OCONOMOWOC, Wis. – Teachers at Wisconsin’s Oconomowoc High School are among the highest-paid in the state, and for good reason.

Their hard work has earned the school recognition by Newsweek and The Washington Post as one of the best in America each of the last two years.

The rankings take into account the percent of graduates accepted into college, the number of students taking advance coursework, student proficiency test scores, graduation rates and other factors, with a focus on finding the schools that best prepare students for college and careers.

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In other words, Oconomowoc High School provides students with a top-notch education.

What’s less obvious is that the district is accomplishing this feat while simultaneously shaving $500,000 a year from the school’s budget through innovative reforms.

The changes were implemented in the wake of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011 Act 10 budget repair bill, which greatly limited union collective bargaining and gave school officials an unprecedented opportunity to rework policies without union interference.

Freed from the constraints of the teacher union contract, and faced with a $500,000 budget shortfall, the Oconomowoc school board created a plan to reduce the high school teaching staff from about 75 teachers to 60 for 2012-13.

Previously, educators were required to teach three 90-minute blocks of the school’s four-block schedule, but officials increased the requirement to all four blocks and offered those who stayed $14,000 in annual overage pay.

“This wasn’t a student achievement initiative, it was a financial initiative,” the school’s principal, Joseph Moylan, told EAGnews.

While Moylan believes the high school’s recent academic accolades likely are “not a direct result” of the staffing change, “it’s important to note it didn’t negatively impact student achievement.”

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“All of our key indicators of performance have gone up,” he said.

Financial savings

The Oconomowoc High School restructuring plan “re-examined how teachers from seven departments (Art, English, Foreign Language, math, PE/Health, Science, Social Studies) were organized, assigned, deployed and compensated,” according to district documents.

“In these departments, teachers were asked to teach more hours than previously required of a standard full-time assignment. Teacher compensation was increased to recognize their increased workloads. At the same time, the total number of teachers required to staff the high school was reduced, netting a budgetary savings without jeopardizing course offerings and class sizes (i.e., the student schedule remained unchanged).”

The high school saved $567,050 in labor costs in the first year following the transformation, but set aside $150,000 for severance costs, netting a savings of $417,000, “which made it possible to balance the 2012-13 district-wide budget,” according to a transformation plan update presented to the school board in January 2013.

“Annual recurring savings attributable to the restructure are expected to be just over $500,000 per year, a portion of which will fund on-going staff development for the high school staff,” according to the update.

Much of the money went to help reduce workloads for special education teachers, maintain reasonable class sizes in district elementary schools, and to increase collaboration time for educators at the high school.

It was a “reallocation of resources” that would have been far more difficult before Act 10 gave school leaders more control over school operations, Moylan said.

“It has, for many reasons, worked for what we wanted to do,” Moylan said, regarding Act 10. “We didn’t have to go to the public and say we need more money to improve instruction.

“We found money within our budget to make that happen.”

New dynamic

Aside from the financial benefits, Oconomowoc High School’s restructuring also produced numerous positive side effects that are contributing to its academic success.

For one, it forced school administrators to re-examine the roles staff play in the school, and to consider teachers’ credentials, extra-curricular contributions, and their ability to engage students, as they whittled down the number of teachers.

“What I had to balance is who was doing what,” Moylan said. “It was really about what you contributed to the organization.”

That approach is strikingly different than seniority-based staff reduction, which was mandated by union collective bargaining agreements prior to Act 10. The more thoughtful process in Oconomowoc allows administrators to retain the most effective teachers, rather than those with the most seniority,

Educators with multiple teaching credentials – or those who contributed to numerous aspects of the school – were nearly all offered an opportunity to stay on, Moylan said, while those who were less engaged didn’t make the cut.

“I think it made us ask some tough questions about what we’re teaching and how we’re teaching it,” Moylan said.

The process infuriated the local teachers union, which was adamantly opposed to the transformation. Bu the changes ultimately resulted in a leaner, more versatile, and higher paid teaching staff.

“We have one of the highest starting salaries of any of the high schools in the state,” Moylan said.

The top pay also helped the district keep its brightest educators on board, while attracting increased interest from quality teachers searching for new employment.

“We’re now able to recruit senior staff” from other districts, Moylan said. “We didn’t have some mass exodus. Teachers didn’t leave.

“My recruiting numbers when I have a job opening have gone up,” he said.

But perhaps the biggest benefit for students is an increase in collaboration time between educators, which was made possible by the annual restructuring savings.

“I was actually able to, with some of savings … buy days with substitutes” so teachers can meet quarterly with others in their department, Moylan said.

The ability of teachers to share ideas and strategies has helped drive the school’s academic success, according to Moylan. The meetings are also resulting in other unanticipated efficiencies in school operations, he said.