For those who missed the opportunity to offer their two cents about the Ironton City School District two weeks ago, consultants will be back later this month to gather more information.

Strategic planning firm Academic Excellence International will return Jan. 26 to answer questions and field comments from teachers, students, parents and community members.

Dr. Douglas Franklin, consultant and founder of AEI, said he and his team have already begun to analyze data collected from the community forum on Jan. 3 and are developing surveys to get input on which issues are most important.

There will be four different surveys that will be distributed online for students, teachers and school district employees, parents and families, and community members. For parents who have email addresses on file with the school, Superintendent Dean Nance said those surveys have already been sent out. For those without email access, hard copies of the surveys will be available at the Conley Center Jan. 26 when the consultants return.

“We have also asked that our staff to forward the surveys on to community members who don’t work in the school or have kids in the school,” Nance said. “ We are trying to gather as much information as possible to form the best strategic plan.”

All surveys are confidential and do not return to the school.

“In addition to distributing and collecting hard copy surveys and conducting interviews from interested stakeholders, we will collect data through a concept interest technique,” said Franklin. “We will develop a concept chart based on the themes generated from the community meeting and early survey returns.”

The concept chart, Franklin said, is a way to prioritize what issues stakeholders feel most strongly about.

“We’ll take some themes that came out of the community and surveys and place them on a large chart,” he said. “We’ll provide participants with colored dots, to place on the chart. The most dots will indicate an area that we might want to explore more.”

AEI first sought community input at an open meeting earlier this month. Between 20 and 30 people showed up to the forum, but those in attendance talked about their thoughts on communication, curriculum and community support. All comments were anonymous and the superintendent and board members were asked not to attend.

The AEI consultants will be available in the Conley Center from 2 to 6 p.m. during the boys and girls’ varsity basketball games, as well as during the induction of members to the Ironton Athletic Hall of Fame.

In the weeks that follow, Franklin and his team will compile all the data into a strategic plan to be presented to the board of education.

 

Community survey

The community survey for Ironton City Schools strategic planning can be found at:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/BL8ZRYP. Please complete the survey before Jan. 23. Should you have any questions, call Dr. Doug Franklin at 740-541-7663 or email franklin@ohio.edu.