School District 47 has received extensive stakeholder feedback related to development of a strategic communications plan.
At the January 13 board of education meeting, superintendent of schools Dr. Jay Yule said it is important to get the final report citing information gathered during the extensive survey process. He said the survey process indicates people are mostly interested in what goes on in schools and not so much about school board policy and procedures.
“It’s good feedback for us,” said Yule. “Part of our work is knowing what key elements we can put out as communication that people do want to hear. The other piece is who should they hear from. It’s good information.”
According to the stakeholder feedback final report, four key stakeholder groups were identified: students; parents and guardians; staff; and the community.
For the students, the survey was focused on older students attending Brooks Secondary School and consisted of 10 questions. The survey closed with 165 responses, which is about 20 per cent of the school’s population.
Students were most concerned about school-level information, such as their classroom, followed by school events and school emergency information. Instagram is the top platform they check on a regular basis, followed by text messages and email. However, email was the leading choice for information about the school and classroom, followed by text messages. Email was also the preferred method of offering feedback to the school district.
There were 209 responses to an 11-question survey for parents and guardians. The group was asked to think about types of information they would like to receive from their children’s teacher, school principal and the school district. Changes that affect the classroom had the highest response rate of 96 per cent, followed by emergency and urgent information at 68 per cent. School-wide events and announcements came third at 34 per cent.
The report stated that many respondents only wanted information that affected the classroom from the teacher, leaving the principal and school district to communicate other information. Parents and guardians prefer email as the preferred method of communication. Social media platforms and websites were not widely preferred. Email was also the preferred method for providing feedback to the school district.
For school district staff, there were 107 responses, which was just under 40 per cent of the staff complement.
The report stated that staff members are very engaged in all aspects of their schools as well as the district. Emergency and urgent information at the school and district level were of the most importance to staff.
Staff regularly check their school district email accounts and it was by far the preferred communications method.
In terms of the community, 36 responses were received. School and facility closures, as well as urgent and emergency information at the school and district levels were of most interest to the community. When asked why it was important that the district communicate with the broader community, 75 per cent of the respondents selected the following reasons: education is an important part of a vibrant and healthy community, children are our future and their education is an important part of that future.
Email was again the preferred method to receive information about the school district. The district website was also a top platform. The majority of respondents would provide feedback by email, although anonymous means such as forms on the website also had good support.
