Communication Audit and Program Review Board Accepted 4-21-11

8/13/2019 Communication Audit and Program Review Board Accepted 4-21-11

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/communication-audit-and-program-review-board-accepted-4-21-11 1/135

DSISD Communication Audit & Program Review 2010-2011 1

A Review of th e

Dr ipp in g Spr in gs Ind ependent School Distr ict

Communications Audit & Program Review

Board of Trustees

Meeting

April, 2011






Table of Contents

DSISD Mission, Vision, & Strategic Planning Priorities.........................................................................................1

DSISD Program Review Process Introduction........................................................................................................3

Communications Audit and Program Review Committee......................................................................................4

Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................................5-8

Communication Program Vision....................................................................................................................

6

Communication Program Mission....................................................................................................................6

Communication Program Description..............................................................................................................6

Program Review Goals.......................................................................................................................................6

Program History..................................................................................................................................................7

Communication Review Team Documents........................................................................................................7

Program Data Collected and Reviewed..............................................................................................................7

Communication Audit and Program Review Recommendations, Goals & Strategies......................................9-14

Campus and District Communication Review Data.......................................................................................15-119

Inventory of Existing District Communication Methods and Tools................................................................. 16

Campus Communications Review......................................................................................................................17

Dripping Springs Elementary Campus Communication Review............................................................17

Rooster Springs Elementary Campus Communication Review..............................................................18

Walnut Springs Elementary Campus Communication Review...............................................................19

Dripping Springs High School Campus Communication Review..........................................................20

Dripping Springs Middle School Campus Communication Review........................................................21

DSISD Website Data....................................................................................................................................22-25

Other School District Communication Professionals Interview Summaries...............................................26-30

Summary of Open-Ended Comments: Spring 2010 District Survey.........................................................32-35

Summary of Open-Ended Comments: Spring 2010 District Survey..............................................................36

Parent, Staff & Student Survey Summary...............................................................................................37-111

Parent Focus Group Response Summary..............................................................................................112-120

Demographic Data Summary................................................................................................................121-123

Appendix...............................................................................................................................................124-130

Summary of Meeting: Communications Review Team 9-20-2010.................................... ..................125Concepts for Use in the Communication Program Review Process.....................................................126

Notes from Communication Review Team Meeting: 10-18-2010........................................................127

Summary of Meeting: Communications Review Team 11-1-2010.......................................................128

Summary of Meeting: Communications Review Team 11-15-2010.....................................................129

Summary of Meeting: Communications Review Team 12-13-2010.....................................................130

Communications Review Team Meeting Summary: January- March 2011...............................................132




Our Vision

To inspire and equip students to be lifelong learners and positive contributors to the world.

Our Mission

We partner with parents and the community to provide a superior education for every student.

Our Strategic Planning Priorities 2009-2014

Communication & Customer Service

y DSISD is committed to conveying information in a thoughtful, clear, and concise

way through multiple channels.

y DSISD is committed to responding to concerns and inquiries in a positive,

professional, and respectful manner in order to establish and fulll ourcommitment to the community.

Curriculum & Instruction

y DSISD is committed to providing and implementing a comprehensive curriculum

combined with student centered instruction, which will promote active student

learning and success.

Facilities

y DSISD is committed to providing safe and secure facilities for all stakeholders in

an effective and efcient manner.

Personnel

y DSISD is committed to recruiting, retaining, and fostering individuals who are

committed to each student while pursuing overall excellence and personal growth.

Planning

y We believe that planning is a collaborative process that anticipates, is exible,

effective, and produces superior results for all students.

Technology

y DSISD is committed to developing and implementing a technology plan that

utilizes all available resources, meets the evolving needs of teaching and learning,

and ensures effective collaboration and communication with all stakeholders in the

greater school community.

DRIPPINGS SPRINGS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT



DSISD Communication Audit & Program Review 2010-20112

District Goals

y DSISD will continue to create a shared understanding of and commitment to the

Dripping Springs Learning Model.

y DSISD will continue to provide a safe and healthy environment that is emotionally

and physically conducive to learning.

y DSISD will maintain an appropriate overall nancial condition through effective

planning and efcient management of nancial resources.

State & Federal Requirement Goals

y DSISD is committed to continuously improving District performance and each

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) performance criterion.

y DSISD is committed to continuously improving District performance on the Texas

English Language Prociency Assessment System (TELPAS).

y DSISD is committed to efciently and effectively using state compensatory

education funds to improve the performance of special populations and at-riskstudents.

y DSISD is committed to continuously improving District performance and each

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) performance criterion.

y DSISD is committed to continuously improving District programs for students

with special or unique educational needs including students receiving services

for Special Education, Gifted and Talented, Dyslexia, Section 504 and English

Language Learning.

y

DSISD is committed to continuously improving District Career and TechnicalEducation (CTE) programs and efciently and effectively using Carl Perkins

Grants funds.

y DSISD is committed to effectively and efciently using No Child Left Behind

(NCLB) Title funds including Title I, Part A-School-Wide Program, Title I,

Part C-Migrant Education, Title II, Part A- Teacher and Principal Training and

Recruiting, Title II, Part D-Technology, Title II- English as a Second Language,

Title IV, Part A- Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community Programs, and Title

V-Innovative Programs, to improve the performance of all students.

Critical Strands:

Items that must be considered as we plan to address each priority and goal

y District Growth

y Changing Demographics

y School Finance




DSISD Program Review Philosophy

The Dripping Springs Independent School District believes that program review and evaluation

based on predetermined criteria are essential for continuous improvement in support of our

mission.

Evaluation of programs and services is important to:

• maintain focus

• maximize available resources

• reveal strengths/weaknesses

• establish program standards

• foster trust

• collaborate with stakeholders

• maintain a systematic, on-going process

Purpose of the Program Review

To continue to provide creative, challenging, and enriching opportunities for all Dripping Springs

ISD students.

Model for Program Review Process Steps

1. Review the DSISD philosophy supporting cyclical program review.

2. Review the 3-5 year program review cycle. Develop a program description, visionmission, and goals/intended results.

3. Prepare an evaluation design, including evaluation questions, standards, and

methodology.

4. Prepare data grids and data collection instruments, directions and data collection time

frame.

5. Collect data and begin preparation of required spreadsheets and summary graphics.

6. Analyze data collected to determine the extent to which each goal/intended result has

been achieved.

7. Select program improvement strategies that will guide future program developmentefforts and will result in improved services/outcomes.

8. Prepare a nal report to guide decision makers and determine best strategies for the

report dissemination.

DSISD Program Review Process Introduction




Kelly Coffey DSMS Counselor

Kim Cousins DSHS Principal & DSISD Parent

Nannette Erickson WSES Parent

Shellie Foster DSISD Community Member

Tod Freeman DSMS/DSHS Parent

Sarah Freeman DSHS Student

Jennifer Godwin DSHS Parent

Kim Gravell DSHS Assistant Principal & DSISD Parent

Virginia Hassell DSES Parent

Erin Hays WSES Teacher

Dennis Lane RSES Parent

Andrea Lorenz DSHS Teacher

Chuck Rainey Director of Financial Services

Shelly Reeves DSISD Board of Trustees Member & ParentCindi Wade Technology Instructional Coordinator

Leslie Wallace RSES Teacher

Ramona Welch DSES Teacher

Dale Whitaker Communication Audit & Program Review Coordinator

Rhonda Whitman RSES Principal

Kent Willis WSES/DSMS Parent

Greg Jung Assistant Superintendent of C&I & Facilitator

Dr. Mard Herrick Superintendent & Facilitator

The Dripping Springs ISD believes that our continuous improvement philosophy is essential to

the future success of our students, programs, and the District. It is the dedicated volunteer service

of students, parents, community members and staff that allows us to conduct these program

reviews. We would like to acknowledge the members of the Communication Audit and Program

Review Committee for their hard work and dedicated service to the students of DSISD throughthis process.

Communications Audit & Program Review Committee Members




Communications Audit & Program Review

Executive Summary




Communication Program Vision

To explore and engage in effective communication that strengthens the partnership among schools

and the community to enhance an exemplary education for all students in Dripping Springs.

Communication Program Mission

We proactively foster clear, cohesive and meaningful two-way communication through a variety

of methods, reaching all segments of our growing community.

Communication Program Description

Communication permeates all levels of the school district and campuses and is evident in many

forms, such as teacher-parent conversations, presentations to local community groups, training

of staff, interaction with media, and posting of information on the district website. The purpose

of effective communication is to achieve understanding through clear and concise sharing of

information, responsiveness to feedback from stakeholders and outstanding customer service

Every individual and group that comes into contact with the school district is a target audience,

including but not limited to: students, parents, staff, Board members, residents, media, elected

ofcials, civic groups and alumni. Every employee at both the campus and district levels who

interacts with stakeholders must strive to communicate effectively. Improved communication

was identied as a component of the 2009 strategic plan. This program review will serve as the

communications audit that was recommended in the strategic plan and is another step in the

district’s ongoing commitment to continuous improvement.

Goals we hope to accomplish in this program review:

y Explore effectiveness of two-way communication ow and consider

recommendations for improvement.

y Examine consistency issues in manner and methods of communication district-

wide.

y Identify areas where customer service can be improved and develop ways for

accomplishing that.

y Identify current technology enhancements that can be used for timely and easily

accessible communication.

y Review communication with subgroups of our population to determine how they

can be better served.




Program History

Dripping Springs ISD values strong communication with members of the Dripping Springs

community, including parents and other district stakeholders. The priority of communication/

community service was clearly identied in the 2009 Strategic Plan. Two goals related to this

priority were:

y DSISD is committed to conveying information in a thoughtful, clear, and conciseway through multiple channels.

y DSISD is committed to responding to concerns and inquiries in a positive,

professional, and respectful manner in order to establish and fulll our commitment

to the community.

Following the completion of the strategic plan, district administration introduced several vehicles

for reaching the community. These included “Coffee with DSISD” events that joined parents

campus leaders, and district staff at various locations; “Fact or Fiction,” a publication addressing

rumors and providing accurate information; quarterly newsletters directed at the community andstaff; and a completely redesigned website.

The strategic plan also recommended a communications audit to help the district evaluate which

communication methods were most effective and how the overall approach could be improved.

This audit has been tied in with the cycle of program reviews the district conducts each year.

Another element in the strategic plan was creating a professional position to unify and guide

district communications. A District Information Ofcer joined the staff in August 2010 and has

moved forward with previously established programs, added new tools, and coordinated this

audit/program review. In addition to coordinating many of these communication methods, the

District Information Ofce serves as the point of contact for all media requests.




Program Data Collected and Reviewed

y Spring 2010 District survey – results on communication-related questions

y Spring 2010 District survey – open-ended comments (communication/customer

service)

y Website usage data y “Communications inventory” from each campus (principal interviews)

y Interviews with school district communications professionals (2 handouts)

y Parent survey – results

y Parent survey – open-ended comments

y Student survey – results

y Student survey – open-ended comments

y

Staff survey – results y Staff survey – open-ended comments

y Spanish-speaking parent survey – results

y Spanish-speaking parent survey – open-ended comments

y Focus group summary – Spanish-speaking parents

y Focus group summary– secondary parents

y Focus group summary – elementary parents

y District demographic data

y List of current district communication methods




Communication Audit & Program ReviewRecommendations, Goals & Strategies




Goal 1

To ensure consistency across the district for basic communications standards.

1. Simplify communication methods/tools between the district and its stakeholdersfor improved effectiveness.

y Inventory communication tools that currently are available for district use.

y Evaluate benets of each communication tool.

y Determine if any communication tools/methods can be combined or reduced.

y Inform parents and other stakeholders what communication tools/methods are used

by the district and how they can be accessed.

y Provide training for staff and parents on use of communication methods/tools as

needed.y Record training sessions to be used as on-line tutorials.

y Explore conversion to routine electronic dissemination of information (on-line

“folders”) for all campuses.

2. Train staff in customer-friendly techniques.

y Train campus front ofce personnel and Central Administration staff in professional

and positive meet-and-greet skills.

y Train staff on conict resolution communication strategies.

y Reinforce importance of e-mail etiquette to staff each year.

y Provide reliable and consistent talking points on key issues to front ofce staff for

use in responding to inquiries.

y Periodically share updates, reminders or suggested readings with staff.

3. Develop a minimum standard of communication expected of employees.

y Develop basic expectations for teacher and campus websites, including weekly

updates and standard elements.

y

Encourage teachers to make contact with parents on a regular basis via e-mail/Skyward messages, potentially reinforcing or linking to information posted on

teacher websites.

y Provide teachers with customizable template messages for use in parent e-mails.

y Require that certain pieces of information (position, campus, phone, e-mail) be

standard in all staff e-mail/Skyward messages.

Communication Audit & Program Review

Recommendations, Goals & Strategies Summary




y Re-train employees on tools available in FirstClass e-mail system such as inclusion

of original e-mail in replies and automatic spell-check.

y Reinforce clear and reasonable guidelines to staff regarding the return of phone calls

and e-mails.

Goal 2

To explore ways to use current technology including the DSISD website to promotesimple and effective ow of information between the district and the populations it

serves.

1. Implement on-line registration to improve communication efciency and accuracy

y Notify parents of registration procedures and timeline.

y Provide instruction to staff and parents.

y Accommodate special population segments (Spanish-speaking, non-Internet).

2. Improve the Notications section of the district website.

y Evaluate the existing categories for clarity, efciency, and consistency of use.

y Provide a description/denition for each category.

y Streamline categories and remove those not being used.

y Refresh training for designated staff to provide updates and maintain sections.

y Publicize the features and provide instruction to parents and other users.

3. Identify ways to make the district website more user-friendly.

y Conduct a usability study of the website to identify potential areas for

improvement.

y Implement a customizable “parent portal” in conjunction with the Skyward system.

y Create a general information page with denitions, contacts, and links to pertinent

resources.

y Simplify url addresses by adding re-directs to campus, teacher and program pages.

y Notify campuses of simplied url addresses.

4. Use technology tools to gather input from stakeholders on key issues affecting the

district.

y Investigate the creation of a “Hot Topics” section of the website where information

on major issues can be presented.

y Use e-mail or website to collect feedback on designated topics.

y Consider use of mini-surveys or polls on hot topics to gain immediate feedback.






y Invite eighth-graders to visit the high school in the spring and experience some of a

typical school day.

y Develop a checklist for students and parents to follow in preparation for upcoming

transitions.

4. Create a welcoming process that introduces new families to the district and its

communication methods in a positive way.

y Add a resource page on the website for families who are new to the district.

y Hold kindergarten parent orientation and building tour before the start of school,

possibly in combination with “Meet the Teacher” Night.

y Explore the possibility of offering a “boot camp” for new kindergarten parents.

y Inform new parents about district communication methods with a handout

summarizing available tools and by presenting information at orientation activities.

y Identify volunteers at various campuses/grade levels to serve as “family mentors”

for families who move into the district during the year.

y Develop an age-appropriate “New Student Guide” for students who move into

DSISD.

Goal 4

To explore new opportunities for partnerships and innovative communication

techniques.

1. Explore opportunities with social media networks and develop a presence on at

least one platform.

y Research other districts’ use of social media.

y Determine which platform(s) offer the best opportunity for use by DSISD.

y Develop a time frame for implementation and a plan to manage updates.

y Monitor new trends and adjust district use, as appropriate.

2. Develop partnerships with local businesses and community groups.

y Consider creation of a DSISD brochure for new and prospective families and

businesses sponsored by local business/organization.

y Develop a speaker/mentor bank. y Research local organizations whose goals and/or programs align with the district’s

mission to identify partnering opportunities




3. Initiate district participation in community events.

y Identify key community events at which to have a district presence (i.e., Founder’s

Day, Christmas on Mercer Street, Pound House Fall Festival, etc.).

y Increase frequency of performances (musical, service, etc.) by student groups from

all campuses (K-12) at events and local facilities, such as the Senior Center.

4. Increase communication and promote district/school events to the community.

y Redene and rejuvenate the Senior Citizens’ Gold Card program.

y Establish a method to disseminate information about major school events between

campuses.

y Explore ways to package events included on the website’s district-wide calendar

and make selections customizable to families.






yMonthly community newsletter “Inside DSISD”

y Placement of laminated newsletters at Senior Center, YMCA, Community Library

yMonthly staff newsletter “Campus Connections”

y Fact or Fiction (e-mailed and posted periodically upon submission of questions)

yAnnual stakeholders report (Sent to all registered voters and property owners)

yDistrict brochure (quick facts, overview of programs)

yWebsite news updates

yMessages through Skyward

y Skylert phone calls/e-mails for emergency info

y Special events highlighting district (MS & HS dedication)

y Publicity of campus events

y Sharing of photos, news releases, accomplishments with local media

y Sharing of news and recognitions with local websites (Drippin’ Things, DS Babble, Dripping SpringsLife)

yDevelopment of talking points on various topics or issues

y Nomination for awards, recognitions

y Points of Pride fact sheet

yDS Parent Dialogues – once-a-semester open-ended discussion with group of parents from all campuses

yDS Teacher Dialogues – once-a-semester open-ended discussion with group of teachers from all campuses

y “Coffee with DSISD” district-wide gatherings

y

Coffees with principals on all campuses y Speaking engagements at civic organizations, Chamber, realtors’ network, etc.

y Topical parent meetings as needed (GT, Special Ed, ACE, curriculum, etc.)

yDistrict-wide committees and teams (SHAC, review teams, Long-Range Facility Planning Team, DWEIC)

Inventory of Existing District Communication Methods and Tools




Campus Communications Review

CAMPUS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW--DSES

Do you use: YES NO

Printed newsletters from school with general updates _____ __ X __

Printed newsletters from PTA with general updates __ X __ _____

Routine email updates to parents – Skyward Message Center _____ __ X __

Email messages to parents for important announcements – Skyward __ X __ _____

“Notify Me” updates to email or phones (text) using district website ____ __ X __

Website updates under NEWS section of school homepage ____ __ X __

“Coffee with principal” type events __ X __ _____

Parent Advisory Council of some type (other than PTA) __ X __ _____

Printed letters to parents __ X __ _____

Other parent meetings/events (other than assemblies/performances):

General PTA meetings w/administration in attendance

Meet the Teacher (with general introduction to school)

Parent Orientation (with general introduction to school)

OTHER (PLEASE LIST):

“Mini meetings” in the parking lot daily!

What have been a few (2-4) of the most effective and well-received communication methods

you have used with your parents?

Donuts With Diane

Newsletter on website

Are there any communication initiatives your campus has implemented that you feel did NOT

work?

Parent information meeting for Title I (better when combined with other event)

Some PTA-sponsored parent trainings have low attendance

Are there ways district-level personnel could better support your communications?

No; having contact person (Communications) at Central Office is very helpful … and reassuring




CAMPUS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW-RSES

Do you use: YES NO

Printed newsletters from school with general updates __X__ _____

Printed newsletters from PTA with general updates __X__ _____

Routine email updates to parents – Skyward Message Center _____ __X__

Email messages to parents for important announcements – Skyward _____ __X__

“Notify Me” updates to email or phones (text) using district website _____ __X__

Website updates under NEWS section of school homepage _____ __ X_

(do update EVENTS)

“Coffee with principal” type events [6 times/year] __X__ _____

Parent Advisory Council of some type (other than PTA) __X__ _____

Printed letters to parents __X__ _____


With PTA, 2 family events on per semester

the “In and Outs of School”


Thursday on-line folder: have link emailed to parents through teacher lists, also provide hard

copies to those who request

What have been a few (2-4) of the most effective and well-received communication methods you

have used with your parents?

Principal’s newsletter

Thursday on-line folder (538 families; only 40 want hard copies)

Are there any communication initiatives your campus has implemented you feel did NOT work?

Relatively small turnouts for “Talk Time with Principal” and “In’s and Out of School” first year; the

principal still feels it is important to offer as these were started based on feedback from parents.

Are there ways district-level personnel could better support your communications? How?

Recommends going district-wide with on-line Thursday folder

Parent Advisory Council suggested on-line distribution of packets from Meet Teacher Night




CAMPUS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW--WSES

Do you use: YES NO

Printed newsletters from school with general updates _____ _X_

Printed newsletters from PTA with general updates __X_ _____

Routine email updates to parents – Skyward Message Center _____ __X_

Email messages to parents for important announcements – Skyward _X (rarely)

“Notify Me” updates to email or phones (text) using district website _____ __X__

Website updates under NEWS section of school homepage _X__ _____

“Coffee with principal” type events _X__ _____

Parent Advisory Council of some type (other than PTA) _____ __X_

Printed letters to parents _X__ _____


Spanish-speaking parent meeting (annual) & Spanish-speaking coffees

OTHER:

Principal copies PTA Exec Board on weekly updates that go to staff



PTA email blasts

Spanish-speaking parent meetings


work?

All reach different segments of population.

May be a good idea to have some evening coffee-type events for parents.


If district had a relationship with pastors around the city – providing emails regarding events, etc.

This would be especially effective for Spanish population.






CAMPUS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW- DSMS

Do you use: YES NO

Printed newsletters from school with general updates __X___ _____

Printed newsletters from PTA with general updates __X__ _____

Routine email updates to parents – Skyward Message Center __X___ _____

Email messages to parents for important announcements – Skyward __X___ _____

“Notify Me” updates to email or phones (text) using district website __X___ _____

Website updates under NEWS section of school homepage __X___ _____

“Coffee with principal” type events __X___ _____

Parent Advisory Council of some type (other than PTA) _____ __X__

Printed letters to parents __X___ _____

Other parent meetings/events (other than assemblies/performances)

Informational meetings such as “what parents need to know about alcohol & drugs”

Informational meeting on Big Decisions curriculum and sex education


“Notify Me” updates for parents who have requested this; don’t push it out.



Message Center mass email (limited use, not overused)

Website –each year parents use more, pass that on to others

Communication Guide


work?

Previously sent hard copy of newsletter sent home, but unsure if parents actually received it; sensewas that this was better when sent electronically (The Magnet)


Video person shooting campus events to post on campus website






Search Term Number of Searches

teachers 22

Think Central 22

troppy 22

blume 21

cheerleading 21

schedule 21

volleyball 21

Gardner 20

hanson 20

choir 18

destiny 18

family access 18

football tickets 18

"POSSIBLE STUDENT INFO REMOVED" 17

dunn 17

folsom 17handbook 17

koske 17

lunch 17

menu 17

raimond 17

clubs 16

course catalog 16

electives 16

kidzklub 16welch 16

calender 15

dress code 15

fredrick 15

kaatz 15

student handbook 15

athletics 14

dance 14

football games 14

high school football schedule 14

homework 14

lunch menu 14

yearbook 14

cheer 13

gifted and talented 13

haas 13




Search Term Number of Searches

love 13

meet the teacher 13

moodle 13

tiller 13

Botts 12

Bus 12

football roster 12

haydon 12

needham 12

paulamathews 12

pay scale 12

safari 12

safari montage 12

school calendar 12

summer projects 12

walsh 12

Subscriptions to Notify Me Categories

Category Number of Subscribers

Athletics 290

Community Newsletter 440

Curriculum & Instruction 365

DSHS Counselors 105

Employee Nocations 1RSES Thursday Folder 72




Subscriptions to News Flash Categories

Category Current Items Number of Subscribers

Curriculum & Instruction 1 295

DS Elementary Home Page 1 142

DSHS Counselors 0 73

DSHS Home Page 5 179

DSISD Athletics 2 208

DSISD District 11 82

DSISD Transportation 1 93

DSMS Home Page 7 206

Employee News 0 0

Rooster Springs Home Page 3 172

Walnut Springs Home Page 0 127

Subscriptions to Calendars

Category Current Items Number of Subscribers

Dripping Springs Elementary 46 0

Dripping Springs High School 139 108

Dripping Springs Middle School 158 0

DSHS Athletics 478 240

DSHS Counselors 7 69

DSHS Library 10 59

DSISD Community Ed 1 251

DSISD District Calendar 98 0Employee Calendar 0 0

Rooster Springs Elementary 189 0

Walnut Springs Elementary 139 1




Other School District Communication

Professionals Interview Summaries




Summary of Interviews with

School Communications Professionals

Conducted by Tod Freeman and Nannette Erickson/November 2010

Districts originally were identied based on overall reputation in the area of district communications and/or

ideas presented at previous TSPRA (Texas School Public Relations Association) workshops.

Communications Professionals who were interviewed:

Helen Williams, Director of Communications, Highland Park ISD

Tamerah Ringo, Director of Communications and Public Relations, Coppell ISD

Steve Stanford, Director of Communications, Katy ISD

Kari Hutchinson, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services, Comal ISD

Elaina Polsen, Director of Public Information, Clear Creek ISD

Size of Districts:

Coppell: 9,915 students; 840 teachers.

Katy: 60,000 students, 4,120 teachersHighland Park: 6,649 students; 400 teachers

Comal: 16,614 students; 1,098 teachers

Clear Creek: 37,472 students; 2,629 teachers

Mission Statements:

None of the schools have a distinct, ofcial communications mission statement that is separate from the district

mission.

Coppell: “The mission of the Coppell Independent School District, as a committed and proven leader in

educational excellence, is to ensure our learners achieve personal success, develop strong moral character,

and become dynamic leaders and global citizens with a zeal for service by engaging each individual through

innovative learning experiences led by a visionary staff and progressive community.”Highland Park: “With an unyielding commitment to excellence, will provide an exceptional academic

program that recognizes the unique potential of each student and integrates the intellectual, social, cultural,

and physical aspects of learning.” While informal in nature, the Communications Director shared some

communications ‘mottos’ they use: “Be bright, be brief, be gone,’ and “A steady diet of good news cures all

woes.”

Katy: “In partnership with parents and community, the Katy Independent School District, as a premier

district in the state of Texas, seeks academic excellence for each student to pursue a productive and fullling

life through a balanced curriculum aligned with quality instruction and assessment of achievement.”

Comal: “The mission of Comal Independent School District is to provide extensive learning opportunities

for all students to ensure they become contributing members of our society.”

Clear Creek: “The mission of the Clear Creek Independent School District, a diverse community unied by

a spirit of exploration and excellence, is to develop students who will lead the way to the future by educating

and equipping them with the skills necessary to excel in the 21st Century through a system characterized by

meaningful community relationships and a comprehensive curriculum facilitated by a highly qualied team

committed to Courage, Collaboration, Innovation, and Self-Direction.”




Do you have a separate communication plan in place or is it part of a strategic plan or district improvement

plan?

Coppell: Our communications plan is part of our district strategic plan, which is done every ve years.

However, everything we do in the district is about communications — whether it’s nance or curriculum,

bond campaigns or members of the media — it’s all touched by this ofce.

Highland Park: As required by law, we have a strategic plan every ve years; development is facilitated

by Cambridge Strategies out of Dallas. We initiated a “parent satisfaction survey,” but this wasn’t good on

tracking year to year, so we introduced an annual satisfaction survey at the end of the school year (past four

years). See: http://www.hpisd.org/Default.aspx?tabid=8942.Katy: The plan is at least 5 years old and outdates our new superintendent; they are due to work on an

updated plan.

Comal: Development of strategic plan is driven through reliable data compiled by the Superintendent’s

Cabinet. Communication is tied in the strategic plan.

Clear Creek: Provided a sample of the district’s recent communications plan. She stressed the importance

of measuring school/community needs.

What are some unique initiatives that your district has implemented to improve communication with parents?

Katy: They have completely moved to electronic communications and eliminated print publications. They use a system called “Constant Contact,” which provides instant metrics. For example,

they can instantly see not only the “click-through” rate, but also the open rate for emails. Each campus has

an eNews program. District-wide communications are mainly used for bond issues, and so forth. Katy still

prints a beginning-of-the-year packet (8 pages) that includes quick info, contacts, etc. that parents will need

during the year. They’ve consolidated all campus calendars to help with parents of children on different

campuses.

Coppell: They believe the most important vehicle for improving communications with parents (and staff)

is one-page e-newsletters. External e-newsletter goes out every Friday to about 15,000. The staff newsletter

goes out once a month. Last year, they started monthly Brown Bag Lunch public forums that are video-

taped and posted on the website (even offer shuttle service in a 15-passenger van to get to Admin building

due to parking limitations). They have cut down beginning-of-the-year paperwork to 5 pages; the rest isonline. Coppell has a “Key Communicators” group consisting of PTO presidents, board presidents, booster

club presidents, elected ofcials, civic boards, even the community college (open to people that serve in

leadership roles in the community) who get a key ring and a notebook at the beginning of the year, and then

twice a year attend a ‘State of the District” presentation led by the superintendent. The superintendent has

two e-newsletters – Supt.’s Scoop (to the community) and “Supe’s’ On” (staff).

Highland Park: They do a very popular FAQ on the district website that answers many of the recurring

questions the community asks. They also have a good weekly e-newsletter that is full of links, videos … a

great example of community- and faculty-generated content. This once was posted online, but because of

photos and privacy issues, it’s now subscription only.

Comal: “Hot News” is a weekly email to parents and community; system is updated every other year dur-

ing summer registration and with rst-day packet. “Parent Link” is automated program with phone and

email contact information that allows for specialized call lists (expensive).

Clear Creek: “Parent Portal”/”Google Dashboard” is available for all parents. Dashboard can be custom-

ized for each family. They can click on each child to get grades, lunch accounts, etc. Also, other important

information comes up pertaining to child’s school, participation in various activities.








Summary of Open-Ended Comments

Spring 2010 District Survey




SUMMARY OF COMMUNICATION RELATED QUESTIONS FROMSPRING 2010 DISTRICT SURVEY













Team members sorted through all responses on open-ended questions from the Spring 2010 parent survey to

identify patterns and compile suggestions that seemed to “bubble to the top.”

In addition to many suggestions for improvement, many respondents offered praise for various aspects of

district and school communications. Many of the open-ended comment simply stated “strong communication”

or something to that effect. Some key points that were noted include: yMany who made positive comments about communication noted improvement in the past year.

yMany commended new website.

yMany commended Skyward/Family Access.

y Parent-teacher communication is at the heart of perceptions regarding communications.

y Positive comments about friendliness of ofce staff and/or administrators.

yMany indicated they felt welcome at the school.

Several comments offered ideas for improvement at the school or district level (many overlapped). The

following summarizes key points that were made by multiple respondents: y Parents noted inconsistency among teachers regarding class webpages; those that were maintained and

complete are very much appreciated. Some items that parents desired were: info on students’ progress,

assignments, and upcoming tests.

y Parents shared importance of being alerted when a student is not doing well as soon as possible through

direct communication from teachers.

yWhile many respondents stated their appreciation for the district’s efforts to add new communications

methods, several stated they would still like to receive some printed information as opposed to putting

everything on-line. It seemed that this preference even came from people who DO have Internet access

The message seemed to be that a variety of communication methods was desired, including personal

contact.

yTransition years (especially to middle school) seem to be difcult for parents as the methods of

communication shift. They seem to lack a sense of preparedness (which reaches beyond the scope of

communication).

yA welcoming atmosphere at the school is very important to parents and some respondents did not feel

their campuses provided that.

y Some respondents shared their desire for more information on fundamental district information: mission,

goals, long-range plans.

yA desire for more “divorce-friendly” communication was noted.

y Some requested more opportunities for input on the front end of district decisions.

yThere seemed to be confusion by some regarding where to nd things on the website, how to be notied

of announcements, etc.

y Some respondents expressed a specic desire for more information on athletics (scores, schedules. etc.)

y Some respondents requested that announcements are made sooner (events, etc.)

y Some parents felt they lacked information about new programs. While this information is likely

available on the website, it may be difcult to nd.

SUMMARY OF OPEN-ENDED COMMENTS FROM SPRING 2010 SURVEY




Parent, Staff & Student Survey Summary




The Communications Program Review Team conducted a survey of parents, staff, and students as a part of the

review process. The committee determined the specic questions and response scales for student (Grades 3-12)

parent, and staff surveys. The survey was conducted online from November 2 through November 12, 2010. An

email announcing the survey was sent to all students, parents, and guardians in DSISD, posted to the Family

Access system, an announcement was also included in district and campus newsletters, and posted to the Student

Access System.

The committee received 1,160 responses to consider. The analysis and review of the survey results was an

important component of the program review. Each comment and suggestion made within the scope of the program

review was considered by the committee. The following graphs and comments are a summary of the responses

Open-ended comments appear as submitted, with the exception of redacted names when individual staff members

were identied. In addition, some comments that were completely unrelated to communications were removed

this occurred mostly in student surveys that referenced areas such as menus, extracurricular activities, etc.

Survey Results & Analysis

1

Count

Dripping Springs Elementary School 78

Rooster Springs Elementary School 117

Walnut Springs Elementary School 82

Dripping Springs Middle School 136

Dripping Springs High School 155

What school/s does/do your child/ren attend?

0

2040

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Dripping Springs

Elementary School

Rooster Springs

Elementary School

Walnut Springs

Elementary School

Dripping Springs

Middle School

Dripping Springs High

School


Parent Surveys, Fall 2010




2

Percent

<1 1.9%

0 2.5%

1 12.5%

2 12.5%

3 12.9%

4 10.9%

5 10.6%

6 6.1%

7 5.6%

8 4.0%

9 3.5%

10 4.4%

11 4.0%

12 2.9%

13 1.3%

14 1.5%

15 1.7%

16 0.2%

17 0.6%

21 0.2%

23 0.2%

How many years have you had a child attend Dripping Springs schools?

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

<1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 21 23




3

Count Percent

5‐Very 274 57.4%

4‐Above Average 127 26.6%

3‐Average 55 11.5%

2‐Below Average 8 1.7%

1‐Not at All 1 0.2%

No opinion/Don't know 12 2.5%

Average Rating 4.43

How courteous and helpful is the front office staff at your child's school?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

5‐Very 4‐Above Average 3‐Average 2‐Below Average 1‐Not at All No opinion/Don't

know

4

Count Percent5‐Very 201 42.14%


3‐Average 55 11.53%




Average Rating 4.21

How courteous and helpful are the administrators at your child's school?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%


know




5

Count Percent

5‐Very 52 10.9%


3‐Average 142 29.8%




Average Rating 3.84

How comfortable are you sharing ideas and concerns at your child's campus?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%


know

6

Count Percent

5‐Very 345 72.2%


3‐Average 40 8.4%




Average Rating 4.59

How helpful would it be if there was on‐line registration that eliminated paper forms at the beginning of the year?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%


know




7How often do you get teacher communications about academic progress or classroom events from the following sources?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

5‐Frequently 4‐Regularly 3‐Sometimes 2‐Seldom 1‐Never Don't Know

Email Percent

5‐Frequently 40.8%

4‐Regularly 28.4%

3‐Sometimes 15.6%

2‐Seldom 10.3%

1‐Never 4.6%

Don't Know 0.2%

Average Rating

Skyward Message Center Percent


4‐Regularly 17.2%

3‐Sometimes 16.0%

2‐Seldom 12.5%

1‐Never 15.3%

Don't Know 9.9%

Average Rating

Website Percent


4‐Regularly 16.7%

3‐Sometimes 22.9%

2‐Seldom 18.4%

1‐Never 19.8%

Don't Know 4.4%

Average Rating

Hard Copies Percent


4‐Regularly 17.1%

3‐Sometimes 22.5%

2‐Seldom 19.2%

1‐Never 15.8%

'

3.91

3.36

2.94

.

Average Rating

3.14




Phone Percent

5‐Frequently 2.4%

4‐Regularly 5.0%

3‐Sometimes 10.0%

2‐Seldom 29.4%

1‐Never 51.7%

Don't Know 1.5%

Average Rating

Conferences Percent

5‐Frequently 4.8%

4‐Regularly 12.9%

3‐Sometimes 28.2%

2‐Seldom 23.4%

1‐Never 28.4%

Don't Know 2.4%

Average Rating

1.75

2.41




8How often do you get school communications about campus program or events from the following sources?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%


Email Percent


4‐Regularly 25.1%

3‐Sometimes 17.8%

2‐Seldom 11.5%

1‐Never 8.3%

Don't Know 1.1%

Average Rating



4‐Regularly 14.9%

3‐Sometimes 18.0%

2‐Seldom 17.5%

1‐Never 20.8%

Don't

Know 10.5%

Average Rating

Website Percent


4‐Regularly 19.3%

3‐Sometimes 25.3%

2‐Seldom 16.2%

1‐Never 15.5%

Don't Know 4.7%

Average Rating

Hard Copies Percent


4‐Regularly 17.6%

3‐Sometimes 19.6%

2‐Seldom 20.4%

1‐Never 15.9%

'

3.7

2.91

3.11

.

Average Rating

3.15




Marquee Percent


4‐Regularly 12.9%

3‐Sometimes 20.4%

2‐Seldom 21.8%

1‐Never 24.7%

Don't Know 8.9%

Average Rating

Newspaper Percent

5‐Frequently 1.8%

4‐Regularly 3.8%

3‐Sometimes 9.1%

2‐Seldom 17.7%

1‐Never 57.4%

Don't Know 10.4%

Average Rating

Neighbors/friends Percent

5‐Frequently 7.2%

4‐Regularly 11.2%

3‐Sometimes 27.8%

2‐Seldom 28.9%

1‐Never 21.9%

Don't Know 3.1%

Average Rating

2.61

1.6

2.51




9 How often to you get information about the district as a whole from the following sources?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

50.0%


Email Percent


4‐Regularly 17.5%

3‐Sometimes 22.7%

2‐Seldom 22.3%

1‐Never 17.1%

Don't Know 3.7%

Average Rating



4‐Regularly 10.6%

3‐Sometimes 19.5%

2‐Seldom 20.8%

1‐Never 26.6%

Don't Know 10.6%

Average Rating

Website Percent5‐Frequently 13.0%

4‐Regularly 21.4%

3‐Sometimes 28.2%

2‐Seldom 17.8%

1‐Never 14.8%

Don't Know 4.9%

Average Rating

Hard Copies Percent

5‐Frequently 5.3%

4‐Regularly 12.1%

3‐Sometimes 20.8%

2‐Seldom 27.8%

1‐Never 30.2%

'

2.94

2.55

3

.

Average Rating

2.32




Marquee Percent

5‐Frequently 2.2%

4‐Regularly 4.7%

3‐Sometimes 13.0%

2‐Seldom 26.1%

1‐Never 44.6%

Don't Know 9.4%

Average Rating

Newspaper Percent

5‐Frequently 2.5%

4‐Regularly 3.8%

3‐Sometimes 12.3%

2‐Seldom 20.6%

1‐Never 51.7%

Don't Know 9.2%

Average Rating

Neighbors/friends Percent

5‐Frequently 2.9%

4‐Regularly 10.5%

3‐Sometimes 25.6%

2‐Seldom 30.1%

1‐Never 27.6%

Don't Know 3.3%

Average Rating

1.83

1.73

2.29




10

Percent


4‐Regularly 30.3%

3‐

Sometimes 22.5%2‐Seldom 9.9%

1‐Never 2.1%

No Opinion/Don't Know 0.2%

Average Rating 3.87

How often does your child share information with you about classroom/school activities?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

5‐Frequently 4‐Regularly 3‐Sometimes 2‐Seldom 1‐Never No Opinion/Don't

Know

11

Percent

5‐Superior 24.6%

4‐Above Average 37.4%

3‐Average 24.0%

2‐Below Average 9.5%

1‐Unsatisfactory 2.9%


Average Rating 3.72

How would you rate the quality of communications between yourself and your child's teacher(s)?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

5‐Superior 4‐Above Average 3‐Average 2‐Below Average 1‐Unsatisfactory No Opinion/Don't

Know




12

Percent

5‐Superior 22.4%


3‐

Average 20.8%2‐Below Average 8.6%



Average Rating

How well do you feel concerns are followed through upon?

3.7

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%


Know

13

Respondent Percentage

Email 96.9%Skyward Message Center 44.9%

Website 38.4%

Letters (hard copy) 29.0%

Text messages 17.1%

Marquee 9.0%

Social media (if available) 8.8%

Newspaper 4.0%

How would you prefer to get information from the school and district? (You may select more than one answer.)

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%

100.0%

120.0%

Email Skyward Message

Center

Website Letters (hard copy)

Text messages Marquee Social media (if available)

Newspaper




14

Percent

School Board member 0.2%

Principal 2.1%

Assistant Principal 1.3%

Superintendent 0.2%

Someone in the administration offices 1.5%

Teacher 94.8%

Who would you go to first if you had a concern about something in your child's classroom?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

School Board member

Principal Assistant Principal Superintendent Someone in the administration

offices

Teacher




Open-ended comments appear as submitted, with the exception of redacted names when individual staff

members were identied. In addition, some comments that were completely unrelated to communications

were removed; this occurred mostly in student surveys that referenced areas such as menus, extracurricular

activities, etc.

15. What do you think we could do differently at the district or school level to improve communications

with parents?

Dripping Springs Elementary Responses-Our son just started kindergarten, so we don’t have a lot of experience with the district. I know that everyone

we have come in to contact with at the school has been very helpful. His teacher is great and has helped our

child with some social problems. She kept us aware of what was going on and we worked together to help

remedy the situation. It was a very positive experience for us overall! I do look on the website all the time. I

guess my one recommendation would be to keep the calendars more current. I rely on them a bunch. Thanks!

-More mass emails and texts

-More email for school wide and district wide events - we would participate in more MS and HS events if we

knew about them!

-Give the teachers enough time in the morning to address their emails that might have been sent the night

before. Often, I send an email to [teacher name redacted] and no action is taken till the end of the school day

when it’s too late to send something home or speak to my child. Sometime our concerns are are addressed

many days later.

-Utilize more email that pushes people to the web for more information. Print less physical handouts. If

parents have an issue or want to give praise about a teacher, provide a mechanism to do so. In general,

teachers at DSES do an incredible job at keeping parents updated through weekly newsletters, the Thurs.

take-home folders, and their websites.

-It’s really pretty good. The transportation department could be better about posting or otherwise

publishing routes and times at the beginning of the year and as they change. DSES is excellent with their

communications and interaction with parents. Seems to be lots of concern for students and support from both

faculty and administration. Kudos to them.

-Enact some design guidelines, create all forms and documents using those standards, enforce version control

of those documents, and utilize electronic communication when possible. I currently get a hodge podge of

communication in various formats and from various sources which creates confusion around the importance,

relevance, or clarity of the content. Consider communication a vital part of the DSISD brand. Get some

professional marketing assistance.

-More emails

-As my son is on PPCD and Bilingual PRE-K we would like to schedule more conferences meeting with the

teacher, ST and OT.

-As a new family to Dripping and its school, I feel a lot is taken for granted on communication or recurringevents at the schools. More often than not, I feel surprised by events or volunteer opportunities, albeit

attending several PTA meetings a year and going to the website frequently.

-Make it easier to apply for grades on-line. It’s an on-line function that you have to submit paper work and go

to the school to get access to.

-Have more frequent opportunities to talk with the teachers




-I would like to feel less like I am bothering the teacher when I have an issue I would like to discuss. The

conference times are very short and can be unsatisfactory if one has concerns. I would like to be encouraged

to email the teacher for regular updates about classroom performance without feeling like I am adding to

her already overloaded schedule. Also, I am not sure who I should speak with about different issues. A list

outlining who would be the best contact for various issues would be great - eg. problem with bullying -

teacher rst then school counselor?; issue with the bus or with parent pick-up - who do I call?, do we need

to send a note for absences if we have emailed the teacher and copied the front ofce person in charge of

attendance? Concerns about learning disabilities - what are the resources? That sort of thing.

-Communication is lacking regarding ‘bigger picture items’ for example: How the cafeteria/food service

works, improvements and goals. What are the goals of the school, measurable, steps being taken. How is

curriculum decided, and why......for example: when I recall elementary school, we started at 8:30, had PE and

recess everyday, along with music and art a couple of times a week. End of school day was around 3...and we

were ‘high ranking school’...far majority of children went on to highly ‘nationally recognized’ competitive

private schools (scholarships or advance placement type public schools) starting in 6th grade. What’s

different? Now longer school days, less physical activity.....

-Update electronic calendar (timely!)

-I am happy with the present communications. The teachers have been great about weekly class newsletters

via email. (I don’t know what Skyward is - guess we don’t use it?)

-There are some communications that I was pleased to get from the district via text message, esp when the

school closed early due to snow. I like when teachers send emails concerning weekly/monthly newsletters or

list of the weeks work and spelling words. There are times such as when this information contains spelling

words for the younger grades that a hard copy is much easier to have and refer to to assist my children with

their homework. There are still some teachers that do not use email regularly which makes it strange when

you are used to communicating that way. I’m glad that a note to the teacher or the parent in the student’s

binder always seems to work.

-At the school level I am very satied with the quality of the staff and the information provided. I have no

trust in the DSISD transportation staff in providing information or having any concerns about my childs safety

while in their care.

-Create a classroom calendar with key dates by subject (e.g. when reports cards come out, fall fair, donuts

with dad, etc...) Send home a form at the beginning of the year that allows parents to opt out of all the

paperwork that is sent home if they include an email address. Send out the updated calendar every six weeks

or so and email reminders as needed. For events that required more detail than the calendar can provide (e.g.

data, time, subject) have the detail information available on the website & links embedded in the calendar and

reminder emails. To create the calendar, one version should be made early on at the campus level. Then that

version is passed down to the schools and updated. Then it is passed down to the grades and updated. Then

passed down to the classrooms and updated. This can all be done in MS Excel or Google spreadsheets (which

are free & don’t require a license). Thanks for everything you do! I’ll be happy to help anyway possible -

[contact info redacted]

-Overall the communication process between staff and parents seem to be working well.

-Emails are great and hard copies are great. When it comes to scheduling events give more notice and think

about working parents schedules.

-Provide documentation/paperwork support to teachers so teachers can focus more and more of their efforts

on addressing the various learning needs of their students (more individual attention for struggling learners

and more challenges for easily bored learners (time for more communication with family members regarding

these issues should ow out of the time freed up with regard to documentation/paperwork.




-Meet the teacher night before school starts needs to be about meeting the teacher and learning what

will happen in the classroom, not about lling out forms. Also, parents that are new to the school or new

kindergarten parents should be offered an orientation session either before school starts or during the rst

week of school.

-less paper copies

-Streamline the method for campus and district communications. An automated email alert for district

messages posted to Skyward or the website would be helpful. Skyward is great for monitoring individual

grades and progress.-I would love to know how to help my child more at home but it is hard when the parents are clueless about

what is going on in the class. I love her teacher, don’t get me wrong but she has 19 kids to keep up with and

that is to many. Think central is at this time not taking my childs codes and I have emailed the Teacher for

help. I feel like the parents have to be several steeps ahead of what they are doing in class just to keep up.

Extra updates on how my child is doing. I need to know ASAP if she is falling behind on something.

-Less paper (doesn’t always make it home with student), more information via electronic means. I am already

very happy with the communication at my school, but I am also a very involved parent who volunteers in the

classroom and gets to know the teachers and administrators.

-Use small, focesed parent groups to help develop, vet, and implement communication procedures at all levels

and venues.

-Eliminate the paper!

-I think things are working well as is. Text messages would be helpful because I would see those immediately

and they stay easily accessible. I don’t really want more emails because they get lost in the mix. I am not

consistent about checking for news on websites.

-Use all forms of communications to pass information that are appropriate for the grade level. I.E. elementary

works well with e-mail and hard copy but not so much with website whereas we need more hands on time

with the kids, middle school and high school does not work well for hard copy so email, text, and even some

website is useful. I love the high school PTA’s weekly blast even though I don’t have a child in high school

yet. Don’t use only one form or very little info gets out. Thanks for asking.

-#4. DSES courteous and helpful, DSHS courteous, helpful, but have had less experience at this point. #6.

Better yet, no paperwork if nothing has changed. Think about 16 packets lled out when nothing but a

phone number has been added. #12. Each year is different with different teachers. In the past, I have felt like

sincerely having a concern isn’t enough, one has to become a sqeaky wheel, and I don’t have that kind of

time. #14. I would have my child address the issue if possible with the teacher, then I will follow up if my

child feels like their concerns were not addressed.

-I would like more consistency with teacher communications - weekly newsletters with important dates & etc.

It varies greatly by teacher.

-First, it is hard to answer these questions when I have children at two different schools - I think the schools

are different in many areas (middle school tends to use more family access/email where the elementary schooluses more papers home - I really prefer family access/email.

-I tend to only receive missing assignment notices from the Math teacher in the middle school, it would be

great if all the teachers would use the same alert system to notify parents when their child has missed an

assignment. I am ranking here as a consolidated result from two campuses, the elementary campus does a

better job of communicating with us then the middle school who we rarely hear from unless something is

wrong. I would say by far the elementary campuses tend to have closer communication with parents than the

middle and high school campuses.




-Elementary school I have great communication with the adminstration and the teachers. If something comes

up, we address that day either directly with the teacher in person or via e-mail. At the middle school, I haven’t

spoken with a teacher, but rely on skyward. I did ask one question about my daughter being counted absent

when she went to the nurse and received a very curt reply that didn’t answer my question at all. However, I

will not ask any questions to the [name redacted], but seek to get my questions answered elsewhere to avoid

the rudeness. I like the district website. There is so much on there, we need a parent orientation on where

to nd information on it and all its wonderful features. The Marquee is wonderful for events, even if other

campuses are hosting them. The red ribbon parent education would be great on a marquee to invite the entire

community. I think the district should get with the PTA and publicize more on what is going on at the districtlevel, with other campuses, and improvements that are being made. Thank you taking the time to do the

survey! Good Luck!

-The ID thing at the front desk, when the front desk knows us and our child is still ridiculous. I will always

nd that offensive after volunteering all these years. The ability to treat us parents as a know community

seems like a reasonable request. I think [administrator name redacted] does not understand that we are a small

community that likes to be friendly. [] belongs in a larger school district. He does not communicate with us

well or reect the majority of the people that live out here, values.

-Make teacher website’s updates mandatory for all teachers and updated by Monday morning. Put a weekly

update on each campus’s webpage. Put more details on calendar items. Try to use email more and less paper at

the option of the parent.

-Have meetings in the evening instead of during working hours.

-Doing a ne job, especially since Skyward started to identify which of my children were the subject of the

email. If the beginning of year papers could be saved digitally for use in the following years, that would be

my only request.


with parents?

Dripping Springs High School Responses

-#4. DSES courteous and helpful, DSHS courteous, helpful, but have had less experience at this point. #6.

Better yet, no paperwork if nothing has changed. Think about 16 packets lled out when nothing but a phone number has been added. #12. Each year is different with different teachers. In the past, I have felt like

sincerely having a concern isn’t enough, one has to become a sqeaky wheel, and I don’t have that kind of

time. #14. I would have my child address the issue if possible with the teacher, then I will follow up if my

child feels like their concerns were not addressed.



my only request.

-Compile a district list-serve of parent e-mail addresses.

-Personal emails are always great....lets the parents know they are making a ‘personal’ effort to communicate

and not just a mass email or such.

-Encourage teachers to communicate regularly with parents so that parents would feel comfortable

approaching them with issues or concerns.

-Fix reporting of grades on Skyward such that there is an accurate record of whether a particular assignment/

quiz/test is missing or has not been recorded yet

-nothing.. Its all perfect




-Make twitter/text available for grades/assignment updates. Some teachers need to post grades faster.

-Put the school newspaper on the Web-site, including student blogs and forums. That would give parents more

insight into what the students are discussing.

-I am very satied with the level of communication I have with the staff and teachers. Family Access is a

great way to keep informed and I have received prompt replies to my emails. The only suggestion I would

have is that enough hard copy, new student manuals be on hand at the beginning of the school year... Online

downloadable manuals are ne for folks that have high speed internet, but are not workable for those of us

who are on dial up. Maybe a one page handout of these two issues could be available.-I think communication with parents is ne. Because there are lots of different venues to communicate

everyone has access to that information.

-be more accessible. teachers shouldn’t say ‘I meant to call you last week.’ when there is a problem with

student.

-Satised

-I use Family Access weekly.I would suggest that you discuss with the teachers how they can more easily or

willingly use the emails with families or the Message Ctr. Few do regularly. They probably don’t feel they

have the time and don’t believe anyone is reading. I communicate by email with my child’s teachers directly

when I have a concern and have always had very good response from each of them including my son’s

counselor. I nd [name redacted] pretentious and unapproachable. Would not go to the administrators unless I

had a serious problem. Ofce staff at the HS has always been very courteous and helpful.

-I emailed all my daughters teachers at the beginning of the year about her strengths & weaknesses due to her

dyslexia and got responses from 2. I have sent direct questions to 2 teachers and didn’t get a responce at all.

Some teachers seem very open to communicate, others don’t seem to have the time.

-I think the district is trying. I am one of a few parents in my circle of friends that actually go to the website

to sign up for the alerts read the alerts even if they don’t apply to me/my child. Heard that high school

announcements would be on website, but haven’t seen those yet.

-Nothing. If you communicated more, I wouldn’t be able to keep up. It could diminish the urgency from the

necessary messages being sent. Thanks for everything you all are doing!-Have all teachers send emails about content, homework and events for the week through emails to all their

parents.

-Update on family access is totally hit or miss. Some teachers update info there consistently, others never.

-Send emails regarding volunteer opportunities for our kids. Email would be the best form of communication

for district events.

-Nothing. I think the communication channels are operating effectively. I really like the superintendent’s true/

false letter that he puts out. It’s good open, honest communication.

-Teachers need to be more consistent updating their website of lesson plans for the week.

-Love the idea of text alerts. I don’t go to the website unless I am specically looking for something. The e-mail newsletters are great too!

-I think communication between parents/school is overall quite effective, however, I do not feel this is true for

the PayPam portion of the school administrative functions. Having had an issue with an error in this system

regarding an incorrect charge for a meal, I was not really pleased with the efforts I put in and the results I got -

basically no response on the part of the school in spite of multiple calls. Phone calls should be returned.




-more email

-complicated

-moving in the right direction with e-mail notications, that’s more consistent than paper(hard copy) of items.

Question #14 should have listed school counselor as an option. That is who we have turned to when there’s

been any issue in the classroom.

-Have a communications page on the school website. There are issues that I’d like to discuss and I would feel

more comfortable communicating in writing than in person.

-the school has gotten to big and has lost the interaction with the parents. It seems the teachers are not willing

to be in touch with the parents. With the exception of a few teachers.

-[counselor name redacted] does an awesome job of communicating effectively, positively and getting back to

parents in a timely manner. I think the school as a whole does a good job. There are some teachers that could

use some help in this area.

-Be open to parent concerns. The frequent answers given is ‘it is campus/district policy’ Teachers and

administrators do not appear to understand the rationale for what they do. Listening to parents could open up

room for needed policy changes

-anything would be an improvement

-More information posted on Website,

-Fix Skyward so the teachers get their messages.

-I have received emails from [teacher name redacted]; I have never received any other email from any 9th

grade teacher. The only thing I know about what is going on at the high school is from my child...

-Treat parents with more respect - actually listen to the concerns before a decision is made.

-Weekly communication emails with that weeks agenda from each teacher. A few of the teachers do that now

and it is very helpful. I am able to put the test and such on my calendar at work and keep up with my child’s

assignments.

-I think for the most part, the school and district is making information available to parents.

-Incent teachers to keep skyward up to date. Ask teachers to reach out to parents and schedule parent

conferences. Ask counselors to be more active in the students’ lives. Ask counselors to be more active in

scheduling and conducting meaningful parent conferences. I can deduce from question 14 that some parents

are ‘going all the way to the top’ if there is an issue in a classroom. Short of felony criminal activity I think

there should be a well established chain of command and well documented processes that should be followed

and it should start with an option that isn’t even listed, such as ‘have your student talk to the teacher about the

issue.’ If that doesn’t resolve it have a documented escalation process in place.

-PLEASE make teachers input grades and project/test info. into skyward more frequently. Often my 2 boys

grades/assignments show as missing or zeros due to teachers being permitted up to 10 working days to input

grades. This puts me behind the 8-ball when confronting them in a timely manner about making up poor or

missing assignments and grades... I am contacting teachers, but often don’t get clear or accurate responses.

-The communication has been great.

-I think the High School does a very good job overall. I did like the Fact or Fiction Email newsletter. Bring it

back please. Also, I would appreicate better communications for the School board; outbound communication.

It feels like they prefer to hide and work behind the scenes, but we all have to live with their decisions. I’ve

never see an opportunity to provide input.

-Improve district and school websites. The DSISD website is not user friendly.




-Include text messaging.

-All teachers should keep their wbsites updated weekly.

-When a parent has what is a ‘real’ concern to them, please don’t push them off with ‘we can’t discuss

that now’ or ‘you need to wait till next year.’ There is no reason that most questions can’t be answered

immediately.

-LESS PAPER...it’s such a waste. Email or phone calls.

-I think they do a ne job with the emails.

-improve skyward grading system, in being consistent. Different teachers do not add any grades until the term

is about to end and some enter in false grades, which then is a big surprise at the end of the term, when the

system is down until the reporting period has ended. When asking of teachers of this, they get very annoyed.

This is unfair for the parents and the students. Improve communication/consistency, and fairness. Some

teachers are very hands on and others do not seem like they care.

-I think you are already doing an outstanding job!!

-Make sure reports on students’ work are up to date.

-1. Just Communicate. Even just a short mass email once every other week from teachers regarding how

things are going would be helpful. I have received... well...no communication regarding my child and his

progress (even though he failed at one IPR) from any of his 6 academic or 1 extracurricular teachers. AmI to assume that no communication is GOOD communication-because I haven’t heard anything, nothing is

wrong? When I know this not to be the case. In order not to be a ‘helicopter parent’ I would like to not have

to ‘hound’ my child for a status update regarding problem areas. 2. On that same vein, please don’t approach

conversations and communication as though I am (or a parent is) about to complain about something you’ve

done and summarily get defensive-More often, personally, I’m concerned that my child needs to apply

himself, or does not understand the expectation, and just need to check in to see that he’s doing his part. ...and

by the way, to teachers: thanks for ALL that you DO for our kids! Your very hard and demanding work is

NOT unappreciated! :-)

-Meet the teacher night is a joke - no time to talk to a teacher, information given is supercial. Would like to

get evaluation of my child as a student in each class in the middle and end of the semester.-Have classroom teachers actually communicate with parents via telephone or email.

-Have teachers actually communicate with the parent if child is starting to fail or work is not getting turned in

and come up with plan with the child especially IF THEY ARE SPECIAL EDUCATION.

-Require teachers to return emails. Have teachers send a weekly email with assignments due, classroom

activity, etc.

-It would be good if all teachers could communicate concerns with parents by email or phone.

-I think communication is handled well right now.

-HS so far has been above average. MS below average and I am not at all pleased with some teachers. Some

are arrogant and not helpful... HS quite different. Principal easy to access and super fast, courteous replies.

-There is always room to improve. I am very happy with out teachers and administrators overall. Skyward and

emails is a great communication vehicle. Thank you,

-Teachers are the best rst line of communication, but only some teachers actively send out email updates to

parents or even bother to post anything current on their websites. Some teacher websites still have last school

year’s information posted, and some only post the beginning of school information. I like to be able to check

online about what’s going on in the classroom - homework and due dates, test schedules, etc. That is the only

way parents can help verify that their kids are on track.




-In Skyward, set the reply-to email eld to be the sending teacher’s email address, so that we can reply

directly to the teacher. Also, automatically include a direct link to the teacher’s website in the signature of

every teacher’s email. Many of them just say ‘check the classroom website’ and I don’t want to go rooting

through the website to nd it. One click to get there would be very helpful and easy.

-I think the communication is pretty good at this school district. At this time, I think the methods that are

being utilized do an adequate job to keep us informed.

-Every teacher post all handouts on webpage with explanation notes to help parents help children with missing

assignments, homework, or absent days make up work, etc. Post weekly schedule of assignments on webpage.Many times an assignment is only mentioned to the student, the student does not understand, they ask the

parent to help or dont mention it at all, then its a day late even if they have to go back to class to ask for help,

it’s still late. Grades are effected when late, even though they just didnt understand what to do to even get

started.

-Consistency of emails. I dont want to have to login to a site to nd out whats going on. Emails are the most

convenient, but allow for multiple email accounts. Some teachers send things almost daily and some I have

never received any communications from.

-Make sure all the teachers use their websites to inform parents what is going on in the class, so the kids can

access that for any info they need. Some teachers don’t post anything on their website.

-It would be great for email to communicate to us as well as each school. We have had numberous occassionswhere one school was hosting an event and the other school did to. We have to split our time in order to make

both. I know it is probably a nightmare to get all schools to communicate and set times, but it would be nice

for families with more than one child.

-Make it mandatory that each teacher have the same basic info on their webpages (standardize them)...they

vary incredibly from helpful to no help at all. Athletics provide very little information, except when parents

ask for more. They rely only on kids to get messages to parents. They need to e-mail parents similar to what

the band does.



my only request.

-It would be good if all teachers could communicate concerns with parents by email or phone.

-I think communication is handled well right now.

-HS so far has been above average. MS below average and I am not at all pleased with some teachers. Some

are arrogant and not helpful... HS quite different. Principal easy to access and super fast, courteous replies.

-There is always room to improve. I am very happy with out teachers and administrators overall. Skyward and

emails is a great communication vehicle. Thank you,

-Teachers are the best rst line of communication, but only some teachers actively send out email updates to

parents or even bother to post anything current on their websites. Some teacher websites still have last school

year’s information posted, and some only post the beginning of school information. I like to be able to checkonline about what’s going on in the classroom - homework and due dates, test schedules, etc. That is the only

way parents can help verify that their kids are on track.

-In Skyward, set the reply-to email eld to be the sending teacher’s email address, so that we can reply

directly to the teacher. Also, automatically include a direct link to the teacher’s website in the signature of

every teacher’s email. Many of them just say ‘check the classroom website’ and I don’t want to go rooting

through the website to nd it. One click to get there would be very helpful and easy.




-I think the communication is pretty good at this school district. At this time, I think the methods that are

being utilized do an adequate job to keep us informed.

-Every teacher post all handouts on webpage with explanation notes to help parents help children with missing

assignments, homework, or absent days make up work, etc. Post weekly schedule of assignments on webpage.

Many times an assignment is only mentioned to the student, the student does not understand, they ask the

parent to help or dont mention it at all, then its a day late even if they have to go back to class to ask for help,

it’s still late. Grades are effected when late, even though they just didnt understand what to do to even get

started.

-Consistency of emails. I dont want to have to login to a site to nd out whats going on. Emails are the most

convenient, but allow for multiple email accounts. Some teachers send things almost daily and some I have

never received any communications from.

-Make sure all the teachers use their websites to inform parents what is going on in the class, so the kids can

access that for any info they need. Some teachers don’t post anything on their website.

-It would be great for email to communicate to us as well as each school. We have had numberous occassions

where one school was hosting an event and the other school did to. We have to split our time in order to make

both. I know it is probably a nightmare to get all schools to communicate and set times, but it would be nice

for families with more than one child.

-Make it mandatory that each teacher have the same basic info on their webpages (standardize them)...theyvary incredibly from helpful to no help at all. Athletics provide very little information, except when parents

ask for more. They rely only on kids to get messages to parents. They need to e-mail parents similar to what

the band does.

-The moment there is any type of issue the parents should be contacted - by phone, home/cell and e-mailed

with a request for a return reply to ensure proper contact was made and questions answered / discussed etc....

-High school and middle school teachers - keep websites current with assignments/homework

-Just right

-I think all schools should communicate the same. It would be hard to keep up with how each school will

communicate.

-I think you’re doing a fabulous job at keeping parents informed from kindergarten thru high school. I have no

complaints.





with parents?

Dripping Springs Middle School Responses

-email prompts in advance of 24 hrs notice, would be helpful kids don’t share the details

-The communication with the school is ne - up through the principals, even. However, some decisions appear

to be made ‘at the district’ with little ownership of the teachers/school, and those are dead ends. The district

is not responsive to parents as a group at all - implementing nals week at the middle school with no advance

warning, announcing yet another standardized tests for all 8th graders just one week before - again, with noknown input or opportunity to discuss with parents why/why not.

-Just because the kids are in middle school, doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear from the teachers, have

conferences, or at least SOME sort of feedback about our children from the teachers. I want to know more

about what goes on in class, etc.

-I really like the skyward communications. They are very helpful. I never get hard copies, nor do I remember

to check the website. Thanks.

-Email and phone calls for me are the best communication. Having teacher’s websites available is also great

but all of the teachers don’t use it.

-All teachers should maintain a website, and answer my email when my child is out ill. I get very angry whenignored! Some teachers are great about that!

-For the most part, I like the level of communication. There are logistics I think are time/energy sinks. Like, at

registration for incoming students, giving us the website to register for transportation. Then when we go home

and access the website, we have to take the form back to the school. Having the forms available at registration

would be much more streamlined. There was lots of unnecessary paper there that could have been used for

these forms. Also, that new students did not get maps unless they were 6th graders. What’s with that? They

were all new students to that facility. A visual would have been helpful.

-1) Use multiple channels for the same message. 2) Don’t send e-mails from ‘Sky-Admin’ that I can’t reply to

and don’t have a clickable link to reply to- I have to type in teacher e-mail address every time or go through

multiple steps to get it off the website. 3) Use facebook and Twitter 4) Communication is two-way: indicatesomehow that you hear concerns and feedback and what you are doing about problems.

-Make web page user friendly. Often nd myself having to search entire website to get to information I’m

needing.

-update teacher/admin pages daily

-There are plenty of options already offered that are satisfactory

-I think skyward family access should be stressed more at the elementary level. I was a little bit unprepared

for how comprehensive this form of communication would be moving into middle school. I would also like to

see a parent conference during the rst 9 weeks of sixth grade.

-Start communicating. When you tell us at the beginning of every year that the week’s assignments will be posted on your website, POST THEM.

-Better communication would be a start. And by that I mean any communication at all. Some teachers are

excellent at communicating. Some teachers don’t communicate at all. There is no happy medium. They either

do it or they don’t. Very frustrating.

-The new principal and assistant principals have made a tremendous improvement at the middle school.




-Have the teachers keep parents updated with email and Skyward postings on a weekly basis.

-Each year there is usually one teacher that stands out as the one teacher that really communicates well with

parents. That teacher will send out quick email reminders about homework, long term assignments, book

reports, test, etc. As a busy parent I always appreciate this form of communication. These emails are not long

but show the extra effort of the teacher to communicate and keep parents informed. These short emails are a

spring board for me and my child. It opens up communication and keep all of us on the right track. I really

wish that more teachers did this.

-More notice of upcoming events. More personal communication with teachers - they only use skyward asa means of communication. Currently, my child went from a B in PreAP Math to an F - I have not had any

personal communication with the teacher. I feel it would be appropriate for that teacher to make contact with

me but it looks as though I will be the one initiating that conference. At the elementary level the teachers are

the rst to express concern to the parents. There seems to be a disconnect at the secondary level.

-Teacher names redacted] are the only teachers that I receive emails from. I’ve never heard from any other 7th

grade teacher or coach. It really sets them apart from the other teachers when they take that extra step. I have

am proactive in checking Family Access on my own to stay in touch.

-Talk with staff about effective communication with students and parents. I feel that when I voice concerns, a

wall is immediately put up, and the communication abruptly ends. If the parent has talked with the teacher and

does not feel the communication has been effective, I don’t feel like I have other options. The reason being,if a parent goes to the principal to discuss problems with a teacher, the problems are usually not resolved, and

the problems for my child escalates. I have talked with other parents feeling the same way about approaching

teachers with our concerns.

-Standardize communications from entities, based on source or user preference: District sends email, teachers

use social sites, etc., or umiv er salize through all portals.

-I think that using as many communication methods as possible is a plus for DSISD...I have been very pleased

w/ the increase in communication over the years. I appreciate the pushing of information out to us...Skyward

Message Center. Emails from teachers and the responses from teachers via email have been great. Thanks.

-I think you already have the parents/teacher communication system accomplished.

-In my opinion, Dripping Springs School District has a good communication method and I haven’t had a

problem with it yet.

-I think that the communication have been great.

-Keep up the good work!

-I don’t get any notices about school activities. I would love to participate but have no knowledge. Where do I

to get this?

-continuing to address rumors would be helpful....i always like the info on rumors at the website. I would also

like to be able to express my opinion without my child being the recipient of potential repercussion. This is

mostly in regard to athletics.

-Phone calls...recorded messages are good.

-So far this year I can’t think of anything. I am very happy with the resources for obtaining information

regarding my daughter’s school activities and schoolwork.

-Teachers could be more open and approachable. Middle school is a huge transition for students and parents,

and sometimes teachers/school personnel can make parents feel inadequate for not knowing answers or

wanting to ask questions. Make parents feel more welcome.






-I tend to only receive missing assignment notices from the Math teacher in the middle school, it would be

great if all the teachers would use the same alert system to notify parents when their child has missed an

assignment. I am ranking here as a consolidated result from two campuses, the elementary campus does a

better job of communicating with us then the middle school who we rarely hear from unless something is

wrong. I would say by far the elementary campuses tend to have closer communication with parents than the

middle and high school campuses.

-Elementary school I have great communication with the adminstration and the teachers. If something comes

up, we address that day either directly with the teacher in person or via e-mail. At the middle school, I haven’t

spoken with a teacher, but rely on skyward. I did ask one question about my daughter being counted absent

when she went to the nurse and received a very curt reply that didn’t answer my question at all. However, I

will not ask any questions to the [name redacted], but seek to get my questions answered elsewhere to avoid

the rudeness. I like the district website. There is so much on there, we need a parent orientation on where

to nd information on it and all its wonderful features. The Marquee is wonderful for events, even if other

campuses are hosting them. The red ribbon parent education would be great on a marquee to invite the entire

community. I think the district should get with the PTA and publicize more on what is going on at the district

level, with other campuses, and improvements that are being made. Thank you taking the time to do the

survey! Good Luck!

-The ID thing at the front desk, when the front desk knows us and our child is still ridiculous. I will always

nd that offensive after volunteering all these years. The ability to treat us parents as a know communityseems like a reasonable request. I think [administrator name redacted] does not understand that we are a small

community that likes to be friendly. [] belongs in a larger school district. He does not communicate with us

well or reect the majority of the people that live out here, values.

-Make teacher website’s updates mandatory for all teachers and updated by Monday morning. Put a weekly

update on each campus’s webpage. Put more details on calendar items. Try to use email more and less paper at

the option of the parent.

-Have meetings in the evening instead of during working hours.



my only request.

-I like the idea of getting things online. I like how the middle school tells us through skyward when we need

to know things. I don’t remember to check the website. I’m hoping that when we get all communications

online, now that ‘Rooster is going green’ that they will tell us when to check.

-I feel great about Skyward. I wouldn’t change a thing concerning communication.

-The Skyward system is great. I wish that more teachers would use it. At the middle school, my daughter’s

Spanish teacher does an excellent job communicating with parents. However, we have very poor

communication with the coaches for athletics. It is a great system... as long as everyone uses it to its fullest

potential.

-Encourage all teachers to update their websites weekly. Use e-mail more frequently instead of paper.Consider posting a grade-level specic calendar, with dates for projects (science fair, for example), eld trips,

etc.

-Consistency between campuses, alerts about athletic events, tryouts etc..and academic things.

-I am happy with the current level of communication don’t change anything

-More online communication - teachers should update websites regularly. Texts as an option also.







with parents?

Rooster Springs Elementary School Responses

-More teacher communication.

-Allow the parents to have access to their children in ways other than volunteering. If I am not volunteering, I

am not allowed in the school, unless it is to have lunch with my child.

-Less bureaucracy

-Ask and pay attention. Avoid summary questions across roles and years. The majority of teachers have

been excellent at home/school communication. It seems that the administration and ofce staff are closed to

parents’ concerns unless you are a stay-at-home mom who goes to the school often. Not everyone has that

option. Knowing should not rely on being in on the gossip. The questions above are difcult because most

teachers are excellent with their communication, some are not. The one who was not great, was awful at

home/school communication. Likewise, one front desk assistant is a great communicator while the other is

highly preferential to moms who volunteer regularly at the campus.

-Send home paper Thursday folder notices unless parents opt out and choose web access instead of the other

way around.

-I like paperless, but would prefer to have link sent to me via email, vs. me remembering to visit the website (I

won’t) Thank you

-More face time with teachers before or after school. With not being allowed in the school in the morning or

after school there is no face time with teachers without a conference.

-I believe D.S. is doing a great job. I enjoy getting communications through email from the teachers and

school. I also like having access to a very helpful rooster Springs website. I still like getting hard copy

information as well.

-Teachers attempt to communicate on their teacher websites but it has been my experience that they don’t

keep up with it. Sometimes we get specials calendar a week late, sometimes not at all. I also would rather

teachers send me an email than to have to check the website every day for new information.

-We are new to R.S. and have experienced the unfortunate mess in [teacher name redacted] classroom.Communication with [teacher name redacted] was extremely unsatisfactory. However, [teacher name

redacted] has tremendously improved the situation.

-I think that personal communication is lacking in our school. There is very limited ability to connect with the

childrens teachers due to limited access.

-Send more information home through teachers to children to parents.

-Keep sending out info... Make school atmosphere more welcoming to parents. More pleasant staff to greet all

parents that come to the school.

-Because each school has different events that are not published on the district calendar, I would love to

see a school specic calendar posted on each school’s website. This way if I miss communications or writesomething down wrong it would be easier to nd. It should include after school activites as well as events

(such as gobble,day book fair, and pta meetings) during the school day.

-Have it clearly posted on the school’s website who to contact in the ofce for transportation changes/

questions, absences and volunteer clearances.

-I like the idea of using Skyward since that shows up as an email. If there is an email with links to updated

websites, that’s ne too.

-Give the parents more access to the curriculum so we can help prepare them more at home.




-Text messages are a great idea! Follow through with ensuring that parents receive important hard copy

information.

-Overall, we are VERY pleased with communication...this is our srt year at a DSISD school.

-Provide as much electronic communication as possible. The school is wonderful at communicating with

parents. The district itself could be better about communicating transportation topics (the website is seldom up

to date) and district-wide changes.

-Communicate activities as early as possible. This would help me to have time to adjust my schedule so I

could attend.

-So far so good for us.

-Actual follow through on communication would be great at an administrative level. We seem to lack

communication from admin to teachers which makes follow through impossible. Accountability for

communication would be appreciated as well.

-have a consistent platform for communication. I appreciate the weekly teacher e-mails of their newsletters.

Or their weekly updates to their teacher webpages. I appreciate their use of e-mail.

-Rooster Springs now has gone green, I think that is a great idea, less paper copies!

-Use more on-line tools. Fill out paperwork and request for school activities on line. ie, thanksgiving lunch,

etc.

-Continue to develop the ability to sign-up for specic notications via e-mail from school and district level

-Rooster Springs is truly a superior school. However, I have seen several instances of questionable

communication. when a new policy is put in place, it doesn’t seem like everyone is on the same page from

the start. The recent change in the child pick-up policy is one example. This could have had disastrous

consequences, and needs to be thought through clearly before implementation.

-Look for relevant ways to communicate. Meaning communicate with parents the way they communicate with

each other....Facebook, text, email, links to web site etc.

-like the social media medium and continue with email as a primary means of communications

-Communicate through email more or leave blast voice messages. There are so many activities that yourcommunication should not rely so much on the child bringing anything home

-Nothing at this time. I’m glad the school is going to a paperless system for school info sheets and news items

I hope all campus do this.

-New orientation for new parents to DSISD. Info on websites the students use.

-Allow for parent-teacher interaction. At Rooster it often seems difcult to contact the teachers as the front

ofce requires an appointment but won’t help/allow me to contact the teacher to set one up. Also the dismissal

procedure is cumbersome and forces small children and parents to remain out in the elements unnecessarily.

-The main website for the DSISD district needs a better FAQ section. As a rst time parent enrolling a

Kindergartner, I was shocked at the very limited amount of information there was. I pretty much felt I put myson on the bus on good faith he’d make it back to me at the end of the day. It was very scary having such little

knowledge of how the school works.




-You keep asking how often I currently receive info. It seems like you should ask how often would I like (i.e.,

desired frequency) information. Right now, info comes from too many sources - PTA email blast (which is a

great source of school and RSE PTA info), teachers, Skyward, [administrator name redacted], etc. You have

email alerts that we sign up for from your home page, but then there are also Skyward alerts. It is completely

unclear as to the difference in these sources or purposes. The URLs on your website (probably because of

your content mgmt system) are cryptic. I hate having to always go to your site and then to schools / RSE / ...

to nd whatever I’m looking for. It would be so nice to type in www.rses.org or some other easy URL that

would automatically redirect to your current district site.

-Send less hard copies, and communicate more via e- mail.

-I love the ‘go green’ for the Thursday Folders at RSES. We should do this will all communications including

Community Ed.

-Very happy with Rooster Springs

-RSES has done a fabulous job at streamlining the communications with families. I love ‘going green’. Also,

Family Access is terric even at the elementary level. I feel part of the the educational process. Thanks for

this.

-The moment there is any type of issue the parents should be contacted - by phone, home/cell and e-mailed

with a request for a return reply to ensure proper contact was made and questions answered / discussed etc....

-I like the idea of getting things online. I like how the middle school tells us through skyward when we need

to know things. I don’t remember to check the website. I’m hoping that when we get all communications

online, now that ‘Rooster is going green’ that they will tell us when to check.

-I feel great about Skyward. I wouldn’t change a thing concerning communication.

-The Skyward system is great. I wish that more teachers would use it. At the middle school, my daughter’s

Spanish teacher does an excellent job communicating with parents. However, we have very poor

communication with the coaches for athletics. It is a great system... as long as everyone uses it to its fullest

potential.

-Encourage all teachers to update their websites weekly. Use e-mail more frequently instead of paper.

Consider posting a grade-level specic calendar, with dates for projects (science fair, for example), eld trips,etc.

-Consistency between campuses, alerts about athletic events, tryouts etc..and academic things.

-I am happy with the current level of communication don’t change anything

-More online communication - teachers should update websites regularly. Texts as an option also.

-Couldn’t be happier with Rooster Springs! The following comments pertain to DSMS; We address problems

rst & directly with teacher, then even in conference, and the solutions to be implemented are not applied

consistently day to day from class to class. The Acting AVP has been outstanding as has our child’s support

staff. But improvements vary widely from teacher to teacher. Interestingly music teachers and coaches/

teachers are the best at multitasking in the current environment. The more intellectual type teachers have the

most issues with communicating with us and implementing said solutions. Communication on the campus

level has been sub-par at best. Glitches in Skyward, email notify etc.







with parents?

Walnut Springs Elementary Responses

-Walnut Springs is pretty good with communication. Front staff is usually very nice, and teachers respond

appropriately when emailed.

-I have no problems with the communication. I do prefer email or message center over other forms of

communication for upcoming events so I can mark my calendar as soon as I get them.

-Teachers need to follow up with parents after request is made, I have found that the teachers tend to say one

thing to a parent and rarely follow through as they say they will. Another concern is the unrulely, chaotic

cafeteria and feel that the there is not enough monitoring for the number of children that are in the lunchroom

at a given time. Why is it that teachers can not eat in the cafeteria the same time that their classroom is eating

lunch.

- There doesn’t seem to be a uniformity when communicating with parents. One teacher does it one way,

another does it another. And all the ways are not equal. It would be nice to have ONE really good way

that was consistent. Then if the communication was NOT there, we would miss it. Also, some of the

communications that come home have incorrect dates. That makes it difcult to plan.

-So far, no complaints.

-Assume the parents are a blank slate. Parents will disregard information they already know but they may

pick-up on items they would have otherwise missed. Additionally, the district could do a better job pushing

information. A lot of information is sent at the last minute assuming parents are perusing the website in their

spare time which isn’t the case.

-Our only concern is the way we have to convey parent pick-up and bus scheduling via email w /teachers.

Because we have to change our schedule a lot, that puts a burden on the teachers. I wish there a better way to

do this.

-There is an overwhelming number of places that we are supposed to check regularly for communications.

Let’s see if I can even remember them all - there are at least 4 different teachers’ webpages that I am supposed

to be checking regularly, 4 teacher newsletters, 2 grade level newsletters, 2 different wikispaces, blogs,skyward messages, skyward website, automatic emails from the district, Thursday folders, PTA newsletter

emails, and PTA website. It is very time consuming scanning all of this for new information that we might

need. Emails and Thursday folders that notify us of news, changes, events or other important pertinent

information are very helpful but a general instruction for us to ‘check the website’ regularly is too tedious.

Also - TUESday folders are preferable to THURSday folders. Despite feeling overwhelmed by the variety of

communications resources us parents are expected to utilize, I am glad to know that our teachers have all of

these tools available and are capable of using them. There is probably a favorable side effect from this in that

the students are seeing the teachers embrace technology and bringing it into the classroom.

-WSES does a wonderful job communicating with us.

-so far, I am extremely impressed with my sons experience at Walnut Springs. Teachers, secretraries, Janitoriastaff, principals are all friendly and helpful.

-I would be happy if ALL the forms that we have to be lled out at the initial meet the teacher night could (at

a minimum) be identied and completed online so that we can print it out and bring it with us to class. It is

very difcult to meet the teacher, check out your childs’ new classroom, and keep an eye on your child while

lling out the endless forms that need to be completed that night. It is truly nothing more than SEE the teacher






-Per question 14, I went to the teacher, no help, followed through with the principal. Heavily rely on email.

Very little email communication-so this should be improved.

-The community coffee’s are great, there are not a lot of parents other than PTA who mostly come, but that

y’all even have them shows that you are willing to be put ‘out’ there, so thanks for that and it will grow just

keep doing what you’re doing. Good Job DSISD!

-I am from out of state. At our previous school, there was much more accessibility to my child’s classroom.

For example, when dropping off my child in the morning, I could take her directly to the class. This way, I

was able to connect with the teacher, get a sense of what was going on in class, and also see other parents fora short time. I understand security at school is important, but I do miss the home-school connection we had

before.

-I think all schools should communicate the same. It would be hard to keep up with how each school will

communicate.

-I think you’re doing a fabulous job at keeping parents informed from kindergarten thru high school. I have no

complaints.

-I think that administrators (at the district ofces) should listen more than they talk. I also think that their is an

honesty issue with these same administrators. Be honest, listen and take input seriously!!!

-I think that our website if very unattractive and often emphasizes the wrong things. I look at other districts’

websites and they show stories about what is happening on the campuses, what classrooms are doing, positive

stories that make parents feel good about their children’s school. Our website has no student pictures and the

only stories are about something related to bonds or nancial ratings or a couple of kids who won some prize.

I’m very tired of reading about the select few who win honors. I’d much rather read about learning and events

in the schools and see pictures of students in engaged in learning. I also very much dislike the Fact or Fiction

newsletter. I believe that it actually spreads rumors! Several times I learned about a rumor from reading Fact

or Fiction. I haven’t seen any difference in DSISD communications since you all hired a communication

director. I hope that she will begin to spend time on campuses, take pictures, and get the good stories of

DSISD out to the public. I would recommend that she look at surrounding district’s websites-Lake Travis and

Hays Consolidated both would be good starts. My childrens’ teachers and school administrators are all very

good communicators-positive and helpful. I love DSISD-I’d like to see the district do a better job of tellingtheir story.

-Email is the best way! That has improved. Maybe text emergency situations.

-I have missed several event at the Middle School level do to a lack of communication. I would love it

if I received an email about important events like open house, dedication, meet the teacher, new student

orientation, etc.

-Send out a weekly school update verbally to all parents. There is a system used by at least one middle school

in Austin with this type of communication. It has proven to be very effective.

-Send out a weekly school update verbally to all parents. There is a system used by at least one middle school

in Austin with this type of communication. It has proven to be very effective.

-High school and middle school teachers - keep websites current with assignments/homework

-Just right




Multiple Responses/Emerging Themes (3 or more) and Sample Comments:

Email is best, most direct way of obtaining info/”push” preferred over “pull” (29)

y I would rather teachers send me an email than to have to remember to check the website every day for new

information.yThe district could do a better job pushing information. A lot of information is sent at the last minute as-

suming parents are perusing the website in their spare time which isn’t the case.

Desire for more advance notice of events/district-wide calendar (14)

yWhen it comes to scheduling events give more notice and think about working parents’ schedules.

y Send home information about school activities weeks before they are due. Too many times we receive a

note in a Thursday folder that our child has to prepare/buy/create something for Friday.

yCreate campus calendar, then pass it down to the grades and classrooms for updates.

Teacher Websites not updated often enough to be valuable (13)

yWhen parents are told at the beginning of every year that the week’s assignments will be posted on teacher

websites, post them.

y Some teacher websites still have last year’s information posted, and some only post at the beginning of

the year. I like to be able to check online about what’s going on in classroom, homework, due dates, test

schedules, etc.

Simplify use of Skyward—easier to sign up, all teachers post info, understand grading (10)

yMake it easier to apply to access on-line grading system; it’s an on-line system but you have to submit

paperwork and go to the school to get access.

yUpdates on Family Access is totally hit or miss with teachers.

Implement system for on-line completion of forms/registration (8)

yMeet the Teacher Night before school starts needs to be about meeting the teacher and learning what will

happen in the classroom, not about lling out forms.

yMy only request would be for beginning-of-the-year papers to be saved digitally for use in following

years.

Teachers need to be more approachable (not defensive) when concerns are raised/follow-through (8)

y Please don’t approach conversations and communication as though I (as a parent) am about to complain

about something you’ve done and get defensive; more often I am concerned that my child is not applying

himself.

y Staff members need training on effective communication. I feel when I have a concern, a wall is immedi-

ately put up and communication abruptly ends.

Use texting (8)

yText messages would be helpful because I would see those immediately and they stay easily accessible.

yEliminate paperwork, especially if no information has changed.

SUMMARY OF OPEN-ENDED PARENT COMMENTS




Need more standardized communication (7)

y Enact some design guidelines, create all forms and documents using those standards, enforce version con-

trol of documents, and use electronic communication when possible.

y Standardize communications from entities, based on source or user preference: ie. district sends email,

teachers use social sites, or universalize through all portals.

Teacher emails (quality of info/frequency) inconsistent (7)

y There are still some teachers who do not use email regularly, which makes in strange when you are used to

communicating that way.

y I would like more consistency with teacher communications – weekly newsletters with important dates

and upcoming programs. It varies greatly by teacher.

Desire for more face-to-face interaction with teachers (6)

yAllow for parent-teacher interaction. It often seems difcult to contact the teachers as the front ofce re-

quires an appointment but won’t help me contact the teacher to set one up.

y The school has gotten too big and lost the interaction with parents.

Too many sources of obtaining information from school, district (6)

y

I get a hodge-podge of communication in various formats and from various sources, which creates confu-sion around the importance, relevance or clarity of content.

yRight now info comes from too many sources: PTA email blast (which is a great source of info), teachers,

Skyward, principal emails, etc.

District urls are cumbersome (5)

y The urls on the website are cryptic. I hate having to always go to the district website and then to schools to

nd whatever I’m looking for.

y It would be nice to type in www.rses.org or some other easy url that would automatically redirect to the

current district site.

Develop better orientation for kindergarten (5) yAs a rst-time parent, enrolling a kindergartener, I was shocked at the very limited amount of information

there was. It was very scary having such little knowledge of how the school works.

yA parent/student orientation for kindergarten. Other school districts have a Kindergarten Round-Up that

is very helpful in assimilating new students into the school system. It alleviates a lot of anxiety when you

know what to expect.

Publish list of “go-to” people on each campus for various topics (3)

y I’m not sure who I should speak to about different issues (bullying, issue with bus pick-up, concerns about

learning disabilities, etc.). A list outlining who is the best contact for various topics would be great.




Areas Identied Needing Better Communication:

yTransportation (6)

yAthletics (3)

Other Topics Mentioned:

Suggestions:

y

Consider use of social networking media (2) yEmails should include teacher address (2) and direct link to teacher website

yUse as many communication methods as possible

yExplain new policies better

yUse voicemail blasts for routine updates (not just emergencies)

yAdd more/better FAQ to district website

yHave teachers use Family Access for messages rather than email

y Include both parents’ addresses on emails

y

Provide Spanish translation for all printed material y Provide paper copies of new student manuals

y Post volunteer opportunities (secondary)

y Put the DSHS school newspaper on-line

Kudos:

yLike Fact or Fiction (2)

yCommunity coffees are great

y “Green” actions at RSE well-received

Anti-Kudos:

yAdministrators don’t listen

yDisconnect between teachers and parents at secondary level (if student struggling)

yDon’t like Fact or Fiction (starts rumors)

yDistrict website focuses too much on district news, award winners; should have photos of kids at cam-

puses

yWebsite is hard to navigate

yRaptor system shouldn’t require ID to be shown when receptionist knows parent




1

CountDripping Springs Elementary School 12

Rooster Springs Elementary School 0

Walnut Springs Elementary School 1

Dripping Springs Middle School 2

Dripping Springs High School 1

¿A cual escuela/s asiste su hijo/s? (What school/s does/do your child/ren attend?)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Dripping Springs

Elementary School

Rooster Springs

Elementary School

Walnut Springs

Elementary School

Dripping Springs Middle

School

Dripping Springs High

School


Spanish-Speaking Parent Surveys 2010




2

Percent

1 28.6%

2 14.3%

3 14.3%

4 14.3%

5 0.0%

6 0.0%

7 0.0%

8 14.3%

9 7.1%

10 0.0%

11 0.0%

12 0.0%

13 0.0%

14 0.0%

15 7.1%

¿Por cuantos años su hijo ha asistido a las escuelas de Dripping Springs? (How many years have you had a child

attend Dripping Springs schools?)

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15




3

Count Percent

5‐Very 14 93.3%

4‐Above

Average 1 6.7%

3‐Average 0 0.0%




Average Rating

¿Qué tan servicial y cortes es el personal en la oficina de la dirección de la escuela de su hijo? (How courteous and helpful is the front office staff at your child's school?)

4.93

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%


know

4

Count Percent

5‐Very 12 80.0%


3‐Average 0 0.0%




Average Rating

¿Qué tan servicial y cortes es el personal administrativo de la escuela de su hijo? (How courteous and helpful are the administrators at your child's school?)

4.86

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%


know




5

Count Percent

5‐Very 9 60.0%

4‐Above

Average 2 13.3%

3‐Average 3 20.0%




Average Rating

¿Qué tan cómodo se siente compartiendo ideas y preocupaciones en la escuela de su hijo? (How comfortable are you sharing ideas and concerns at your child's campus?)

4.43

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%


know

6

Count Percent

5‐Very 6 40.0%


3‐Average 1 6.7%




Average Rating

¿Qué tan útil sería si hubiera inscripciones en línea que eliminaran todos los formularios impresos al inicio del año

escolar? (How helpful would it be if there was on‐line registration that eliminated paper forms at the beginning of

the year?)

4.25

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

50.0%


know




7

De las siguientes fuentes ¿Con qué frecuencia recibe comunicación del maestro sobre el progreso académico o eventos en el salón de clases de su hijo? (How often do you get teacher communications about academic progress or classroom events from the following sources?)

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%


Correo electrónico (Email) Percent


4‐Regularly 14.3%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 14.3%

1‐Never 28.6%

Don't Know 28.6%

Average Rating

Centro de mensajes Skyward (Skyward Message Center) Percent


4‐Regularly 0.0%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 0.0%

1‐Never 28.6%

Don't Know 42.9%

Average Rating

Sitio web (Website) Percent


4‐Regularly 28.6%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 0.0%

1‐Never 28.6%

Don't Know 28.6%

Average

RatingCopias impresas (Hard copies) Percent


4‐Regularly 0.0%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 7.1%

1‐Never 14.3%

'

2.6

3

3

.

Average Rating

4.15








Marquesina / señalamiento (Marquee) Percent


4‐Regularly 0.0%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 0.0%

1‐Never 37.5%

Don't Know 50.0%

Average Rating

Periódico (Newspaper) Percent


4‐Regularly 0.0%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 0.0%

1‐Never 30.0%

Don't Know 40.0%

Average Rating

Vecinos/amigos (Neighbors/friends) Percent


4‐Regularly 10.0%

3‐Sometimes 0.0%

2‐Seldom 0.0%

1‐Never 60.0%

Don't Know 20.0%

Average Rating

3

1.88

2








10

Count Percent

5‐Frequently 10 71.4%

4‐Regularly 2 14.3%

3‐Sometimes 1 7.1%

2‐Seldom 0 0.0%

1‐Never 0 0.0%

No Opinion/Don't Know 1 7.1%

Average Rating

¿Con que frecuencia su hijo comparte con usted información sobre el salón de clases/actividades de la escuela? (How often does your child share information with you about classroom/school activities?)

4.69

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%


Know

11

Count Percent

5‐Frequently 11 73.3%

4‐Regularly 2 13.3%

3‐Sometimes 1 6.7%

2‐Seldom 0 0.0%

1‐Never 0 0.0%


Average Rating

¿Como calificaría la calidad de la comunicación entre usted y el maestro(s) de su hijo? (How would you rate the quality of communications between yourself and your child's teacher(s)?)

4.71

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%


Know






13


Copias impresas (Hard copies) 80.0%

Correo electrónico (Email) 26.7%

Mensajes de texto (Text messages) 26.7%

Periódico (Newspaper) 26.7%

Centro de mensajes Skyward (Skyward Message Center) 13.3%

¿Como prefiere recibir información de la escuela y el distrito escolar? (Puede seleccionar mas de una opción.) [How would you prefer to get information from the school and district? (You may select more than one answer.) ]

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Correo electrónico

(Email)

Mensajes de texto (Text messages)

Periódico (Newspaper)

Centro de mensajes Skyward (Skyward

Message Center)

Marquesina / señalamiento (Marquee)

Sitio web (Website)

Redes sociales como Facebook

(si está disponible)

[Social media (if available)]

Marquesina / señalamiento (Marquee) 6.7%

Sitio web (Website) 0.0%

Redes sociales como Facebook (si está disponible) [Social media (if available)] 0.0%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Correo electrónico

(Email)

Mensajes de texto (Text messages)

Periódico (Newspaper)

Centro de mensajes Skyward (Skyward

Message Center)

Marquesina / señalamiento (Marquee)

Sitio web (Website)

Redes sociales como Facebook

(si está disponible)

[Social media (if available)]








were removed.

15. ¿Qué piensa que podemos hacer de manera diferente a nivel del distrito escolar o de la escuela para

mejorar la comunicación con los padres? (What do you think we could do differently at the district or

school level to improve communications with parents?)

-Conferencios mas trecuentes con los maestros y padres de familia (Frequently confer with teachers and parents)

-email, telephone, English & Spanish information

-En mi opinion muy personal claro, me gustaria sobre todo en mi nina de 3rd grado, si fuera posible

mandarma informacion en espanol. (In my very personal opinion of course, I would like more information in

Spanish about my 3rd grade girl, if possible )

-informacion por escrito en lugar de correos electronicos que aveces no tengo tiempo de checar porque solo

tenemos una computadora y ellos la usan para hacer sus trabajos (written information rather than e-mails

because sometimes I have no time to check emails because we only have one computer and we use it for our

jobs.)

-Pienso que como latinos nunca tenemos tiempro para ir a la escuala de nuestros hijos y por eso to pensaria

que ustedes deben obligarnos a ir un poco mas seguido de sccuerdo a nuestro torarios a veces podemos ir

temprano o a veces un poco mas tarde pero debemos tener mas obligaciones con ustedes miembros de la

escuela y con nuestros hijos. Gracias. (I think that as Latinos we never time to go with our children and

therefore to think that you should force us to go a little more often. Sometimes we can go early or sometimes

a little later but we have more obligations than members of the school and our children. Thanks.)

-Pinso que todo esta bien. Gracias. (All is well. Thanks.)

-pues ayudando atraducir alas maestros que no ablan espanol para comunicarnos en nuestra idioma. (Help to

translate for teachers who do not speak Spanish to communicate in our language.)

-que ayuden atraducir alosque no ablan espanol porque es mas dicil si lomandan en ingles (Send informationtranslated into Spanish. It is more difcult when sent in English)

-Que medigan en espanol la conferencia conmigo paraentender mejor porque la ultima conferencia entendi

muy poquito (Let Spanish a speaker in the conference to better understand me because I understood very little

at my last conference)

-Todo es extraordinario como reverie ser (Everything is extraordinary)

-Trabajando juntos padres y maestros. (Working together, parents and teachers.)





Student Surveys 2010

1

Count Percent

5‐Very 149 29.8%


3‐Average 91 18.2%


1‐Not at All 53 10.6%


Average Rating 3.61

How friendly and helpful is the front office and attendance staff at your school?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%


know




2

Count Percent

5‐Very 106 21.3%


3‐Average 98 19.7%


1‐Not at All 83 16.7%


Average Rating 3.2

How approachable and helpful are the administrators (principals, assistant principals) at your school?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%


know




3

Count Percent

5‐Very 106 21.2%

4‐

Above

Average 114 22.9%3‐Average 109 21.8%


1‐Not at All 68 13.6%


Average Rating 3.23

How often do you share information you receive about school programs/classroom activities with your parents?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%


know

4

Count Percent

5‐Superior 81 16.3%


3‐Average 114 22.9%


1‐Unsatisfactory 64 12.9%


Average Rating 3.3

How would you rate the quality of communication about classwork and assignments that you receive from teachers?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%


Know




5 How often do you get school and district information from the following sources?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

5‐Frequently 4‐Regularly 3‐Sometimes 2‐Seldom 1‐Never

PA or Video announcements Percent


4‐Regularly 12.5%

3‐Sometimes 16.0%

2‐Seldom 17.8%

1‐Never 23.2%

Average Rating

Classroom announcements by teacher Percent


4‐Regularly 26.4%

3‐Sometimes 20.4%

2‐Seldom 11.7%

1‐Never 9.9%

Average Rating

Website Percent


4‐Regularly 13.8%

3‐Sometimes 22.5%

2‐Seldom 19.8%

1‐Never 30.6%

Average Rating

Signs in hallway Percent


4‐Regularly 14.8%

3‐Sometimes 25.6%

2‐Seldom 22.5%

1‐Never 23.5%

Average Rating

3.09

3.58

2.6

2.72




Other Students Percent


4‐Regularly 17.9%

3‐Sometimes 18.4%

2‐Seldom 15.9%

1‐Never 19.2%

Average Rating

Marquee Percent


4‐Regularly 9.3%

3‐Sometimes 22.1%

2‐Seldom 13.8%

1‐Never 43.8%

Average Rating

Campus TV monitors Percent


4‐Regularly 7.7%

3‐Sometimes 14.8%

2‐Seldom 18.1%

1‐Never 48.1%

Average Rating

High School only: Student Newspaper Percent

5‐Frequently 9.0%

4‐Regularly 7.7%

3‐Sometimes 11.1%

2‐Seldom 12.1%

1‐Never 60.2%

Average Rating

2.16

1.93

2.3

3.21




6


Classroom announcements

by

teacher 52.2%

PA or video announcements 48.4%

Other students 35.3%

Signs in hallway 30.7%

Website 25.4%

Campus TV monitors 21.9%

Social media sites (if available) 14.0%

Marquee 12.4%

High School only: Student Newspaper 11.7%

What is your preferred method for obtaining information about your school? (You may select more than one answer.)

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%




7

Percent

5‐Superior 15.3%


3‐Average 30.9%




Average Rating

How would you rate the quality of information you receive from your school?

3.24

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%


Know

8

Percent5‐Superior 25.4%


3‐Average 19.3%




Average Rating

How clearly are the school's expectations regarding conduct and academic progress communicated to students?

3.47

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%


Know




9

Percent

Yes 38.2%

No 61.8%

Do you have a smartphone?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Yes No




Open Ended Responses



were removed; this occurred mostly in student surveys that referenced areas such as menus, extracurricular

activities, etc.

Do you have any suggestions for the school district to improve communication with students?

Some numbers: 592 middle and high school students took the survey. Of the total, 192 left the open-ended

question blank. 102 said “no,” “none,” or some other form of “no comment.” More than 220 of the 298

remaining were irrelevant to communication. The remaining comments are compiled below.

Announcements

-before important announcements have a signal (i.e. a beep) because many people don’t listen to

announcements regularly :)

-better announcements. support tiger football a lot better

-better announcements. these are God awful. TIGER FOOTBALL!!!!!!

-get louder announcements, so I can hear

-get nicer teachers, make announcements in the morning, remind us morea bout stuff

-I think that the front ofce should be more available to students and that they should do video

announcements, which would be more enjoyable and only takes up part of the CATS class.

-I think that they should make video announcements because many kids like that and it would be more fun. I

think you could reward kids if they did something right b letting them be on the announcements. Thank you

-I think the CATS teachers should do more with the students and communicate with them more often (well at

least my CATS teacher...I don’t know about the other CATS teachers)

-i think the teachers need to make more announcements

-i would like to se more teacher announcements and reminders

-loud announcements

-make announcements louder

-make more announcements so we know whats going on

-make teachers remind things for students in class most thing are just on the school website which some

people don’t have so if you don’t have a computer you miss it and the teaches don’t say anything about it

either

-Make the announcements better. and support TIGER FOOTBALL!!!!!!! more.

-More announcements-Maybe, we should all have assigned laptops (like other schools) adn yuo can send out video mail to gaggle

or another source and we can receive are information during CATS or classes when we have no work left.

-more teacher announcements

-try to improve the announcements so people might actually want to pay attention to them

TV




-My only improvement is that you put the information on the T.V.s in the Cafeteria because people often look

up there but look up there, but then look somewhere else because they want to read information up there, but

don’t see any. They only see a menu which everyone knows.

-info through tv monitors.

- The information on the television isn’t that helpful. Maybe they could make the info more like the

announcements over the speaker. Also the marquee could be more helpful.

-Dont waste money on unuseful things. Have a purpose to things such as the tvs. You put math problems like

8 + 7 = 15 Tell me what point that made.

-Maybe you could put more things on the school TV monitor other than just the sports and math and science

TV shows. Maybe you should put updates about our school so we would actually want to look at it more

often.

-The teachers need to give more clear, descriptive information of what they want from the students in their

classwork. Direction needs to be improved between the teachers and the students. Also, I feel that with all of

the great technology that we have at the school, we need to put it into use, for example, the T.V. monitors. It

would be much more convenient to have reminders of upcoming events on the monitors during lunch instead

of the jokes and stories.

-Put more stuff on the marquee and the school’s tv monitors.

-put up more posters than just for the football games the tv monarters need to have a better news system for

showing the news just to hook the watcher into watching the school news or mabey show world news or print

out school news pappers so kids can know everything about the school yours truley [student name redacted]

-Theater needs to get a tv for we get to see the announcements

-We should have morning announcements on a T.V.in every room. Since we have some in the hallways

-we should have tv in the class room so we can see the peopel that are talking to us.

-tv moneters in class rooms for announcements and ‘news’

-In elementry school every Friday some students did something kind of like a web show to show up coming

activities and events. It would improve communications and will be like a nice reminder. -Thank youPhones

- let us use are phones

-give every kid an i phone

-give everyone smartphones and ipads and free lunch

-let kids have smartphones out and be able to use them during school

-LET THEM USE CELL PHONES!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~!!!|11

-let us use our phone during lunch and passing periods

-let us use phones at lunch and passing periods-texting

Newspaper/Newsletter








1 How often do you get school information from the following sources?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

Never Seldom Sometimes Regularly Frequently


Staff Surveys 2010

Email Percent


4‐Regularly 8.8%

3‐Sometimes 2.0%

2‐Seldom 1.4%

1‐Never 0.7%

Average Rating

Other communication tools in FirstClass (like instant messaging) Percent


4‐Regularly 6.3%

3‐Sometimes 11.9%

2‐Seldom 27.3%

1‐Never 40.6%

Average Rating

District News Percent


4‐Regularly 22.5%

3‐Sometimes 27.2%

2‐Seldom 10.9%

1‐Never 3.4%

Average Rating

Website Percent


4‐Regularly 23.5%

3‐Sometimes 25.5%

2‐Seldom 17.9%

1‐Never 7.6%

Average Rating

4.8

2.26

3.77

3.41






5 How often do you get district information from the following sources?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

Never Seldom Sometimes Regularly Frequently

Email Percent


4‐Regularly 27.3%

3‐Sometimes 12.7%

2‐Seldom 4.0%

1‐Never 2.0%

Average Rating

Other communication tools in FirstClass (like instant messaging) Percent


4‐Regularly 10.3%

3‐Sometimes 8.9%

2‐Seldom 16.4%

1‐Never 48.6%

Average Rating

District News Percent


4‐Regularly 31.8%

3‐Sometimes 23.7%

2‐Seldom 3.4%

1‐Never 2.7%

Average Rating

Website Percent


4‐Regularly 29.9%

3‐Sometimes 23.1%

2‐Seldom 19.1%

1‐Never 5.4%

Average Rating

4.27

2.28

4

3.45






3

Respondent

Percentage

Email 92.1%

Communication from your supervisor 33.8%

District News 26.5%

Meetings in your work place 24.5%

Website 17.9%

Co‐workers 11.3%

Other communication tools in FirstClass (like instant messaging) 9.3%

Social media sites (if available) 3.3%

How would you prefer to get information from the school or district?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

4

Count Percent

5‐Very 15 10.4%


3‐Average 45 31.3%




Average Rating 3.21

How actively do you seek new communication methods for reaching parents?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%


know




5

Count Percent

5‐Very 48 32.0%


3‐Average 31 20.7%




Average Rating 2.7

How familiar are you with the mission and goals of the school district?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%


know

6

Count Percent5‐Very 33 22.0%


3‐Average 37 24.7%




Average Rating 3.89

How familiar are you with the staff handbook and its contents?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%


know




7

Count Percent


4‐Above

Average 53 35.1%

3‐Average 18 11.9%




Average Rating 4.05

How would you rate the quality of communication between yourself and your supervisor/department head?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%


Know

8

Count Percent5‐Superior 41 28.5%


3‐Average 15 10.4%




Average Rating

How would you rate the quality of communication between yourself and the parents of your students?

4.15

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%


Know




9

Count Percent



3‐

Average 19 12.8%2‐Below Average 8 5.4%



Average Rating

In general, how would you rate the communication between teachers and administration at your school?

3.9

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%


Know

10

Count Percent



3‐Average 28 18.7%




Average Rating 3.68

How well do you think that staff concerns are addressed by the administration at your school/department?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%


Know






were removed.

Staff Open-Ended Responses

Please share any unique initiatives you have implemented in the last year to improve communications

with students or parents.

-I am updating my web site daily now.

-I do family conferences with Portfolio work samplings four times a year. These Portfolios also include

photos that are labeled by the parents with the child at the family conference. I’t a joy to see all the parents

and students overowing from within the classroom at family conferences. It’s a celebration of learning, hard

work and familial love. I also do narrative reports on my students two times a year.

-I don’t do this, but I know of a teacher at our school that has a facebook group for her students (seperate

from her personal page) wherein she can give advice on homework, announce quizzes etc. She nds it

very effective. I would like to try it but fear how my administration would react. Would it be encouraged?

Discouraged? On a side note, several employees are confused as to the communication chain of command.

We have been told the general rule is to rst talk to your department chair (mine at times, is difcult to do

this with) then talk to your assistant principal, then the principal. Should this ALWAYS be the case? What if

you have sensitive material that needs to be discussed? What if you fear your department chairs’ reaction?

I’ve been told in cases such as this it is ok to jump the chain of command. Is this true? My principal is VERY

sympathetic to the needs of her staff and her door is always open to listen. It is one of the things I value most

about her superior leadership skills.

-I email a weekly newsletter to parents where I try to share the things we are doing in the classroom as well as

important school information.

-I see lack the of communication between teachers and the district ofce which has lead to very poor planning

in the new school, waste of district resources (i.e. money), and a suboptimal teaching facility. There needs to

be a more cooperative and open two way communication plan.

-I send frequent emails and post updated information on my website.

-I try to direct parents to my webpage and I am starting to show the students how to get there so they can get

information as well.

-I use a newsletter, emails, phone calls, agenda and calendars.

-Just email and phone

-Keeping my webpage up to date and full of current, pertinent classroom information.

-Monthly PTA Newsletters as well as Weekly classroom newsletters links are emailed to my class’ parents.

-Not a place for comments, but I do want to say that there is a lot of talking going on, but not a lot of

communicating.

-Technology is a great tool, but sometimes a face to face communication is great too. E-mails take an amazing

part of the day and although it is great to get it on your own time, it sometimes misses the dialogue between

staff that meetings bring.

-The high school principal is the perfect model of what a principal should be like in my opinion and I am sure

many others would agree.

-THERE SHOULD BE A MORE OPEN LINE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN STAFF AND THE








Who do you contact when you have a question or concern about a:

y Classroom activity?

y School procedure?

When is your best availability to visit the school or meet with a teacher?

Do you feel like you are sufciently informed about how well your child is doing

in school?

Do you have a clear understanding of what the academic expectations are for your

child? (grading procedures, graduation requirements, etc.)

How do you receive information about school events, classroom activities?

Are you aware of the “Notify Me” or “News Flash” options of the website (to receive

emails or text messages)?

What, if any, barriers keep you from being involved in your child’s school?

What are some things the school could do better to communicate with you?

Would you use social media if the district had a presence there?

SECONDARY:

Without “Thursday folders,” it is more challenging to be sure info gets in parents

hands.

y Do kids bring home information or verbally share with you?

y Any other suggestions for middle and high school administrators to reach you?


Parent Focus Group Discussion Questions




Summary of Elementary Focus Group Discussion

December 9, 2010

The shift to electronic communication was recognized. The effectiveness of that method

varies by teacher. Inconsistency among teachers in terms of frequency of emails and quality of

information was noted.

Request that teachers are careful to honor requests to email both parents if requested. Comment

was made that career elementary teachers are better at regular emails than those with a

secondary background.

Some suggestions for more effective emails:

y Mark which classroom it refers to in SUBJECT lines to assist parents with multiple

children.

y Clearly identify who emails are coming from in header. Teachers should address

issues for their class/subject only. Confusion occurs for upper elementary gradeswhen students have more than one teacher.

y Follow basic email etiquette.

y Check emails for proper spelling and grammar.

y Just provide info; it doesn’t have to be on a fancy template or include clip art, etc.

y Include calendar info a few weeks ahead of time so if parents need to buy supplies

or prepare kids in some way (example, upcoming benchmarks), they aren’t

scrambling at the last minute. Timeliness is critical.

y Clearly state upcoming due dates for projects.

y Ideal format/timing would be simple newsletter/email on Friday giving basic class

information for next week or two.

Parents expressed strong preference for a “one-stop shopping” approach. It doesn’t matter to

parents where it is housed, as long as they are aware of where to go. This could be done in

Family Access if teachers regularly posted notes there.

There was some feeling that there are TOO many places to go get information. Family Access

has a place for teacher to put what is due this month. Teachers don’t have to separate it out.

ACE Math: Teachers could link to their own webpage.

URLs within the district website are not user-friendly … hard to use on a mobile device.

Examples of inconsistency between teachers: frequency varies--some every day, some rarely

email; some have attempted to use blog, but don’t update it regularly.




The same concern over inconsistency among teachers was raised regarding teacher websites.

Most parents prefer information to get pushed to them (email) rather than having to go check

for it.

Comment was made to not focus everything on technology; some parents still like to receive

hard copies or appreciate a combination of both formats.

It was pointed out that it is important for parents to work WITH teachers rather than demanding

the teachers to cater to their needs.

Request that a legend is provided to what Family Access codes mean (T1, S1). Apparently the

Family Access Calendar and Gradeboook sometimes show different grades? A suggestion was

made to have a standing message when Family Access turns off in the summer.

Monthly grade level newsletters are helpful if they include basic expectations on projects.

Parents recognize that fth-graders are expected to be more independent, take more

responsibility for their own academics, but parents would still like to be able to check things behind the scenes (“stealth parent”).

Comment that some teachers get defensive if a parent brings a concern to them.

Suggestion that all teachers have mentors, not only those who are new to the district.

One parent expressed a desire to know what children need to do in order to get a certain grade.

“rubrics”

Parents expressed that “Meet the Teacher Night” is frustrating and not very valuable because

parents can’t do anything but ll out forms.

Missing assignment notices in Skyward keep coming even after it is turned in.

Parent provided kudos to RSE for providing annual calendar at that start of the year that

included major events such as music programs.

A suggestion was made that teachers are provided refresher training on use of Skyward.




Summary of Secondary Focus Group Discussion

December 7, 2010

Parents appreciate email communications with classroom teachers and report a near-immediate

response from most teachers. They also like the way the homework is set up online, and

appreciate having contact information.

Suggestion that texting might be something that teachers adopt as smart phones become more

popular. [with guidelines]

Kudos for Family Access that allows kids and parents to access assignments, grades, etc., on-

line.

Use of Skyward is inconsistent from teacher to teacher. Observation made that the most

communicative teachers are the ones that parents feel the least need to seek help from. Teachers

need to keep websites updated regularly. This is better this year as compared to last year.

It is helpful to get communications from principal on hot topics. Example: Sex Ed curriculum

in health class. Parent meeting was a good idea, but should have had more than one (schedule

conicts).

Positive comments were received on communications with the counselors, especially for

upperclassmen looking for college recommendations.

Once kids hit middle school, communication directly to parents is even more important, as kids

don’t always share information what’s going on, nor do they consistently pass along printed

information (no Thursday folder like in elementary school).

Fact or ction: recommendation that editor puts bullet questions up front and then hotlink to

further information down the page so a reader can jump directly to a story of interest.

On ideal amount of direct communication with principals:

Maybe not once a week, but once a month or start of every 9 weeks might be a good time

to communicate what’s coming up. For example, here’s the exam schedule, school holidays

coming up, etc.PTA newsletters ll this need to some extent, but it is valuable for principal to

have a ‘touch’ to the community.

As DS keeps growing, it’s important to keep the small town feel.




More information from the principal also lls need as a taxpayer, to know that tax dollars are

being spent well.

Concern that at the end of the semester, Skyward shuts down for about 7-10 days. Parents try to

make sure kids have everything turned in and they can’t see anything.

Send out alert 2 days prior to shutdown??

There was a desire for more information about graduation requirements, even at middle school

because they need to be aware of the full sequence. For instance, a middle school parent may

want to know what sports qualify for PE credit. The feedback was that counselors present this

information to students, but not parents. (Follow-up: there also are parent meetings for this

same information.)

Parents are not aware of opt-in option on website for notications and alerts (email, text

messages on various topics).

Suggestion made to put information on this (or a summary of all methods for parentcommunications) in the back-to-school packet and for the PTA to promote it as well.

There is a desire to know about events and programs at higher grade levels (besides football).

Middle school parents would like to also know about high school events and also suggested that

as elementary parents they were interested in ms/hs events.

When students reach middle school, parents don’t feel as informed about volunteer

opportunities at the school. They suggested nding a way to welcome the parents in, let them

know how they can be involved, what’s happening on campus, etc.

One of the reasons we have great teachers is because we “let teachers do things” and they are

empowered (example of summative grading was used).

At middle school, parents appreciate the CATS classes and felt it’s a great way to disseminate

information. Some of the CATS classes have teachers who really offer assistance to students; in

others there’s no interaction (inconsistency).

Regarding social media, parents felt that while it may offer an additional method forcommunication, it was not a necessity. The general preference was it would be ne to offer as

long as nothing is taken away.

Facebook could be opening a can of worms, but the group felt that Twitter used for non-critical

information could be great (band already does this; idea that football updates be placed there

too).






Summary of Spanish-Speaking Parent Focus Group Discussions

November 15, 2010

At the elementary level, parents know who they can go to in the front ofce to assist them in

Spanish and they feel comfortable at campuses for the most part.

At middle school, the comfort level seems to drop a bit, mainly because of the size of thecampus and multiple teachers. However, there are a few people in the front ofce they feel they

can depend on, and they seem to feel they can stay connected and ask questions.

High school parents do not feel connected to campus. They do not know who they can go

to if they need to have a conversation in Spanish, but they said there was no one accessible

at the school. They want someone they trust who can help them. Most of the parents do not

understand graduation requirements and expectations. Example that was shared was from a

parent with two children in upper high school grades; she did not understand the ranking and

what factors caused her kids to be so different. It also was pointed out that there are manydifferences in the educational system in Mexico (grade levels, etc.), which makes it very

confusing for those with students who started school there.

Two requests: 1) have a go-to person(s) at each campus and 2) have information available in

Spanish. (One mentioned that they want info in Spanish and English because in her case her

husband couldn’t read Spanish.)

Would it be very helpful to get a list of Spanish-speakers on campus at the beginning of the

year? YES.

Question was asked if a less-than perfectly translated document (using translation software) is

better than nothing at all? NO, those just create confusion.

It was pointed out that some wording has cultural connotations that may not be in line with

intent of message.

Half of those in attendance have Internet access and about half email (in Spanish). A few had

smart phones and text (in Spanish).

When asked about their availability to come to campus, most were relatively exible.

Afternoons seemed preferable, except for Wednesday due to church obligations (same for Wed.

evening).




Their children really help their Spanish-speaking parents with translations and keeping

informed, especially at the older grade levels.

Parents expressed strong desire for their children to excel, not only among other English

Language Learners, but among the entire student population. They want to make sure they are

in a position to help their children be successful. They want to be made aware if their children

are falling behind (as soon as possible).

Parents also pointed out that once their children become uent in English, some stop speaking

Spanish entirely; parents would prefer they continue using both languages.

They also pointed out that English-speaking students can benet from being exposed to Spanish

and suggested more opportunities to pair up native English speakers with native Spanish

speakers. [This has been done some.]




Demographic Data Summary




Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

Male 659 51.3% 632 51.1%

Female 643 50.0% 606 48.9%

Hispanic 194 15.1% 177 14.3% 165 13.5% 144 12.0%

Native American 15 1.2% 8 0.6% 7 0.6% 6 0.5%

Asian 16 1.2%African American 8 0.6% 9 0.7% 15 1.2% 13 1.1%

Pacific Islander 2 0.2%

Asian/Pacific Islander 19 1.5% 15 1.2% 16 1.3%

White 1,238 96.3% 1,004 81.1% 1,024 83.5% 1,020 85.1%

Two or More Ethnicities 22 1.7% 21 1.7%

Economically Disadvantaged 126 9.8% 102 8.2% 84 6.9% 76 6.3%

Limited English Proficient 36 2.8% 16 1.3% 26 2.1% 24 2.0%

Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

Male 527 51.5% 507 50.7% 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Female 498 48.6% 493 49.3% 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Hispanic 166 16.2% 135 13.5% 140 14.4% 115 12.3%

Native American 19 1.9% 2 0.2% 2 0.2% 3 0.3%

Asian 12 1.2%

African American 7 0.7% 6 0.6% 9 0.9% 6 0.6%

Pacific Islander 1 0.1%

Asian/Pacific Islander 8 0.8% 11 1.1% 11 1.2%

White 948 92.6% 830 83.0% 811 83.4% 802 85.6%

Two or More Ethnicities 38 7.6% 19 1.9%

Economically Disadvantaged 145 14.2% 102 10.2% 79 8.1% 80 8.5%

Limited English Proficient 54 5.3% 16 1.6% 16 1.6% 12 1.3%

Secondary Demographic Summary

Snapshot Enrollment

2008

1,238 1,226 1,199

2011

1,285

2010 2009High School

Enrollmentby

Population

Enrollment

by

Population

937

Middle School 2011 2008

Snapshot Enrollment 1,024 1,000 973

2010 2009






Appendix




SUMMARY OF MEETING: COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW TEAM. 9.20.10

I. Introductions

II. History

a. Strategic Plan includes communications/customer service as priorities

b. Several strategies in strategic plan are completed

c. Dedicated position added in District Information Officer

d. Program review = communications “audit”

III. Overview of Communications

a. Permeates all levels of organization: district, schools, classroom

b. Likely will show up in other program reviews as element in their recommendations

c. Not controlled by one department, but collaboration of many

d. Group pointed out importance of consistency between campuses

e. Customer service is closely related to communications, perceptions of constituents

f. Good customer service is a mindset or way of doing things, not limited to those who answer

phones

IV. Program Description

Group discussed draft of a program description and suggested edits. Overall response to draft wasexcellent.

V. Concepts for Vision and Mission, Program Goals

a. Definitions

b. Review of district vision, mission

c. Challenges in reaching DS community

i. Reaching families who do not use technology

ii. Reaching Spanish-speaking families

iii. “Old Drip”/”New Drip”

d. Collection of thoughts, words, concepts (see attached)

e. Rough draft of vision statement shared by member, group feedbackf. Subcommittee of three will meet to consolidate ideas, incorporate feedback and develop

draft vision and missions

VI. Potential Methods for Data Collection

a. Review previous survey results – communication-related questions

b. Interview principals on programs added as result of previous surveys

c. Develop survey on communications and customer service (English & Spanish)

d. Focus groups

e. Research of best practices

f. Website data

OTHER IDEAS (suggested after meeting):g. Collect feedback at other events (Coffee with DSISD, etc.)

h. Review comments from Board meeting public forums to identify any that address

communication

VII. Meeting Schedule

Mondays are preferred day. All members of group preferred 4-6 p.m. time (student rep will be

slightly late due to dismissal time). Additional meeting(s) may be scheduled if needed.




CONCEPTS FOR USE IN COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM REVIEW PROCESS

• Streamlined

• Cohesive, coordinated

• Consistent among campuses

• Clear, concise messages

• Staff should be approachable

• Train staff as effective communicators• Green (paper electronic)

• Proactive

• Consistency of website formats between

campuses

• Partnership/collaboration

• Customer service – all employees

• Two-way street

• Limit types of software used by teachers

• “Sell” product/retain “customers”

• Reach ALL families (Spanish-speaking, those

without on-line access)

• Consolidate methods of reaching parents

(email, Skylert, etc.)

• Etiquette training for office staffs• Scripts, protocols to respond to certain

situations

• Social media opportunities

• Web usability study

• Mobile-friendly connections and apps

(added to list after meeting)

ROUGH DRAFT OF VISION FOR DISCUSSION:

"To enhance the educational environment for the district's children by proactively fostering the efficient and effective flow of

information among DSISD and its students, parents, employees and the community."

Ideas for additional wording:

• Group together district as part of DS community or refer to all as “stakeholders”

• Prepare employees to be effective communicators

• Consistency

• Partnership




NOTES FROM COMMUNICATION REVIEW TEAM MEETING: OCTOBER 18, 2010

I. Introductions of Members

II. Review of Draft Items

a. Program Description—good to go

b. Mission Statement—good to go

c. Vision Statement—was tweaked, everyone should look at again“To explore and engage in effective communication that strengthens the partnership

among schools and the community to enhance exemplary education for all students in

Dripping Springs.”

d. Program Review Goals—Talked about what types of recommendations may emerge

from each; decided to work on data collection planning before talking about specific

recommendations. It was noted that Goals #4 and #5 should consider “tech savvy”

population, including students. Goals for the program review were agreed upon

following a few minor edits and revision of Goal #4, which now reads:

“Identify current technology enhancements that can be used for timely and

easily accessible communication.”Please feel free to offer suggestions for edits of Goal #4.

III. Program Review Model

a. Reviewed Process Steps 5 and 6

b. Discussed different types of data/information (descriptive, quantitative, attitude data,

satisfaction data) and how each might be collected

c. Reviewed data collection instruments as suggested in the model

IV. Data Collection for the Communications Review

a. Analysis of Spring District Survey

i. Quantitative data distributed for communication-related questions

ii. Open-ended responses need to be compiled and summarized

b. Surveys (on-line and written)

i. Parents

ii. Staff

iii. Secondary students (tie in with class where students are in computer lab)

iv. Spanish speaking parents

v. Team members to assist with development of survey: Erin Hays, Andrea Lorenz,

Kent Willis

vi. On-line software available— Quia.com

vii. Will need to explore what safeguards are in place to prevent multiple responses

from single respondent

c. Focus Groups

i. Elementary parents

ii. Middle school parents

iii. High school parents

iv. Spanish-speaking parents (suggestions offered for staff member to lead)

v. Ideal size 6-8 participants










Subcommittees:

We reviewed the 5 subcommittees that were proposed at the November meeting:

o New technology/social media

o Special population segments (Spanish-speakers, no internet access, transition years)

o District standards/consistency

o Website/parent portal

o Other communications methods

We discussed these further and adjusted these down to four groups for two reasons: 1) we thought we

could cover the ground just as well by taking the first mentioned originally (new technology/social

media) and covering it in two other areas and 2) because we would rather have subcommittees of four

members than three.

Subcommittees were adjusted to be:

• Technology/website/parent portal

(Cindi Wade, Chuck Rainey, Dennis Lane, Tod Freeman, Jennifer Godwin)

• Special population segments (Spanish Speakers, no Internet access, transition years)

(Nannette Erickson, Sarah Freeman, Kim Gravell, Kelly Coffey, Ramona Welch)

• District standards/consistency

(Erin Hays, Virginia Hassell, Kim Cousins, Leslie Wallace)

• New opportunities for connections (Social media, partnerships, events)

(Shelly Reeves, Shellie Foster, Rhonda Whitman, Andrea Lorenz)

The last one is a bit of a catch-all but we shared some examples of communication methods that might

fit in here: opportunities for face-to-face interaction, district presence at community events,

Twitter/Facebook, partnering with other organizations, etc.)

IF YOU WERE NOT present and you don’t like where we placed you, CALL me. We will make it right

SCHEDULE/Timeline:

We are scheduled to meet Monday, Jan. 10, from 4-6 p.m. in Room 302. We will start out together, pass

out materials you were missing, make sure we know what we are supposed to do, then get working in

subcommittees.

I suggest each committee meet once BETWEEN Jan. 10 and Feb. 7 to complete their work.

The whole team will meet Feb. 7 and hear a report from each subcommittee. We will work on edits and

make sure we are comfortable with the results of the subcommittee efforts.

I will then take everything we have and work on getting in the appropriate format and preparing the full

report. We will meet March 7 and see how it all looks, ideally doing a mock run at a Board report.

I hope to present to the Board at the March 24 meeting. I would like as many of you to be there s

possible.



COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW TEAM MEETING SUMMARY: January-March 2011

JANUARY:

The Communications Review Teams broke into four subcommittees to work on analyzing data

and developing goals and strategies to be incorporated into final recommendations. The whole

group met on Jan. 10, then broke into subcommittees.

• Technology/website/parent portal

• Special population segments (Spanish Speakers, no Internet access, transition years)

• District standards/consistency

• New opportunities for connections (Social media, partnerships, events)

Subcommittees also scheduled follow-up meetings later in January as needed to complete their

tasks.

FEBRUARY:

On Feb. 7, the Communications Review Team subcommittees shared their work with the entire

team. The four reports were compiled into a set of recommendations, which was displayed on

the screen. Input and comments were gathered from all members, which were incorporated

into revisions as the report was displayed. A few items required additional wordsmithing, which

was completed by the program review coordinator after the meeting, then emailed to

members.

Date post:	04-Jun-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	alina-chicu
View:	215 times
Download:	0 times