***NOTE: THE SURVEY HAS BEEN EXTENDED BY ONE WEEK TO JUNE 8***
The ORCSD Strategic Planning Oversight Committee is conducting a community survey to gather input from community members regarding our school district. Please click on the following link to participate in this survey: http://www.unh.edu/survey-center/orcsd510.html.
This survey will end on June 8, 2010. Your input is greatly appreciated, and all responses will be confidential. The results of the survey will be made public upon completion of the report. The Strategic Planning Oversight Committee thanks you in advance for your time.
Thanks for posting this, Seth. I was completely unaware that the Strategic Planning Committee was offering this survey. I watch the board meetings on DCAT and look at the district website often throughout the week, and have heard and seen nothing about this.
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of how inadequate the district is in communicating with us. I went to the district website and searched every way I knew to find anything about this survey and was unable to. If anyone can show me where a link to the survey is on the district site, I'll say thanks!
At this point, I'm left with the impression, especially since the survey is over soon, that the admin and board don't really want community input. How can this survey be representative of our concerns if they do such a poor job of seeking our views?
Anonymous, above, you win the prize! Of course there are elements in our District that don't really want your input.
ReplyDeleteImagine; if they make people aware of the survey, it might increase public support for a strategic plan. And if the public gets wind of the fact that we have a plan, then our District might actually have clear goals, and administrators and elected officials' performance would be be measured against standards.
I ask you, given the desperate measures that some District personnel have undertaken in recent years to AVOID being held accountable (and for great examples, just read some of the stuff to the right: e.g., in which District personnel were found to have violated their own rules regarding bidding and purchasing and SB members covered up for them) why would you think they would want your input?
In response, I challenge you to send the link to this survey to everyone you know in this District and ask them to fill it out.
They may not like to listen, but they'll hear us, if enough of us get involved.
I just checked the district website home page, and, finally, in the announcements section, there is a link to the survey. I also went back through two months of Weekly Updates, and the link appears only on last Friday's, more than halfway down the page in small type. It's easy to miss. At least it's there, but this still feels like a matter of too little, too late.
ReplyDeleteHas an effort been made to notify everyone in Durham, Madbury and Lee? The survey itself should be open to all who live in the district, not just parents of students or those who check the district website.
So now some notice has been made, but the community has only one week to become aware of and take the survey.
The Strategic Planning group has clearly made an effort to offer a professional survey through the UNH Survey Center. It seems a shame and a waste to shut it down so soon after only beginning to notify the community.
If the Board is truly interested in getting as complete a survey sample as possible, perhaps it will consider not shutting down the survey on June 1st and will work to make as many people aware of it as possible.
Thank you for posting this link, Seth. I have forwarded your posting to everyone in my address book that lives in the district in hopes that each of them would do the same. Everyone's participation is needed and wanted so that this strategic plan can be complete. Please also note that if you know of anyone in the OR district who does not have access to a computer, copies of the survey are available at the Town Halls and the public libraries, as well as some other local sites. If someone has trouble accessing a copy of the survey and needs one, please contact the SAU office. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting Krista. Any chance that the end date for the survey of June 1st can be postponed, perhaps to the end of the school year?
ReplyDeleteThanks to whoever decided to extend the survey one more week. Maybe what we say here can actually make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI just filled out the survey. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteI do however have issue with this committee. From those I have talked to who know people on it, it is taking forever to get anything done, agendas from people on the committee are getting in the way, there are too many who think they know about education but really know very little, and it is becoming a colossal waste of time and resources. How long have they been working? And now, 9-10 months later they put out a survey? This should have been done many months ago - well before summer begins.
I say the board should demand some results from this committee NOW. I shutter to think how much money this committee has wasted. Why is no one complaining about this? (a little hypocritical if you ask me).
Enough with the nonsense. Let's just get to the business of educating our children.