Warden schools to sponsor second survey

WARDEN — Warden School District officials will sponsor a second survey designed to find out what district residents think about the district and where it’s headed.

The district started a “Thought Exchange” survey over the summer and early in the school year. But the response was “very low,” said district superintendent Dave LaBounty. Response was about five percent among the district’s Hispanic population, he said.

The company running the surveys suggested waiting until school started, but Warden School Board members wanted to start as soon as possible, LaBounty said. In light of the response, board members and school officials decided to try again. Starting and ending dates for the new survey will be announced, with a starting date within a few weeks, LaBounty said.

The survey is online only, and is available in Spanish. A version is available for phones. People can take the survey anonymously; there’s also an option to sign up, which allows participants to react and rate comments made by other participants. People who sign up also have the option to receive reminders by email or text.

The identities of people taking the survey aren’t released to school officials, LaBounty said, even if they have signed up with the company.

But district officials believe that some Warden patrons will have trouble getting access to a computer. To address that the district is trying to get computers in some public places, such as Warden City Hall. An earlier attempt to get computers into some private businesses didn’t work, he said.

District patrons will receive notification by mail, as well as email and text.

Participants can leave comments, which are monitored by the company. Derogatory comments can be removed. Any comment the monitors are not sure about can be reviewed by a representative for the school district, which is not the superintendent, LaBounty said. That was done to make sure district patrons are aware the district is not in charge of the survey process, he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.