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Board debates timing and scope of community goals survey
Summary
Trustees discussed a draft survey to gather community input on board goals, debating whether to issue a short "pulse" survey now or refine the instrument before wider distribution. Board members requested edits and agreed to provide feedback by the end of the week.
The Flossmoor SD 161 Board of Education spent substantial discussion time on a draft community survey intended to inform board goal setting, with trustees split between issuing a quick pulse survey and refining questions before distribution.
The draft, moved from Google Forms to SurveyMonkey to permit ranking questions, groups items under buckets such as academic achievement, professional environment and school climate and includes a short-answer field for additional suggestions. Board members emphasized clarity about who is responsible for proposed actions when asking respondents to rank items.
Board member Michael said the survey timing should allow meaningful input and warned against issuing a flawed instrument that stakeholders might feel ignored. Another trustee said a short survey would "get the pulse" of the community and provide practical feedback now, while others favored adding an executive summary or shared definitions of terms (for example, "goal" and "key performance indicator") to improve response quality.
Board members agreed to send detailed feedback on the draft to staff this week so a tightened version could be returned in a Friday update and considered at the next meeting. Staff said there is no cost barrier to waiting for a more developed instrument, noting the district could also opt to use the Studer student-experience surveys at no charge later in the year.
The discussion concluded with staff offering to present a revised draft and recommended definitions at the next meeting; trustees asked that the boardbs community engagement goals be made clear before wide distribution.
