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The DPI is in the middle of a year-long process to develop a strategic plan, which has included visiting communities throughout the state to hear what local residents want for their local districts.

Attendees divided into two groups Thursday to discuss the most pressing issues facing schools and libraries, priorities the DPI should focus on, ideas that could help the DPI, and what the DPI needs to start or stop doing.

In Janesville, concerns shared centered on student behavior, school funding and supporting educators inside schools.

Marge Overturf said she felt compelled to attend because she has a granddaughter in the district and she is concerned about behavior issues, notably at a school concert that she attended.

She said behavior issues that persist can spill into the classroom and disrupt learning.

“I feel sorry for the teacher. There needs to be respect they need to learn. If the parents aren’t doing it, you educate them,” Overturf said.

Chris Medenwaldt, director of secondary education for the Janesville School District, said staffing as school budgets and funding have tightened.

“We are a people organization. We don’t have the funding to deal with the amount of people that we need,” Medenwaldt said, adding that staff recruitment and retention has also been an issue..

Patrick Gasper, a former DPI employee and the current public information officer for the Janesville School District, participated in one of the discussion groups.

“I think one of the continuing issues in public schools is years and years of stagnant, limited or no increases to state funding for schools that didn’t keep up with the cost of inflation. Schools are struggling across the state just to maintain facilities,” Gasper said.

Overturf said she was appreciative of the discussion and the efforts of the DPI, but she is also concerned about the future of education in Wisconsin.

“What’s going to get fixed? I don’t know. They have to have more money, and I think they need more money. I can’t say that I’m 100% thinking, ‘Woo’ and you get encouraged about what is coming up,” Overturf said.

Underly said behavior has not consistently come up at discussions around the state, but it’s important to look at.

“Behavior I think, it’s a reality that you hear about things like attendance and truancy, and those things are related to behavior. And, behavior is related to engagement,” Underly said. “Part of the reason why we are doing the strategic plan is we need to consider how does school need to look differently? We want kids to be more engaged? Some of it has to do with poverty, but a lot of it has to do with kids are just not engaged, so what kind of meaningful experiences can we have?”

Suggestions for the future included working with universities more and incorporating a scholarship or stipend program off the Janesville Multicultural Teacher Scholarship Program.