Jefferson City district survey finds strong safety and attendance scores but low family engagement

Jess James, the district's director of student services, told the Jefferson City School Board that the district received just over 1,200 family responses to a new Panorama survey and will use the results to inform its community-and-family-engagement priority.

"We're really pleased to have gotten just over 1,200 responses from families across the district," James said, summarizing response rates that ranged from about 11% to 27% across buildings. James said Panorama lets the district compare results with similarly sized districts and that the response volume was strong enough to support decision-making.

The presentation highlighted several strengths and areas for improvement. Questions about barriers to engagement scored 82% favorable; the item about getting to school safely showed 93% favorable responses (7% reporting it as a barrier). Attendance scored especially high: 94% of families said attendance is important, and family-school attendance questions were 86% favorable. James said, "Family efficacy was 66 percent favorable responses" and that staff'family relationships were 77% favorable.

At the same time, the district identified family engagement as a relative weakness: the composite family engagement score was 23% favorable. James noted that compared with peer districts Jefferson City ranks near the 60th percentile on that metric and said the district will focus on increasing flexible, authentic participation options to fit busy family schedules.

James described next steps: the district's tier 1 team will review the data and set districtwide goals, while individual buildings will use their local results to tailor actions. James also said the current survey omitted open-response items to keep completion time short but that the district could add targeted follow-up open questions next year to gather qualitative detail.

Dr. Heather Bowe framed the presentation within the district's school improvement plan, saying the board added "community and family engagement" as a fifth strategic priority this year and introduced James to present the findings. No formal motions or votes were taken; board members and staff posed clarifying questions about response ranges, reliability checks, and how the district will reach families who cited busy schedules and childcare as barriers.

The district plans to use building-level data and the tier 1 team's recommendations to set measurable goals and implement action steps in the coming weeks.