(upbeat music)
Narrator: Sun Prairie Area School District
located in south central Wisconsin
educates over 8,500 students across 15 buildings.
Nine elementary schools, three middle schools,
two high schools, and one alternative learning school.
We aspire to be a high-performing district of choice that
reflects the cultures of our diverse community.
And we know that our futures depend on us to inspire
and prepare every child, every day, by providing relevant,
engaging, and innovative learning experiences
in and out of the classroom.
Aloy: Sun Prairie puts a really high priority
on professional development.
Developing and growing our teachers is like
the single most effective way to get our students
the best, highest quality teachers that we have.
We have instructional coaches in every building.
We also have new teacher mentors.
So for the first three years of practice, we have specific,
fully released from their classroom mentors
that walk alongside those people
to really help navigate what is it
to even be a teacher in Sun Prairie.
Isabel: Health insurance, life insurance,
short-term disability insurance, employee assistance program
but what makes us completely apart is our wellness program.
Karyn: We have been able to build and create a very
robust and comprehensive wellness program
for our employee group and their families.
And so some of the resources and opportunities we offer
are daily live wellness classes
and that covers the whole gamut
of the different dimensions of wellness.
So that includes mindfulness and guided meditation sessions.
It also includes exercise workouts,
such as strength building and cardio,
yoga, stretching, that type of thing.
We also have other fun classes such as
Friday we have a class called Philharmonic Friday,
and one of our music teachers leads us in a little music
therapy session where they played the piano and sing.
We also have our employee wellness clinic.
Chris: The employee wellness clinic is really to support
not just our employees, but our families as well.
It's a really low cost, really simple way
of getting in for an appointment for acute care
or possible referrals.
It's really to support our employees' ability
to take care of themselves.
If someone were to come into the clinic
and have other issues that the practitioners there
have concerns about things can be referred out
for physical therapy, whatever else might be needed
that might be even beyond
the clinic's ability at that point.
Isabel: We start by the recruitment process.
So we want to make sure that we're hiring people that are
very similar to the demographics
that we see in our students.
They need role models.
And when you talk about role models,
those role models need to look like them.
The other way we're helping
staff feel like they're welcomed,
that we appreciate what they're doing
and that their voice mattered is we have an affinity group.
The idea of the affinity group
is really to support each other.
There are situations that happen in the community
that may affect us differently as staff of color.
So we meet and we talk about the situation,
how we felt, what can be done better.
Narrator: Sun Prairie is a thriving
and diverse community.
And it's one of the fastest growing cities in Wisconsin
with an estimated current population
of 33,000 current residents.
Sun Prairie has become known in the region
for its high quality of life,
its excellent parks and recreation programs,
historic downtown, and progressive approach
to the development and redevelopment of the community.
Karyn: Just in summary, Sun Prairie is an amazing
school district to work for.
It is a progressive, dynamic district
that supports the full employee
and not only the employee, but their families as well.
And when we support our employees,
then we create a happier workplace, a healthier workplace,
and a positive work culture that retains their employees.