SPS Extends Survey Deadline to June 2nd

The Seattle Public Schools is updating and adjusting the Strategic Plan with input from teachers, principals, parents, families, and members of our community. Please visit the following survey link to provide feedback to Seattle Public Schools:
  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SPS_Strategic_Plan_Survey_Spring_2011
The survey consists of 21 questions and has been extended to Thursday, June 2. Responses to the survey will remain confidential and anonymous.  For questions about the survey, please email
performance@seattleschools.org.

Seattle Public Schools Family Survey

Additionally, the SPS Research, Evaluation and Assessment department will send out the 2010-2011 Family Survey by phone and e-mail starting on June 4. The survey will first be sent to families who have elementary students, then middle, and finally high school. There will be one phone call and an e-mail correspondence. If you prefer the e-mail correspondence you will have 4 days to complete the survey online. The survey will be offered in the top 5 languages, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Somali, and Spanish. The survey results will be posted on the School Reports in the fall and given to school leaders.

Please direct questions about the family survey to Nicole VanVoorhis,
njvanvoorhis@seattleschools.org. Thank you and we look forward to your participation in this year's Family Survey!

Comments

Po3 said…
Gave a lot of the same answers as the budget survey. So my question; how many ways/times do I need to say, cut admin, coaches, and testing before they cut admin, coaches and testing?
David said…
Agreed. I'd love to see a much reduced central admin and a focus on funding teachers in the classroom over everything else.

If you ask parents, kids, principals, and teachers whether they want to fund a coach or admin in the central office or another teacher in a classroom, they are going to pick another teacher in the classroom every time.
mirmac1 said…
Are they not getting any answers they like...?
lendlees said…
mirmac1-

My guess is they have a very low response rate, which is typical for surveys that have a large number of 'open-ended' (aka: fill in the blank) questions.

I'm sure they haven't tallied the answers as this type of survey will take ages to tabulate.

Now, if it were my survey, I would have conducted focus groups first to generate a list of potential responses to each question and then sent it out.

It all gets back to one of my pet peeves is that they don't have qualified researchers creating their surveys. (end rant)
Salander said…
Message from Enfield
Good morning,
As many of you know, the Washington state legislature approved its budget last week, leaving Seattle Public Schools with a $4 million budget shortfall to resolve before the start of the 2011-12 school year.
In February, we estimated the budget shortfall at $35 million. Last week, after the legislature adjourned, we were presented with an additional $10.7 million in funding challenges, leaving us with a total budget impact of $45.7 million. As a result of our staff’s hard work we have already made some difficult cuts, with reductions totaling more than $41 million.
In order to have a balanced budget, we will need to address this final shortfall. The remaining budget gap of approximately $4 million equates closely to the loss of state revenue in K-12 salary allocations (1.9 percent to teachers and classified staff and 3 percent to certificated administrative staff, including principals).
These funding changes require that we work with our bargaining partners to implement the impacts of these reductions. We have difficult decisions to make in order to balance our budget. In making these decisions, we are prioritizing direct funding to the classrooms and the students.
We will be discussing potential solutions to the $4 million gap during our June 8 work session with the School Board. We will bring a proposed budget to the Board on June 15, with scheduled action on July 6. There will be a public hearing on the proposed 2011-12 budget on Wednesday, June 22 in the John Stanford Center auditorium.
I know the uncertainty, especially around the potential salary reduction, is difficult and I ask for your continued patience as we work through these final details.
Sincerely,
Susan
Susan Enfield, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools

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