The December 20, 2016 school board meeting audio is available on the district website allowing you to listen to the presentation. I listened to the audio presentation to hear the results presented below. Patron Insight told the school board that they would provide the district with a PDF copy of the results to be posted on the district website for the community the day after the board meeting.
The audio of the December 20, 2016 Fox C-6 school board can be found using the link below which can be found on the school district website. The presentation of the survey information begins around 5 minutes into the audio:
At the bottom of this post is a link to the contract from Patron Insight who conducted the 2016 Fox C-6 Community Survey. The cost of the survey was $16,900. The contract was awarded at the October 18, 2016 Fox C-6 school board meeting.
The 2016 Community Survey questions were made available to the public on the district website starting December 2, 2016 and was closed sometime before December 15, 2016. Dr. Wipke sent out an email to parents in the school district about the online survey on December 2.
The Community Survey results presented to the school board at the meeting only included the results from the 400 phone interviews that were conducted by Patron Insight.
Only 281 surveys were completed using the online community survey. Patron Insight is still processing the 281 responses that were completed using the online survey and will include those results in their final report to the school board.
It took nearly 2000 phone calls in order to complete the 400 phone surveys. The phone interviews were only conducted in entirety of taxpaying head of house held individuals living within the district.
Below are some areas of interest pointed our during the presentation from the survey results:
Number One Area The Districts Needs To Improve Upon
Management of tax dollars was the number one area that citizens taking the survey felt that the district needed to improve upon.
Patron Insight stated that management of tax dollars is one of the top answers in just about every school district surveyed.
82% of those surveyed believed that the district was headed in the right direction.
Where Do People Get Their Information About the District?(Ranked in order)
1 - Friends and Neighbors - 81%
2 - Leader newspaper - 78%
3 - Teachers - 52%
4 - Administration - (% not mentioned)
5 - Board - (% not mentioned)
6 - District's website - 41%
7 - Principals - (% not mentioned)
8 - School websites - (% not mentioned)
9 - Media and local radio stations - (% not mentioned)
Of those surveyed:
142 - Current student families
108 - Past student families
150 - Never student families
Potential Tax Increase Related Questions
There were three questions on the survey that were related to a "what if" potential tax increase to get a idea as to how much of a tax increase the community would favor related to rebuilding or expansion projects for school buildings, upgrading of the security systems, funding of additional teachers, support staff members, social workers through the district and College and Career Specialists at each high school as well as insuring that the salaries for teachers and other staff members were competitive with neighboring school districts and help with recruiting and retention.
One of the ideas presented in the rebuilding projects outlined is to completely replace with new schools - Antonia Elementary and Seckman Elementary. The survey question stated that both of these schools have significant issues due to the age of the buildings and both are dealing with overcrowding. Antonia Elementary would be rebuilt on the same campus as Antonia Middle School, while Seckman Elementary would be rebuilt on the same campus where the current school is today.
Another proposed project is to tear down and then rebuild the classroom wings at Fox High School, to make the classrooms more effective for today's educational needs.
Another proposed project is to add classrooms at Ridgewood Middle School and Antonia Middle School, to address the growing student population at both of these schools.
In the tax increase related questions, three different potential tax increases were presented as "what if" questions on the community survey. They were posed as potential tax increase amounts per year based upon the "fair market value" of a $150,000 home. The amount of tax dollar increase would affect what could be achieved out of the items proposed.
Of the 3 potential tax increase related questions:
- 51% would be in favor of a $313 per year tax increase
- 52% would be in favor of a $228 per year tax increase
- 56% would be in favor of a $142 per year tax increase
21. What if, at some point in the future, the district proposed a ballot issue would allow the district to complete most, if not all, of the projects we have just been discussing, and it resulted in a tax increase of about $313 per year, or about $26 a month, for the owner of a $150,000 home in the school district. If an election on such a ballot issue were held today, would you…
- Strongly favor
- Favor
- Oppose
- Strongly oppose
- Don't know
22. What if, instead, the ballot issue allowed the district to complete many, but not all, of the projects we have just been discussing, and it resulted in a tax increase of $228 per year, or about $19 per month, for the owner of a $150,000 home in the school district. If an election on such a ballot issue were held today, would you…
- Strongly favor
- Favor
- Oppose
- Strongly oppose
- Don't know
23. What if, instead, that ballot issue allowed the district to complete some, but not many of the projects we have just been discussing, and it resulted in a tax increase of $142 per year, or about $12 per month, for the owner of a $150,000 home in the school district. If an election on such a ballot issue were held today, would you…
- Strongly favor
- Favor
- Oppose
- Strongly oppose
- Don't know
Survey Takeaways
One of the comments that I have heard more than once about the survey, is that the community is not going to approve any tax increases until our former superintendent is held accountable for her actions.
The audit results documented that taxpayer dollars were used by our former superintendent to purchase personal items as well as on overpay her husband for a position that he was not qualified for.
It's been nearly two and a half years since a state audit was requested of the Fox C-6 School District. The results of the audit weren't made public until May 2016 and patrons and taxpayers are still waiting for accountability for what was uncovered in the audit.
Rebuilding the trust of the community is important to passing a tax increase. Not holding public officials accountable for their actions does not go very far in rebuilding the trust of the community.
Does that mean that future tax increases for our school district rely upon the decisions of prosecuting attorneys?
Below is a link to the contract from Patron Insight that the district approved and awarded at the October 18, 2016 school board meeting: