Damakant Jayshi

A dispute over staff turnover numbers at the Wausau School District is ongoing, with HR Director Tabatha Gundrum facing tough questions about the data and the way in which the findings are characterized.

Last month, Wausau School Board Member Pat McKee grilled Gundrum on employee turnover data from the 2015-2016 school year to the present that she had presented during the board’s Education/Operations Committee meeting. McKee said he found significant discrepancies in the numbers offered by the HR director, saying her data did not reflect the sharp jump in employee turnover during the most recent school year.

This week, Gundrum said she has reconciled the differences over the numbers. McKee objected, saying they would have to “agree to disagree.”

On Monday, McKee said also said he found one addendum was missing from one of the meeting agendas, a fact acknowledged by Gundrum.

“We did discover that one addendum was not attached to the board’s agenda,” the HR director said. “I am not sure how that happened.”

Gundrum said that meeting agenda inclusions are outside of her responsibilities.

This is not the first time that agendas from meeting packets have gone missing. This newspaper has found instances of agendas pulled out and later reinstated after inquiries. The district administration previously blamed an outside agency managing its meeting agendas.

McKee had printed off all consent agendas for school board meetings from January to the present and said the numbers do not add up to those presented by Gundrum. His data showed separations for 55 teachers in 2023, a 75% increase from the year prior. 

Gundrum had challenged that assertion, saying most of the numbers that the board member was referring to were related to limited-term contract staff. She also said she stood by the numbers which came from a master HR document.

During the discussions last month, McKee also referred to seven of the 13 department heads had left in 2023. He told Wausau Pilot & Review he was referring to Wausau East. “I was informed by a staff member that 7 of 13 department heads have left that position at the end of the 2023 school year.”

The two also dueled Monday over how exit data is characterized from departing staff.

Gundrum acknowledged Monday that 98 percent of “exit interviews” she referred to were actually online surveys, while only 2 percent participated in person. Gundrum said all interview answers were fed into an electronic database to allow easier access to the numbers.

“It is misleading to call it exit interview summary data,” McKee said.

“I’d call it exit survey summary data,” McKee said. Gundrum said she would make the update to staff exit feedback characterization.

The discussion was held Monday during a regular meeting of the Wausau School Board.