Pocahontas BOE Received 210 Responses to Stakeholder Survey

Kristy Hamonds and Stephanie Burns told the Pocahontas County BOE members at their June 3^rd meeting, that they received 210 responses to their stakeholder survey. Stephanie Burns said that in order to be eligible for certain Title 1 federal funding, school systems are required to conduct a stakeholders survey annually. She said although she and Kristy Tritapoe were involved in developing the survey, Kristi I Hamons really took off with it.

Hamons said the survey was designed to determine how our stakeholders were feeling about what they wanted from the schools; and how they see our school system. It was distributed in April to parents, staff, alumni, community members and students through multiple ways. She said that they believe the survey is very good and has a good survey format. So much so, that another school system found our survey on the web and liked it so much, they asked to use it for their own school system’s survey.

Hamons said the format of the survey is designed to select actionable concerns from a pre-populated list, things that the school system could actually fix. She said they are now ready to share the results of that survey.

She said that parents were the largest group of responders to it -48%. PCHS, among all of the affiliates had the highest response rate- 26.5%.

Each responder was asked to pick 5 of the choices offered. The questions included:

1. “What are the greatest challenges or issues our school system will face over the next 5 years?” the number one answer selected for that was: “Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers and administrators.”
2. “What are the most important skills and abilities students need to know or be able to do to be prepared for a successful future?” The top answer selected for that was: “Demonstrate good character that is respectful, responsible and humble.”
3. “How can our school system support you?” the top answer was: “stronger communication from school to parents.”
4. “What evidence do you use to evaluate the quality of education in our school system?” The top answer was: “Positive relationships or connections between staff and students.” -it is interesting that progress reports and grades was the number 5 selected answer to this.
5. “What should be the financial priorities of our school system?” the top answer was: “provide maintenance and improvements to existing facilities.”
6. The last question was an essay one which asked “what could the school system do that would delight you?” Some of the top answers involved: Communication; staffing and support; student safety and behavior; academics and readiness; scheduling and attendance; consistency and fairness; facilities and technology; administration and leadership; school consolidation; parent and community engagement; and extracurriculars.

Note, we only had time in this story to talk about the top responses, but Hamons and Burns also discussed each of the top 5 answers selected for the above survey questions. They explained that the survey responses will be used for strategic planning, grant applications, developing a disciplinary rubric and employee recognition, and future uses include financial resource distribution, course offerings and schedule planning.

In part two of this meeting story, we will hear about upcoming summer programs, and all the other items approved at the meeting, so stay tuned to Allegheny Mountain Radio for that story.