REMINDER: Tell the School District How You Want to Communicate

The Redwood City School District has the chance to increase its communication efficiency with a survey provided by the National School Public Relations Association, at no cost to the district. Participants who signed up for the survey have three weeks to take it, according to district spokesperson Naomi Hunter.

With the number of modes of communication increasing in this digital age, Hunter said this survey will provide a clearer picture of how Redwood City residents want to receive their information.

“Everyone wants their communication in a different way, automated phone calls, other parents love getting emails,” Hunter said. “There are more tools than ever before and that means we have to figure out what our community wants.”

Along with 100 school districts across the nation, Redwood City will participate in this first ever survey and will have results on Apr. 15.

“We are pleased to offer this survey and we hope many of our parents and other community members will choose to participate,” said Superintendent Jan Christensen in a statement. “Learning more on what is effective in communication will improve a very critical link between our schools, our parents and our community.”

The Association places a value of approximately $10,000 - $20,000 on the survey.

“This is great because we just can’t afford to do this research on our own,” Hunter said. The district has had to increase class sizes to an average of 30 students due to budget cuts.

The district does not have a parcel tax in place currently, the only district in the surrounding area. A proposed $91 parcel tax was narrowly shot down by voters in 2009, gaining only 64 percent approval. A super majority, or two-thirds vote, would be necessary to approve the tax.

The survey varies in length and questions depending on your current situation. The survey tailors its questions based on your children’s age or if you have children at all.

The nearly 3,000 people whose email addresses were submitted by the district have access to the survey. Hunter said she will follow up to see if interested parties can still sign up.

“The Association asked us to send them unique email address to secure the integrity of the data,” Hunter said. “This prevents people from signing up multiple times.”

To take the survey, visit http://research.zarca.com/k/QsWWXPsUPsQVXPVXSQVsP.