Wisconsin school boards want to make superintendent evaluations secret. Among their reasons: It would allow them to be more honest. – Appleton Post…

The majority of Wisconsin school boards support changing public records law so that superintendent evaluations are kept secret, a move a freedom of information advocate says will only benefit those with something to hide.

At the Wisconsin Association of School Boards' annual convention in January, delegates representing boards around the state passed a resolution to lobby the Legislature for the change.

Supporters of the resolution argueit doesn't make sense that the superintendent's performance evaluation can be given tomembers of the public when statute requires the evaluations of teachers and other administrators, such as school principals, to be kept confidential. They say those types of evaluations in the private sector are generally not accessible to employees. And they say changing the law could empower school boards to be more candid when assessing the superintendent's performance.

Open government proponents argue that the superintendent's job leading a taxpayer-funded public school district that educatesthousands of children is too importantfor information about their performance to be withheld.

"This is not the privatesector. These are our public officials, and there's a tremendous amount of interest in people with jobs like school superintendent," said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom Of Information Council.

"If the superintendents performance is lousy, the public needs to know. And if its good, then they should want to share that."

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Current Wisconsin law calls for school districts to evaluate the performance of all licensed school personnel during the first year of employment, and at least every third year after that.

The same is required of school superintendents. But unlike other school employees, superintendents are evaluated by school boards, which are made up of elected members.

The USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin requested superintendent reviews in seven local districts to get a sense for what they typically include. The Stevens Point Area School District didn't respond in time for this story, and the Green Bay School District had not yet completed a review of new Superintendent Steve Murley.

Of those that responded, six performed the evaluations on a yearly basis.

Two providethe superintendent some areas for improvement, but evaluations largely focused on commending the superintendent's recent accomplishments.

Some go into great detail; others are one paragraph. The Manitowoc School District said it doesn't document evaluations in a written report.

"Annual evaluations have occurred; however, such evaluations have been handled by verbal input/discussion" between the board and superintendent,Joyce Greenwood-Aerts, the Manitowoc Public School District's director of human resources, wrote in response to a public records request.

At the Appleton Area School District, the school board's evaluation of its superintendent consisted of one paragraph during the 2018-19and 2019-20 school years.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Neenah Joint School District performs evaluations twice every academic year, in December and April. They were seven and 11 pages in 2020, and theschool board used a detailed matrix to rate the superintendent's performance in areas like communication, staff retention, fiscal responsibility and continued improvements in student achievement.

The Sheboygan, Wausau and Oshkoshschool districts, too, have detailed superintendent evaluations, largely singing their leaders'praises.

"Five snow days? Piece of cake. Seriously, Seth, your leadership and ability to make every challenge seem effortless and the confidence you bring to the District is amazing," the Sheboygan school board wrote in its June 2020 evaluation of Superintendent Seth Harvatine. "Our trust in your ability to be our CEO of the (Sheboygan Area School District) continues to grow, just when we thought last year was a challenging year."

The resolution was passed at a time when school boards and superintendents have received intensified public backlash over online learning and scrutiny of reopening plans.

ButDan Rossmiller of the WASB said that's not why it was created, nor was it created to thwart proponents of open government and freedom of information. He said the WASB doesn'tplan to lobby the Legislature this year, though it might next year.

The resolution originated because a school board presidenton the WASB delegation spent his career in human relations in the private sector, Rossmiller said, andwas surprised to discover that superintendent performance assessments were able to be requested through a Freedom of Information Act request with little to no limits.

For example, the school board president worried that a disgruntled employee could sabotage areas of improvement outlined in an evaluationif everyone hadaccess to the records, Rossmiller said.

School board members also took issue with educators and principals not being held to the same standards.

"Some of our members think it ought to be the same for everybody," Rossmiller said."If the argument is that you're a public employee and therefore your evaluations are something of public interest, it ought to apply that way across the board."

Rossmiller emphasized the proposed law change wouldn't impactother high-interest public records like expense reimbursements, Rossmiller said, just make the evaluation process more consistent.

He noted school boards are currently allowed under open meetings laws to convene in closed session to discuss a superintendent's performance.

"The thinking is that degree of confidentiality should carry over to the evaluation," he said. "I think somewhere in there, there's room for a balancing test between the public's right to know and the superintendent's right for some privacy."

In the resolution text, members also argued that if school boards know the evaluations aren't available to the public, they may get more frank or specific in their criticisms.

Although changes to the law won't apply to the Appleton Area School District the school board is in the process of transitioning to a coherent governance model, meaning the superintendent evaluation will be conducted in open session board Vice President Barry O'Connor expressed his support for the proposal.

O'Connor saidschool boards risk unintentionally "undercutting" the superintendent if members provide recommendations for improvement.

"All of a sudden it becomes the front page of the newspaper," O'Connor said. "I would see that as counterproductive. I think that's what this is directed at not having that be the standard."

Others disagree. Gary Jahnke, the only Appleton School Board member to vote against the resolution ahead of the delegate meeting, said school boards should be honest whether it's public record or not.

Lueders, of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, doesn't believe confidentiality would make school boards any more candid. Even if the public can't see the document, Lueders said, the superintendent will. And when any written evaluation of this nature is being drafted, he said it's likely to be written "in a way that's somewhat diplomatic."

Lueders also questioned whether harm has ever come from the records being public, as superintendents generally receive good performance reviews "because they know what they're doing."

"What is the problem? Who can point to a case in which having access to an evaluation for a superintendent has some sort of terrible consequence?" Lueders asked.

"You could only sabotage a superintendent if the performance evaluation showed that there were some real serious problems with their performance. And that shouldn't be happening."

Note: This story is part of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's participation in Sunshine Week a national initiative from March 14-20 to promote open government.

Contact reporter Samantha West at 920-996-7207 or swest@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BySamanthaWest.

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Wisconsin school boards want to make superintendent evaluations secret. Among their reasons: It would allow them to be more honest. - Appleton Post...