A recent survey of school employees found the majority enjoy their jobs but one-third of respondents want to see improvement in pay and benefits.

Superintendent Stu Moeckel presented to the School Board Thursday night the results of a recent employee survey aimed at attracting and retaining high-quality staff through trust and relationships. 

About 44% of employees, or 134 people, took the survey, which asked employees across the district questions about how supported they feel at work, district communication and resources.

One of the questions asked participants how often they had a great day at work. About 66% of respondents said they either frequently or always have great days at work while 60% strongly agreed or agreed they have the resources to do their job. 

The survey also asked if respondents feel they are supported by the School Board, with 44% saying they agreed or strongly agreed while 24% disagreed or strongly disagreed. The others were neutral.

Breaking this down, transportation employees gave the lowest marks with an average score of 2.57 followed by the district office with a 3.0. 

“What I would tell you, as leaders who have to make sometimes unpopular decisions as you have had to make in the past two years, that is leadership,” Moeckel said to School Board members Thursday. “Sometimes you have to make decisions that don’t make everybody happy, much like our principals and even our teachers do.”

In its “interesting findings” section, the survey company noted the results of how employees felt about the School Board and asked board members to consider how visible they are.

In other survey results, about 31% of district employees replied that their work is the best part of their jobs while other top answers included their co-workers (27%) and work flexibility (11%).

“I don’t think it’s any shocker that the work they do every day, and the impact they have on students, and the relationships were the top three,” Moeckel said. “I think that speaks to our people.”  

When asked what they liked least about their job, about 35% said the pay and benefits, 18.5% said the culture and 12.3% said the support system.

The survey company suggested the district do more to recognize employees for their work, including publicly sharing stories about employees’ achievements.

The company also noted elementary employees gave lower scores than the other school buildings across all three major fields of analysis.

In other business during the board meeting, Summer Academy coordinator and first-grade teacher Jamie Grado presented the changes and plan for this summer’s camp. 

The camp will focus on project-based learning and hands-on work. It will focus on reading, math, sports, games, crafts and field trips. It will be a way for students to counter the effects of summer knowledge loss and COVID-19.

“Through the pandemic, we are a little behind, so it’ll give them a little boost with that,” Grado said. 

The camp will be Monday through Thursday from June 6- June 30. Enrollment is open with about 250 students enrolled as of now. 

In other business, the board:

• Approved the All-Night Prom Committee’s request to use the middle school gym, commons and library for after-prom April 23.

• Approved EudoraFest’s request to use the high school commons and PAC for a bluegrass concert Oct. 1 for Oktoberfest.

• Approved a bid to spend about $81,000 to purchase new Chromebooks. 

• Heard from Eudora Schools Foundation President Tony Barron that they raised over $54,000 on their Give Day, meeting their goal of $50,000.  This was more than what they raised on last year’s Give Day.

• Recognized the Science Olympiad teams for their state wins earlier this month. The high school teams placed first in the small school division and the middle school received second place.

Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].

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