Survey Says: School District Asks What It Can Do Better

PLYMOUTH, MI — Parents interested in having a say in how the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools are operated have until March 30 to make their voices heard. The district is currently conducting a survey to help find out what it’s doing right, and would could use a little work.

Thus far, about 1,300 responses have been gathered from parents and teachers. Communications Director Nick Brandon said the district is hoping that number will dramatically increase before the survey period ends.

“Our No. 1 goal is to get feedback from the parents,” he said, “to help drive our decisions in the future. When we make important decisions, we want to be guided by the wishes of the community.”

It’s the second straight year the district has conducted the survey. Brandon said questions have remained the same so the district can make a direct comparison to responses from a year ago.

The biggest take away from the first survey was parents and teachers’ desire to reduce class sizes. While that wasn’t possible this school year, Brandon said class sizes will return to 2015-16 levels this fall.

“Our stakeholders felt very strongly about it,” said Brandon. “They felt the smaller the class size, the better learning environment.”

On average, the survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, he said. Besides class size, the survey asks about middle school elective classes, technology and academies offered at the district’s three high schools. Brandon said the survey covers several other topics, too.

“There’s a lot of information we want to gather,” he commented.

When the survey period ends on March 30, the district will take about 90 days to generate a comprehensive report. It will then be presented at a future meeting of the school board.

“We want to make sure we are transparent about what the survey says,” Brandon said. “We released it in full on our website last year and will do the same again.”

Parents can access the survey by visiting the school website.

Photo courtesy of the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.