Studer costs detailed
Photo 
Quint D. Studer
Photo
Karen Schulte
The Janesville School District has spent about $80,000 over the past 2½ years to send employees to conferences around the country as part of its Journey to Excellence.
The Gazette and others requested the estimate months ago. The district released its estimate Thursday in an employee newsletter.
The Journey to Excellence was known earlier as the Studer process. The Studer Group, run by former Janesville resident and health care consultant Quint Studer, has been training district staff in its quality-improvement method since December 2007.
Studer Group offers seminars called Taking You and Your Organization to the Next Level, or TYYO. The district has sent 209 people—mostly administrators and teachers—to TYYOs so far.
The district pays for hotels, meals, luggage fees and travel to and from the airport for the TYYOs, Superintendent Karen Schulte said. Studer covers airfare and the conference fees. Studer has spent about $314,000 thus far, Schulte said.
Studer has pledged $1.2 million in total to the project.
Some people have a misconception that Studer was going to pay for everything, but that was never the deal, Schulte said.
The spending is in the name of improving education, Schulte said.
“I believe a well-trained staff can really deliver on what we want do as a district,” Schulte said. “Our mission as a district is to deliver the most exemplary education we can. ... I believe that’s more important now than ever before” because of the loss of so many local jobs in recent years.
“We need to make sure our kids are well tooled to go out and get different kinds of jobs than typically our community has had before,” Schulte said.
Schulte said federal grants cover most of the district-paid expenses. Those grants include stimulus funding and a program called Title 2, which require that certain amounts be spent to train staff. The money must be returned if not used for training.
Schulte said the district’s expenses are estimated. She said the district’s computer system cannot separate expenses for the Studer seminars from money spent for other training, so those expenses were estimated and multiplied by the number of participants.
The alternative was to put someone in a room for a day or two with all the training-travel vouchers from the past 2½ years, Schulte said, and she decided that wasn’t a good use of time.
Figuring out that the computer system couldn’t give an answer and deciding how to go about giving an estimate are reasons it’s taken so long to supply an answer to the question, Schulte said.
The Janesville Education Association also has asked for an accounting of this spending. JEA President Dave Parr said he needed time to study the just-released figures before commenting.
Studer is paying for some items beyond the $1.2 million, Schulte said. For example, Studer offered, and Schulte accepted, training with a speech coach to improve her presentations, which would have cost her about $7,000, she said.
Schulte said all district administrators need to improve their presentations, and she will be working with them, using the knowledge she gained with the speech coach.
Schulte said she and Personnel Director Steve Sperry also attended a seminar on how to handle difficult conversations with staff, which Studer also paid for.
Jun 19, 2010 at 9:23 p.m.
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I'm sorry, but doesn't anyone else think that they very easily could've set up their accounting to show specifically what was spent for "Studer" conventions? Simple accounting in my opinion. Today's computers have programs to easily calculate these numbers. Or was this stuff set up when the old IT scammer was working for the district?
Jun 19, 2010 at 4:40 p.m.
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Frusion, I think you could answer your Studer question yourself. It is all about the money! It doesn't cost him anything to give a few extra seats at his conferences that are held for health care employees. He has paid $60,000 plus for flights and I'm sure he gets a tax break for doing so. The district has paid over $80,000 or so they estimate and he has paid about $60,000. Not a bad investment if he can make is theory/ideas work or at least appear to work!
He can make millions off school districts if he can use a few districts as proof/evidence that his ideas work. If he gets a few hundred districts to attend his conferences at $2,000 a person that is some serious cash. These are only my thoughts/opinions based on what I've read about the Studer Group and what I've heard from others.
Accounting for the SDJ has always been one of the areas that Joe Public will never quite get an answer about.
Jun 19, 2010 at 4:34 p.m.
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I really believe the school district of jvl is grasping at straws and none of this "studer stuff" is so wonderfull that it will help pull them out of the deep hole they are in! Budgets budgets budgets and here they are paying all this money for "conferences" and what not. Have we seen any real worth while "improvemnets" yet??? a big "NO"
Jun 19, 2010 at 4:32 p.m.
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First of all, Studer is a former Janesville teacher, so probably knows what the problems are and has an interest in the JSD. Then, since his Studer Group experience is in health care, this gives him a track record in education to use to sell his system to other school systems....JMO.
Jun 19, 2010 at 11:02 a.m.
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There actually are several K-5 classroom teachers who were selected to go as a leader of their building, because they are seen as an exemplary employee, and have since left the district. Those "leaders" chose to leave for better districts, and it's a lost investment. I do know that administrators from the ESC can help keep costs down by substituting in classrooms for the teachers that attend these conferences, but oftentimes that didn't happen. Not sure what a sub makes for two days, but if they keep sending teachers, they should use the district administrators/coordinators/support staff whenever possible!
Jun 19, 2010 at 10:49 a.m.
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It may be a good estimate but I would hardly call it "detailed".
Jun 19, 2010 at 9:21 a.m.
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I know I must have missed this over the years that Studer has been providing these services but my question is: what is in it for Studer when he gives away so many services? Is he just a nice guy?
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I also have a comment about the school district's accounting system. I don't know what they are using for a payroll/accounting system but most systems would allow you to have a separate chart of account string for each activity. I'm surprised they don't have a account for the various activities they perform even under the umbrella of training. How do you budget your activities if everything is in one bucket?
Jun 19, 2010 at 8:45 a.m.
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If 200 people attended the conferences for $80,000, that's only about $400 per person -- not too expensive if they were useful. Then there is the lost time from work, which probably cost more. It would be interesting get some feedback from those who attended regarding the value of the experience.
Jun 19, 2010 at 12:32 a.m.
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What exactly is the criteria to be chosen for one of these trips?
Jun 18, 2010 at 5:31 p.m.
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wze19, that might be a good thing. Studer's theory suggests that some of those who can't measure up will move on, which allows you to hire someone who will do a better job. Not sayin' that's valid; just reportin' what I'm hearin'. --Gazette reporter Frank Schultz
Jun 18, 2010 at 4:57 p.m.
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How many have gone to conferences and soon afterward have retired or moved from the district?
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