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While the District 709 School Board may still be unclear as to the direction of major facility changes, several things are clear as a result of the community survey — the district needs to move forward on immediate needs.
“It’s clear people want us to take care of basic systems,” said Craig Barley, head of the survey committee regarding school facilities. “Eighty percent said that was important.”
Improvements in basic systems, such as heating and roofing, along with additional instructional space and adequate physical education space were considered a high priority among those surveyed, Barley said.
“We have what amounts to virtually a mandate,” he said. “(The district) needs to take care of those three things.”
Federal mandates, such as Response to Intervention, require one-on-one interaction between students and teachers. Currently, many of the district’s elementary classes are forced to carry out those individual meetings in school hallways, which superintendent Roger Kilpatrick said is not conducive for such activity.
Additionally, the district’s physical education waiver expires in five years, meaning each elementary school is going to need space to hold physical education classes. That will pose a problem for elementary schools that currently use their gyms for multiple purposes.
But, the big ticket item on the survey, a $16.8 million project to close Jefferson School and build a new high school, still shows no definitive response from those who completed the survey, Barley said.
Fifty-five percent favored the construction of a new high school. But, Barley said, in order for something to have good potential as a referendum is going to need at least 60 percent support.
Barley said he thinks more questions need to be asked of the community. Additionally, there needs to be more education regarding the district’s facility needs.
“I think it will be important for people to actually see need through action,” he said. Facility tours are one way to address that problem.
Barley said results from the survey are hard to interpret because they do not tell why people picked for or against an item.
“When you put multiple variables in a question, you can’t interpret the questions clearly,” Barley said. “You want to only test one variable at a time.
The district used an outside survey consulting firm, Washington-based C&M Communications, to help construct and then review the survey.
“As soon as we got the results, there was help in interpretation,” he said. “The consultant didn’t always tell us what she thought we wanted to hear.”
While the District 709 School Board may still be unclear as to the direction of major facility changes, several things are clear as a result of the community survey — the district needs to move forward on immediate needs.
“It’s clear people want us to take care of basic systems,” said Craig Barley, head of the survey committee regarding school facilities. “Eighty percent said that was important.”
Improvements in basic systems, such as heating and roofing, along with additional instructional space and adequate physical education space were considered a high priority among those surveyed, Barley said.
“We have what amounts to virtually a mandate,” he said. “(The district) needs to take care of those three things.”
Federal mandates, such as Response to Intervention, require one-on-one interaction between students and teachers. Currently, many of the district’s elementary classes are forced to carry out those individual meetings in school hallways, which superintendent Roger Kilpatrick said is not conducive for such activity.
Additionally, the district’s physical education waiver expires in five years, meaning each elementary school is going to need space to hold physical education classes. That will pose a problem for elementary schools that currently use their gyms for multiple purposes.
But, the big ticket item on the survey, a $16.8 million project to close Jefferson School and build a new high school, still shows no definitive response from those who completed the survey, Barley said.
Fifty-five percent favored the construction of a new high school. But, Barley said, in order for something to have good potential as a referendum is going to need at least 60 percent support.
Barley said he thinks more questions need to be asked of the community. Additionally, there needs to be more education regarding the district’s facility needs.
“I think it will be important for people to actually see need through action,” he said. Facility tours are one way to address that problem.
Barley said results from the survey are hard to interpret because they do not tell why people picked for or against an item.
“When you put multiple variables in a question, you can’t interpret the questions clearly,” Barley said. “You want to only test one variable at a time.
The district used an outside survey consulting firm, Washington-based C&M Communications, to help construct and then review the survey.
“As soon as we got the results, there was help in interpretation,” he said. “The consultant didn’t always tell us what she thought we wanted to hear.”
Nonetheless, Barley is optimistic with the survey results.
“The community seemed pretty positive on the job the district is doing,” he said. “They are performing well. They got high marks on how they handle finances.”
He admits he understands the controversy involving such a large-scale taxpayer-supported plan. Some have questioned the way the survey was worded.
Barley adamantly denies any effort to “trick” the public in the survey.
“I don’t think you can trick the public,” Barley said. “And, that certainly wasn’t the intention.”
Ultimately, he said the school board faces some important issues before a referendum could ever be placed on the ballots.
“They’ve got some tough decisions to make,” he said.
