SCHOOL COMMITTEE SEEKS BROADER SURVEY

After gathering more than 400 ideas on Cape Girardeau School District needs, the first thing the newly-expanded Vision Planning Committee wants to do is conduct a public survey.

About 30 people attended a meeting Wednesday night to decide how the additional surveys will be distributed and what steps the newly-expanded group should take to help develop a five-year strategic plan for the school district.

An eight-member Vision Planning Committee was appointed by the school board in September to help accomplish that goal. Now the expanded committee has to turn the information and comments it gathered into a narrative for the school board.

The survey is needed, committee members say, to ensure the data isn't skewed and that all the numbers add up.

"How big of a voice do we need to say it's the majority speaking?" asked Dan Tallent, principal at Cape Central High School.

The answer was clear: just enough to regain the public's trust.

"We have to make every attempt to get the information and make it valid," said committee member Kevin Ford.

Although last month's community meetings were designed to list concerns for the future of the district, the committee now wants a broader, random survey, which might include phone solicitation, door-to-door or one-on-one sampling or mailings.

The surveys will help determine what residents are concerned about and if those concerns match information already gathered.

Parent surveys from a Missouri School Improvement Program visit should match some of the information already gathered by the Vision Planning Committee, Tallent said.

"It was surprising that as they talked of our strengths and concerns how closely they matched just what we have heard," said Harry Rediger, a school board member, of the MSIP exit interview.

The board hopes to have a strategic plan in place by March.