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District survey shows broad parental approval; Los Altos plans ParentSquare rollout and parent education
Summary
Presenters told trustees that 587 respondents gave overwhelmingly positive ratings for communication and school climate, while highlighting gaps for multilingual families and advanced learners. District plans a new communications platform (ParentSquare), multilingual outreach and a parent education series.
Los Altos School District officials presented results of an all‑district parent survey to the board, reporting high overall satisfaction while identifying areas for targeted improvement, particularly for multilingual families and advanced learners.
“It's really rare to have a district that has such positive results,” Lynette White, the district’s director of communications, said as she summarized the survey that collected 587 responses during a 21‑day window. White reported that about 90% of respondents rated their overall district experience as excellent, very good or good; 94% said they felt well informed or neutral about district communications; and 95% said they felt well informed or neutral about communication from their child’s principal.
White singled out weekly newsletters and teacher communications as strengths and said 86% of respondents said the district sends “just the right amount” of information. She also reported high ratings for respect for cultural diversity (96%) and overall school performance (95%). At the same time, open‑ended comments flagged areas for improvement, including stronger support for advanced/gifted learners, better school‑meal quality, and more consistency in classroom management.
During public comment, a community member identified as Pat urged the board to focus on Latino families, noting local clusters where Latino and socioeconomically disadvantaged families said they struggle to connect with schools. “Many of them don't speak English, and their educational backgrounds are frequently very dissimilar from other EL parents,” Pat said, urging a combination of translated platforms and deeper outreach beyond a single tool.
Superintendent Carrie Bosco told the board the district plans to adopt the ParentSquare communications platform and launch a phased rollout next school year, with translation features for the district’s top languages and staff support to verify translation accuracy. She also said the district will develop parent‑education programming (sometimes called a Parent University) and perform targeted outreach to families eligible for expanded learning opportunities (ELOP) over the summer.
Board members raised technical questions about survey methodology — notably the practice of combining “neutral” responses with positive responses — and asked for a demographic breakdown of respondents by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status; White said a multilingual survey of multilingual learners’ families was administered and its results are being analyzed and will be shared with the board.
No formal action was taken; the presentation was part of the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) process and public hearing. District staff said next steps include refining communications platforms, publishing multilingual results, and returning to the board with implementation details for ParentSquare and parent education in early fall.
