Consultants outline plan for districtwide post-bond community survey

Strategies 360, a public‑opinion research firm, on Tuesday told the Mercer Island School District Board of Directors it has completed phase one of its post‑bond analysis and will conduct a representative resident survey in September to inform future communications and possible funding measures. David Kornarens, senior vice president, market research, and Rachel Nakanishi, vice president of education, described the firm—s methodology and limits imposed by campaign finance rules.

The consultants said the work has two phases. Kornarens said phase one was a demographic analysis of voting and participation patterns over a decade, and that it found no large change in who participates in elections: "the actual residents who chose to participate in the 10 years of elections that we looked at did not change drastically." Nakanishi told the board, "School districts, per the PDC are prohibited from targeting just voters in research. So all of our research is of the broad population of all resident adult residents in the community." The PDC reference means the survey will sample all adult residents, not only registered voters.

Why it matters: Board members requested independent, representative public‑opinion data after the recent bond loss. The district intends to use the findings for communications and to identify the community—s priorities rather than to solicit votes or craft targeted political messaging.

What the consultant proposed: Strategies 360 described a mixed‑mode survey that combines live interviewer calls to cell phones and landlines with texted invitations to a web‑hosted questionnaire. The firm said it will weight the sample to U.S. Census American Community Survey benchmarks and aims for roughly 400 completed interviews across a period of approximately 7–10 days in September. Kornarens said the survey will include sections on perceptions of district performance, perceived need for additional funding and property tax sensitivity, priorities for possible ballot components, preferred thematic frames for public communications, media consumption, and demographic items to validate representativeness.

Board role and question review: Board members asked who reviews the questionnaire before dissemination and whether administration or the board will see draft questions. Strategies 360 and board members agreed the superintendent and district leadership typically work with consultants to finalize the instrument; Nakanishi said the firm "typically work[s] with the superintendent and their leadership team to develop and finalize the questionnaire." Several board members said they expect to communicate priorities to the superintendent for inclusion but do not expect to draft every question themselves. One board member said the board—s role is to set policy and direction and the superintendent should hire experts to execute that direction.

Data protection and reporting: The consultants said data will be reported in aggregate and that individual interview identities are not disclosed. Kornarens said subgroup reporting requires a minimum response volume per subgroup ("at a minimum, be 10% of the sample completed surveys to be viewed"). The firm also said it will differentiate statistically significant differences from noise when offering recommendations.

Next steps: Consultants said phase two interviewing will occur in September and that the firm will return with a final report and communications recommendations afterward. The board did not take formal action on the consultants— presentation during the meeting.

Ending: The district retained Strategies 360 to provide independent community feedback after the bond vote; the board will receive the consultant—s September fielding results and strategic recommendations later this fall.