Friday, June 29, 2007

More Survey Results

First off, let me say that I have been trying to get the survey posted on line for several weeks now. Our technology department has assured me that it can be put up lickety split once permission is granted from above. Once again humans are bogging up what technology can do instantly. I hear your pleas to see what it says and I understand. I know your tax money paid for it and you want to see the data. I am doing my best to get it posted on the district web site. If I must resort to scanning it myself and posting it, I will.
But for now I am once again going to give you some highlights from the survey. This time around I’m going to give you the low down on what the low priorities and dissatisfaction with the district numbers are. To make this list, the percentages of the bottom 2 satisfaction/priority section of the survey had to total 25% or more. I know this is a much lower threshold than the previous list but I figure if a quarter of respondents are dissatisfied or think an item is low priority, it’s an area we should look closely at.

Low priorities are:
Air conditioning 39.2%
Building use for community functions 27.3%
Public relations employee 42%
Public relations specialist 51.5%
Bussing for high school students 46.4%
Dissatisfaction areas:
Maintaining small class sizes 32.1%
College entrance guidance 33.3%
Counseling and social services 34.1%
Life skills instruction 31.5%
Parental involvement training 40.4%
Public relations employee 39.5%
Efficiency of bussing 28.5%
Life skills courses 29.7%
Workplace preparation courses 32.7%

Not too bad. Another thing that really stands out to me is how our community seems to be in tune with what is going on inside and outside our school buildings. They really seem to know what it’s going to take to send our kids into the future armed with the necessary tools to succeed. So tell me, what do you think so far?

Monday, June 18, 2007

The Survey SAID...

The results are finally in and now that I’ve had time to go over them I feel safe in saying there was nothing earth shattering in it. But quite a few surprises. Uniform dress being the biggest one for me. 67% somewhat or strongly agree we should consider uniform dress. That doesn’t necessarily mean uniforms. But a strict common dress code such as khaki or navy dungarees (I love that word), a BELT, shorts and skirts to the knee cap, etc…
I know, dream on. But it would solve the over revealing, walk holding your pants up look. But people would actually have to enforce the rules and there is the problem. But I like the idea anyway.
First let’s talk about what items were on the high priority list. To make this list the item had to get 65% or more of the 2 highest priority votes. A simple majority wont make my high priority list!

Keeping the public informed 76.2%
Maintaining small class sizes 68.1%
Safety and security on school grounds 85.6%
Upkeep and maintenance of buildings 71.7%
Career/ vocational education services 76.2%
College entrance guidance 84.4%
Counseling and social services 69.5%
Drug awareness and prevention 72.6%
Academic extra curricular activities 66.6%
Life skills instruction 66.5%
Quality of school libraries 74%
Quality of school lunch programs 65%
Special ed services 70%
Tutoring 69.4%
Safety of neighborhood walkers 81.2%
Safety on the busses 81.3%
Safety at pick up/ drop off 81.2%
College prep courses 89.1%
Computer literacy and technology 88.6%
General life skill courses 69.4%
Language arts 69.6%
Math 92.1%
Science 88.2%
Social studies- history civics government 82.2%
Workplace preparation courses 73%

The “how are we doing” section related to the same items above aren’t as high but I’m working on a simple to read chart to sort that all out. Now lets cover what made the strongly/ somewhat agree list. Same criteria- 65% or over:

CF buildings are safe 79.4%
CF should implement all day kindergarten 66.1%
CF should consider elementary after school programming 70.8%
CF should maintain inside open enrollment 77.9%
CF should consider uniform dress 67%
The quality of CF schools affects property values 90.7%

I’ll do the next blog on the problem areas people perceive and the least preferred/ low priority items. For now let’s focus on what people overwhelmingly want and expect from us. Here’s a few final statistics that scored the highest vote in its respective category excluding the “don’t know”:

34.3% prefer K-5, MS 6-8, HS 9-12 configuration
46.6% have no school aged children in the house
22.9% are between the ages of 40 and 49
28.4% earn between $51,000 and $75,000 annually
57.8% have lived in CF more than 20 years
76.2% say the Falls News Press is their school info source
42.5% prefer a county sales tax as a school-funding source
49.1% say we do not need new school buildings
30.1% say there is a need for district wide reconfiguration
28.8% vote for nearly all school tax issues
79.7% use the Internet at home
57.7% think bussing to state minimum should be first cut made if needed
42.4% think the pay to play fees should remain the same

That’s a lot to digest! I think you’ll find the next results I post as surprising as some of these are.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Self Censoring Sucks

First I just want to say that I was thrilled to see so many people show up for tonights meeting that we had to move it to the library. Although once again I wasn't surprised to see so many people considering we were presented with an informational session regarding health care costs and... THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN!! More on that later when I've actually had a chance to study the data.

I don't have much to say because as it turns out, everything I write is an unfair labor practice. So the best I can do for now is say - talk quietly amongst yourselves. Feel free to start a topic or hijack the blog for the next few days with your own agendas. I know there are plenty of them out there.