Board discusses survey
Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008
BENTONVILLE — Three things need to be in place before a bondissue election can be successful, the Bentonville School Board was told Monday.
A survey being prepared for early 2009 should help the board make sure those three items are in effect before it prepares for another millage-increase election.
The board met with Rick Nobles, president / partner of Patron Insight, a survey consulting group from Stilwell, Kan., before the board’s monthly meeting. Nobles is working with the board to develop an in-depth survey that will assist the board in improving the district, and eventually, the information from that survey will help the board develop its next millage-increase proposal.
Nobles said the following three things need to be in place for a successful bond election:
• District patrons need to feel like the district is doing a good job in managing the district;
• Patrons need to like the projects proposed in the bond election enough to pay for them; and
• The patrons have to be willing to show an interest in the district.
Part of the survey will ask participants to give the district a grade on a variety of areas, such as quality of education and teachers, and the district’s facilities.
Participants will also be asked where they get information about the district and how often they seek information. By asking about their information sources, the board will be able to determine whether there is a high level of apathy in the district, and the information will also allow future information to be geared toward sources that are used the most frequently.
Another part of the survey will ask questions about various proposed projects, as well as their costs. The two issues — the projects and their cost — will need to be asked as separate questions because sometimes people might vote against a measure because they don’t like the cost; others might vote against a proposal simply because they don’t like the project itself.
The survey’s questions have not yet been determined. Monday’s meeting with the board was the last of several meetings for Nobles throughout the day. He met with community leaders, parents, district administrators and building principals — all in separate meetings for each group. He sought input on what kinds of issues need to be addressed in the survey, plus, he informed each group about how the survey will be operated.
The district’s staff will be provided with the information that Nobles presented to board members on how the survey will be conducted, as well as given the chance to provide input for the survey, in an online format, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The input from all the groups will be used to develop the survey’s first draft.
The survey, once complete, will have 60 to 80 questions, which should take a participant 10 to 12 minutes to answer, Nobles said. A random selection of 400 district patrons will be asked to complete the survey.
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