Ankeny School Board to Send Out Survey to District Staff, Parents

Parents and staff members in the this winter will have a chance to both praise and critique the district.

School district officials will ask all employees to participate in a school climate and culture survey. Parents also will have a chance to weigh in by taking an engagement survey.

“The surveys will be used to determine perceptions of the school district through the lens of all staff and parents,” said Superintendent Matthew Wendt.

Two surveys total will be distributed, Wendt said prior to Monday’s meeting. The culture and climate survey — which will be given to staff members — and the parental engagement and satisfaction survey will be administered separately.

Wendt said it's likely both will be distributed in late January 2012.

“We’re looking at a three-week timeline,” he said.

It will cost the district $875 per study for the entire district.

Scott Wallace, executive director of K-12 Benchmarks for the National Center for School Learning, was at Monday’s board meeting to answer questions pertaining to the surveys. His company will provide and administer the surveys.

Wallace said the staff survey is an excellent tool to gauge feelings on the district organization. He said the survey would contain 70 standard questions, as well as demographical and three open-ended questions.

All surveys will be completed anonymously, he said.

The most common tool for distributing surveys to staff members, Wallace said, is through email.

The parent engagement survey is either distributed online or sent home with students, Wallace said.

Board member Todd Shafer asked about the typical response rate for similar surveys.

“It varies greatly depending on the method you use,” Wallace said. “For the most part, it’s easy to get a high response rate for an employee survey.”

In other news, the board held a public hearing for phase three of improvements on East Elementary School. No one spoke, and the board approved the plans, contracts and other specifications for the project.

The estimated cost for phase three is $1.7 million.

The board also heard two additional presentations from construction management firms interested in working with the district to reduce costs in its facilities plan.

Among the presenters were CSI Construction Services of Des Moines and DLR Group, the architectural and engineering firm behind the new Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School.