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Trustees weigh more frequent, shorter Panorama surveys to get real-time student wellness data
Summary
District staff recommended refining how the Panorama wellness survey is used — possible expansion to more grades, a shorter question set, and more frequent administrations — to create actionable, real‑time data for interventions; trustees raised concerns about survey fatigue and confidentiality.
Poway Unified trustees discussed proposals to change how the district measures student belonging, safety and wellness, weighing the trade-offs between anonymous climate tools and non-anonymous screeners that enable immediate supports.
Dr. Churchill framed belonging and academic growth as the district’s twin priorities and introduced a staff briefing. Greg Meiselle reviewed current tools: the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) — administered every other year and anonymous, used for cohort and grant reporting — and the Panorama wellness survey, which the district administers twice a year to selected grades and which is non-anonymous so school staff can follow up with students who are flagged.
Meiselle and staff said Panorama’s strengths are timeliness and the ability to triage students to counselors, psychologists and student-services staff. Staff recommended options to make Panorama more actionable: administer it more frequently (for example, three to four times a year), expand participation to more grades (suggested grades 3–12), and dramatically shorten the instrument (a maximum of about 10 targeted questions) so responses are timely and reduce burden.
Trustees voiced two recurring concerns: survey fatigue (students and families may answer less honestly if surveyed too often) and the tension between non‑anonymous screening and students’ willingness to disclose sensitive information. Board members suggested balancing tools: preserve CHKS for anonymous cohort analysis while adapting Panorama for more frequent, targeted, short checks focused on safety, belonging and supportive relationships.
Staff offered to return in the fall with proposed cadences, sample question sets and recommendations on who should see non‑anonymous results (classroom teachers, counselors, or parents), and acknowledged the district must preserve grant eligibility tied to CHKS while improving real-time intervention capacity.
Trustees signaled consensus to continue the discussion through the LCAP process and to develop a small set of prioritized, actionable measures for the coming year.
