Input sought on district priorities

SANDPOINT — Lake Pend Oreille School District officials are requesting community input to help determine school priorities.

School staff have created an online survey to collect opinions on the greatest strengths and weaknesses of education within the district. Information collected through the survey will guide district priorities for the rest of the decade as administrators form a strategic plan for 2014 to 2019. To access the survey, visit the district website at www.lposd.org and click the colored text in the sidebar info box entitled “strategic plan survey.”

According to Superintendent Shawn Woodward, the survey is one of the most effective ways for community members to have an influence on the school district’s direction. At a school board meeting Tuesday, he encouraged trustees to fill out the survey themselves and spread the word to everyone they knew.  

The eight-question survey is fairly straight-forward and should only take a few minutes to fill out. Participants must indicate each facet of their relationship to the district whether it be as a parent, staff member, resident or more. The survey then includes several characteristics representing the greatest challenges within the region, including economic factors, class sizes and more.

Similarly, questions covering the most important skills to teach students, the evidence educators should use to evaluate school quality and the most important financial priorities are also structured as multiple choice questions. Residents are permitted to select up to five priorities from the multiple choice questions and can also provide additional answers in an included text box.

Finally, the survey wraps up by asking open-ended questions about actions the district could take that would be delightful, as well as district practices that should be preserved in the future. Finally, participants are asked to identify their residence.

To take the survey, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8J5W9TL