John Stark board moves to redesign high school with Transcend partnership after Panorama survey
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Summary
School leaders described a year-long partnership with nonprofit Transcend and presented Panorama survey results showing declines in many climate indicators; the board endorsed a summer planning process and administrative staffing changes aimed at improving student and teacher relationships and career-connected learning.
The John Stark Regional School District board on an evening meeting heard staff describe a continuing partnership with the nonprofit Transcend to redesign learning experiences and reviewed new Panorama survey results that district leaders say show declines across multiple school-climate indicators.
District staff said the Transcend partnership — which involved student surveys, interviews and a cohort visit to Denver public schools — produced recommendations focused on relevancy, community engagement and career-connected learning. Suzanne (staff member), who led the presentation, said student surveys and interviews showed demand for “relevancy” and more opportunities to explore career pathways and that the school will use summer planning to translate survey findings into concrete steps.
The Panorama survey returned responses from students (about 406 respondents), teachers (54 responses), staff (nonteaching personnel) and families (72 responses). Staff and administrators noted the largest gains were in school climate for teachers and in feedback and coaching for nonteaching staff, while several indicators declined overall for students. Suzanne said the district’s analysis showed a particular weakness in relationships and staff–leadership trust, a theme the district intends to target.
As initial responses to the survey findings, administrators described next steps to be taken this summer: establishing a leadership team made of teachers and administrators to deep-dive into the data; an administrative restructuring to keep assistant principals assigned to the same cohort of students for multiple years to strengthen relationships; and proposals to create or redefine positions (a career-connected learning coordinator and a development/engagement coordinator) to support school climate, teacher capacity and family engagement.
Gary (staff member) and other leaders described Transcend as a nonpartisan nonprofit funded by private donations and grants that helps schools redesign instructional models and learning environments. District leaders said they used Transcend’s “playbook” suggestions, including community circles and advisory strategies, as possible short-term interventions to improve student connectedness.
Board members asked about student voice in the planning process. Suzanne said the district will expand use of student ambassadors and a student-voice committee and will intentionally seek input from a broader cross‑section of students — including those with poor attendance or low engagement — to avoid self-selection bias.
The board did not take formal action to adopt new policy at the meeting but authorized the leadership team and school staff to continue summer planning and to return with implementation details in coming meetings.
District leaders said many details remain to be determined and that changes will be phased in while staff and community engagement continues.
Ending: Staff said they will return to the board with more-detailed implementation proposals and schedule and that the leadership team will work over the summer to translate the Transcend recommendations and Panorama findings into concrete steps for the 2025–26 school year.
