The jury's still out about a new educational system in place at Oconomowoc High School, but a local superintendent says he's doubtful such a plan would work in Door County.
Among other things, the Oconomowoc plan (Oconomowoc High School teachers say transformation plan causing burnout, low morale) involves eliminating prep times for high school teachers in seven academic areas and adding an extra class its place. In exchange the teachers receive an extra $14,000. But because there are fewer teachers handling the workload -- the district reduced 15 positions -- the plan saves the district an estimated $500,000 a year.
Sturgeon Bay Superintendent Joe Stutting says he's not sure how well a similar system would work in a smaller school district like Sturgeon Bay.
Stutting says the Oconomowoc move was a direct result of Act 10.
Regardless of what type of system a district uses, Stutting says he believes the amount of work teachers are expected to do is as great as it's ever been.
"In my personal opinion we really need to start looking at the amount of time that we have a teacher working outside of the time they're teaching kids and looking at contracts that are longer," says Stutting. "So I think we can take the stress level down by building in more time during the year for teachers to spend preparing for class, (doing) data analysis, and learning different teaching techniques."
