, and definitely not an hour. We\u2019re going to have to have some additional time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s presentation was anchored by reams of survey data she broke down to the attendees, which included four school board members and Superintendent Maloy, whose job performance was publicly called into question in the fall by a group of parents, which played a part in the board\u2019s decision to not renew his rolling contract past its June 30, 2021, expiration date.<\/p>\n

Maloy supporters wanting him to stay aboard longer have said certain parents and media organizations<\/a> have unfairly portrayed the superintendent, who has been at his post since March 2010. Advocates speaking publicly on his behalf have included faculty and staff members and education board members Sheila Wills and Sandra Peirce, who served as the board\u2019s respective president and vice president until Nov. 12 when Romero and Susan Marolt took their places as part of a formal process. Wills and Peirce\u2019s terms expire in November. First-term board member Susan Zimet will be up for re-election then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we\u2019ve certainly seen improvement in board leadership,\u201d parent Anna Zane said. \u201cI see definite improved leadership \u2014 it\u2019s been responsive and communicative and dramatically improved (since Romero and Marolt took the board\u2019s top posts).\u201d<\/p>\n

Galambos, however, said he felt some of the parents\u2019 complaints about district leadership last fall \u201ccame out of left field, and I want to know what\u2019s going on and why there are these issues. On the whole, we\u2019ve been very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the Board of Education wasn\u2019t ready to publicly draw any conclusions about the study. They opted not to answer Aspen Times questions seeking individual responses from the board\u2019s five elected officeholders. Likewise, Maloy said he would follow the board\u2019s cue and elected not to respond to any questions for the time being.<\/p>\n

The superintendent did, however, send an email to parents Wednesday in regards to the study and survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reassure you that I am taking the results very seriously,\u201d Maloy\u2019s email said. \u201cPlease know, I have already started a conversation with the leadership team around what actionable steps we can take to immediately begin to work collaboratively to build trust within our schools, the district and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to the Times, Romero explained that \u201cas a board we have consistently presented to the community and our employees that we will work hard to ensure this process is as thoughtful and thorough as possible. Allowing our first observations (including Dr. Maloy\u2019s views) to occur together in the next board meeting appears to be the best approach to support this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those next steps begin at the Board of Education\u2019s next regularly scheduled meeting<\/a> Monday. A 30-minute talk is scheduled among the board members following other school-related matters. The meeting is set for 4 p.m. at the district\u2019s board room in the administrative wing. Romero will not be able to attend because of a family matter.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s presentation described the district\u2019s climate as \u201cthe effects on students, including teachings practices, diversity and the relationships among administrators, teachers, parents and students.\u201d It deemed culture \u201cthe way teachers and other staff members work together and the set of beliefs, values and assumptions they share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the school district\u2019s tab to Wilson Foxen stands in the $25,000 range, Romero said, adding a final estimate should come later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the primary goals coming out of this thing is not to put this study on the shelf and admire it,\u201d Romero said at last week\u2019s presentation. \u201cWe clearly want to develop some next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The real work begins now for leadership at the Aspen School District after an examination into the faculty and staff\u2019s sentiment regarding workplace climate and culture, a result of a stormy fall semester at the campus\u2019 administrative offices. With Denver firm Wilson Foxen\u2019s study complete, the five-member Board of Education is tasked with deciphering mounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 07:42:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}