18
Wausau School District 2015-2016 Annual Report
OUR NETWORK FOR EDUCATION (O.N.E.)
Roxane Hagedorn, Volunteer & Community Involvement Coordinator The Wausau community is very fortunate to have parents and community members who voluntarily give of their time and talents to support our students and staff. Our volunteers are partners in one of the most important jobs our community has, educating our youth. The Wausau School District’s volunteer program, Our Network for Education (O.N.E.) fits firmly into the District’s Shared Key Interest to “Foster mutually beneficial partnerships and collaborations that expand learning opportunities and resources.” Volunteers are not required to log their volunteering hours. However, for the 287 volunteers we have information on, they logged 3,616 hours for the 2015-16 school year, totaling $81,287.68. (The value of a volunteer hour in Wisconsin is $22.48.*) Of those hours and value, United Way RSVP volunteers logged over 400 hours, valued at over $9,000. The Wausau School District has a valuable partnership with United Way’s RSVP Program (program for volunteers age 55 and older). One priority area of the Program’s grant is education, making the partnership a perfect fit. RSVP volunteers can be found providing general classroom assistance, mentoring, listening or reading to students, and so much more. The O.N.E. Program continued to offer volunteers across the District the opportunity for literacy training from the District Reading Specialist. The two-hour training gave reading volunteers the opportunity to learn how to be most effective. Volunteers have continually stated how valuable the training is when working with students in our schools. At the end of each school year, volunteers are surveyed. These results are invaluable, as they help the District understand where improvements need to be made and where we are doing a good job. Our most recent survey (2014-15 school year) indicated 95% of respondents were extremely satisfied or satisfied with their volunteer experience, 89% indicated they felt they were making an impact by volunteering, and 88% of respondents were very likely or likely to continue volunteering. *The value of volunteer time is determined by Independent Sector for 2015. This number is based on the hourly earnings (approximated from yearly values) of all production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls average (based on yearly earnings provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Independent Sector indexes this figure to determine state values and increases it by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.